My Route 66 Road Trip
info@my66roadtrip.com
Clearwater, Florida
My son wanted to visit the Air Force Academy, where he’s working hard to get accepted. So a rather long side trip north, bypassing the west Texas panhandle and New Mexico east of Albuquerque.
But first, a little Texas style: lunch at the Big Texan and a stop at the Cadillac Ranch.
The Big Texan is one of those places everyone has heard about. I’d say their marketing is superb! We rolled in around 11:00am – they open at 10:00 – and were seated in a booth with a view of a sparsely filled dining room. That didn’t last long, as people kept coming in and by noon when we rolled out it was more than half-full with more people coming all the time.
They have really done a nice job of decorating the place, with lots of stuff to decorate the place to give it that old Texas flavor. And the food was extremely good as well.
Sticking Cadillacs face-first in the ground in the middle of a huge field is going to attract attention. Decades of visitors spray-painting the cars adds a whole new level of fun. People bought spray paint at other places, planning to come to the Ranch, and they even sell spray-paint on site!
I have to admit, the colorful menagerie made me smile. Watching people young and old acting like little kids with the spray cans was a thrill, too. The layers of paint on these cars is simply amazing. I’ve got many pics for you to enjoy.
At the Blue Whale in Catoosa, we were talking to some ladies from Italy who were wondering where all the travelers were. I hope they stopped at the Cadillac Ranch because there were a LOT of people there.
I happened to park next to a car from California and had to snap a picture with license plates where east meets west. By happenstance we were talking to them by the cars as well.
There were three parts to our “short detour” north.
First, as we turned north from I-40 the Texas country was very rugged, depressions and hills, the tight two-lane road curving and twisting with ruggedly beautiful terrain.
Second, as we traveled north in the panhandle, the land flattened out and continued that way as we cut across New Mexico.
Third, Ratan Pass on I-25 heading north into Colorado was some serious mountain driving. As we passed through that section, we had the great plains to the east and the Rocky Mountains to the west as the interstate looked a lot more like a 2-lane divided highway.
Quite a drive with excellent scenery and vistas!
My Route 66 Road Trip
info@my66roadtrip.com
Clearwater, Florida