Heading West - Route 66

One of our goals for this trip was to learn about the Historic Rt. 66 and take it whenever possible. That being said, I was surprised at how little of it still actually exists (apart from the interstate or the frontage roads) and is in drivable condition. But we did veer off whenever possible, and I even rode my bike for about 10 miles of in in Tucamacari. Abby was excited that we saw lots of buildings and places that were used for the filming of the movie "Cars", and even got to see "Mater" a time or two.

1st stop - Oklahoma Buffalo Ranch

After leaving Nashville, our first stop on the official Rt. 66 tour was a KOA buffalo ranch. Unfortunately it turned out to be rather hokey (only 1 buffalo), but we did get to eat buffalo burgers and wander through the Indian gift store.

Amarillo Texas Cadillac Ranch

After leaving the KOA early, we had all day to explore about a 150 mile section of Rt. 66. We didn't get a chance to explore Amarillo, but we did have a blast painting cars at the Cadillac Ranch. Bring your own spray paint if you go!

Glenrio - Rt. 66 Ghost Town

Having seen old "wild west" type ghost towns before, I was not prepared for Glenrio. This town was simply abandoned - furniture and tvs still in the buildings, jukeboxes still in the restaurants, household furnishings just left. It was strange to think the people just left, but I guess they did. We actually ended up seeing a lot of this on our trip - buildings with everything still in them but the people.

Route 66 left the main highway in Glenrio and traveled back through 19 miles of dirt road. Having come this far, we decided to go ahead and brave the dirt road in the RV. We only got concerned a couple times when we came across bridges which were technically not big enough to support us, but with a prayer and a scream we raced across and made it to the other side!

Tucamacari

Known as the town where many of the ideas for the movie "Cars" are from, Tucamacari was our big stop along Rt. 66 with a chance to explore a town that was actively trying to preserve the "Mother Road" history. Unfortunately, they are losing the battle. Like much of the rest of Rt. 66, Tucamacari has many abandoned and broken down remnants of the glory days of 66, and has actually restored some of the buildings, but the money is just not there. While here we saw many semi-restored hotels and restaurants, but we also saw many others that had given up and shut down. I took the opportunity of our overnight here to ride my bike along the original Rt. 66 through town and explore the downtown. The neatest thing was all of the murals in the town - each exquistely depicting scenes from the old West or the Mother Road. But even those fabulous pieces of art couldn't bring life to the town - the downtown was so quiet I could hear my footsteps while I explored old abandoned soda fountains, stores, and restaurants.

Painted Desert, Petrified Forest & Petrogliffs

Wow!! This was awesome! But you can't see them from the highway - you have to get off at the National Park to get there. Historic Rt. 66 used to run through the park, but the pavement has since been removed in order to return it to it's natural state.

Meteor Crater

50,000 years ago a meteor the size of a 6000 sq.ft. house hit the Earth and left this crater behind. We toured the rim of the crater, learned about the different layers of rock that the meteor disrupted, and learned about the meteor itself. Very interesting.

The Past Month

12/7/08-1/20/09

• Everglades
• Junior Ranger Program
• alligators vs crocs
• swimming with the manatees
• christmas trees with Kati and Vern (the LOUD Family)
  
• meeting Bryce and Steve
• Mom's to wrap presents
• Seth, Becky's and Tom's for Christmas, saw Grampa Bill & Granny Kay, Aunt Sandy
  
• saw Santa Clause
• Yankee Candle - Abby made candles and learned beeswax and bayberry candle making
• hike to Bash Bish Falls
• Christmas in Virginia with Mema
• Appomattax National Park - Civil War
• Ice skating for Abby's Birthday
• Camper to shop
• Luray Caverns - caves, stalagtights, stalagmights
• Nashville, TN - Country music hall of fame, learned about country music in the old days when Gommy was first born; Car Museum - saw lots of prototype cars - swam underwater, flying car, 3 wheeled cars, some tiny tiny cars (only 350lbs), car with engines on both sides, LARC a big huge vehicle used by the Navy, could go in water and on land, tires were 9' feet tall; car that made into a bed
• Oklahoma - saw a buffalo ranch, Daddy ate buffalo burgers
• Amarillo Texas - Cadillac Ranch - spray painted old cadillacs that were stuck nose first into the ground!
• Drove on Rt. 66 thru Glenrio, NM, an old ghost town, San Jon, to Tucamacari (the town said to most resemble Radiator Springs in the movie cars). We saw old houses, cars, hotels, restaurants, we even saw Mater, Lightening McQueen, the Conoco gas station and the garage from Cars
• Arizona - we went to the Petrified Forest and the Painted Desert National Park. We saw rabbits in the Painted Desert. The petrified wood happened along time ago when the area was underwater and the volcanic ash interacted water soaked wood and turned the wood into Quartz rock. The colors in the wood are from different minerals which soaked into the wood during the petrification process.
• Meteor Crater, AZ - 50,000 years ago a meteor about 150' hit the Earth and caused a big hole in the ground. The meteor was made out of mostly iron and was very very heavy
• Flagstaff to Tuscan to Quartzsite, AZ - Beautiful snowy mountain ranges to cactus and desert plants