Tues 10 July – 4591 steps
Songs: Route 66 by Bobby Troup but covered by many others; Is this the way to Amarillo? by Tony Christie; Cadillac ranch by Bruce Springsteen;
We followed Route 66 where possible from Albuquerque to Amarillo. When you leave Albuquerque, there is a singing road. There are grooves in the road work, like rumble strips, that are precisely positioned that when you drive over them at 45 mph for the quarter-mile stretch, you can hear “America the Beautiful” play through the vibrations in your car’s wheels. So cool.
David replaced the unnamed horse with “Is this the way to Amarillo?”
The highway is very busy, so many trucks. Strange how some of the towns survived the bypass and still function and others just died. Clines Corners, for example, has a thriving business including a huge memorabilia shop that has an awesome boot section. We were definitely leaving Indian teritories and entering Cowboy country.
We found an awesome motor museum in Santa Rosa. There was a huge double cab Chev truck, that even had compartments under the load body and a tricycle I thought we could fix for Sophia.
Glenrio is a small ghost town as you enter Texas. It has an old gas station and diner as well as some old cars which look like they belong in the museum.
We stopped in Adrian for cousin Ady. It is the mid point of the original the Route 66; 1,139 miles separate it from Chicago and Los Angeles. Not much there though.
After that it was mostly on the freeway. There were huge cattle feed lots and oil depots. We also made a brief stop at the famous Cadillac ranch just outside Amarillo, but decided not to go join the crowds and put our names on the decaying cars as is the tradition.
We checked into our RV park and quickly got ready to be picked up by a free limo service offered by The Big Texan Steak Ranch. The limo arrived, cowboy driver and horns on the bonnet! The restaurant is famous for its 72 oz. (2.02 kg) steak, the “Texas King”, which costs $72, but is served free to those who can eat the steak and the trimmings (bread roll with butter, baked potato, shrimp cocktail, and salad) in less than one hour. The advertised live music was in actual fact 2 old cowboys, not very good, coming to your table and offering to play you a song for a tip. It was a bit like the balloon guy at the Spur on Rivonia drive when we first arrived in Joburg.
Chuckle of the day: Business lunch and road signs warning you not to enter Texas and the whole Big Texan Ranch experience
What I learnt: I believe people romantise the idea of traveling down route 66. It ties in with a nostalgia for simpler times, a yearning for a slower pace. Without time travel, the only way we can achieve this is to sometimes disconnect, take time out and be present with real people.
Kim's journey 