Looping Route 66: May 16 Half Way Day

May 16 141 miles. Roadrunner Motel in Tucumcari. Nicely restored 60's retro style. Great view out the room window of Tucumcari Mountain.

Pretty short drive today, made even shorter by the need to run the interstate for about 15 miles as the old route is abandoned and now runs through private property. Another time change as we crossed the New Mexico border to mountain time gave us back an hour. Still made for a long day as the motel did not allow check in until 4 PM.

We made a few customary stops for pictures along the way. Another "giant". This one a cowboy reminding Texans of their 2nd amendment right to bear arms.

Then on to the big daddy of painted cars - the Cadillac Ranch - which is just outside of Amarillo. It is literally in a field which had just recently been replanted and after a pretty good rain last night was very muddy. In fact, the base of the cars were sitting in water so only the most dedicated were doing any painting. We managed to keep our shoes relatively mud free by ducking under some barbed wire to enter rather than going through the flooded gate and only walking far enough to get our pictures. It was interesting to see some people not caring about shoes completely covered in mud while others were washing the worst of it off in the mud puddles. Then there was the creative couple who used grocery sacks to wrap their shoes before walking in.

We hit the halfway mark in our journey on Route 66 today. Same mathematical mileage in both directions. Even got the picture at the stripe in the road. So 1139 miles down and 1139 to go. But then we have the return trip home - so I guess we're really less than 1/4 way through our entire road loop.

The other big adventure today was going down another of those "original" routes. 10 miles of dirt road. This was where we left Texas and entered into New Mexico. Nothing but wasteland to our eyes all around. Even the old Chicago-Rock Island and Pacific rail line lay abandoned - the only remnants are an occasional decaying railroad tie or the dilapidated posts marking long gone trestle bridges across a gullie. At least the road wasn't muddy since no rain was in this area - instead pretty dry and dusty. Feels like we're entering some desert area. Hit 90 today - but it's a dry heat!! Anyway, after an hour of driving this old Route 66 dirt road we came out just fine on the other side to a nicely paved and striped roadway.

Here we go again!

Nobody's lived out here for awhile.

Remnants of old RR trestle. Not sure our bridge is a lot better.

Dirt road goes on forever. No AAA out here.

And just like that - back to pavement

Car got a little dust covered.

Not much to do in Tucumcari. The Tucumcari mountain is a landmark visible for miles each direction and was a welcome landmark for travelers on Route 66 during the heyday so a healthy collection of motels sprang up here to support the travelers. Many still exist in various stages of renovation/reuse or decay and ruin. All the museums were closed. Weirdly, most of the restaurants close here at 2PM on Sunday. Finally found the historic and famous Pow Wow Restaurant and Lizard Lounge which was open. Had some pretty good Mexican food to hold us over until morning. Then drove around a bit more until the hotel reopened.