We start the day with snapping some pictures in Elk City, which hosts an old hotel (now closed), from brick, as well as the largest non-operational drill in the US. It was originally built to drill holes in which atomic bomb tests were performed. Later it was used for oil drilling too.
From Elk City we drive to Sayre, where we find another famous roadside sign – the one for the Western Motel. It is kind of strange, many of these old motels still exist, but it is unclear whether they are open or not. Most look deserted but they still have an office, and often there’s a few cars in the courtyard in front of some doors. But things look a bit dilapidated and deserted overall.
Next on we go to Erick. It is here that the Sandhills Curiosity Shoppe is located. It’s owners, Annabelle and Harley, wrote songs and performed for travelers. Sadly, Annabelle passed away in 2014 and according to our guide the shop has been closed since. We still wanted to take a picture outside though, so we went there. And to our surprise, the shop was open, and Harley was present. He was most welcoming, and told us all about the many items in the shop. He is quite proud of the pictures of the Pixar team visiting the shoppe, and the invitation to the world premiere of “Cars” he and his wife were invited to. And he even performed for us! I can’t upload the video we took but he performed “Get your kicks on Route 66” and it was awesome. We gave him a good tip and left with a firm handshake and a loud ring of his bell above the front door.
After Erick, the last town in Oklahoma is Texola. This is not yet a ghost town, but it comes close.
Texola literally ends at the state line with Texas, which we quickly cross to find ourselves in the lone star state.
In Shamrock we find the U-Drop Inn Cafe, a very famous building which also inspired Ramone’s body shop in Cars. It is also special because it was built during the Great Depression and pretty decorative for that period. When it opened, it was the ony cafe in 100 miles.
A couple of years ago, it was meant to be destroyed, but the local bank and residents stepped in, and raised money to buy the property. Then, they gifted it to the town, and the town administration could officially apply for a federal grant to restore the building.
The road in Texas goes pretty straight and pretty much always West. The next town we encounter is Groom, which has a leaning water tower. It was put there as a kind of joke by an Army Corps Engineer who is from Groom. It is, of course, not really falling, and also not really very much “leaning” either. Only 10 degrees!
In Conway we find the “Bug Farm”, some burried bugs in a tribute to the Cadillac Farm near Armadillo. The empty buildings surrounding it are kind of creepy.
Once we visited the Bug Farm, we of course had to visit the original too : The Cadillac farm! Now before I post some pics of that, I want to share something I learned about the Cadillac Farm. At present, it seems like everyone is spraying paint on it. But this was never the intention, as expressed by Hudson Marquez, one of the creators of the site. Also, when we walked around, I was kind of appalled by the number of spray paint cans, and plastic lids that were all around the cars. Well….cars…..they are barely recognizable as cars. The paint on them is so thick they not really look like cars anymore.
Nevertheless, we’re glad we found it and visited it. From Amarillo, the next logical stop is Vega. There’s a good example of a 1940’s style motel here. No longer in use I think, but it’s become tradition for us to take a pic of the neon sign. I didn’t include it here, because there are already so many pics, but we did take it!
After Vega we approach a very import location on the road : the midpoint! There’s a cafe here, where we stop to celebrate that we’re halfway Route 66.
Before we leave Texas and enter New Mexico, there’s the almost ghost town of Glenrio. As the travel guid describes it, it is as if the buildings here slowly sink into the plains. And this is true if you look at them. It’s a desolate spot. But there still live some people here. I can’t imagine why, because it is so far from everything else, and hot.
We stay in Tucumcari today. There’s an interesting legend about the name of this town. I’ll try to write it down summarized. There was a Chief Apache with a daughter, Kari, and 2 possible successors, Tocom and Tonopah. The Chief told both men to have a fight to the death to decide who would succeed him. And so they did. But Kari, who watched the fight secretly, when she saw that Tocom lost, jumped up and killed Tonopah with her own knife. For she loved Tocom. And then she took Tocom’ s knife and killed herself. When the Chief, her father, found them like this, he was wrecked with grief, and took Kari’s knife, and while killing himself, spoke “Tocom-Kari”.
Whether this is a true story or not, we sleep in the Safari Motel. The sign of this motel shows a camel, to remember the expeditions organized by the Army to map the land here to find the best place for roads, starting in 1857. They bought camels and used those because in this climate, camels would work best. The motel was built in 1959 and is still open! A true Route 66 classic.
