We are slowly making our way back to Los Angeles from North Central Texas. Today we have progressed at a relaxed rate, stopping to take pictures as we’ve made diversions off of 40 and onto Route 66.
The first stop was Cadillac Ranch outside Amarillo, where an art group named Ant Farm sank 10 Cadillacs ranging from 1948 to 1964 at a 70 degree angle into the barren ranch land. The cars were in pristine condition when their front ends were buried and then concreted in, but “Ant Farm” has allowed people to leave their mark by spray painting whatever they want on the cars. This makes Cadillac Ranch an interactive art installation, which has been extremely popular with tourists over the years, not to mention the subject and title of a Bruce Springsteen song. Here is a picture of Ray and our friend Jared taking a picture of the cars:
And here is a photo of the cars themselves:
Next stop was Glenrio, split in half by the Texas/ New Mexico border. This was a railroad town and an active stop on Route 66 until Highway 40 by-passed it. Now there are a few houses down a country road nearby, but the town now looks like this:
Abandoned Gas Station w/ 1969 Pontiac Catalina
Abandoned Motel
Former Post Office
From Glenrio, we proceeded west on 40 to Tucumcari, where we stopped to take a closer look at the Route 66 Motel, a mid-century aluminum, glass and concrete “time capsule.” We also the owner and even looked in several rooms. We will definitely be staying there on our next cross-country to Texas. Here is a photo:
From there, we drove to Santa Rosa for a late lunch at Joseph’s Bar and Grill, a long-standing, but slightly worn hot spot on Route 66. The food was good, however, and the people were nice.
Then on to Old Town Albuquerque, which was too touristy for our taste, but which had a beautiful old square and a Catholic church built in the 1700’s:
Now we are driving on to Flagstaff for the night. We expect to arrive around 10:30, and we are excited to hear the low temperature will be 52 degrees. Several times today we were out in 100 degree temperatures, so a cool night and early morning will be a treat.
Tomorrow we will visit the south rim of the Grand Canyon before heading on to LA. Our traveling companion, Jared, has never seen the “big ditch” before and we hardly need an excuse to go see this beautiful sight again.
I must say this is the slowest we have ever made this trip between LA and Texas, and it has been a lot of fun. Certainly beats driving for 16 straight hour in one day with only gas/bathroom/food breaks!
More tomorrow…
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