Jim's Route 66 Motorcycle Journey: Gay Parita

Start kilometers 25095. Finish kilometers 25539. Total today 444.

Where do I go to pay?

Today's drive through western Missouri took me through pastoral settings of rolling wooded hills and green fields, peppered with churches, barns and roadside remnants. I stopped at Whitehall Mercantile in Halltown for a photo op and quick tour of the store but ended up visiting the owner for the better part of 45 minutes. His wife of nearly sixty years passed away two days ago and he was sorting through her things. He was a kind, engaging man and we spent some quality time discussing the history of the area and both his and his wife's past. A few miles further on I stopped at Gay Parita Sinclair Gas Station in Paris Springs. There I met Gary Turner and his daughter Janean. Gary rebuilt this beautiful gas station replica complete with vintage trucks and cars on the original site of a long gone station named for the builders wife Gay. Parita means 'equal'and the builder wanted to demonstrate this fact in the naming the gas station Gay Parita. After a tour of the site by Janean I ended up sitting on the front porch with Gary for nearly two hours discussing politics, religion and the folks that he has met over the years as they travelled through this area. He has become somewhat of a legend amongst travellers and travel writers, with many publications to his credit. We became fast friends and it was difficult to leave but not before he presented me with a gift of a photo book of images taken all along route 66 from start to end. I promised him that I would write as he has not adjusted to the modern technology of the digital world.
Late afternoon took me into Galena Kansas, an almost ghost town (see photo below ) and then into Oklahoma. Tonight I have stopped in Tulsa. Tomorrow my friend John departs Portland for his journey south to hook up with me in Albuquerque sometime Thursday or Friday.