Fall drive on Route 66 to the Rock Café
Twenty members of the Eastern and Central Oklahoma sections drove on Route 66 on Thursday September 28 for lunch at the famous Rock Café in Stroud. Eastern Oklahoma members gathered at Jackie Cooper Mercedes Benz for the approx. one-hour drive west while Central Oklahoma members gathered in Edmund for an east bound drive on the famous Mother Road.
The Rock Cafe survived the decommissioning of Route 66, but by the early 1990s, the restaurant needed extensive rehabilitation. When the current owners purchased the property in 1993, the outlook appeared grim, and it got worse when in 1999 a major tornado hit Stroud, devastating the town’s economy. Persisting through a commitment to their adopted town and to the memory of the Mother Road, the owners held on. In 2001, they succeeded in placing the cafe in the National Register of Historic Places and received a cost share grant from the National Park Service’s Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program the same year. The owners used the funds for a top to bottom rehabilitation of the cafe, including restoration work on the green tin roof, neon sign, and Giraffe-style sandstone exterior. They also restored two original entrances on the east and west sides of the cafe that had been covered over with stone. The entire dining room returned to an earlier era with booths, counter, and counter stools restored to an original floor plan. In 2008, the cafe suffered a disastrous fire. Funding from the National Park Service and National Trust Southwest Office assisted with post-fire assessment and preservation plan that led to meticulous rehabilitation of the cafe. Reopened in 2009, this welcoming roadside cafe remains a favorite stop for travelers along historic Route 66.
Many members enjoyed the Thursday “special”—Indian Tacos- an Oklahoma Native American specialty and rarely ever seen on a diner menu. After lunch, members chose to return on Route 66 or take the fastest Interstate 44 which marked the end of the original Chicago to west coast highway.
