Day 11: Texas is very flat!

It's a good thing the Texas Panhandle is one of the shortest stretches of Route 66 because it is really pretty boring. We left Shamrock this morning (couldn't get out of there fast enough), and hit the road towards Amarillo. We stopped in this really cute filling station/gift shop/convenience store/post office. It's a tiny place, but chock full of fun stuff...and local wines! Who knew! Just as we walked out of the post office/etc./etc. we saw our genuine COWBOY! Goal complete...Boots, hat, pickup, etc. Good looking guy, with silver hair and moustache! Hoping to spend a minute of two in conversation so she could drool, Hazel asked if his dog always got to drive the pickup (herding dog was behind the wheel). Cowboy just looked at her and said "yup." He then got in the truck and drove away into the sunrise. She was so disappointed.


We are really getting good at the Frontage Road thing, and can pretty much recognize Route 66 by sight now. Our travel book (EZ66) warned us that a lot of Route 66 is gone or just dirt in Texas, so we stayed mostly on BL (this stands for Business Loop) 40 or the frontage road associated with it.


We got to McLean and read that there was another Route 66 museum and decided to pass it up. They are all starting to look the same at this point, so we were just going to let it go. Besides, McLean is really old, tiny, and mostly abandoned along the Mother Road. Then we saw these two really big spheres on pedestals that caused us to drive around the block to get the picture! The building housing the Devil's Rope/Old Route 66 Museum is not an impressive building, but these pillars that stand at the entrance were intriguing. The spheres are made out of Barbed Wire! Devil's Rope is the Indian name for Barbed Wire.




OK, our curiosity was aroused and we decided to go see a museum devoted to barbed wire. We were amazed. The building is really pretty big, and although a small portion is dedicated to Route 66, 90% is actually all about barbed wire. There is a Barbed Wire Association that began back in the 1800's and is still very active today. There is a pictorial history of barbed wire used for ranching, planting, during several wars....how it's made, how many kinds there are and why/how they were invented...it's truly amazing! We were awe struck!




We made a brief stop at the Donley county Texas Route 66 Safety Rest Area to take a picture of Flat Mikey in front of the Texas Star. The pic in front of the large star isn't the best, but I know he'll appreciate the fact that I drug his flat but up a very steep hill to get it!


The last leg of the trip today was into Amarillo. We decided to stop really early so we could check e-mail, do some shopping for personal items, eat, and catch up on some rest. So much for good intentions. Knowing that Route 66 is a defunct highway, and that it generally takes you into depressed, or "challenged" areas of most towns, we drove all over the place (or so we thought) looking for a mall and a nice place to rest our weary bones. HA! The more we drove around, the more we began to think Amarillo was just not the great place we had imagined. Sorry Amarillo. It wasn't until after we had registered and unpacked in an older Comfort Inn, and gone to dinner that we discovered that we just needed to go a little further west. We did indeed find a the Westfield Mall, Starbucks, and all the comforts that we have become accustomed to. OK, I'm a snob, but ... well, no buts, I'm just a snob.

Dinner was at the Big Texan! What a party! We played slot machines. There's a great shooting gallery in the place, a gift shop, and some wild pictures that we really want. However, we didn't remember to take the camera so you don't get to see.

I would like to pay tribute to Lady Bird Johnson. It was her desire to get rid of billboards on the highways. I can honestly say, there just aren't any. The highway is free of advertisements, which, on the one hand makes the landscape a lot easier to appreciate. However, this is the flattest stretch of road with absolutely nothing to see but cows, horses, grass, grass, dirt, and grass. It's really pretty, but sparse. Not a lot of buildings, signs, homes...just a lot of Texas.


Tomorrow we will get into Albuquerque and spend some time with a good friend of Hazel's. We'll relax and recoup and probably get on the road again on Tuesday. If I don't post, don't worry. We're still doing the road warrior thing, just taking a break.

~Penny