While I thought we might visit the Oklahoma City Museum of Art and the Oklahoma City National Memorial (commemorating victims of the 1995 Murrah Building bombing), my wife had another plan: the Goodwill Outlet. It was quite a cultural experience…
Route 66 Road Trip Day Five: Goodwill Outlet…
First, a word on the Fordson Hotel. What a great Hyatt property. It’s in a former automobile plant and now is a fancy hotel with a great art collection. The rooms have very high ceilings, there’s a 24/7 sauna and steam room (though the steam room was out of commission), and great coffee. I LOVED this hotel and would return…it was cheap too. Less than $150/night.
Again, we spent the morning and early afternoon working and working out. After a nice breakfast, a good workout, and several hours of work, we were finally ready to depart…at 4:30 pm.
By now, it was too late for any museum or for the Kate Spade Outlet Heidi wanted to visit (since it was about 20 minutes away in the wrong direction) but Heidi had another idea: she noticed there was a Goodwill Outlet just a few minutes from the hotel and was intrigued. I mean, Goodwill is a thrift shop…already an outlet, right? How could an outlet have an outlet?
One of the many reasons I love Heidi is that she is very disciplined in her spending and prefers to shop at thrift shops (and LA is full of very nice thrift shops). She has a closet full of expensive designer clothes, but most are second-hand. And I admire that. I used to like thrifting myself but determined at one point it was no longer worth the time. She has a different calculation because enjoys the shopping itself so much: it’s like a treasure hunt.
So we drove over to the Goodwill Outlet…which looked like a big warehouse on the outside.
We parked and went inside, where we found a huge room with bins. A black woman looked at me like, “What in the…are you doing here.” I’ll never forget that look…
Honestly, Heidi and I were both horrified. It was filthy inside and cold. But before we could walk out, the kids ran in and started scavenging.
Essentially, this is an outlet…it’s leftover items from various Goodwill stores that are dumped into bins and sold by the pound rather than the article. You dig through the bins, find what you want, then bring it to the front.
There, it is weighed and you’re out the door for a few bucks.
My kids truly loved it! It was an adventure and Heidi and I watched as kids spent the next hour pawing through the bins. At one point, Claire Marie put about 20 stuffed animals in her shopping cart…but we gently told her we were not going to put any dirty and disgusting stuffed animals in the car. However, we did let them each choose something…she got a “magic wand” (that Heidi disinfected before it went into the car) and Augustine got a Nerf gun. Heidi found a brand new 2025 day planner and I found a few glass-blown Christmas ornaments…I mean, what else were we going to do but dig as well?
I found the whole experience fascinating, but I don’t recommend it unless you have young kids.
Back on the road at 6:00 pm (when everyone was kicked out of the Goodwill Outlet), we fueled up for gas and drove (along old Route 66) to Trader Joe’s to get some snacks for the car.
We drove for a couple of hours and stopped at A Texas Roadhouse in Tulsa, Oklahoma (Augustine strongly requested we either stop at Texas Roadhouse or Cracker Barrel). As far as chain restaurants go, it was quite acceptable…I enjoyed ribs and steak.
Back on teh raod, I snickered at all the pot dispensaries on the Oklahoma-Arkansa border and then the warning signs after we crossed the Arkansas state line that it is illegal to import pot into the state.
We arrived about midnight at the Hyatt House in Rogers, Arkansas, where we would spend the night.
This trip report covers my road trip along the old Route 66 from Los Angeles to Chicago.
Many cities have those Goodwill Outlets but they are usually in some really odd location. Fun stuff.
I lived in Edmond Oklahoma (Northern OKC suburb) for a while in the early 90s. I lived there when the Murrah Building was bombed so that memorial is a special place for me.
I walked through that old Fred Jones Ford building when they were beginning to move their parts warehouse out of there. Fred Jones was one of the original Ford dealerships and I heard when they cleaned out the building they found “New/Old Stock” parts going back to the Model A, an amazing treasure trove at the time.
Nice trip report. Thanks.
You should have upgraded to suite they’re absolutely massive. With a beautiful daybed by that can be converted to a twin.
Love this story !! Claire Marie is so cute!
Since when is Tulsa in NM?
That would be Oklahoma.