Day 3, Thursday, May 1, 2008 Texas & New Mexico

We spent Wednesday night at the Holiday Inn in Amarillo, TX, and had breakfast Thursday at the in-house cafe. It was decorated like an old Route 66 diner. It was a lot of fun. Here are some picutres.



The road is supposed to be Route 66 running through the diner. We don't know whether they found an old diner to buy out or if they purchased the tables and chairs new, but they sure look authentic.



Look how thick the padding is. And those are real upholstery tacks outlining the backs of the chairs.



That's a real sign against the side wall. It's new, but I'm sure it's a reproduction of a period sign.



I liked the '50s style lights.



Even the artwork had the Route 66 theme. This is a collage of photos of businesses that once graced the route in this area.

On the way out of Amarillo, we stopped by the Cadillac Ranch. This is the description from RoadSideAmerica.com:

"The Cadillac Ranch, located along the tatters of historic Route 66, was built in 1974, brainchild of Stanley Marsh 3, the helium millionaire who owns the dusty wheat field where it stands. Marsh and The Ant Farm, a San Francisco art collective, assembled used Cadillacs representing the "Golden Age" of American Automobiles (1949 through 1963). The ten graffiti-covered cars are half-buried, nose-down, facing west 'at the same angle as the Cheops' pyramids.' In 1997, development creep forced Marsh to move the entire assemblage about two miles further west. The line of cars is far enough out in a field to allow for suitably bleak photography. The distance from any authority also encourages ever-mutating layers of painted graffiti, which Marsh doesn't seem to mind."

We didn't walk into the field, but we took a few shots from the road.



This is all ten.

And here are a couple of zoom shots.





In the short time we were at the Cadillac Ranch, tourists from the U.S. and two other countries stopped as well. Looks like these cars are internationally famous. Amazing.

A little farther down the road, we stopped for few minutes at the mid-way point of Route 66 in Adrian, TX.



The west end of town is exactly half way between Los Angeles and Chicago, 1139 miles to either one. Looking at that sign, I wondered again how anyone could have traveled almost 2300 miles, at 45 to 50 mph, with the few amenities available in the 1930s and '40s. But then, compared to traveling by covered wagon or stagecoach, Route 66 really must have seemed high-tech.

There were a few other examples of period architecture in Adrian.

This was once a service station.



It has an interesting mix of southwestern detail on the facade over the awning and art deco 'sides' on top of the awning. It's a shame old buildings with this much character go to waste.

The other building is still in use, but I'm not sure as what.



It's called the 'Bent Door Midway Station', and if you look at the door, you can see that it is indeed bent in the middle to match the outward angle of the windows. I've never seen that before.

The last place we took any pictures on Thursday was in Glen Rio. It's basically a ghost town these days. The town sits on the Texas / New Mexico state line.

The first site in town was this truck.



(I think he might be a relative of Mater's.)



You can tell what color it used to be where the "4-Wheel Drive" fell off.

Glen Rio at one point must have been thriving. The road was even divided through town.



This old building is a good example of the typical building materials in this area. It's constructed of native rock--there's LOTS of that in this area--covered with a layer of stucco, adobe, or concrete.



This was once the post office. If you look closely, you can still see a bit of the lettering on the side of the building.



This building is very much the style you'd see in the 1930s and '40s.



The detail at the top of this one is great.



Note that the current 'Post Office' is housed in the letter box in front of this old building.

My favorite thing in Glen Rio was this:



This is an old motor court, just barely on the New Mexico side of the line. And right next door.....



.....is this motel, just on the Texas side of the line. I think the sign used to read "First Motel In Texas". That's so funny, two competing hotels in the same town, but in different states. Like I said, Glen Rio must have been a busy place in its heyday.

And one more building. This one has great art deco style.



I'll post more about the rest of Day 3 and Day 4 tomorrow.

Just a final note--I've had nearly no internet coverage for the past 3 days, so I've got some catching up to do. But there are great pictures of the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam coming. Stay Tuned!