Zigzagging home

Post for Saturday, Oct. 30
Whenever I'm on a road trip, and it's time to head back, I tend to drive straight through, and get home as fast as possible.  It's partly a habit from when I worked on the road - the Six Days on the Road effect. I remember my father doing the same thing.
I'm trying to reconsider assumptions and habits, and I'm tired of arriving home burnt out from a marathon drive.
So, I tried making the drive home a continuation of the trip, taking my time and stopping along the way.
I was planning on continuing to follow old Route 66, I-44 from Oklahoma City through Missouri.  But I've done that route many times, and I'd already spent quite a bit of time looking at Route 66 attractions.
Google Maps' suggested route was different from my usual one, up I-35 and across Iowa on US-20, going near several places I've been wanting to explore.
First off, though, I made another Route 66 stop - Shamrock, Texas.

There's a beautifully restored service station / diner there I've been wanting to photograph, and the weather and light were perfect.

I stayed on the freeway up to Tulsa, and then headed north to Bartlesville, OK.  The Price Tower, Frank Lloyd Wright's only skyscraper, is there - no one ever paid for his mile high skyscraper design for some reason...

I used to work around Bartlesville every year, and vaguely remember noticing it, but I wasn't paying much attention to that sort of thing back in the 80s I guess.
I was wandering around, photographing it from different angles, and then found out that there were tours available, and I was just in time for the last one of the day.  Photos weren't allowed inside, unfortunately, but it was quite interesting to see - partly in a 'what the hell were they thinking?' way.
Like a lot of FLW work, it's more a sculpture than a useful, livable building.

Even though it's 19 stories tall, it's vary narrow, and the rooms are oddly shaped.  Doors and stairways are very small, and the furniture had to be custom built to fit in the angled walls and corners. If it wasn't for all the glass, it would be very claustrophobic.
It's visually pleasing and far ahead of it's time, though, and I was pleased to see they've done a lot of restoration work.
From there it was two lanes for quite a ways, beautiful day to travel through the prairie.