Day 5 - Oklahoma City, OK to Amarillo, TX

Not much text today, just a few photo's and captions. This morning we were treated to a cooked breakfast courtesy of Steve and Susan, before setting back into Oklahoma City to rejoin the route. From there we headed out to the plains we'd been expecting, and the temperatures rose! Passing through Texola, a small rather desolate town, we entered the 5th state of our trip, Texas. From here the landscape got flatter, and the temperatures hotter, and a fabulous drive through the setting sun towards Amarillo.

The day wasn't entirely without incident, the Mini didn't appear to like the original concrete roads and lost a piece of trim from the vibrations (fixed with superglue, and a bandage), and in a separate incident, the Mini doesn't like being driven down a curb (oops), which exasperated a electrical sensor issue, but it seems to be driving ok.

That's all for now, hopefully a fuller post tomorrow. Enjoy the photos in the mean time.

Giant milk bottle atop a Braum's Ice Cream store

The main landmark in the town of Yukon

Though the ol fashioned wind mills come to mind when thinking of Oklahoma, we came across a surprising number of modern wind farms west of Oklahoma City

Oklahoma on the road west of OKC. There were more rolling hills than we were expecting, though that soon changed.

A nice old truck parked by the side of the road at the entrance to a ranch

A collection of Route 66 signs, old and new, in the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, OK

Texola, on the Texas-Oklahoma border is essentially a ghost town now, long since bypassed by any through traffic. Though this is an accute example, it's a recurring theme along the old Route 66.

Is this the way to Amarillo? (Faded sign for Shamrock and Amarillo, in Texola)

This simple sign proclaimed the Texas border. It's understated, but fitting given the immediate surroundings.

The beautifully restored U-Drop Inn in Shamrock, TX

A view across the Texas panhandle

Indeed

Random auger-inspired steel sculptures

The water tower in Groom, TX, is a famous Route 66 landmark. Circumstances (not having a design review, I suspect) meant that the middle pipe thing was too long for the water connection. Rather than build up the legs to match, the owners made the best of a bad situation and left the tower leaning, thnking it would make it a curious attraction.

Despire the modern wind farms, there was no shortage of old school windmills dotted across the landscape

Bonus photo: parking at our hotel, we spotted these two bright lights in the dusk sky: too bright for stars, but not moving like planes. UFOs? Apparently, it's from that NASA sattelite which is falling to earth tonight, though I base that on dubious sources. Looking at the zoomed in photos, I thought it look more like a weather balloon or something; do they still use those? And speaking of weather balloons, wasn't that what they claimed the Roswell UFO was? I may be on to something here.