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.

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.

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!

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.

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!