Shortly after we left Santa Rosa, Rte 66 resumed its westward course through the Pecos River Valley, framed by the towering Sangre de Christo Mountains, Tecolate Mountains and the Glorieta Mesa. We were heading to Santa Fe which is at an altitude of over 7,000 feet. There was a raw natural beauty to much of today's journey. Rte 66 - for stretches - literally followed the old Santa Fe Trail and coursed through dusty towns with histories that predate that trail. We reached the city limits and before long, we were downtown and at our hotel. This, despite warnings Santa Fe could be awkward to navigate because of its network of one-way streets.
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Santa Fe, the state capital, a very un-American city oozes Native American culture from its Adobe buildings to locally produced artefacts and jewellery. Our hotel, in the heart of downtown was adjacent to St Francis Cathedral. The primary facade of the hotel is from the 1950s St Vincent's hospital and is a very good example of Territorial Revival style architecture. On our first evening we found ourselves dining in a rooftop restaurant where quite fortuitously we had a perfect view of the Blood Moon Lunar Eclipse. Unfortunately we were unable to photograph it. We decided to explore the city on our second day. The Plaza in the centre while small in size is the heart of the old, historic city with the Palace of...
Tucumcari is a strange town, known as the " town that's two blocks wide and two miles long". Old Rte 66 blazes through the centre of town with a huge number of neon signs on both sides of the street but unfortunately, very few of them were lit up at night. The first evening, on our way home after dinner, we had to tread carefully along the sidewalk to avoid stepping on small frogs. The next day we went to see the old restored railroad depot which was built in the Mission Revival style in 1926. and found there was a quilt exhibition taking place inside. We saw some beautiful quilts made by local women who were there and explained the stories behind some of their work. We also visited the New Mexico Route 66 museum at the convention centre which affords a glimpse into the Land of Enchantment's Rte 66 heritage. On our second evening we went to the movies to see War Room. The Odeon movie theatre was built during the 1950s and has not chang...
We left Tucumcari after breakfast and went shopping for food for a picnic lunch. The drive today was short as we were just heading to Santa Rosa, NM about 65 miles west. Route 66 took us on both sides of the Interstate and sometimes on it as it was built over the old road in parts. There was very little to see on this stretch so we arrived in Santa Rosa before one o'clock. We headed to Park Lake and had a picnic and relaxed in the sun. We then went to see the Blue Hole, an 80-foot wide and 80-foot deep artesian well filled with crystal clear water and it leads to caverns that are over 200 feet deep. Because of that it draws scuba divers from all over the western states to practise their techniques there.
We packed up after breakfast and continued our drive through Texas. Our first stop was at a ranch. Usually one expects to see horses at a ranch but this one was home to a row of half-buried Cadillacs! It was the idea of a controversial millionaire, Stanley Marsh from Amarillo. He said he created it as tribute to the golden age of car travel!! Visitors are encouraged to leave their mark by spray painting their names, comments etc. on the cars. We soon reached Vega, another small town with lots of Rte 66 treasures including a restored 1920s Magnolia gas station and the Milburn-Price Museum in what was previously the town bus station. Miss Karen, the owner told us lots of interesting stories about the museum pieces which were all donated by local families. Outside the museum there was a beautifully restored 1923 Model T Ford. We reached Adrian, TX which marks the mid point of the Route - 1139 miles east to Chicago and 1139 miles to Santa Monica, Los Angel...
Amarillo is a big, busy city that has maintained its cowboy roots. It is the centre of the local ranching industry and handles 25% of the nation's beef. Our first day here started off wet and cooler than the previous day. Most of the attractions in the city are cowboy or cattle based which didn't really interest us so we decided it was time to do some retail therapy. We were disappointed with the stores both in the city and malls so shopping is on hold till another day. Instead it was time to make use of the pool, jacuzzi and have a little pampering! Tony Christie sang about "dreamin' dreams OF Amarillo" but Sylvia was "dreamin' dreams IN Amarillo"!!!
