Enid, Oklahoma to Ponca City, OK to Bartlesville, OK to Miami, OK to Springfield, Missouri

I left Enid early this morning and headed north on US60 to Ponca City, Bartlesville, and Miami, Oklahoma.  The scenery was pretty interesting, as it is definitely getting greener the more east I ride.  There wasn't much to see or do in Ponca City, but Bartlesville was a different story.  It seems to be a really nice small city of about 37,000 people and appears to be quite prosperous. Bartlesville is the headquarters for Phillips Petroleum, which was founded there in 1917 by L.E. and Frank Phillips.  There were also a number of other industries in the area, some associated with oil exploration, refining, and distribution, and others that did not seem to have a direct connection with the oil business.  Downtown Bartlesville is very nice, neat, and populated with a number of local stores and restaurants in addition to the very large Phillips headquarters building.  I stopped at the Phillips Petroleum Museum, which was really pretty interesting.

Here are a couple shots of the area directly in front of the Phillips museum:

The museum itself covered the Phillips Petroleum from its founding in 1917 to the present day.  I thought it interesting that Phillips really promoted the "advantages" of their fuel, particularly from the 1920's to the 1970's or so.  In 1934 Wiley Post flew his plane, the Winnie Mae, to a record 55,000 feet above Bartlesville, using, of course, Phillips Aviation Gasoline:

The Company also unabashedly promoted their superior gasolines during WWII with ads like these:

Pretty heady stuff...

If you thought that you've had a bad day at the office, take a look at what this fellow had to do six days a week:

Anyway, the museum was interesting and I thought Bartlesville was a really nice small city.

After leaving Bartlesville, I headed east on US60 to the Vintage Iron Motorcycle Museum in Miami, Oklahoma.  As an aside, it appears that just about every little burg in Oklahoma and Missouri can claim to have been situated on Route 66, the "Mother Road." At least, every place I've stopped in Oklahoma and now in Springfield, MO.

I digress...

Here is a shot of the Vintage Iron Museum in Miami, just in case you ever want to go:

They had a small but, I'm sure, very valuable collection of old motorcycles, including this 1917 Harley:

And...well, they didn't have Evel Knievel's motorcycle,or his rocket ship from his famous attempt at jumping the Snake River Canyon, but they did have his leather suit from the Snake River jump AND...prepare yourself...the actual Chevrolet van that the great man himself used as his control center for the (very unsuccessful) jump (or would it have been a flight??) over the Snake River in 1974:

I'm sorry the picture isn't any better than it is, but I was shaking with excitement...

Anyway, it took me about 2 hours to find this place, and now that I've seen it, I don't need to go back.

After leaving beautiful downtown Miami I headed up I-44 to Springfield, where I'm spending the night.  Tomorrow, I'm headed north to Villa Ridge, MO to visit my Aunt and Uncle.

Miles today:  337
Total:  7,5642