On our first day we left Little Rock in the afternoon and drove into Oklahoma. We arrived in the small town of Catoosa, and paid a visit to the iconic Blue Whale.
The Blue Whale of Catoosa was built in the 1972 by Hugh Davis, and was originally intended to just be a private swimming area for his grandkids. It was designed to look like a whale because his wife loved whales, and it featured water slides and diving platforms. A few years later, the whale was opened up for use by locals and Route 66 travelers.
After Hugh and his wife passed away, the whale fell into disrepair. But a few years back the town of Catoosa bought the property and fixed things up, and even opened a new visitor center this year.
There was a steady stream of people there when we visited. There were lots of kids fishing in the lake, along with a diverse crowd of people stopping by to take pictures (lots of people making Route 66 pilgrimages this summer for the 100th anniversary, I'm guessing). I joined the crowd and took a good number of pictures as well.
We spent the night at a hotel nearby, and the next morning drove through Tulsa and made another stop along Route 66 at Buck Atom's Cosmic Curios.
Located in an old 1950s gas station, the shop is known for the 21 foot-tall statue of the space cowboy Buck Atom (I liked how his cowboy hat sits on top of his space helmet).
And nearby you can also find Stella Atom:
And then we got back in the car and headed north, leaving Route 66 and Oklahoma and driving into the flat lands of Kansas.
