Alps' Roads Special - Tulsa Road Meet
Tulsa Road Meet, February 22, 2010
I'm not going to put you through the week's worth of driving that I did throughout the South. My Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas pages are basically entirely constructed out of what I saw, and there are contributions to all the other states around them (including Oklahoma, obviously). Just know that after having extensively toured Oklahoma City, I woke up in the morning to head out to Tulsa. My route out was I-35 to OK 66, following the old trail of US 66 all the way up until it merged back into the freeway. Once it joined I-44, I headed up I-244, looped around secret I-444 once, and traipsed around L.L. Tisdale Pkwy. and the Gilcrease Expwy., two roads both in need of completion. From the end of the Gilcrease and OK 11, I caught the end of I-244 and looped back around to head to downtown again, following US 75 to OK 51 to see the stub end of the former alignment at Muskogee Tpk.. Since it was getting close to 11 AM, I headed straight up E. 193rd Ave., which picked up old US 66 at 11th St., and followed I-44 west to the meet location.
Our first stop was the abandoned Will Rogers Turnpike, where the group photo was taken. It was just a short jaunt east on I-44 to the OK 66 exit, which used to be where 44 left the alignment and OK 33 continued to the Cherokee Tpk. Amazingly, though the meet was held on a Monday (originally just going to be two friends seeing a few roads together), we ended up with seven in attendance! From left to right: Gene Van Dusseldorp, David J. Corcoran, Scott Nazelrod, Jeremy Lance, myself (in the traditional kneeling meet pose), David Backlin, and Cody Goodman.
After exploring around to our heart's content, and finding the should-be-famous Fart Smock graffiti, we continued east a bit on OK 66 to the Verdigris River bridges, turning back around and following old US 66 to the meet lunch at Wilson's BBQ (right on 11th St., the old alignment). The meet proceeded up to I-244, looping around unsigned I-444 (US 75), and west on US 64 to a few old alignments. The next meet stop was at manmade Lake Keystone, continuing west from there on the former highway for many miles. After getting back on modern US 64, we pulled off again at the OK 99 wye. The former wye, including all three legs, sits just to the southwest of the current wye, and is perfect for walking and driving on. The meet then transitioned into bridge collecting, heading north to Blackburn and across the first Arkansas River bridge of the evening. We then headed west on OK 20 to OK 18, crossing a second bridge, and followed former OK 18W to a third one west of Ralston. The meet paused there, then headed back down to OK 18, US 64, and west to OK 108. Back to Tulsa it was in the dimming light, following OK 51 to OK 151 and US 64 and south to the beginning point of the meet. I flew home the next morning, concluding the journey that had started in Atlanta ten days prior.
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