On the Road - Day 2 -- Everything's OK in Oklahoma (Texas - not so much)

What a difference a day makes...and a good night's sleep. Today I head west on I-40 to Tucumcari. I've made this trip about a half-dozen times by now so I can almost drive it with my eyes closed...they have those rumble strips on the side of the highway if I start to stray off the pavement.

It was still cold in Oklahoma City but it was a pretty day. I made good time and there was only one place on the highway where construction slowed down the traffic. I made my usual stop at Lucile's near Hydro and at Cadillac Ranch. Cadillac Ranch is still wildly popular. There are people parking along the interstate - not bothering to go to the outer road. When I arrived there was already a crowd of probably ten cars and over twenty people. It is funny to see the parents taking their young kids to see a bunch of barely recognizable cars half buried in the dirt in a cow pasture and then encouraging them to spray paint something on top of what somebody else already  did. The smaller kids aren't sure what to do. There was a photographer there with a tripod all set up wanting to take some pictures but as soon as someone left another car full would arrive. Unfortunately, people have started carting away parts of the old Caddys at Cadillac Ranch.

Western Oklahoma and Texas are seething with fundamentalist Christians. Not much else is on the radio although I found a station broadcasting a program from the Netherlands National Radio that was interesting.  There was a radio spot I heard advertising Regent Law School --"Training Christian Lawyers to Change the World". Scary. I found out this is Pat Robertson's law school back in Virginia. I guess they are recruiting in Oklahoma.  In Groom Texas they have that huge sheet-metal cross surrounded by bronze statues of various crucifixion scenes.



Tower Station and U-Drop Inn



I think you can tell when you cross into Texas even if they didn't put up a sign. Everything is bleak and looks like it is about to fall over. There are a few exceptions but not many. In Shamrock Texas they are gearing up for St. Patrick's day. I decided to stop for fast food at a McDonald's and the line was all the way to the door. Must be a big hit.  Many of these towns have decided to try to preserve some of the Mother Road/Route 66 stuff that they have laying all around them. That is what Lucile's is back in Hydro, Oklahoma. In Shamrock they have restored this impressive relic at the main intersection in town....at the stoplight. The Tower Station is well preserved and apparently it is lit up at night with some of the original neon lights. I was actually impressed with what a good job they did.  

Shamrock is the first sizable town you hit in Texas. I should have bought gas since I was running a little low but I figured I had enough to get to McClean...the next town that probably had gas. So I left McDonald's and headed down the highway...watching my gas gauge a little. When I got off the highway at McClean I couldn't find any gas (even though the highway sign said there was gas). Bummer. What to do. What to do. I decided to risk it and keep going to the next town of Alanreed.  Alanreed was another disappointment but as I was getting back on the highway wondering how far I could go I spied a Conoco station across the highway that I couldn't get to....it figures.  So I limped along going west hoping for a turn-around and eventually found one and got back to Alanreed to fill up on  some very high-priced gas.



Adrian - Last little hell hole in Texas

The rest of the way through Texas was fairly uneventful. I stopped off at Cadillac Ranch but didn't spend any time in Amarillo or any place else. 

The Texas Panhandle has almost nothing to look at except for some interesting geology west of Alanreed and then again , finally, at the extreme western edge about ten miles east of the New Mexico state line.  The hills and escarpments begin to look a little like what one would expect.  I have to admit that the highway was in better condition in Texas than in Oklahoma but they insist on designing those goofy entrance ramps that shoot over from the outer access road. I suspect that Texans are used to it but it seems very odd and even dangerous for people not familiar with it.

New Mexico greeted me with it's usual enthusiasm. I stopped at the welcome center just across the border and the lady was knocking herself out trying to be helpful to everyone who came in. If she could have, I think she would have liked to escort everyone around the state to see various attractions. I was early anyway and also gained an hour when I crossed into mountain time at the border so I was looking for something to do. She gave me a bunch of stuff and told me to stop at the next exit to see the free antique car museum.

Turns out the car museum was inside a truck stop but it was free and they had about two-dozen restored cars. There were two or three really old ones but most were from the 1950s and 1960s. The cars were behind a railing so you couldn't actually get too close but they were very nicely restored and well worth the cost of admission. Most of them had the hood open so you could see the engine. They were not the usual run-of-the-mill cars...these were pretty fancy.



The road less travelled

After leaving the antique cars I looked at the map and decided to take a long way to my final destination of the day. Tucumcari was only about thirty minutes away but I managed to drag it out by taking a couple back roads and then connecting up with US Highway 54 that heads south and west into Tucumcari. This is the same highway that goes through Jefferson City so I could just drive west on Hwy 54 all the way when I come to New Mexico. I was sort of sure I knew where I was going. The road headed out into some cactus and sagebrush plains and eventually curved west (as I hoped). There were a few ranches but nothing looked too prosperous. The cattle were standing out in the sagebrush looking at me like maybe I had some food. There were a few horses way out in the middle of nowhere just standing around and trying to graze on what little there was. The road finally ran along the south fork of the Canadian River and there were a few deep ravines and a very high railroad bridge coming across the river at one point. I finally ran into Highway 54 and then followed it back into Tucumcari and found my motel.

It was another EconoLodge and, once again there was an Indian family running the hotel. They were sure that I had stayed there before (what??) and told me all about their trip to Hannibal Missouri...they just got back yesterday. The family owns hotels in Hannibal and Lake Ozark as well as Tucumcari (and who knows where else?) The manager said his brother runs the one in Hannibal and his sister has the one at the lake. They always drive US 54 the entire way and he says it takes him only 19 hours to get all the way to Hannibal. Highway 54 isn't crowded in Kansas and you can make good time. I guess I'll have to try it.

Since it was still daylight I drove around Tucumcari a little. I'm not sure this town has a pulse. When the Interstate came through most of the town dried up since it relied so heavily on Route 66 traffic. No one wanted to make the half-mile drive into town from the interstate so the town started moving toward the highway. There was a Denny's restaurant next door to the motel that shut down and moved to be part of a truck stop. Most of the businesses along the old Route 66 are closed.  They are trying to preserve some of the old motels and neon lighting but there is just too much of it and not enough Mother Road tourists to justify spending much more than they have.   I went and found the new Denny's and had a good supper except that I bad to eat it with Bill O'Riley. He was blithering about the Japanese earthquake and the nuclear power plant problem so he had guests and it wasn't just him.

Crazy monkey at the car museum