Hot Dog, Jumping Frog - Albuquerque

The journey from Texas into New Mexico, wasn't our most fun-filled day of the trip, but we did pull into see one of Route 66's most famous sites, and rather enjoy the town in which we ended up - Albuquerque.

As we headed out of Amarillo, we spotted on the left of us as we left the Interstate, a remarkable, if odd site, that is ingrained in the conscience of Route 66 lovers everywhere. Lying in the middle of a dusty field, just off the highway, are 10 upturned and buried Cadillacs, sprayed with various different colours by the people who come to visit them. Named Cadillac Ranch, it was concieved by an art group called 'The Ant Farm', and it is felt the piece represents the mobility and freedom of the automobile - so it was rather fitting that we paid it a visit.

Back onto the road we went, and Texas continued to be flat, and rather dull, although we did pull up to see a couple of other ghost towns, and stopped off at a place called Adrian, which is home to the Midway cafe, and a sign stating that we were indeed midway along Route 66, halfway between Chicago and Los Angeles. The cafe itself was a definitive throwback joint, decorated straight out of the fifties, with the inevitable 66 gift shop attached.

Back on the Interstate and Route 66, which for the most part became one and the same, we headed out of Texas and into New Mexico, where the land slowly became more barren, and more flat. Now this is not to say that it wasn't without beauty, because there was no denying the visual impression it made on us, it was just very repetitive, as we spent around 3 hours basically looking at the same view.

We stopped off at yet another tribute to the automobile at Santa Rosa, in the form of the Route 66 Auto Museum. Much to my delight they had three fantastic examples of classic 60s Mustangs parked up inside, which I spent a bit of time drooling over. The other cars in the place were equaling beautiful, and some of them were even for sale (don't worry Mum, I kept my wallet in my pocket).

We headed back onto the road and continued on our journey toward Albuquerque, which after the dissapointments of Amarillo, didn't exactly excite us as we wound down the mountains in the rain, toward the city. However, the place sprung a very welcome surprise, for the long stretch of Route 66 that runs through the city, named Central Avenue, held a bevy of old-style bars, restaurants and shops. We found a cheap motel, and the nice chap at reception, Jason, told us that he'd be glad to shuttle us to the best bars and back that evening. We took him up on his offer, and headed onto into a couple of bars for some food, beer and tequila, all of which ended up being rather good in this part of the world. Heading into our last joint of the evening, Adam strolled up to two guys playing pool, and challanged them to a couple of games. You'll be glad to know the Brits triumphed in this little battle!

There was something else that happened today as well - as we drove around Albuquerque, the tripometer on the car clicked over for the third time on our journey, which means that we've now done 3000 miles since arriving. Phew - exhausting stuff! Great fun though.

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Now playing: Prefab Sprout - The King Of Rock And Roll
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CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM THE JOURNEY TO ALBUQUERQUE HERE

Show me the way to Amarillo.

Another sensible breakfast awaited us at the Hampton Inn in Clinton. Deftly avoiding the 'dodgy hot stuff' we opted for the fruit juice/yoghurt/cereal choice and felt better for it.

Leaving our hotel at about 10:00 a.m. after our previous nights laundry experience with... A top loader! Oh yes... Well I was excited. Anyway, we left our hotel and popped into the Route 66 Museum just half a mile down the road and had a seriously informative tour around the history and legend that was the world famous road.

We came out slightly nostalgic and a little sad that a country that is always cracking on about history, wars and achievements would let such a fantastic piece of historical achievement fall by the wayside and into disrepair. The literal 'ghost towns' that we passed through as we reconnected with the '66' now and again along the road was quite upsetting. It was like another toy that a spoilt child had had enough of. For all their balling about 'Man Vs Nature' it seemed a waste of time, materials and worst of all; people's hearts, souls and livlihoods.

A few miles down the road there was, surprise surprise, another Route 66 museum. This time in Elk City but it wasn't quite as 'neat' as the first and seemed more focused on the merchandising aspect, that and farming history. While it was a pleasant diversion it wasn't quite what we were looking for, although we did manage to score some old school RC Cola and some Taffy.

Pushing on down the road we found some fantastic landmarks like the Devil's Rope Museum, which had nothing to do with devils or rope and plenty to do with barbed wire. While highly informative on the amazing technological advancements of the metal fencing material, it was clear that these people revel in kleptomania. We then pulled into the iconic art deco Conoco gas station and before we knew what was happening it was 14:30 and we realised that we hadn't eaten since breakfast. Crossing from Oklahoma into Texas we started to notice an abrubt change in the scenery, suddenly there were massive rents as the earth opened up and scrub bush ruled the plains. Sadly there was no tumble weed cruising across the road for me to aim at.

We found absolutely no service stations, not that we fancied anymore crappy fast food anyway. So we pulled into an atypical american town with a population of about.... oh I would say.... 5 and raided the local grocery store wearing bandanas over our faces and waving realistic replica guns around we made off with some sub rolls, Philidelphia cheese spread and some ham slices. Oh, ok maybe my imagination is playing tricks on me. Speaking of which it was deliriously hot today, but after our previous mistake yesterday we kept the top up this afternoon.This was definately 'Big Sky' country as the clouds shrank away like an ever repeating Escher drawing we jumped between Gray County and Conway County and Gray County again. As we ate up the miles the horizon was visible for 360 degrees and there was nothing but endless plains, grain silos and cattle ranches. Amarillo came into view before too long and we cruised slowly into town unsure what to expect. It was a town of one way streets and traffic lights... lots of traffic lights. We found a tourist infomation type place and they pointed out the local hotels and one particular point of interest, The Big Texan Steakhouse where if you can eat a 72oz steak in under an hour, you get it free! We didn't go there because lets face it, we would probably try it like idiots. We're going there for breakfast tomorrow as apparently they do a kick-ass omelette. I would feel bad if I didn't warn people however NOT to heed Tony Christie's immortal words and do not EVER ask the way to Amarillo because for some silly reason you might actually end up in this one horse town.

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Now playing: Max & Paddy - (Is This the Way To) Amarillo
via FoxyTunes


CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM ROUTE 66 - PART 2 HERE


CHECK OUT THE PHOTOS FROM ROUTE 66 - PART 3 HERE