Day 6 - Amarillo, TX to Tucumcari, NM

After driving over 1300 miles in 5 days, we decided to take it easy today and just do the short drive into New Mexico. This was also partly precipitated by the fact we slept through both of our alarms this morning. After a leisurely start we hit the road out of Amarillo, with our first stop being the Cadillac Ranch, another Route 66 staple. Built by another eccentric millionaire and art patron, Stanley Marsh 3 (not III, 3) it is a line of 10 Cadillacs buried nose down in a field. It was totally unadvertised and yet there were a steady stream of people coming up to take pictures and add their mark to the layers of graffiti on the cars. Handily there were a few cans of spray paint left lying around...

It's an unusual way to show off your classic car collection, but it certainly turns heads

The cars are covered with graffiti from passers by

Luckily the paint was communal

On the way to the ranch we passed this sign:

Another hotel ammenity not often found elsewhere: sharpened knives in your room. Needless to say, we didn't stop there.

Heading out from Amarillo, we passed through a line of small towns: Bushland, Wildorado and Vega, before reaching Adrian, the official 'geo-mathematical' mid-point of the route, and home to the MidPoint Cafe.

Half way to LA

The MidPoint Cafe also has this old Ford pickup truck at the abandoned gas station next door, which Route 66 travellers have covered with written notes

After Adrian, most of the original route is either private, dirt roads (i.e. not Mini-safe roads) or completely obliterated by I-40, so we were forced to take the interstate out of Texas. Just before the state line we detoured off to Glenrio, an old border town, which has truly become a ghost town since being bypassed by the interstate and the dead-end Route 66 segments. It was perhaps more desolate than even Texola the day before.  It's quite eerie to see the four lane highway through town which was essentially empty of life as far as the eye can see.

Abandoned gas stations, motels and homes line the roadside of Glenrio, cut off from the outside world

Back on the interstate, we crossed into our fifth state, New Mexico, and our second time zone (or third, considering last Saturday we were in Atlanta, GA).  The temperatures climbed to 95degF and the landscape got drier and scrubbier.  Given that we're nearing the end of September, you can only imagine how punishing the land can be around here, and we haven't even got to the desert yet.
As we mentioned we made today a shorter day, and have stopped for the night at a classic Route 66 inn, the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, NM.  It's been restored to it's 1930's roots, and still has all it's original neon, so we're looking forward to a truly brilliant sight when the sun sets this evening. Our room also has a working rotary phone - which I am seriously overly excited by.

The Blue Swallow Motel by day, a Route 66 classic

For now though, we're enjoying our early finish, and sitting on our doorstep enjoying the late afternoon sun and chatting to our neighbours. A rather delightful end to the day.