Amarillo to OKC

On Wednesday, I drove from Amarillo, Texas, to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Before leaving Amarillo, I decided to see the Cadillac Ranch.  This is the place where somebody buried 10 Cadillacs' noses in the ground of a cow pasture many years ago.  People have stopped for years and painted graffiti on them.  I was glad I went, but the rain the night before (and while I was there) turned the cow pasture into a mud pit.  The stuff was thick and sticky, and it finished off my old sneakers.  I had to go to Payless as soon as I was done and get some more.

It was another long drive to Oklahoma City, so I didn't have time for any sightseeing yesterday afternoon.  For lunch, however, I stopped in a great little town called Shamrock, Texas, close to the Oklahoma border.  It is a "Route 66" town, and they've restored quite a few buildings in their little downtown area to reflect the height of Route 66's popularity.  This is cattle country, and you see advertisements for steakhouses everywhere.  I tried out one of these--Big Vern's Steakhouse--in Shamrock for lunch.  Whoever was cooking was on top of their game; I didn't even need any kind of sauce for the steak they brought me.  The building had a cool mural, and a family from Maryland asked me to take their picture when I finished taking one of the building for myself.

Restored service station across the street

Big Vern's mural

Crossing New Mexico (and stuff I forgot)

I really hit the road hard today, travelling about 350 miles across New Mexico.  While I was driving, I thought of a couple of things I forgot to show or tell you earlier.

As I was leaving Phoenix a couple of days ago, I stopped by the University of Phoenix Stadium.  I like to see these ball parks that I watch on TV all the time.  This is an impressive domed one where the Arizona Cardinals of the NFL play.  They also had a Super Bowl there once.

Also, I've been seeing these signs on these high-elevation roads in Arizona and New Mexico warning about elk crossings.  When I stopped at the gate at the Grand Canyon the other day and paid my park fee, almost as soon as I got up to speed again entering the park, an ELK crossed in front of me about 50-60 yards away.  It was kinda like a deer going across the road in front of you, but this animal reminded me more of a HORSE.  I didn't see any big horns, so it must have been a young one, or maybe a female (??).  You DO NOT want to hit one of these in a Ford Fiesta!

The landscape around the Grand Canyon area is what is called the Colorado Plateau.  It's a lot like what I saw in Wyoming, only the little scrubby bushes grow quite a bit taller.  This type of environment continues across most of New Mexico, where you cross mesa after mesa until you finally go over the last one and end up in the Texas panhandle.  There, it looks a lot like Nebraska--greener with more farms and cattle.  This is pretty much what I saw all day...

Spent the night in Amarillo, Texas.

The Painted Desert

The Petrified Forest National Park includes the beautiful landscapes of what is called the "Painted Desert" of eastern Arizona.  Both are just off of Interstate 40 in the northeastern part of the state.  On a beautiful two-hour drive, you see the fallen trees of the Petrified Forest, turned to rock ages ago, and the incredible colors and landforms of the Painted Desert.  If it weren't so hot, you could just stay all day and look.

Petrified Forest Pics...

Painted Desert...

Petroglyphs scratched by Indians into rocks

 At an exhibit near the end of the drive, I discovered that I was roughly following the old Route 66 on this part of my journey.  A lot of the old "tourist traps" are now dried up, but they break the monotony of driving.  Still, like Wyoming, this part of the nation has a stark beauty and a vastness that's hard to explain to somebody from the East who hasn't seen it.