Day Nine: Sayre, OK to Tucumcari, NM (via Texas)

Just outside of Sayre, in Erick, we came across the Curiosity Shop run by Harley and Annabelle - "The Mediocre Musicmakers" (type in Harley and Annabelle in Google and see what comes up). It's hard to describe, it isn't really a gift shop or anything - they aren't selling anything. They bill themselves as redneck singers and they perform and shoot the shit with people.

This is us with Annabelle - they actually performed a 30 second serenade for us. These people are absolutely nuts and absolutely cool. Two old hippies in every sense of the word.

This speaks for itself -

This is the first ever Philips 66 station in McLean, TX - we drove the wrong way down a one way street to take a look at it. Luckily, we drove through Texas on a Monday and apparently on Monday everything is closed in Texas or people get abducted by aliens or something. Every town we went through was pretty much empty.

We did find this one place open for food - it looks closed, but it was actually the best BBQ place we've been to. Heren (and in most places we found) you don't get the choice between a half or full rack of ribs - a half rack would be too much. Each rib is about 8-10 inches long and enough meat for a sandwich - so you get 2 or 4 ribs or a rib plate here. They also don't cook the ribs in BBQ sauce, you get a squirt bottle of sauce to add as much or as little as you like. Good shit.

And the other aspect of Texas - religion. This is the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere - billed on signs leading up to it as "the most intense spiritual experience you will ever have". Ehh.

Outside of Amarillo, we came across the famous Cadillac Ranch - a community art project burying 10 cadillacs in the middle of a field. It was actually a short hike from the road out to the area, but definitely worth seeing.

There were some not completely empty spray cans laying around and Ryan managed to get an "R" on one of the cars. Apparently they sometimes repaint them for certain events, but within a few days they are covered in graffiti again.

In Adrian, TX, we crossed the midpoint of Route 66! So far the car has been running excellently. We've used less than a quart of oil and about the same of transmission fluid. We are however noticing a right rear shock starting to go and some type of play in the front end. Time to spend a few hours checking everything out tomorrow. Otherwise, it's the closest thing to driving an airplane (according to Ryan) - he spent some time flying planes a few years ago and is frequently reminded of it from the way the engine sounds, the way it floats down the road and the interior (with the split windshield). And that's how we've been treating the car - like an airplane, like our lives depend on it.

Operation Turtle Rescue! We found this guy walking across the road towards the highway and we stopped to help him on his way.

Apparently, it is TARANTULA MIGRATION SEASON! We saw dozens of these guys walking across the road. The first one Ryan spotted at 50 mph going down the road - he thought it looked like a spider, but why would that be - so he didn't say anything at first. And then again, distinctly identifiable at 50 MPH - a huge spider crawling across the road. We pulled over for a closer look and the spider turned and started approaching the car - so we took off. But we kept seeing them - apparently they have been known to jump up to 2 feet in the air, so I'm glad we didn't get too close. Just what we need - a tarantula jumping into the car.

We actually couldn't find a good place to stay in Texas (it being Monday and all), so we drove all the way through to Tucumcari, New Mexico. Best move we ever made. We got a room at the classic Blue Swallow Motel that even had garages for the car. It had this great courtyard where we sat out and had some champagne and talked to the other guests. We didn't know it before we drove in, but Tucumcari was always known as the place to stay on Route 66 - they used to bill it as the city with 2000 rooms. Rolling down the main street, it is completely lined with vintage motels and neon signs - a true slice of the 50s. Amazing that this still exists.

Here is the place we stayed with our car under the giant neon sign.

And this was dinner down the street - that's a giant sombrero on the roof! Great food!