Life is a highway, everyone!

And I’m gonna ride it all day long! Oklahoma City was mighty pretty, but I’m westbound to brighter horizons in Amarillo! To get there, I’ll be heading through history down the musical Route 66, starting with the famed Automobile Alley!

Originally, this stretch of Broadway Avenue was made up of homes, but as the 1920s rolled on and Route 66 opened up new opportunities to motor west, this became the core of Oklahoma’s automotive industry! In fact, 52 of Oklahoma’s first automobile dealerships were located along this stretch!

As automobile construction took over the identity of this area, the buildings started to look more mechanical, and the factories got taller, broadcasting their auto-identities for all to see! That got me ready to do some driving of my own!

As I headed out of town, I spotted some unique landmarks of the Route 66 days, like the Gold Dome, the world’s fifth geodesic dome ever, which was originally a bank!

Barely a gear shift away stood the Milk Bottle Grocery store, which was built in 1930 and had a giant milk bottle added on top in 1948. Surprisingly, this eye catching bottle never actually advertised this store; others would rent the space to advertise their own business! Today, the giant bottle advertises Braum’s ice cream!

From there, I hit the open road. Much of Route 66 has been replaced by Interstate 40, but did you know that Oklahoma contains the longest stretch of original Route 66 of any state? That would explain why Elk City, Oklahoma is home to the National Route 66 Museum!

Actually a whole complex of themed museums, this spot is full of information about Beckham County history, but I specifically wanted to learn more about Route 66. Not the first transcontinental highway by any means, this was the first specifically intended to connect rural communities between Chicago and Los Angeles! Paved over 12 years from 1926 until 1938, this 2,448-mile road transported thousands of real tourists and troops, as well as the fictional Joads in John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath!

As Route 66 grew in notoriety, especially after World War II, road tourism boomed, and here in Oklahoma, where there weren’t a lot of natural landmarks to draw in tourist dollars, roadside entrepreneurs built their own restaurants and kooky landmarks by the dozens! Many of them have survived, but many more, like the rare Green Book sites that were friendly to African-American motorists, have been torn down.

One surviving landmark, just over state lines in Shamrock, Texas, was the U Drop Inn and Tower Station! This was Shamrock’s first Route 66 attraction, a refueling station for both cars and travelers! Though no longer a café, this Art Deco building still serves as a welcome center for folks visiting Shamrock!

I kept westward until I reached the capital of the Texas Panhandle: Amarillo! Named for the yellow flowers lining the banks of nearby waterways in the spring, at this time of year, it was easier to notice the yellow of the architecture, whether on the aptly named Amarillo Building or the Potter County Courthouse, both on the National Register!

This part of the Lone Star State is also known as the helium capital of the world! That’s because the natural gas of the Texas Panhandle is unusually high in helium and has been, since 1925, site of the National Helium Reserve! This tripod-shaped structure with the two protons and two electrons dangling below was assembled in 1968 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of helium’s discovery! It also contained four time capsules from 1968. The first was opened in 1993, and the second on September 29 of this year! The last two are scheduled to be opened in 2068 and 2968!

Though Amarillo’s namesake flowers weren’t blooming in early November, the leaves here at Medical Center Park were blazing with saffron leaves! I had just enough time for a quick Lastleaf frolic, but with the sun setting quickly, I cut the festivities short to be resumed tomorrow. I had one more landmark to explore down the road!

Not far to the west of Amarillo is a ranch that has neither cows nor horses but cars! It is a popular attraction that, unlike many art installations, really encourages visitors to leave their own mark on it!

Cadillac Ranch was the project of a San Francisco art group called The Ant Farm, funded by a local billionaire named Stanley Marsh III! Their project, installed in 1979, features ten vintage Cadillacs half buried in a line from east to west! The idea was to show off the evolution of their tail fins!

It didn’t take long for passers-by to spot and deface these stranded cars, but eventually, destruction of the cars started to become part of their theme, much like the wearing down of Prada Marfa. Today, there are spray-paint cans everywhere at this spot. The cars are coated in inches-thick layers of paint, which changes every day. The colors and designs you see on your visit will be gone tomorrow, making every visit unique!

As the sun set on a day’s adventures, I’d worked up a Texas-sized appetite and followed the many billboards to the Big Texan Steak Ranch. How could I resist the kitschy allure of its billboards and claims of a free 72-ounce steak (if you could eat it)? Though not a steak eater myself, I figured they could serve up something hearty to stuff this beaver!

This restaurant and hotel had been located right on Route 66 in 1960 but moved, as many attractions had to, as the Mother Road got steadily replaced by freeways like I-40. The food was pretty tasty and the service friendly, but I wasn’t a big fan of the many, many taxidermied animal heads that were watching me eat. Still, I left feeling full, though not as full as someone taking the 72-ounce challenge. Did you know that the record for eating this steak, a buttered roll, baked potato, shrimp cocktail, and a salad is 4 minutes and 18 seconds? It was broken by competitive eater, Molly Schuyler, who then took a breath and ate two more servings of everything in twenty minutes!

So, with my belly full, I waddled out of The Big Texan and returned to the hotel. I’ve gotten my fix of Route 66 for now. Tomorrow, I’m headed north to visit the last of the Texas national monuments, the Alibates Flint Quarries, and then my adventures in the Lone Star State will come to a close.

Have a good night, y’all!

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A Bit Earlier

Total Ground Covered: 275.3 mi (443.1 km)

Next Day