Category Archives: Route 66

All Posts, Road Trips, Route 66

Amarillo, TX to Tucumcari,NM

1 Comment

Got a late start this morning–due to late arrival in Amarillo last night!  Slept to 8 AM-ish in the nice soft bed in the Sleep Inn.  Finished breakfast around 9:30 and left about 10 AM for the days activities.   Gary had a Texas shaped waffle and Joyce had cereal.

20140818_083840

We had a short day (only about 120 miles).  It was our plan to stay in the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari as it is one of the few restored motels with good ratings.  When we phoned first thing in the morning, they were booked up for tonight.  We decided to get started and work on the reservation later.

As we were late arriving in Amarillo, we had to  back track about 6 miles to photograph some of the historic buildings in downtown Amarillo. Then we made our way to the famous Cadillac Ranch–10 vintage Cadillacs planted nose first in the ground.  We spent about an hour there photographing and using spray paint to document our visit.  It’s the thing to do there!  Also found a geocache.

Places we visited in Texas

Vega
Adrian which is the midpoint of Route 66; 1139 miles to Chicago and 1138 miles to Santa Monica!  We had a very nice lunch at the Midway Café.  This place is a landmark and is famous for its “Ugly Pies.”  We shared one!  It was the chocolate chip pecan pie with 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream.  Nothing ugly about this tasty treat.   There was also a rocking chair that said “Aunt Joyce” that belonged to a friend of the proprietor who happened to be there.  She said only people named Joyce could sit in the chair and so Joyce did.

20140818_153546

Then it was on to New Mexico!
We found a geocache at the TX NM state line on the old historic 66 Mile 0.  Here we decided to take the oldest section of Historic Route 66 into Tucumcari, NM.  It was a dirt/gravel road for about 10 miles.  It was not hard to imagine the early travelers trying to make it to California along this route!  There were only a few cattle and a couple of old residences along this route.  Some of the cattle were in open range unprotected from today’s crazy drivers by fence!

20140818_162537

 

We arrived in Tucumcari about 5 PM and checked into the Roadrunner Motel which Joyce remembered while I was taking photographs of the Cowboy  Motel in Amarillo.  She was able to get us a reservation and we were the first to get one of the four rooms they have available.  This motel is another historic one (renamed from the Leatherwood Manor by the new owners.

20140818_105821

We had dinner from our supplies in the room and then went out to take some photos of the Tucumcari Mountain and the various neon signs around town.  Upon returning, we visited with the owners for quite a while and then decided to call it a night.  But only after we updated our blog, geocaching logs and made some plans for tomorrow’s travel.

Another great day!  Good night!  Oh yeah, now we’re in the Mountain Time Zone.  Hardly noticed the change while driving, but the sunset came an hour earlier today!

 

All Posts, Road Trips, Route 66

Oklahoma City to Amarillo Continued

1 Comment

Good Morning, America!

After a good night’s sleep, I thought I might try to cover yesterday’s travels.  We left sort of early–9 AM.   The hotel w as on the SW side of downtown OKC and the historic route took us from the downtown area through the suburbs.

It was hard to imagine how it might have been in the early days of the Mother Road because of all the contemporary changes that have happened.  As we got out of the urban part of OKC, I could begin to see many remnants that suggested it was different in timeas past.   Just as we were about out of the city you could see recently converted fields to the newest crop–subdivisions on both sides of the road.  Progress!?
IN OK
Yukon
Hydro (32 span bridge, Lucille’s Phillip 66)

20140817_105650
Weatherford (wind turbine blades on display at museum)
Clinton
Elk City (Route 66 National Museum)
Sayre

IN TX
Shamrock (the most remarkable Conoco station that was model for Pixar’s Cars movie)

20140817_171514
McLean
Alanreed
Groom
Conway
Amarillo

Once we were a few miles out of OKC there was an immediate change in the scenery observed.  There were the wide open spaces and big sky that one expects to see in the western part of the country.  Of course, there was the plentiful sunshine to go along with those–and today we marked over 100 with the carmometer recording 101 twice in the afternoon.

Arriving in Amarillo, one could see the typical western city with its urban sprawl and what seems to be a lack of zoning standards.  And once again I am surprised at the number of people/families that are living in the old hotels from the 50s/60s that have not been updated.

As noted in yesterday’s short post, we split a very nice steak dinner at the Hofbrau House that was recommended by a geocacher in one of the logs that we reviewed.  Got there at 8:50 PM just before closing.  We were the last customers to get in that evening.  While waiting to be served, I made a Priceline reservation using my phone for the Sleep Inn located about 0,1 mile down the street.  Very convenient!

All Posts, Route 66

Oklahoma City to Amarillo

We left OKC at 9 AM and made it to Amarillo around 8:30 PM today. Made 300 miles,  got 6 caches and lots of photographs.  Had a steak dinner in Amarillo at the Hofbrau House where we just made it before 9 PM closing time.   They let us in anyway.

Too tired to give details and impressions of today’s drive. More tomorrow (hopefully).

