Well, we finished our trip, travelled the entire Route (as much as is possible these days),and are now back in Syracuse, but keeping the blog current somehow didn't happen like we planned. I guess driving the distances and seeing the things we did, all in the (relatively) short span of 12 days, left little time to compose, edit, and publish blog entries.
Keep watching, though, and we will eventually have our whole trip summarized, including a few features we had wanted to include as we went, but weren't able to for times sake. We took close to 2000 pictures, so we'll post the best/most relevant ones, and share the rest of our ride!
~Sean and Mason
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
New Mexico = Old Buildings
(Sean) Our journey today took us up a portion of the Santa Fe Trail (a pre-1937 alignment of Route 66) to the capitol city of New Mexico. After quite a ride on roads of varying conditions,
and the oldest house in the U.S.
I guess we were all "sight-see'd" out by the time we got to Albuqurque, so we found a decent motel (Econolodge)
A couple more road pic's:
as well as a stop at Pecos National Park,
we arrived in the city of Santa Fe. Deciding to let the experts guide us in our visit, we followed signage to a visitors center not far from downtown.
There we learned that we were walking distance from the State Capitol building,
the oldest church in the U.S.,
and the oldest house in the U.S.
We took in all of these sights as well as some local cuisine, before hitting the road again, touring the rest of the downtown area by car
and heading south for Albequrque.
I guess we were all "sight-see'd" out by the time we got to Albuqurque, so we found a decent motel (Econolodge)
near the University of New Mexico, hit the pool for a bit, then odered a pizza for dinner before calling it a night.
A couple more road pic's:
Sunday, July 12, 2009
The Blarney Stone, The Big Texan, and The Blue Swallow
(Mason) Today we finished Oklahoma, started (and finished) Texas, and started into New Mexico.
We started our day after a pretty sleepless night at the Knights Inn. For breakfast, we decided to try the Continental breakfast that they had laid out there, which wasn’t very sustaining for our hunger so we knew it would be an early lunch.
After we left there we went through Oklahoma City, which is where we saw our second state capitol building on our trip.
From there we went to the Oklahoma Route 66 museum in Clinton, which had some really interesting cars and gas station equipment from the 50’s.
After the museum we made a stop in Shamrock, Texas to see a piece of the actual Blarney stone. After Sean kissed the stone and I almost burned my hand off by touching it, it was back on the road again.
After driving down the highway for a while, we began to see signs that told of a free 72oz steak 75 (or however many) miles ahead. Now we knew what theses signs meant, but it was still funny to see them. They were advertising the free 72 oz steak offered at the Big Texan Steak Ranch. The only catch is that you have to eat the whole thing (plus two sides) in under an hour
After our brief stay there we began to close in on the Texas/New Mexico state border. The only problem (which we didn’t realize until we arrived at the border) was that our gas guage was close to empty, and there were likely no gas stations for miles. What a great way to enter a new state (we thought). Then we met a man named Steve Largent who along with his wife was the only person who lived the ghost town of Glenrio (the town that was right on the border). He was extremely hospitable and offered to give us the rest of the gas that he had (about a gallon) so that we could make it to the next town. Maybe Sean kissing the Blarney Stone wasn't the worst idea. The best part too was that when we went to pay him he basically said to pay it forward.
After thanking him several times we hit the road again. This time on to Tucumcari New Mexico which was where the Blue Swallow motel was located, and this was where we stayed for the night.
But before we hit the hay, we stopped to eat dinner at “The Lizard Lounge” where we shared some tamales.
We started our day after a pretty sleepless night at the Knights Inn. For breakfast, we decided to try the Continental breakfast that they had laid out there, which wasn’t very sustaining for our hunger so we knew it would be an early lunch.
After we left there we went through Oklahoma City, which is where we saw our second state capitol building on our trip.
From there we went to the Oklahoma Route 66 museum in Clinton, which had some really interesting cars and gas station equipment from the 50’s.
After the museum we made a stop in Shamrock, Texas to see a piece of the actual Blarney stone. After Sean kissed the stone and I almost burned my hand off by touching it, it was back on the road again.
