June 16, 2013

View Larger Map

Father's Day!

What a perfect day is ahead of us for Ron to accomplish so much he has been looking forward to.


We left Clinton OK and our first stop was in Mclean TX where a replica of the first Phillips 66 gas station is located. The pumps showed gas at $.195 a gallon. We also met people from Switzerland there as we have found that many Europeans make the Route 66 trip.

We drove by Groom Texas and saw their leaning tower of Pisa which is the towns water tower. On the other side of the highway, there is a 200 foot high cross that you can see from 15 miles away.

Then on to Conway where the Bug Ranch is located. This is 5 VW's planted in the ground to compete with the cadilac ranch further down the road. Ron took an opportunity to paint our initials on one of the VW's.





We took a detour south of Amarillo to the Palo Duro Canyon which is second to the Grand Canyon in size. We were able to drive through the canyon and have a picnic lunch and saw some great vistas which the picture below just do not do justice to.

Back to Amarillo for some iced coffee and then to the famous cadilac ranch. Definitely a lot more popular and more impressive than the bug ranch. You have 10 50's and 60's cadilacs planted half in the ground in the middle of a ranch. There is a well worn path to them and most everyone comes with spray cans including Ron. Did a lot of painting but in 20 mile an hour wind it was not to easy but we left our mark.

We then drove about 100 miles to Tucumcari NM where they advertise 1200 motel rooms. In the old days on Route 66 this was a popular spot and their advertisement of 1200 rooms was to let the weary traveler know that there would be a room for them in Tucumcari.  We found one. Drove around town and had dinner at the Pow Wow Lizzard Lounge--great name and great food. Tucumcari is also noted for its murals depicting Route 66 and we saw quite a few of those and are sharing several pictures with you.

As a matter of interest, we seem to be a day ahead of storms as we travel west. Flooding in IL the day after we left. Thunderstorms/tornadoes and an earthquake  in OK after we leave and severe thunderstorms in TX today while we are bedded down in NM. Hopefully our luck will continue.