Texas to New Mexico

We left the Big Texan around 9:00 this morning, and after roaming around Amarillo for a while we settled on Youngblood’s Café for breakfast, which was a few blocks off Rt66.

Our next stop was Cadillac ranch just west of Amarillo and on the other side of US 40 from RT 66. I was surprised at the volume of spray paint on the old Cadillacs stuck nose-first in the dirt. In places it looked like it was a foot thick. People had also graffitied the fences, concrete barriers, roadway and even dirt surrounding the ranch, obviously not satisfied with spray painting the cars.

By noon we were in Adrien Texas which claims to be the midpoint of old RT 66. As you maybe can tell from reading this blog so far, there are so many versions and re routes of 66 over the years that no one can claim to be the true midpoint, but everyone seems to be happy to let Adrien claim that title.

Big "2nd Amendment" Cowboy

We crossed the Texas/New Mexico border and set our watches back an hour to Mountain Time. After avoiding several dirt sections and dead-end sections of old 66, we arrived in Tucumcari by 12:30 where we’d snagged a reservation at the iconic Blue Bird Motel. Since we were 2 and a half hours early for check-in, we had lunch at Kix 66 restaurant, another RT66 themed diner, and went to the Tucumcari Historical Museum.

A rooster wearing a sombrero and sunglasses and smoking a cigar? Sure, why not?

Tucomcari NM

Entering New Mexico

We saw hundreds of wind turbines in Texas. Maybe because I don't have to live with them, but I found them kind of beautiful and calming.

The Museum had a ton of stuff for a small-town museum. What I found interesting was the main house was just a jumble to artifacts and detritus donated by local citizens over the year with seemingly no rhyme or reason and with little context. Old dresses, old military uniforms, personal photo albums, collections of carved birds, blown glass collections, post card collections, books of old wills, land titles, stock certificates, guns, phonographs, sewing machines, you name it, just piled on tables and shelves. In the basement there were several dabbles heaped with mineral samples, fossils, mastodon teeth, mammoth tusks, petrified wood, just all jumbled up. Outside were old trains, wagons, windmills, seemingly just anything people would donate when they were clearing out their barns.

After that exciting hour and a half, we went and checked into the Blue Bird. The Motel is virtually unchanged since it was built in 1939. It has the vintage neon signage, furniture, bathroom fixtures, and it even has a garage adjacent to each room, which modern cars can no longer fit into. The proprietor is rightfully proud of the conservation of his motel and says it’s the oldest operating motor court in the US.