Elk City, OK to Amarillo, TX (Day 6)

The wind and the storms finally passed us by and we had a really good nights rest before heading on to Amarillo. We stopped at the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City. Talk about an awesome place! There were four museums, one that had transportation in it, another with all Route 66 things (including the truck that was used in the Grapes of Wrath movie) then another with Elk City history and the last with Farm and Blacksmith things. In the middle of all that was a little “town” set up. There were buildings everywhere! We had no idea it was this big! One of the buildings was a drug store and in it there were two ladies who took Jon aside and asked him if he wanted to be a jerk. He gave her the funniest look but trusted her. She put a hat and a smock on him and taught him about what it was to be a Soda Jerk! He loved it! We had such a good time looking at all the different museums that we didn’t even realize how much time had passed. If you ever find yourself in Elk City, OK, then make sure you check it out! It was only $5 for adults and they offered a discount to students and seniors, even though they tried to charge us $4014! HAHA! Somehow she rung something up wrong, but we all got a laugh out of it. Even when we were leaving, she asked if it was worth the $4000 to see it all.

Next we drove through Sayre, OK where we saw the Western Motel and the Court House used in the movie Grapes of Wrath. Then we came across a Pedestrian Tunnel that once was built due to the amount of traffic on Route 66 so that pedestrians could cross the street via a tunnel from one side of the street to the other. Now it is used not only for that, but also as an emergency shelter in case of a tornado. Jon and Tony hoped out to take a look, the next thing we knew, Jon had gone all the way to the other side of the street! Boys! He came right back, but said he wanted to get a photo from each end!

We stayed on the route through the town of Erick and then the town of Texola, but let me tell you, there isn’t much going on there. It is pretty much a ghost town and the few people we saw were at Jim’s Hitchin’ Post and Water Hole #2. Needless to say, we didn’t have much to stop and look at. Soon after passing through there, we came to the monument for the Will Rogers Highway and the Texas State line was not far behind.

Our next stop was in Shamrock Texas. We were pretty hungry by now and we found a nice little dive (thanks to that app I told you about). It was called Mitchell’s Home Cooking, and boy was it good. We all had a variant of a hamburger and they were just about as good as the ones Tony makes at home! Wow! From there we went over to the U-Drop Inn. That was the inspiration for Ramone’s Body Art business in Cars. It looks so awesome! As we topped the bridge over the interstate, we saw the Conoco tower that sticks up off the top. Then we started to see the rest of the beautiful Art Deco Building. Amazing! We also ran into the Australian Bikers that we have pretty much been keeping up with throughout the trip. I wonder when we will next see them, or if we will finally part ways. Seems their itinerary has followed ours very closely! Anyways, they had a really cool gift shop and we walked around taking some photos for a while before getting back on the road and heading on.

A Lot of Route 66 is gone or is access road to the interstate, so we decided when it cut away from the interstate we would jump off, but otherwise, we would stay on I-40 rather than risk driving the access roads where the people exiting the interstate have the right of way, meaning you best be looking over your shoulder and yield to them if you see them coming. We next jumped off the interstate at McLean. We saw some older gas stations as well as a few churches that were really cool. Then we pulled up to the front of the Devil’s Rope Museum. It is a nice little free museum that has most of the building dedicated to the history of Barbed Wire. Honestly, other than the pieces of art I took photos of, that part didn’t interest me at all. The neat thing about the museum is that it also had a small room dedicated to Route 66, and another even smaller with the history in photos of the dust bowl. That, to me, was the most interesting part of the whole place! It was hot in there, no air, only fans placed sporadically around the place, and if you saw one, you had to stand in front of it for a few minutes. But, something about seeing the photos that documented the dust bowl was just unreal. Having just read the Grapes of Wrath again, one of my favorite books, it just really showed what those people were up against. I wish I could have photographed the photos they had. So mind blowing! We finally got so hot that we had to get out of there, the sweat was running down my back. Pretty bad when the 95 degrees outside was cooler than the inside!

Next we drove through Groom, TX where the leaning water tower stands (it was built that way), and the world’s largest cross stood. A photo of the cross simply wouldn’t have done it justice, it’s HUGE! Anyway, the next thing was the Bug Farm, a parody  of the Cadillac Ranch, but an awful good one. Join was upset that we didn’t have any spray paint for him to add to the display, be we assured him we would let him spray the Caddies the next day. Another storm was brewing and we needed to hurry on to the hotel.

We ventured back out just about the time the storm hit and went to eat at the big Texan Steak Ranch. As soon as we got inside the bottom fell out! We had a really nice dinner, those steaks are great! Just as we were getting ready to leave, we heard somebody talking loud and then heard some cheers. Jon ran back into the dining room and found three guys about to take the 72 oz steak challenge! We all went in and looked at the pile of food these guys were going to try to eat in under an hour. We watched as they started the timers and the guys began to eat, but there was no way we could wait it out to see if anyone finished.

Tomorrow is a really long leg of the trip from Amarillo to Albuquerque. Not a lot of the route left on this leg and a lot of it will be interstate. Staying at the Isleta Casino tomorrow, too!