All Posts, Road Trips, Route 66

First Saturday, A Late Start

2 Comments

As expected, we had a slow start to the morning following our late arrival last night at the Will Rogers Inn in Claremore, OK.   We enjoyed our morning coffee, made some plans for the day and checked the weather for the next several days for our upcoming destinations.  We left around 9:30 AM today.

Although we made a total of 200 miles again today (is that a theme….), we only advance about 170 miles.  As noted yesterday, we decided to backtrack to see the Totem Pole Park in daylight instead of dusk.  It was a 30 mile round trip to get there and back to the hotel where we continued on our way.

It was really worth going back to see the Totem Pole Park.  When we got there, the Executive Director and a board member were already there working on ways to get funding to paint the top of the main totem pole.  We had a nice chat with them and learned some interesting facts about the totems and their creator.  He also made 300 fiddles (I think as opposed to violins in this case) of which about 100 were on display.  Made of many types of wood they were very intersting to see.  I took some photos of the totems and some of the inside of the main one.  We also scored a find for the virtual geocache there.

On the rest of today’s travels we visited quite a few interesting things.

In Catoosa, OK we saw the kitchy “Blue Whale” that seems to attract visitors still.

In Tulsa we photographed the Oasis Motel, the Desert Hills Motel, the Blue Dome and the Cyrus Avery Bridge.  Avery was the primary person responsible for the development of the national system of highways in the 1920s and was considered the father of Route 66.

20140816_124459

Other places today included:

Salpulpa, OK (old buiding now De Holman Distributing and the Route 66 Bridge that was used until 1952).

We ate a very late lunch at the famous Rock Cafe in Stroud, OK.  The owner was the inspiration for the Sally Carrera character in the movie Cars.

We saw the brick roadway in Davenport, OK and the Lincoln Motel in Chandler, OK.  Plus the famous Round Barn in Arcadia, OK.

We ended our day in Oklahoma City by driving past the State Capital in the hour before sunset when the light is beautiful.  And finally by the Milk Bottle building.

20140816_200943

Our hotel for the night was an unusual one of a kind place.  Isola Bella in OKC.  Its mostly an extended stay facility for FAA students at the academy here in OKC.  Got it through priceline with no difficulty.  Its gated, have to have a gate pass to get in and out and the room keys have no identification on them and work by passing in front of the lock.  Reminds me of my Lockheed Martin trips to the Center for Learning in Bethesda, MD!

Okay, finishing up some laundry and calling it another day/night!

 

 

All Posts, Route 66

Trifecta–MO, KS, OK

1 Comment

Today we had a long day–made about 260 miles!  We left Lebanon around 8:30 after breakfast and coffee.  We had planned on making it to Tulsa by night, but changed our plans midday because of the number of things on the agenda for today.

On the way out of Lebanon we stopped in a place called Laclede to find Missouri’s largest geocache.

Missouri_biggest_cache

First stop was Marshall Field, MO where we saw a scale model of the Hubble Telescope and walked around the town square.

Hubble_telescope_model

Then the following places:

Strafford, MO
Springfield, MO
Halltown, MO
Paris Springs, MO (here we met some locals who gave us advice on things to see down the road in Spencer and Red Oak)
Spencer, MO (nicely restored gas station showing low priced gas)

Finally_cheap_gas

Red Oak, MO (relocated buildings)
Carthage, MO
Carterville, MO
Webb City, MO
Joplin, MO

Galena, KS
Riverton, KS (saw the Rainbow Bridge original from 1923 and saw a 1956 red and white Chevy crossing it)
Baxter Springs, KS

Quapaw, OK
Commerce, OK (Micky Mantle’s home)
Miami, OK
Afton, OK (between Miami and Afton we took the ribbon or sidewalk highway that is only 9 ft wide and from the original route 66.)

Ribbon_sidewalk_highway

Vinita, OK
Foynil, OK (Totem Pole Park, too dark to see much, return tomorrow!)
Claremore, OK

There were a lot more places on the map (and some not on the map) than those listed.  These were just the “big” places.  The roads in OK are pretty straight and long, so we made good time.  The speed limit on most of the 2 lane highways was 65.  Not too much traffic either.

We got a reservation via Priceline at the Will Rogers Inn in Claremore.  Arrived there about 9:30 PM.  Will call it a night shortly and likely get a late start tomorrow!  We will return to the Totem Pole Park in daylight and get a geocache there before continuing on to the SW,

Nighty, night…. zzzz, zzzz

All Posts, Route 66

Rolla to Lebanon

After leaving Al West Nissan we headed to the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri School of Mines) to gather a couple of geocaches before departing for points southwest.

We spent about an hour and a half discovering the Stonehenge 1/2 scale installation which led us to another sculpture that was a male and female figure cut out of a big block of stone.  The cutouts and the cut out figures were an interesting installation.  Between the Stonehenge and the sculpture we crossed the street using an underground pedestrian tunnel on campus.

Then Joyce had another cache to find in the University Library.  This was easy and got us into a nice air conditioned space for a few minutes.  Both caches discovered!

