Great American Road Trip - Day 6

Do you ever have those days where it feels like what happened in the morning could have happened a week ago??...that was today for me!

We did a lot of travelling today, but of course, not without a few great stops along the way.  We departed from our hotel in Oklahoma City at a good hour, and continued making our way west toward The Cherokee Trading post...

...Where we got to see some real live Buffalo (Oklahoma's state animal).  

There was a little curio shop that we took a peak at, but nothing caught our eyes here...just some great photo ops with the totem poles and tee-pee on the lawn.

From here we headed to the town of Clinton, OK where we toured around the Route 66 museum.  

A number of books and websites identified this one as the best Route 66 museum on the way.  We enjoyed walking through and learning a little bit more about the great sites we have seen already, and got a better idea of what's ahead.  

We enjoyed a picnic lunch and a game of Catch Phrase in a rest area on the grounds of the museum before heading back on the road.  

We were all blown away by the long distance view of the country side as we continued west before crossing into Texas.

Shortly after crossing the border, we stumbled upon a small ghost town called McLean, TX.  This town is home to the devil's rope museum...

...which we did not explore, as well as the old Avalon Theatre, which was very run down and falling apart, but beautiful.

After talking to a shop owner of one of the only open stores and purchasing a soda, we learned that the town is fundraising for their high school's one-act's club.  We have to remember to look up their website when we get home to help donate! (Obviously we want to support acting high school students since we have our own little one-act actor)

Continuing west we drove past the town of Britten and their famous leaning tower, and began seeing changes in the landscape again - the sky just kept getting bigger!

We made a stop for an early dinner in Amarillo, TX at the infamous Big Texan Steak Ranch.  

Since the hubs is a vegetarian, this seemed at first like a funny choice.  But, it's a landmark, and some of  us felt that it was our duty to eat a steak in the steak capitol of the world...and one of us ate a baked sweet potato.  

Just outside of Amarillo is the Cadillac Ranch.  Which is as iconic of an image as any on Route 66.  We arrived, with cans of spray paint in hand ready to make our mark on this attraction.  We all had fun doing graffiti (which is encouraged at this site), and spent a bit of time reading the works of other artists.

Continuing west we saw the sky change and were all amazed at the phenomenon of being able to see storms in all directions around us before reaching them.  

While driving on the freeway, we decided to take another jaunt onto the old Mother Road, and stumbled upon the town of Adrian, TX - which is actually home of the half way point on Route 66.  Here we found the marker that identifies the half-way point between Chicago and Los Angeles on Route 66.  

After some more cheesy photos, we headed back out on the highway and drove into some great thunderstorms.  

Before long,  we knew it, we were in New Mexico.

Once in New Mexico we found ourselves on the other side of the storm, and a large rainbow shawn bright in the sky.  

Then the best thing happened - it became a double rainbow!

Continuing west we reached our destination for the night - the town of Tucumcari, NM.  

This is a super cute town and visiting here is almost like being in a bit of a time warp.  The neon lights of old motels glow down the streets, and we are enjoying the nostalgic features of our room at the Blue Swallow Motel, including a rotary dial phone!  

We headed down the street to a diner where we seemed to be the only people who didn't know each other, and  got ourselves some ice cream!

Tomorrow we are headed for Albuquerque, NM!  (we are going to keep our eyes open for Walter White and Jessie - but will settle for any random camper van in the desert!)