Day trips

[r65_steve]

They were probably there at one time. Choctaw Bingo came out about 20 years ago. Sounds like the guy wrote about what he saw, like the Big Indian Smokeshop with the neon smoke rings and the Macdonalds on the overpass
.

I went there today. Baxter Springs wasn't he'll raising at 9 am when I got there. Checked out the rainbow Bridge (photos later). The Biker Bar was a motorcycle repair shop and the lingered store moved to Joplin (per wikipedia).

Picher looked just like Google Street view. Dismal.
Didn't stop.

Rode to Miami where'd I'd had enough and fumbled for a $1.25 for the Will Roger's Turnpike back to Joplin and then springfield.

 

[mtraphagen]

Some, but not all of the streetview images are from 2008 before the tornado and the abandonment. Other images I looked at are from 2012.

Seeing the juxtaposition of the Streetview images in Picher is extremely wild. You can be on E. 1st St. in 2008, with a number of buildings all around, go right to the edge of Hwy 69 and look down, seeing buildings. With one click onto Hwy 69, almost all disappear as you are now in 2016. That was a rough eight years for them.