Day 4 (Wed July 4, 2007) - Amarillo TX to Albuquerque NM

Happy Independence Day! It was very fitting that we celebrated the birth of our nation by enjoying the God-given freedom we have to travel across this vast, beautiful country on a road so rich with history - Route 66. In other words, another day, another 400 miles or so!

Shortly after leaving the KOA in Amarillo, we came upon what has become a modern landmark for folks driving the Mother Road: Cadillac Ranch. Stanley Marsh 3 (yes, 3) and an art collective called the Ant Farm half-buried ten Cadillacs of select years from '49 to '63, at an angle (supposedly) the same as the sides of the pyramids at Cheops. Over the years, countless layers of spray paint have been added by visiting "artists." An interesting and fun stop, but it does make one wonder: Why?? Perhaps Stanley just wanted to create a wacky tribute to the love of cars and the open road - in that, I think he succeeded.

From there, Route 66 hugs closely to I-40 as a "frontage road" (see yesterday's post). It veers off slightly to enter small (often derelict) towns with names like Bushland, Vega, and Adrian. Adrian was significant because it had a marker designating the halfway point on Route 66 between Chicago and Santa Monica. The classic Midpoint Cafe is right across the road from the marker.

West of Adrian, several things happened: 1) we left the Texas panhandle and entered New Mexico; 2) we changed from Central Time to Mountain Time; and 3) most strikingly, the terrain seemed to change instantly to a look you'd associate with Westerns - large, flat buttes jutting out from expansive flat plains with scrubby and sparse foliage. It was so amazing how quickly the landscape changed. We took a brief side trip to an older alignment of 66, at a ghost town named Glenario. There was also a very rough dirt road spur, but since we weren't driving a 4x4, we did not want to chance it.

Next came Tucumcari NM, which is another postcard favorite of Route 66 lore. Dozens of old-style motels and gas stations are here. We stopped to look at the restored Blue Swallow Motel ("100% Refrigerated Air!"). These old motor lodges included garage spaces for your vehicle, with a door connecting to your room - I suppose this was done so that old Betsy wouldn't get so lonely!!

While in Tucumcari, we stopped at Teepee Curios for some souvenir shopping. We talked for a while with the owner, Mike. He had just come back from a Route 66 trip of his own - to Tulsa OK, to see the unveiling of a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere which had been buried in a time capsule for 50 years. As a freelance photographer, he took shots of the car as it emerged. The car came out very rusty, but Mike said that Chrysler may end up buying it and restoring it for the Walter P. Chrysler Museum - right in our backyard, in Auburn Hills, MI!

After passing through several more small towns, we took a BIG side trip (adding over 160 miles to our day) on the pre-1937 alignment of Route 66. This route took us north and then west through the beautiful Pecos Pueblo country, through Santa Fe, and finally to Albuquerque.

Pecos National Historical Park had beautiful examples of adobe construction in the Pueblo ruins, and in the huge Spanish mission which was built on the site when the Spaniards arrived to evangelize the Indians. If you are ever in this part of the country, I strongly recommend a visit.

Santa Fe is a beautiful, artsy city with seemingly hundreds of art galleries, boutiques and gift shops, all with the Pueblo style architecture. Unfortunately, we could only see it from our car windows as the rain finally caught up to us in torrential fashion. Maybe next trip...

All ended well, though, as we arrived in Albuquerque at yet another KOA (we should own stock!). As I'm typing this I'm watching fireworks in the distance, reminding me again of how blessed we are as a nation to live in freedom! GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Day 3 (Tues July 3, 2007) - Tulsa OK to Amarillo TX

I'm at the end of Day 3, sitting in a "rustic" log cabin at the KOA Kampground in Amarillo Texas, but enjoying the air conditioning and blogging via the WiFi Internet connection! (Camping just ain't what it used to be, folks... and I for one am grateful!)

Today's drive was fairly long again (400 miles), but we saw an amazing variety of terrains, towns and road types as Route 66 stretched out from rolling hills across the great plains. Oklahoma and Texas have had so much rain, but God blessed us with another beautiful day - some overcast skies in the morning gave way to sunshine, blue skies and huge cumulus clouds (Google that, meteorology fans!). The other benefit of the rain is that the grass, trees and fields all were beautifully green.

Just west of Tulsa, in a little town called Sepulpa, there was a "frozen-in-time" stretch of Route 66 that made us feel like it was 1935. Check out the historic Rock Creek bridge.

The town of Depew OK looked like a movie set with its western-style facades and rock buildings, but they still thought enough of Route 66ers to paint the logo on Main Street, and roads leading into and out of it.

In Davenport and Chandler OK we stopped to photograph classic examples of Texaco and Phillips 66 service stations (the Phillips station was undergoing restoration).

Oklahoma City has the distinction of being the only city along Route 66 with a state capitol building on the road. And an impressive capitol it is!

For many, many miles, Old Route 66 ran right alongside the Interstate, now as a "frontage road" or service drive. This was true for both I-44 and I-40. The interesting thing about the drive was that the old highway followed the ups and downs and turns of the terrain much more closely. On many occasions, the road would dead end on the south side of the Interstate, so we would cross over to pick up the frontage road on the north side, and vice versa. The road did this so many times we lost count!

Somewhere between El Reno and Hydro OK, the old highway crossed the Canadian River via a 38-pony bridge. (A "pony," we learned, is the term for one trussed arch unit of a bridge. This bridge, at nearly 4,000 feet long, had 38 ponies strung together! Quite impressive.)

Shortly after we crossed the Texas border, we drove through Shamrock, which is the home to a Route 66 icon - the Art Deco-designed Conoco tower service station, with its attached "U-Drop-Inn" restaurant. The design elements of this station were featured in the Disney/Pixar movie Cars as Ramone's House of Body Art.

At last, around 7:30pm local time, we arrived at the KOA, Becky made a dee-licious dinner of grilled chicken breast, peas and cole slaw, we took a nice walk around the campground, and I settled in for some blogging! God is good, and the Mother Road is a blast! Can't wait to see what tomorrow holds... until then, nighty night!