Oklahoma, we're OK

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Geo: 36.1498, -95.9933

Back on the road we were traveling through Oklahoma. Eastern Oklahoma was beautiful. I am not sure what I thought Oklahoma was going to look like but I did not expect it to be green hilly and lush. I was also surprised to see armadillos here. The dirt here was a bright orange red colour. I know it does not show up very well in the photos but even the water in the rivers was this amazing colour. We stopped at the Arcadia round barn for a look around then down the road at a gas station called Pops. They had over 100 different soda pops. I got a bottle of Moxie and Kim got a Dublin Dr. Pepper (imported from Dublin and made with 100% cane sugar). As we continued west the landscape began to flatten and lush green was replaced with fields of wheat. We stopped in Clinton Oklahoma at Jigg's Smokehouse for some lunch. We crossed into Texas and noticed that things were very dry here. There was evidence of large fires and at one point we drove through a large area of smoke from a wild fire that was burning. As we got closer to Amarillo, off in the distance, we could see a wall of thick smoke from a wild fire that was out of control. As we went trough Gallop Texas we saw the leaning water tower. Soon after we came upon the famous Cadillac Ranch. We got out of the truck to get a closer look. The Caddy's were covered in so many layers of paint it was amazing. We Stopped at the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian Texas. This is half way between Chicago and LA. Only half way....Shit, it seemed like we had been driving forever and we are only half way. Oh well. The Midpoint cafe was closed but the very nice lady who was there making pies was so nice and let us in so we could look around. We headed for New Mexico where we stopped in Tucumcari for the night. We stayed at a very groovy independent motel called the Route 66 Motel. It was built in 1967 and a few years ago it was redone. This was so much better then saying in some chain motel. In the past Tucumcari was known as a place to stop for the night on Route 66. There were lots of old motels in this town. Some were out of business now but most were still making a go of it. There were some great motel signs from a by gone area.

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Comments

[momma rosa]

There is my handsome son... Great picture Mannie. It is now on my screen saver.xoxoxomomma

[momma rosa]

what a great pic of Lily Bean. I love it.

[momma rosa]

I have passed this tower dozens of times. I always look forward to seeing it.

[momma rosa]

Dickie and I used to land in Tucumcarie when we would transport Helicopters. They have a wonderful Fixed Base Operation at their airport, The FBO used to let us take their car into town so we could get a meal. I recognize most of these p
ictures. You talk about retro!