June
23, 2015
Today
was full of excitement…
We
did manage to get a little earlier start today and the temperature was in the
mid 70’s. This seemed like a Fall day compared to the previous week.
Here's some parting shots of the Blue Swallow...
 |
| Our room, #11, with the old pink double rocker |
 |
| Our private garage |
 |
| Billy, Wyatt and George |
The
Old Mother Road led us out of Tucumcari for a few miles and then back on to
I40.
After
a while we were able to get back on to the Old Mother Road and parallel I40.
But then…
 |
| End of the pavement on Old Route 66 |
The
pavement stopped and the road turned to hard packed gravel. Now I knew if we
stayed on this section for 5 or 6 miles it would bring us back into I40 right around
the Texas border.
Judith
was not so sure about continuing on and made a suggestion of turning around and
going back several miles to I40. I managed to convince her that this would not
be hard for her to ride and off we went – slow – but albeit off we went. After
a couple of miles there is a dirt road that leads over to I40, so we did not
need to do the full 5 or 6 miles. Judith did just fine and I was proud of her
for persevering.
 |
| Really? You want to ride down this road? |
Midpoint Café
We
crossed the Texas border and shortly afterwards made a stop at the Midpoint Café. This is
located at the exact midpoint of Route 66, and is a wonderful spot to stop.
There are always lots of travelers of Route 66 making a stop at the Café. We had an early lunch.
Cadillac Ranch
Next
on down the road was the Cadillac Ranch. If you have not heard about this place you
probably won’t believe what I am about to tell you.
A number of years ago a guy
decided to make an art piece out of ten old mid 60’s Cadillac’s. So he buried
them nose down, at a 45 degree angle and in a straight line. His first location
ran into some sort of trouble, so he dug them up and moved them to another location and they
have been there for years. The location is on a frontage road that parallels
I40, just to the West of Amarillo. Access is wide open to the public. Just park
on the side of the road, walk through a gate and hike about 150 yards out to
the Stonehenge of Texas.
It gets even more bizarre. The tradition is to take a
can, or 3 or 4, of spray paint with you and spray whatever you like on the Caddies.
The paint is – I kid you not – at least one inch thick or more on these icons.
 |
| What the heck?? |
 |
| All in a nice straight line - nosed in at 45 degrees |
 |
| We found one with Digger painted on it. The wind was really blowing this day, as noted by Judith's hair. |
|
 |
| Layers and layers and layers of paint cover the cars |
 |
| This is a chunk of paint that had cracked and fallen off a car. Note the many, many layers of paint. |
 |
| Another chunk of broken off paint. This is about 2-1/2 inches thick |
 |
| Another tradition, I guess, is to leave your empty spray can behind. There were hundreds of them laying around. |
From
the Cadillac Ranch we turned south and headed to Plainview, TX for the night.
This was pretty uneventful, with the only change being instead of fighting the
strong cross winds we now got to ride into the strong head wind.
Dinner
was a take out salad form a local grocery store and a bottle of wine in plastic
cups. No proper wine glasses here in Plainview.
No comments:
Post a Comment