From the library location, Joyce wanted to see if we could get a reservation in Lebanon, MO at the Munger Moss Motel which is world famous for the Route 66 traveler.  They had a room available at the cheapest price we’ve paid since the start of our journey.

Lebanon is only about 60 miles from Rolla.  So we took a more leisurely drive today.  Stopping to get caches and photograph history along the way.  We traveled through these locales:

Doolittle

Jerome (cache and photos at Stoney Dell Resort)
Hooker Cut (cache and photos of old route 66 roadway)
Devils Elbow (where we had BBQ for lunch in the Devils Elbow Bar & Grill and located a nearby cache.)
St. Robert (photos of Alpine Haus motel and Tiger Water Tank)
Waynesville (cache and photo of old stagecoach stop)

And finally arrived in Lebanon about 4:30 PM (CT) where we checked into the Munger Moss Motel and decided to rest up for a while–catching up on geocache logs and 66 blogs!

Dinner is still in the planning stage and we know there are two caches to find here at the Munger Moss Motel.  Later, of course….

All Posts, Route 66

Rolla Repairs

This  morning we had to scurry out the door to get our Murano into Al West Nissan to have the humming noise investigated.  While it might have been a transmission issue, we lucked out.  It was only the left front wheel bearing and only about $450 to repair.  In at 8 AM done by 9:30.  So we only lost a couple if hours on the road.

Met the owner (Al West) and the service manager (Gary McKee) and the Service Advisor (David Cliburn).  Gary Mc was very chatty and offered a number of good suggestions of things to see on our trip.

Ready to continue on the road trip!

All Posts, Route 66

Big River Follow-up

Well, we left the Times Beach visitor center after successfully finding a cache and going quickly through the museum.  Joyce got a Route 66 T-shirt as a souvenir.

One noteworthy thing is the proximity of the I-44 interstate to the old historical route 66.  Much of the time we’re cruising along at a 55 to 60 mph speed and just on the other side of fence/median are those people who want to whiz along at 70+.  As we are interstate averse, we had a much nicer drive.

But along the way we were in more remote areas and passed through the following towns/villages.

Pacific where we saw an abandoned truck stop that was not very interesting.  Just down the road we passed a nicely kept motel, The Sunset Motel, but it was no longer operating.

We passed through the following seeing nothing of interest:  St. Clair, Stanton, Sullivan and St. Cloud.  Then we unexpectedly happened upon the town of Bourbon.  There was a beautiful water tower with BOURBON painted on it.  Perhaps they keep bourbon in that tank for the citizens of the community to enjoy!

Next up was the town of Cuba.  On the way in we spotted the Wagon Wheel Motel.  It is currently operating and consists of small stone cabin/cottages set back from the highway.  Next door was the Missouri Hick BBQ restaurant–also a Route 66 historical establishment.  Both photographed quite nicely.

It was in the MO Hick parking lot we decided to phone ahead to the Nissan dealer in Rolla, MO.  The Murano is making an unusual humming noise that needs to be check out.  Then can see us tomorrow (Thursday) at 8 AM.  Hopefully, this will be a simple problem to fix.

Then it was on into town.  Cuba has a series of murals on walls in the downtown area.  There are about 12 or so and the town is right proud of them.  In fact, we were standing on the corner viewing one when a local stopped to hand us a brochure about the murals and a map to find them all.  We took their pictures even though the light was bad on half of them and got a Missouri beer at the liquor store on the corner to have later.

Made a stop in Fanning to see the Worlds Largest Rocking Chair where we also found another geocache.  The third of the day.

20140813_170804

We arrived in Rolla about 6 PM and decided to have a light dinner of popcorn, cheese & crackers, grapes and peanut butter crackers.  Enjoyed another of those local beers too.  Then went out to scout the Nissan dealer’s location and get some ice cream at a local place.

Back to the Comfort Suites to finish up the logging of geocaches, writing the blog and downloading some photos from camera card.  So far, the photo count looks like around 700.  The mileage so far is 1,220 from Wilmington, DE!

All Posts, Route 66

The Big River

1 Comment

We started our Wednesday about 9 AM after checking out of the Comfort Inn in Edwardsville, IL. In just a few miles we arrived at the first destination for the day–the Chain of Rocks Bridge across the Mississippi River. We spent over an hour walking across between IL and MO. Took a lot of photos.  Below is one of the bridge.

20140813_093228

After leaving the bridge on the Illinois side, we drove  around St. Louis on the Interstate (I-270) remarking that is sure looks different than in the winter when last we were in this area.

On the way around the city, Joyce explored BBQ places on her phone and located one just before we were to get off and continue on the historical Route 66.  We exited and drove to Richards BBQ place.  Ordered the special for Wednesday–a shredded BBQ sandwich and 2 sides (green beans and mac & cheese)–to go.  Then we continued on our way to Times Beach Route 66 Visitor Center (part of the MO state park system).  We enjoyed the BBQ on the only picnic table there (thankfully it was in the shade) and then toured the visitor center.  About 1:30 we decided to continue on our way.  More later!