Albuquerque, NM - Amarillo, TX

Got a relatively early start this morning, so I had time to locate a Starbucks. That Garmin GPS is fabulous. It can locate restaurants, gas stations, even the nearest Starbucks and it will give you turn by turn directions from your present location. So, I filled my travel-mug and Pike's Place and got a second one in a cup. I was good to go.

I wanted to get to Santa Rosa, NM (about 100 miles East) for breakfast at the Route 66 Restaurant, which I had hear about. Great little spot that's been in business, since the 1950's. They are known for their Mexican food, but their breadfast was excellent as well. The owner was very friendly and wanted to talk about the Black Bullitt. Like most successful businesses along Route 66, he had one or two classic cars parked in front of his business. Just down the street from the restaurant, there was a wrecker parked on the South side of the road. Bozo's Garage, or so it said on the door. Fortunately, I did not need to be towed this morning.

East of Santa Rosa, I drove through Tucumcari, NM, which plays up the Route 66 theme pretty good. The Route through town has banners on the lightpoles and there were several murals on the sides of buildings. Two were actually well done and I have posted pictures of them.

It has happened several time now, and twice today, where the Route mysteriously ends, or turns to a gravel surface, despite what the maps show or guide books talk about. Apparently, some of the publications I'm relying on were printed in the 1990's and conditions have changed.

There was a noticable change in the landscape the closer we got to Texas. The land flattend out moreso than what was typical for New Mexico and the colors changed as well. The very first exit off I-40 across the stateline was a ghost town called Glenrio. Route 66 use to go right by its door step and now the Interstate has by-passed it. Several shuttered businesses, an old Willis sevice vehicle, but I didn't see any ghosts.

Starting about 100 miles West of the stateline, I stated to see billboards for The Big Texas restaurant in Amarillo. I had read about this earlier, so I knew what their pitch was .... FREE 72 oz steak dinner with all the fixin's. Well, as you can imagine, there's a catch. It is free, but you have to consume every bite and within a certain time frame. Otherwise, I think the price is $100. I wasn't that hungry tonight, so I didn't bother lookin for the place.

There was a long unbroken stretch of Route 66 coming into Amarillo from the West. Must have been over 50 miles, running alongside I-40 on the North side. One of the small town we cruised by was Vega. The only reason I mention it is because there was a large wind turbine farm there and there were the 300 to 400 foot tall versions. Well, there was a new tower being installed and the crane that was erecting it was a Manitowoc Crane. I could tell from miles away, as Manitowoc cranes are the only red latice boom cranes I know of. This fact didn't help my MTW stockholding today, as it lost another 12%. Down about 30% in the past 3 days.

The Mother Road was tempormental today. There were stretches were the surface was smooth and well maintained, followed by some down-right nasty roadway.

Another interesting drive today. The High Desert of Albuquerque gradually changed into the not so High Desert of Amarillo. Elevation dropped from 5,400 feet to 3,500 feet. Does not seem like a significant drop, but the landscape certainly changed during the day. Spent an equal amount of drive time on Route 66 and Interstate 40, which made for a quicker transit to Amarillo. Looking back, I see that we crossed I-40 about 18 times, which included getting on & off the Interstate and passing over or under it on the Route.

The jouney continues tomorrow, heading Northeast up into tornado country of Oklahoma. Good thing I wasn't making that leg today....