Our trip begins with our third visit to Vermilionville Historic Village in Lafayette. We discovered our friends, Jamie and Madelyn Berzas, were performing with their Band, Cajun Tradition, at Vermilionville and decided to make a surprise visit. We love these amazing and meandering RV excursions.
What a great memory day!
In Houston, we picked up a mutual friend, Ed, and traveled to L’auberge du lac casino in Lake Charles for our first overnight stay. The next day traveled on to the Vermilionville Historic Village in Lafayette, Louisiana, to spend another night as Harvest Host guests again.
Steve, Ed, and I enjoyed a fantastic Sunday buffet lunch at Vermilionville’s La Cuisine de Maman and then walked over to the event center where the band was performing. Jamie and Madelyn saw us walk in as they were performing and were wonderfully surprised.
After listening to Cajun Tradition’s wonderful music and watching the lively Cajun dancing, we all had a good long visit. They picked up their friendship as if they had just seen each other yesterday.It was truly remarkable to see Jamie, Madelyn, and Ed reconnect in person after so many years.
After our goodbyes, Steve, Ed, and I spent a peaceful night in the RV and headed back to Houston and returned Ed to his home. Steve, the dogs and I, continued on our trip through Texas and into Oklahoma and Kansas.
RV maintenance on the road
After dropping Ed off, Steve changed the oil on the RV right in the middle of a nearby Wal-mart parking lot! He religiously changes the oil after every 100 hours of generator use. He purchases oil and filters from Amazon and can complete the task in less than half an hour.
Loose change at Wal-Mart
I have a curious story about Wal-mart parking lots. One time, Steve discovered a lot of loose change lying around on the ground in the parking lot while performing an oil change. He thought that was strange, but he picked it up and kept it.
He has since been told that people toss their loose change out of their windows to leave it for homeless folks walking by! Steve regretted he had taken the change, but it won’t happen again. I did not know about this practice? Did you?
Roughtail Brewing Company
320 W. Memorial Rd.
Oklahoma City, OK 73114
Roughtail Brewing was our next overnight stop. This is a massive production business that distributes its products throughout all of Oklahoma. Steve and I enjoyed a few beers on the outdoor patio. Although there are many good choices, I really enjoyed their Lagarita beer, and we purchased a six-pack.
These were friendly folks, and we felt totally welcome. Our dogs were welcome inside and on the patio. This is a fun place to hang out if you live in the area or pass through. We had a quiet and peaceful night parked in Roughtail’s back parking lot and will visit here again.
Route 66 Seaba Motorcycle Museum
Warwick, OK
This is where our trip began to meander. We struck out toward Pawhuska, Oklahoma, but saw an arrow pointing to Route 66. Of course, we turned in that direction to see what we could discover along that road. We did not drive very far before we saw signs for the Route 66 Seaba Motorcycle Museum.
We love having the freedom to abruptly change our route and/or direction of travel just on a whim at any time. We’ve explored bits of Route 66 a few other times and always find great surprises.
Seaba Museum was a fun historical find. It was built in 1921 as a gas station, some years before Route 66 was certified. Later it became a machine shop. The station was restored and opened as a museum in 1995.
Our visit and tour only took about 45 minutes. Still, there are so many unique motorcycles and pieces of memorabilia to see that you could easily spend a few hours. The building looks small from the outside, but there is a whole lot of stuff to see inside.
One little piece of history we saw here is what is described as the first plumbed toilet in the entire state of Oklahoma!
We enjoyed this quick stop immensely.
Museum of Pioneer History
719 Manvel Ave
Chandler, OK
This was our next, happen on to it, Museum on our impromptu side trip along Route 66. The Musem of Pioneer History takes up both floors of the two oldest historic buildings in town and is filled with impressive history from this part of Oklahoma.
If you have any interest in Oklahoma history, this is a great place to visit. There are historic murals, local family artifacts from before the Oklahoma land run. A historical research department is also on site.
We were delighted to listen to the curator, Dee’s, stories about exhibits we would see in the Museum. Dee also told us a great story about Marshal William Matthew Tilghman Jr. — indeed a wild west tale.
Marshal Tilghman is the person that captured outlaw Bill Doolin. Tilghman was never as famous as Wyatt Earp, but he made a film from his memoirs in 1915. He became known as one of Oklahoma’s “Three Guardsmen.”
Route 66 Interpretive Center
400 E 1st St
Chandler, OK 74834
Just a bit down the road from the Museum of Pioneer History is the Route 66 Interpretive Center. This was most definitely a fun museum visit also. The 1936-37 building was the original Chandler Armory building.
I am sure you guys remember the WPA (Works Progress Administration). This is one of 54 armories in Oklahoma built by FDR’s New Deal policy during the Depression. Battery F, Second Battalion, of the 160th Field Artillery of the Oklahoma National Guard called this armory home.
The walls of this original armory were chiseled by hand and are twenty inches thick!
The armory fell into disrepair but was restored to house the Chandler Route 66 Interpretive Center. There are several exhibit rooms and a beautiful event hall used today for weddings and special events.
This Museum has several fascinating interactive exhibit stations with short historical films.
A unique gift shop is also housed in the building. It is full of all kinds of Route 66 memorabilia and Native American craftsmanship.
Destinations Restaurant
Chandler, OK
We decided to grab lunch at the Destinations Restaurant between visiting the two Museums in Chandler. What a terrific decision that was! The restaurant is housed in an old gas station and is full of Route 66 and historic décor.
I’ve placed Destinations Restaurant on my “go back there” list. The staff was so friendly and served the best sandwiches! If you are in this area, I would certainly recommend a stop here.
This is just the first part of our long and meandering trip. We went all the way to Kansas and back, met family along the way, and saw many interesting sights. Please check back next week for more of the story.
One thought on “We love these amazing and meandering RV excursions”