Dad's Route 66 Blog

Discovering Normal Rockwell's America

Amarillo, TX to Sante Fe, NM

Written By: trevixan - Jul• 17•11

This morning as we left the motel, I saw this car. Wayne, care to tell me what it is? :O)

Just outside Amarillo, is the Cadillac Ranch. You’ve probably seen it before.

You might be thinking .. what a shame that there is so much graffiti on these cars. Not to worry. Every so often then put a base coat on them. Shortly after that, they are full of graffiti again. Again .. not to worry. The ground was littered with spray paint canisters. It seems that they encourage the tagging on these cars. This week they look like …

And here you have a tagging in progress!

They do love their horses in Texas.

Now, in Vega, I see a few things.

Across the street is a drive-in that just needs a little loving care.

It’s a small little business.

But, like I said, needs a little loving care.

Did you know that Adrian, TX is the midpoint of Route 66? I didn’t. I do now.

And when you have a midpoint, you need a midpoint diner, right? Of course you do. Adrian does not disappoint.

Looks like many of the diners I’ve shown.

And when in a Diner, you eat Diner food.

The next shot (no pun intended .. well .. every pun intended) is because I got some good responses from the last one of this type I posted.

Right over the border into New Mexico, there is a travel center. Now, typically, travel centers all look alike. Not this one.

This place is all about Route 66 as you can see. They’ve got a diner.

With a diner, you gotta have rest rooms.

Gotta have a jukebox.

There’s even Coca Cola stuff.

And what would a Route 66 place be without cars?

They have a His T-Bird.

And a Hers T-Bird.

And lots more cars. I won’t show them all .. there’s like 21 of them. I’ll show a couple of my favorite.

My personal favorite.

They even have a car that may have actually driven the original Mother Road.

You gotta meet this next character. Since his last film, he’s fallen on hard times and had to take a job at a Texaco. Recognize him you might.

As we were leaving I saw something that you don’t see every day. Three people leaving at the same time. They got into a truck. Notice their foot apparel.

Next stop is Tucumcari, NM. Classic Route 66 businesses there, too.

The next one is more of a display than anything else.

I was curios about the next one.

Yes .. I purposely mispelled curious! It’s a play on words, ok?!? :O)

Evidently, this theater is still in business.

Ever see a restaurant with a sombrero?

If you can’t make out the name of the place, here it is.

As I was leaving town .. I saw the convention center. I just had to turn around and take a shot.

The next town is Santa Rosa, NM. I came across a Route 66 Auto Museum there. It looked pretty cool so I stopped.

It’s your typical museum outside. Old cars. Rusty cars.

At first, I thought the next one was a joke. But I heard an ad on the radio for it.

First old cab I’ve seen.

The last photo in this is a restored ’57 (I think he said that) Chevy. He said it was all Corvette under the hood, telescoping wheel .. the works. Looks pretty good to me.

Further in town, there’s a cool looking diner.

The next couple of picures should show you that I’m now …

officially .. west of the Pecos!

There was quite a bit of driving left and nothing to see. We turned north in order to reach Santa Fe. We turned west again just before we got to Las Vegas. Yes, Las Vegas, NM! As we were driving, we hit a nasty lightning storm. Quite a bit of rain .. ligtning over the mountains. I don’t remember the last time I drove in weather like this. When we turned north toward Las Vegas, it was about 90 degrees. By the time we hit Santa Fe, it was 55! It’s raining, I’m in my shorts .. a bit cold and wet. Anyway, didn’t have the energy to actually go out to dinner, so I hit a local store and had …

Mine is the chef salad on the left. Trevor had the Caesar on the right.

That was our trip from Amarillo, TX to Santa Fe, NM. Hope you enjoyed the ride.

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9 Comments

  1. Retha says:

    These pictures of the older cars – classics now, are truly awesome and amazing. I’m so glad you included them in your blog. Loved Russells Travel Center. Now that you are in Arizona, per your lovely wife today at the meeting, it won’t be long before you are back in “Cali.” I hope you two feel that it was all you hoped for, because so many of us have enjoyed the tour right along with you. Rest well and get prepared to enter into Los Angeles traffic! I hope you put this trip on DVD and invite us over for a “bring a dish” thing and you can show your pics. Of course, you probably have so many, but you can put something together, right? Thanks for the ride today. Retha

    • trevixan says:

      Thanks for the support Retha. We’re in Kingman right now, just 60 miles from Needles, CA. We should easily be there tomorrow.

      When I get everything compiled, I will try to put a DVD together. However, with probably over 1000 photos so far, it may take a while. :O)

  2. Mary Kauhi says:

    Cadillac Ranch looks like fun. Did you add your graffiti?
    Hard to believe with all you’ve already seen that you just past the half way mark. I’m really having fun making the trip through you.
    Loved the Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe restroom doors. People can really get quite creative can’t they? And of course you just had to get the cowboy boots and spurs on record!

  3. Annette Thorsen says:

    The vintage cars look like fun, especially the pink one. 1000 photos? Oh my. Did you get my suggestion to pick up one or two Route66 Themed photo Albums? With 1000 pics you may want to add one or two more:-)

    • trevixan says:

      Actually, I totally forgot about the photo albums. I mean, Route 66 themed ones. There’s still time to find a couple, or three. I always figured you for a pink cadillac sort of girl, not a pink t-bird.

  4. wayne says:

    Dale:
    The first pic is a 61-63 Cadillac limo.
    The Chevy convertible with corvette gear is a 1947.
    Sure seems like you 2 are having a great time.
    Wished I could do that trip.

  5. Jane C. Mandel says:

    Been cruising along with you brothers……had several weeks of sleepless night so while everyone is asleep, I enjoy the ride. Can hardly believe that you are almost at the end of route 66. Anyway have fun and drive safe .

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