First stop: the Devil's Rope Museum in McLean. A must-see! It's all about barbed wire. I know: you're thinking "must-see" and "barbed wire" are mutually exclusive. But it was a lot of fun, and there were some Route 66 exhibits, too, plus a room about the Dust Bowl in the 30s. We bought some trinkets, talked to the old lady who was 
volunteering, and met the guy who started the museum in the first place.My friend Molly recommended Groom, which has a big cross. I thought it'd take about 30 seconds to see & take pics, but it was actually pretty interesting to stop there for a bit. Thanks, Molly!
When standing near a cross, make sure it is firmly entrenched in the ground. Otherwise, this will happen to you.
Nearby was the leaning water tower. Leany!
(although the one on the right that we passed in Illinois was more interesting...)
On to Amarillo, and the Big Texan: second of my must-sees/must-eats. I didn't order the 72 oz.
steak, despite Ivan's urgings, but I did get an 18 oz. ribeye, which was DELICIOUS. There was a West Texas A&M football thing going on there, too, so a lot of clapping, which I initially thought was related to me eating an over 1 lb. steak. Apparently not.We headed off to Palo Duro Canyon State Park, which was the first (but not
last) canyon we saw on the trip. Beautiful!
After that, we went to the iconic Cadillac Ranch. When you see it in movies or on TV, the cars look pretty good. Apparently, they get cleaned up for photo/film shoots. The rest of the time, they look like this: Still impressive, though!
Plus, since all the punks who spraypaint the cars leave their cans there, I also got to spraypaint a 'J' on one.
For late lunch/early dinner, we wanted to hit the Midpoint Cafe, located midway between Los Angeles and Chicago on old Route 66.
It was 4pm, and should've been open, but the 'Closed' sign was up, and when I walked towards the door, I heard the definite snick of the lock. Hmph.
We bolted to Tucumcari, NM, which is a pretty divy town, but La Cita had good Mexican food (but bad service).
Tucumcari also has the Blue Swallow Motel, which reminds me of a place Tobias FΓΌnke would work at.
Finally, we did take a left turn at Albakoikie, and ended up there for the night at a Super 8. It wasn't super, but it worked.
1 comment:
Glad to see you stopped in Groom. The vestibule with the fountain is the most peaceful place that I have ever been. That cross is pretty huge and the stations of the cross was not something I knew about. We loved Paulo Duro but I am sure it was nothing compared to the Grand Canyon. The history of Paulo is pretty new. Loved Cadillac Ranch. We found some spray cans as well and did our own tagging. John wanted to get the 72 oz at the Big Texan but I told him I didn't want to have to pay for it if he couldn't eat it. It is huge!!
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