May 14 Short drive today - just 57 miles across the border. Western Motel for the night
Lazy start to the day. Finally got up and got going. Not a ton of options in Elk City for breakfast so we opted for The Sugar Shack. Heard they had cinnamon buns so was expecting a coffee shop. They are mostly a bakery - cakes, cookies - and cinnamon buns in the morning. Not really set up as a coffee shop although they did make a pot for us and cleared off a small table so we could sit and eat there. High School graduation is this week so the owner was taking custom decorated cake orders from several local parents for graduation parties. In between her taking orders, we learned she's had the shop 20 years, her husband retired from law enforcement after 30 years and she doesn't miss those middle of the night calls for him, they've been married 40 years, Covid was tough for the business - with no holiday or celebrations all last year no one was buying party cakes so graduation this year has been the first burst of real business and is stressing her a bit. She had to lay off her employees and now is trying to get them back. Was envious of our travels and hoped to retire one day and do some traveling too. Amazing how much you can learn about someone in such a short period of time.
Done with our coffee and fired up from our very sugary cinnamon buns we headed to the Elk City Museum Complex to walk them off. Great concept they've put together. They have sections that cover "Transportation and Route 66", the towns history called "Old Town", and another section dealing with "Farm and Ranch". A $4 senior ticket gets you into the entire complex and we spent about 2 hours walking around.
Cruisin' Route 66 in my Pink Cadillac
Bronco Sculpture honoring the Beutler Family of Elk City. For generations they have bred and supplied many of the steers and broncos used in rodeo shows throughout the country.
A display of windmills and farm implements outside the Farm, Ranch and Blacksmithing building
Done with our museum visit we hit the road. Very strong winds today. Trees here have a decided bow to them from these constant winds. Leaving Oklahoma the lyrics from that old song kept bouncing around inside my head - "Oklahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain"
Then it was just traveling through a series of small towns as we worked our way west.
Nice old sign for a restored motel
If you look close, branding symbols of local ranches surround the marque
Creative advertising for an auto paint shop
Came across this unusable section of old 66 they are hoping to turn into a bike trail. Went on for miles alongside the Route 66 we were driving.
One room jailhouse sitting alone - about the only thing remaining in a town we passed.
Small display of old paper clippings inside with pictures of dead and hanged outlaws.
These very vibrant yellow wildflowers would sprout up in sections along the road.
Made it!!
Spending the night in Shamrock in another older but nice motel. Shamrock is home to an art deco building - now their welcome center - that was at one time a service station and café called the U Drop Inn. The tall spire and the fact that the gas pumps would service cars on both corners made it an iconic landmark. Everyone traveling Route 66 stops for a photo op. It also has great neon on the building and our motel is directly across the street so we took both daylight and nighttime shots. In the movie CARS, this building was the inspiration for the fictional Ramones Body Shop.
Final thing to see in Shamrock is The Blarney Stone. Back in 1959 the town somehow convinced the owners of Blarney Castle in Ireland to send them a small block from the castle. They did and it's displayed downtown with a message that those who kiss the stone will receive good luck. Not knowing who's lips might have been there previously - we opted not to kiss it.
Pretty open land out here - lots of room for cattle and horses - but not so many people. Route 66 cuts across the panhandle of Texas - so other than Kansas where we just cut through a couple miles of a corner - this is the state with the shortest section of the road.
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