August 2019

Route 66 – Day 8 : Elk City to Tucumcari

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.

Western Motel – Sayre

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.

Sandhills Curiosity Shoppe – Erick
Jonathan in the Curiosity Shoppe
Jonathan ad Jakko in the Curiosity Shoppe

After Erick, the last town in Oklahoma is Texola. This is not yet a ghost town, but it comes close.

Route 66 in Texola
Texas State line

Texola literally ends at the state line with Texas, which we quickly cross to find ourselves in the lone star state.

Route 66 in Texas

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.

U-Drop Inn – Shamrock
U-Drop Inn, Shamrock
Us in the U-Drop Inn
1929 Philips Petroleum station – McLean

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!

Leaning Water tower – Groom

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.

The Bug Farm – Conway
Non bug at the bug farm

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.

Cadillac Ranch – Amarillo
Cadillac Ranch – Amarillo

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!

Grain Elevator – Groom

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.

Midpoint Cafe sign
Midpoint on the Road!
Celebrating being halfway!

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.

Glenrio, Texas
New Mexico state line

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.

Safari Motel sign
Our Volvo sleeps close to us tonight 🙂
Motel Safari sign at night
The Blue Swallow, the other classic motel, at night

Route 66 – Day 7 : Tulsa to Elk City

Today we will spend fully in Oklahoma. We drive from Tulsa to Elk City. It’s pretty hot, just like yesterday, but that is to be expected this time of year. I was warned! Strangely, today we keep missing things. It starts out with Depew. We just totally miss it. When we realize it, we’re already in the next town, and decide not to turn around (later we will turn around for other missed locations, not to worry!). In Chandler we look for McJerry’s gallery but we can’t find it. We decide to move on and proceed to drive past Warwick without realizing it.

Traffic light as seen in “Cars”
Oklahoma landscape between Tulsa and Oklahoma City
Skyliner motel sign – Stroud

This time we turn around though, and we’re glad we did! In Warwick we find the Seaba Station Motorcycle Museum. It houses a large collection of motorcycles, some pretty antique. I see some Indians and although I am not a motorcycle expert, I do know these are rare. Most motorcycles in the museum look to be in very good condition too.

Seaba Motorcycle Museum, Warwick
Indian motorcycles

Just when we’re about to leave, another car pulls up. Someone gets out and – like so often happens – we made a new friend and are talking about Route 66, our trip, and roadtrips in general. And once again I realize that the Us is nothing at all like we are told it is in the media. Even in Canada, we only see a certain prepare image, through the filter applied by the media. In The Netherlands, this is even worse.

The US is a great country, and we as Western world have our freedom and wealth for a large part not despite but because of the US. And in the US live great people. The majority of people here want to do what we all want : live a happy life in a good country. This is my opinion of course, but it’s based on personal experience, not on what I have heard on the TV.

Ok, enough about my opinions, back to Route 66! Our next stop is the Round Barn in Arcadia. It’s a huge wooden structure and when the builder expressed his plans to make it, back in 1898, people said it couldn’t be done, that his plans were too big. But he did it, and when Route 66 passed his barn, it became one of the most photographed locations along the Route.

The beauty and the barn!
The roof structure
Route 66 seen from the barn
Pops station – Arcadia

We lunch at “Pops”, a new addition to Route 66, since it was built in 2007, and it’s a huge success. It certainly looks futuristic and I think it fits in well with some of the older architecture we’ve seen along the Route.

Next on the Route is Oklahoma City. We mostly drive through, but we do manage to stop for the Gold Dome buildingi and the Milk Bottle building.

Golden Dome Building – Oklahoma City
Milk Bottle Building, Oklahoma City

In the afternoon, we drive through ever more arid landscape, and near Geary we encounter the imposing Pony Bridge. This bridge was built in 1933 and is the greatest truss bridge, spanning almost 4000 feet. The trusses are called “Pony trusses”, hence the name of the bridge.

Pony Bridge

Close to Hydro we find Lucille’s Service station. It looks a bit desolate, and it is almost unbelievable that Lucille managed to live here and operate the station for 59 (!) years, till 2000, when she passed away. She bought the station with her husband in 1941 and operated it till her death. She was called the “Mother of the Mother Road”.

Lucille’s station, Hydro
Cotton Ball motel sign, Canute

After working our way through Clinton and Canute, we arrive at Elk City, where we enjoy some prime Mexican food in Lupe’s Mexican restaurant before heading to our hotel for the night for a well-earned rest! Tomorrow, we once more travel through three states (Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico) AND we’ll pass the halfway point on Route 66!