World Largest McDonald’s

Posted on September 21, 2012 by setiawanphoto

We left early in the morning on our third day of the trip with the goal to cover more than 800 miles and reach Chicago area before midnight. As such, we tried to to be efficient as we also wanted to stop at several places along the way. Since we decided not skip The Rock Cafe for breakfast, we looked for an alternative place to get a bite to eat without spending much time. As I looked for options along the way, one caught my eye as the ‘perfect’ place to stop given the situation. It was right on Interstate 44 that we would pass, very likely would be a fast service, and yet it sounded interesting… the McDonald’s in Vinita, OK.

What’s so special about going to McDonald’s, you might ask. Well, according to the Route 66 guide books that I had in hand, this particular McDonald’s at one point claimed to be the largest McDonald’s in the world. Formerly a restaurant called The Glass House and built in 1959, it occupied about 30,000 square feet. I learned that in 1990 there was a bigger McDonald’s opened in Russia that supposedly contended for the ‘largest’ title, and more recently another McDonald’s in Orlando, FL, actually beat both locations hands down as the largest restaurant. Oh well.. it’s a (former) largest restaurant — still some history to be proud of there I guess.

When we reached Vinita, we saw the familiar McDonald’s golden arches from a distance, and the restaurant actually sat like a bridge across the Interstate highway. It was pretty much like some of the rest area / travel plaza that you find in some Interstate Highways; except that typically it would be a shared space with many stores, restrooms, and a visitor center. I thought for a moment, the arch of the bridge was painted McDonald’s yellow, so I suppose if the whole bridge was one big McDonald’s then it would make sense that it’s the largest one you could find.

It turned out that when you get inside the building, the space inside the large structure was shared with several other stores, and the actual McDonald’s restaurant portion was about the same size as an average McDonald’s store you could find anywhere else. There seemed to be a lot of unused spaces as well. A little disappointing for those like me who were expecting something different given the ‘hype’ but I suppose business sense prevailed that you should only scale the restaurant to be as big as the demand, and it had probably gone passed its glory days.

We had our standard McDonald’s breakfast, served in efficient manner as a reminder to the modern ‘on-the-go’ culture. On the way out, at the parking lot we did see a group of colorful hot rod cars. They looked like the real life version of the Hot Wheels toys, and reminded me to the characters that Lightning McQueen encountered on the highway just before he veered off and ended up at Radiator Springs. So there was something interesting found at this stop after all.

Blue Whale

Posted on September 20, 2012 by setiawanphoto

For the coast-to-coast road trip through the old Route 66, I set a goal to visit a place and have something to remember from in each of the states that we passed along the route. In the state of Oklahoma, we thought that place would be The Rock Cafe in Stroud, but unfortunately we ended up not visiting the place.

Still determined to find a landmark that can represent our journey through Route 66 in Oklahoma, I went through my Route 66 guidebooks to find ideas for any place we can visit that wouldn’t be too much out of the way since we had a tight schedule for the day trying to reach Chicago area by that night. I found one quirky landmark that I fit that criteria and seemed to be a good representation of Route 66 in Oklahoma, a place with literally a Blue Whale structure in Catoosa.

What was a whale doing in Oklahoma, you might ask. I had the same question, and not until I read about the history of this place. The structure was built by a gentleman named Hugh Davis. Mr. Davis was a retired zoologist who used to work at the Tulsa Zoo. He and his wife loved animals and kids. So in their property was on Route 66 he built a facility to educate people about nature. First he built an ark with cut-out wooden animals where kids could celebrate birthdays. Then he opened up an alligator ranch and a small zoo with live alligators, snake pit, and prairie dog village.

In the late 1960s Mr. Davis started working on an idea of having a ‘fish’ at the pond. This evolved to a whale. It took him two years to build the whale, and in 1972 he completed it and presented it as an anniversary gift to his wife Zelta.

The Blue Whale then became a popular attraction on Route 66. People could picnic near the pond, swam in the pond, and use the smiling whale as jumping board or slide to the pond. In 1988, the Blue Whale was closed because Mr. Davis’ had arthritis and was not able to maintain the place anymore. He died two years later, and his wife died in 2001. The place is now owned by their daughter and her husband. The Davis’ son and grandsons keep the grounds maintained and the gates open so people can continue to enjoy the Blue Whale.

In the last 15 years, the community around Catoosa has also been working on restoring the landmark. When we stopped by, there were no one there, but we could see that the whale and the benches around the pond had vibrant colors from fresh coat of paint, and it didn’t feel like it was an abandoned landmark.

Our visit was brief, and it might not happen had we not decided to skip The Rock Cafe. But looking back I’m glad we did visit the place that not only is a distinct landmark along the route but also had a wonderful story behind it.

Cars Inspiration

Posted on September 19, 2012 by setiawanphoto

When I was planning for the coast-to-coast trip tracing through the old Route 66, I learned that the animated movie Cars was inspired by the Mother Road and the people who lived along the route. I had watched the movie before on the big screen, but not until I watched it again in DVD format that I came to appreciate the difference between this movie than others Pixar had made. In the extra footage on the making of the movie, I learned that the Pixar team did a road trip on Route 66 to visit the places and meet the people who lived along the route, and they based the characters in the movie on real-life characters they met during the research trip. One such character was Sally Carrera, the blue Porsche sports car that ran the Cozy Cone Motel in the movie. The inspiration behind this character was Dawn Welch, a lady who owns a restaurant along Route 66 in Stroud, OK, called The Rock Cafe.

In the movie, Sally Carrera told the story how she ended up at Radiator Springs. She was a lawyer in Los Angeles living a fast-paced life, but was unhappy with life and decided to get away from the city. She had a flat tire near Radiator Springs, and the folks in town helped her getting fixed up, and took her in as their own. She ended up staying there and being part of the tight community.

In real life, Dawn Welch was originally from Oklahoma, but she worked in the cruise ship industry which took her to many places outside the US. She was planning on opening a restaurant in Costa Rica, and came to Stroud to look for an old grill to purchase for her restaurant. She learned about The Rock Cafe that had been a landmark on the historic Route 66 since 1939. Charmed by the historic building and the people she met, she ended up staying and running the restaurant ever since. She is actively involved in the local community, and the Rock Cafe in a way becomes an integral part of life in the small town of Stroud. She has also been involved in promoting the preservation of the historic Route 66. In 2001, the Pixar team stopped by at the restaurant during their research road trip. John Lasseter and his team learned about her life story and decided to make that as part of the story for Cars and based the Sally Porsche character on Dawn.

When I read up more articles about Dawn and the Rock Cafe, I also learned that in 2008 tragedy hit and the restaurant was destroyed in a fire. But Dawn with the help of her family and the community persevered and restored the historic building in the next year, and just few months before our trip, it had reopened again. That story increased my interest in checking out the place and experience that community feel first hand.

The night when we reached Oklahoma, we stayed in another town not far from Stroud with the intention to stop at the Rock Cafe for a breakfast before we continued our trip. We did find the restaurant, but unfortunately it might have been too early that it was not open yet for the day. Since we had quite a long journey planned for the day, we decided to continue on. But I did get a shot of the Rock Cafe’s neon sign before we left.