Gettin' Our Kicks: Chapter 25 – Day 19 Tucumcari to Plainview, TX

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.

Gettin' Our Kicks: Chapter 24 – Day 18 Santa Fe to Tucumcari

June 22, 2015

The morning started rather pleasant as far as the temperature – mid 70’s. This did not last long and soon it was high 80’s with the mid 90’s to come.

The pre-1937 alignment of Route 66 followed the Santa Fe Trail, a pretty old route that started in the 1820’s in Franklin, Missouri and ended in Santa Fe. The Santa Fe Trail served as a vital commercial highway until the introduction of the railroad to Santa Fe in 1880. After 1937 Route 66 was realigned to run through Albuquerque.

Other than the history attached to the route, it is boring at best. Long, straight and today seriously hot.

We connected with I40 after a couple of hours – more long straight and boring – and oh yes hot.

Route 66 Auto Museum

 

Santa Rosa, NM has a small, but interesting Auto Museum and we stopped in for a visit. The museum houses about 30 cars, mostly hot rods and mid 60’s Mussel Cars – opps, make that Muscle Cars. Some of the cars are for sale, but most are not.

This is an original and unmolested '57 Chevy Bel Air - for sale - $19,000

Basket Case Harley-Davidson

'57 Chevy Nomad - very few made. This one is a hot rod with a big block 454 engine. For sale for only $47,000

I remember using these

A very rare front loader / back hoe Edsel

From Santa Rosa, it is a one-hour ride to Tucumcari and another iconic motel – the Blue Swallow Motel. I had stayed at the Blue Swallow five years ago. There are new owners now – Kevin and Nancy – and they are doing a splendid job of preserving the old tradition of 1930’s motels. They also have a rule that is very significant – in wine in plastic cups. They will supply you with proper wine glasses if you do not have your own.

The neon sign is just great

Dinner was at the Pow Wow Restaurant & Lizard Lounge – a fantastic Mexican Restaurant – plus they run a shuttle service from the motels.The booths all have murals that look like someone is already sitting in the booth. The people in the murals are all local people and are very life like. It's very strange to share a booth with people you don't know.

Our booth mates are the local Judge and his wife

The Lizard Lounge Boss and us

The plan is to get an earlier start tomorrow and try to beat some of the heat.