After driving down the highway for a while, we began to see signs that told of a free 72oz steak 75 (or however many) miles ahead. Now we knew what theses signs meant, but it was still funny to see them. They were advertising the free 72 oz steak offered at the Big Texan Steak Ranch. The only catch is that you have to eat the whole thing (plus two sides) in under an hour
After that we took a stop at the famous Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo. It was really cool to see all the different years of Cadillac, but was also a bit depressing to see all those nice cars ruined the way that they were.
After our brief stay there we began to close in on the Texas/New Mexico state border. The only problem (which we didn’t realize until we arrived at the border) was that our gas guage was close to empty, and there were likely no gas stations for miles. What a great way to enter a new state (we thought). Then we met a man named Steve Largent who along with his wife was the only person who lived the ghost town of Glenrio (the town that was right on the border). He was extremely hospitable and offered to give us the rest of the gas that he had (about a gallon) so that we could make it to the next town. Maybe Sean kissing the Blarney Stone wasn't the worst idea. The best part too was that when we went to pay him he basically said to pay it forward.
After thanking him several times we hit the road again. This time on to Tucumcari New Mexico which was where the Blue Swallow motel was located, and this was where we stayed for the night.
But before we hit the hay, we stopped to eat dinner at “The Lizard Lounge” where we shared some tamales.
Some other sights of the day:
Rebiult Phillips gas station in McLean, TX:
.
.
Refurbished gas station/cafe in Shamrock, TX:
New Mexico sunset:
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Some "Cars", some animals, and a whole lotta soda
(Mason) I started off today with a little fishing. The only problem was that I didn't have a fishing pole or any bait so I ended up having to rent a pole and buy some corn. The KOA had a stocked pond that they said I could use for catch and release fishing. In the time I spent there I caught 2 fish, and a turtle!! Apparently the corn and bobber combo attracts them!
After I was done with my fishing expedition it was back onto the road and onto Kansas.
The first stop we made in Kansas was at the "4 Women on the Route" gas station in Galena Kansas; home of Tow Mater, the vehicle that inspired the character Mater in the movie "Cars". After a brief history lesson about the town and Tow Mater we hit the road again.
After another few miles we came across the rainbow bridge which is this old white arch bridge that old route 66 goes through.
After that we went to the Eisner Bros. food mart for a couple sodas, and some sandwiches. Which we then left there and took them to the blue whale outside of Tulsa to eat them.
But we didn't let that get us down because after that we headed over to the POP'S diner, which is a 50's themed restaurant with hundreds of types of soda from around the world.
Bird at Ku-ku Drive-in in Miami, OK:
A typical "Cottage" style gas station, designed to blend in with surrounding residential areas:
After I was done with my fishing expedition it was back onto the road and onto Kansas.
The first stop we made in Kansas was at the "4 Women on the Route" gas station in Galena Kansas; home of Tow Mater, the vehicle that inspired the character Mater in the movie "Cars". After a brief history lesson about the town and Tow Mater we hit the road again.
After another few miles we came across the rainbow bridge which is this old white arch bridge that old route 66 goes through.
After that we went to the Eisner Bros. food mart for a couple sodas, and some sandwiches. Which we then left there and took them to the blue whale outside of Tulsa to eat them.
After lunch, we made our way to the Packard museum in Afton, OK. It has eight restored Packards (and some others) in a rebuilt gas station
We traded blog addresses with the owner, and after checking the cars out for a while, we hit the road again. This time we were on our way to the round barn, which was pretty cool but it wasn't open so we couldn't go in.
But we didn't let that get us down because after that we headed over to the POP'S diner, which is a 50's themed restaurant with hundreds of types of soda from around the world.
After some burgers and some awesome root beer bread pudding, we headed over to the Knight's Inn on the outskirts of Oklahoma City where we spent the night.
A few more Route 66 icons:
Bird at Ku-ku Drive-in in Miami, OK:
A typical "Cottage" style gas station, designed to blend in with surrounding residential areas:
An actual residence, designed to resemble a cottage gas station:
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