We woke up early to begin two long days of driving, and on this one, we would lose 2 hours due to the time changes coming out of Arizona. But not too far into our journey, we found ourselves "Standing on a Corner in Winslow Arizona". The town has clearly done well with this song, and built a park with sign, a flatbed ford, and a couple of souvenir stores. All were closed when we passed by because it was still very early in the morning. But it was a cool first stop on our Route 66 tour on this day. And yes, Sam played the song as we rolled into town, so we were prepped for the corner.
Our next stop was in Holbrook, Arizona at the Wigwam Motel. Felt like we were in the movie CARS and I am sure this had to be some of the inspiration for that movie. My favorite was the RV bug. I also got my picture with Tow Mater's granddaddy, and we were surprised to see a large piece of petrified wood, they used to line the parking lot on one wall. Apparently there was a small chain of these wigwam motels at one time (very small), and one was even in Bessemer, AL. But now this is one of 2 still standing. And we saw people coming out of one, so you can still stay in one should you have the desire.
After two quick stops, we had a long drive to our next destination. And a really nice rest area at New Mexico (sorry again from earlier). And because Granddaddy would be disappointed, we stopped at Clines Corners...yet I am thinking we have got to stop doing this. Haha...Zoltar, Subway, bathrooms, and squishy boobie balls, and that is Clines Corners.
Next stop was the Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, but first we needed some spray paint. So as we were getting closer to Amarillo, I told Sam to find us a store where we could get some spray paint. And he found a Lowes, just off the interstate. And I can't remember this city where we exited the interstate, but it was also on Route 66, so another cool stretch to see the old buildings and renovated hotels. Then we got to the Lowes and found that it was a different Lowe family...this one had a grocery store. Hahaha, we laughed about this, but luckily saw an ace hardware right down the road. And after grabbing us each a can, the cashier nodded and asked "Cadillac Ranch?" Yep, that's where we are going.
Cadillac Ranch is a public art installation and sculpture in Amarillo, Texas, US. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels, who were a part of the art group Ant Farm. The installation consists of ten Cadillacs (1949–1963) buried nose-first in the ground. Installed in 1974, the cars were either older running, used or junk cars – together spanning the successive generations of the car line – and the defining evolution of their tailfins. The cars are inclined at the same angle as the pyramids of Giza. Cadillac Ranch is visible from the highway, and though located on private land, visiting it (by driving along a frontage road and entering the pasture by walking through an unlocked gate) is tacitly encouraged. In addition, writing graffiti on or otherwise spray-painting the vehicles is now encouraged, and the vehicles, which have long since lost their original colors, are wildly decorated. Ant Farm artists have encouraged this kind of public interaction with the cars.
We arrived with many others to the ranch, and went out in the wind to paint some cars. We quickly noticed that only one of the cars was accessible without getting really muddy. I don't know if they always have this moat of water around them, or if they recently had some rain, but we found that people didn't care what they painted, just as long as they got to paint. The boys both got turns at painting the car, but I went out and painted my typically love message to Magan. The boys also joined me with messages in the dirt that read "WET" pointing at the cars. Sam drew a fish, and Davis drew an octopus. Later I showed Sam and Davis the message I had painted for their mom, and they both just cracked up laughing about the picture next to mine. "What, the shark thing?" I asked. Then as they finally stopped laughing, they told me "No dad, that is clearly a penis and balls with sharp teeth". And it was in black also, so it looked like I drew it also. No I did not, and no, I did not intentionally put my picture next to the dangerous penis, but now I could not see anything besides this image. As I assume anyone that has read this paragraph will also now see.
And that is about all you do at Cadillac Ranch. But everything is painted around this spot. The fence going out there is painted. The jersey barriers along the road are painted. The road is painted. The sign that says it is unlawful for you to...is covered up in paint, so I don't know what else it says. Back in the car, and off to dinner. We thought about eating at the Big Texan, but we were running out of daylight, and had to get to Weatherford, OK that night. We ended up trying a BBQ place in a gas station on the East side of Amarillo that was amazing. There menu had port, ribs, brisket, and turkey...but they really only had brisket. But it was amazing. And they even had bread pudding for dinner.
We had a late night bathroom stop at the Oklahoma welcome center, then rolled into Weatherford around 11 that night. It was a long day, and we were so ready to get some rest. But we were stopped at a red light within a few hundred yards from our hotel. A red light that would never turn green. We waited and waited to turn left, even through a series of light changes, we still had red to turn left. So I showed the boys that sometimes you just have to run it (There was no traffic at all at this hour), but when I turned left, the road lanes were weird, and Sam quickly said, "DAD, you are going the wrong way"...hahaha, I had turned into the wrong lane, and it was divided, so I had to cut thru a gas station to the left, and then back onto the road we started on...and there we were again...at the exact same red light I had just been stuck at. Yes, sam and davis were cracking up laughing at me by this point. And this time, I showed them again to run the redlight, but I stayed straight and found the other entrance to the hotel. Finally, our final night in a hotel. I was just glad we did not have to sleep back at that light.
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