Saturday morning I saw a travel/human interest story with a Route 66 connection on TV. The mention of Route 66 was the first thing that pulled me away from buttering my English muffin from the complimentary breakfast bar at the Fairfield Inn in Owenboro, Kentucky. (I was there for a wedding.) I became more enamored about the Route 66 story when I heard about the 66-foot soda bottle outside this new tourist stop.
“Pops” just opened on this historic highway thus adding a destination draw to Arcadia, Oklahoma. (It’s just south of Oklahoma City.)This gas station, restaurant, giftshop, roadside attraction combo peddles 400 different kinds of sodas for the thirsty traveler. There are 43 kinds of root beer and 50 kinds of cream soda, for example. I can’t imagine you couldn’t find something to satisfy.
You can’t miss the building since the sculpture soda bottle towers above the horizon. The way it beams out into the night in this photo from Pops’s Web site reminds me of a scene from the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” Head to the Web site for some soda fizzing sounds and videos. Very slick. This is a well thought out venture.
Here’s one video documentary I found posted on the Web site Route 66 News. It gives a bit of Route 66 history besides the making of Pops.