After a 7am-7pm shift in the ER, I boarded a 5am flight to Dallas-Fort Worth, TX to catch an 8am flight to Oklahoma City, where the rest of group stayed overnight and was waiting for me.
Right on time, there they were.
After a quick reunion, we hit the open road for a 90min drive to Clinton, OK for the Route 66 Museum.
The Route 66 Museum in Clinton, OK is $5/person, $1/student, or $3/person if you’re in a group of 10 or more. The whole thing takes about half an hour to see everything. It’s a cute place.
Somewhere along the way we popped open some Bacon Soda, which was a terrible idea.
And about an hour later, we made it to Texas.
About an hour later we stopped over in Shamrock, TX for the famous U-Drop Inn. Built in 1936 and inspired by the image of a nail stuck in a soil, this art deco historical site continues to serve as the café and gas station for which it was originally built
Anyone who has seen the Disney movie Cars will instantly recognize it.
We then drove onwards another 2 hours towards Amarillo, TX to visit the enigmatic Cadillac Ranch, a public art installation and sculpture from the 1970s featuring a row of Cadillacs buried halfway in the ground.
You’re free to drive up, take a spraypaint can lying around in a few of the cars, and add to the artwork…
It was around this point I got a phone call from Trailer Ranch RV Park in Santa Fe, NM who informed us that our ~10pm arrival time was too late for them (it would disturb the other guests) and they would close the property and not let us in. To add injury to insult: no refund. Constant pleas were made to deaf ears as they were not going to wait any longer than 6pm. Terrible.
Luckily, on a 10 minute search using dinky satellite signal from my phone in the middle of nowhere, I contacted KOA Campgrounds in Albuquerque and they said we could drive in anytime and pay the next morning. Love you, KOA. So we decided to reroute to Albuquerque.
Another 2 hour drive westwards from Amarillo then brought us to the sleepy city of Tucumcari, NM where while pulling through a lot, one of our RVs didn’t quite clear a low-overhanging roof…
The RV’s A/C unit was ruined and the managers (not the owner) of the property called the cops, accusing us of “wrecking” their property. Not the case: After about 10 minutes The cops arrived and quickly sided with us, knowing that a mere A/C unit on an RV couldn’t do that much damage. Even the owner of the property came by and reassured us that “this has happened before.” Whew. Crisis averted? Thank goodness nobody was hurt but we’ll see when the bill comes in!
We then recuperated at Del’s for dinner and stopped by to see the last of Route 66’s historical structures for today, Tee Pee Curios.
We then drove the final 2 hour stretch to Albuquerque and crashed at KOA Central Albuquerque at around 1am.
What a day.
- At time of posting in Albuquerque, NM, it was 22 °C - Humidity: 10% | Wind Speed: 18km/hr | Cloud Cover: partly sunny