This morning we woke up to a foggy day and this is the view we had from our motel room. Just beyond the car park is the road we were to travel on this morning! By the time we were ready to leave the weather had improved and we could see the road. We had a short stretch of the Route in Oklahoma and then we crossed the State Line into Texas which has the second shortest stretch of Rte 66 - 180 miles across the area known as the Panhandle of Texas. We were heading to Amarillo and most of Route 66 lies on the south side of the Interstate. For much of the way we drove along by fields of corn. We drove through many small, quiet towns including Shamrock which as its name suggests celebrates all things Irish. It even has a genuine piece of the Blarney Stone! We then drove through the faded town of Groom where massive concrete grain silos cast shadows across the old road. On the other side of the town there is a water tower that seems to defy gravity with its se...
Overnight the weather has changed dramatically. We now had torrential rain so our drive out of OKC was not the easiest or the most pleasant. We had to take the Interstate for some miles as the original Route 66 had disappeared over time. Fortunately the rain eased, we left the Interstate and once again we were able to see and enjoy our journey. One of the first towns we passed through was Yukon and as some of you may know this is the birthplace of Garth Brooks. We didn't see him but we were reminded of him as we drove along. We stopped in Clinton, OK at one of the many Route 66 Museums along the road. Here we took a tour of pure Americana through the decades along the Mother Road experiencing its history and culture. We continued our drive through the Great Plains of Oklahoma until we reached Sayre - our next overnight. The Beckham County Courthouse which looms over the east end of Main Street in this sleepy town featured in the 1940 movie of Steinbeck's Grape...
It was a little cooler this morning - in the low 70s. Bobby Troup in his famous song "Get your Kicks on RT 66" sang that "Oklahoma City is mighty pretty" so we decided to see a little of what he was singing about. We were staying in Bricktown, a district that has been regenerated so we thought a water taxi would be a good way to view the area. It was a pleasant 40 minutes as we wove between former warehouses that now contain restaurants, college buildings and parkland. At one end of the canal there is a fantastic set of black bronze statues representing the men and women who took part in the Oklahoma Land Run of 1889 to lay claim to land for themselves. Later we took a trolley to the Oklahoma City National Memorial which honours the victims, survivors, rescuers, and all who were affected by the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995. The Memorial consists of two monumental bronze Gates of Time framing the moment of destruction - 9:02 ...
We weren't really sorry to leave Tulsa. We had not found a heart to it or even a corner shop. So we left it to the oil magnates and set out on a shorter journey today - about 130 miles; no metric on this side of the pond. The Old Route soon had us zigzagging back and forth beside the freeway. Guided by one of our travel books, we stopped for lunch at The Rock Cafe in Stroud, OK. It was yet another retro-style diner but this time we had some had some new food experiences. Catfish, fried green tomatoes and hush puppies. One thing we had to do before leaving the restaurant was find a space on the wall in the hallway where we could sign our names. Just before reaching Oklahoma City - now OKC to us - we stopped at, you've guessed it, a ga...
Today we decided to see one of what Tulsa had to offer. It is a sprawling city with no apparent centre. It is the home to scores of energy companies that make their money fro drilling for oil and selling it. First we visited the Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza with its oversized bronze statues of Cyrus Avery in his Model T Ford meeting a farmer with his startled horses. Cyrus Avery did an immense amount of work in promoting Highway 66 as the Main Street of America. We then visited the Philbrook Museum of Art which is located in a beautiful, converted Italianate villa once owned by Waite Phillips, an oil magnate who founded the Phillips 66 oil company. The museum as well as containing many valuable works of American art has beautiful gardens.
We left Joplin and drove the last stretch of the Route in Missouri. Before long we crossed the State line into Kansas which has the shortest stretch of the Route- 13.2 miles. This area was booming during the 1920s thanks to lead and zinc mining but nowadays the towns are mere shadows of their former selves. We drove through Galena first. Next we came to Riverton where the main store is run by 93 year old Forrest Nelson who has done a huge deal to highlight Route 66 in Kansas. We then drove through Baxter Springs And soon after that we crossed the State line into Oklahoma which has the longest stretch of the Route. The road changed after we passed through Commerce ( boyhood home of the late, great Yankees player, Mickey Mantle). Soon we were on what is known as the "Sidewalk Highway" because when it was built in 1926, Oklahoma only had the money to build it one lane wide. Fortunately, the road soon impro...