As we pick up Route 66 near downtown Shamrock, we pause to admire and photograph the magnificent U-Drop Inn. Down the road in McLean, we encounter an abandoned service station on the eastern edge of town. It looks like many of the dying structures we have seen along the Road. A bit further down the main drag, we find the lovingly-restored Philips 66 station that claims to be the first Philips 66 station on Route 66.
Back on the Road, just outside Jericho, we stop at the beautiful, new Route 66 Rest Stop put up by Donley County. It is an art-deco masterpiece inside and out. In the restrooms, they have put a mural made of colored tiles depicting “Get Your Kicks on Route 66”. Donley County has really pulled out the checkbook to put this rest stop in operation. Hooray for their effort!
We enter the outskirts of Amarillo and follow Historic Route 66 signs to Barnaby’s Beanery for lunch. It is packed with lunchtime locals and the pinto beans and cornbread are delicious. Driving out of Amarillo, we encounter the “Cadillac Ranch”. It is ten mid-60’s Cadillacs (with fins) half-buried in the ground and each covered with graffiti two inches thick. I have photos of the Cadillacs when they were first “planted” in their previous location. They looked new. They are pretty beat up and sad looking now.
We leave Amarillo and drive past the enormous and stinky stockyards at Bushland, then on through Vega to Adrian. Adrian claims to be the half-way point on Route 66. We stop in the Midpoint Café, where the proprietor tells us that the Irishmen on Harleys came barreling through last week and the Dutchmen on Solex mopeds came through yesterday. They also saw the well-heeled Englishmen who shipped their vintage Jaguar sports cars over to the USA in order to drive the length of Route 66. We have not seen that group. I have my picture taken leaning on the midpoint sign across the street from the café.
As soon as we drive west from Adrian, the terrain immediately begins to change from super-flat Texas panhandle to the three-dimensional mesa and arroyo pattern so typical of New Mexico. We haven’t crossed the border yet. At the ghost town of Glenrio, we cross into New Mexico and change to the Mountain Time zone. We have to join the interstate at the border because the Mother Road has deteriorated into DIRT for the stretch from Glenrio to San Jon. At San Jon, we leave I-40 and take the rough, paved road toward Tucumcari, only 22 miles away.
Arriving in Tucumcari, we troll the three mile stretch of Route 66 through town, past a dozen scraggly-looking motels trying desperately to hang on until we reach the legendary Blue Swallow Motel. It is TINY! The rooms cannot be any more than 10’ by 10’. The lobby is a Route 66 gift shop. The exterior of the lobby wears murals of James Dean and scenes from Route 66. It has been recently restored and is open for business. We decide to stay in the brand new Holiday Inn Express where there is high-speed internet and other enticing amenities.
On a culturo-economic note, we have not seen a Starbucks since we left Dallas on Wednesday. We have stayed in smaller Oklahoma and Texas towns which think coffee is brown water. The best we have been offered is “Seattle’s Best Coffee”, which is more brown water. Tomorrow, we arrive in Santa Fe, where there are numerous Starbucks to whet our craving for the real Joe.
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