2018 Route 66 Trip - A. Millar Photography

Route 66 Trip

OnFriday, October 19, 2018 Debbie and I headed out from Houston for Route 66at 1:49 am. The plan was to bring back as many photos of vintage Route 66Roadside as possible to be used as backgrounds for my digital photography.

Decatur, Texas

Ourfirst stop was Decatur, Texas just north of Ft. Worth. We pulled up intothe parking lot of the Petrified Wood Texaco at 5:30 am and it wasraining. We decided to wait for sunrise, but when it came an hour or solater it was still too dark for acceptable shots. I decided that webetter get back on the road, since we wanted to make Tucumcari, New Mexico bydays end.

Windmills

Bythe time we got to Electra, Texas the rain finally quit. We soon noticedgiant propellers on the horizon, slowly turning through the low hangingclouds. Debbie had never seen them before and was totally fascinated bythem, so we turned off the highway at Harrold, Texas and took a closerlook. It was a bit like walking through a set for "War Of TheWorld's." They were so huge!

Army Of Giant Roosters

As we were rolling throughQuanah, Texas, we came upon thousands of huge brightly painted metalroosters on the right side of the road. Debbie had to see what it was allabout, so I turned the car around and pulled up to Rustic Relics. It wasindeed a sight to behold. I thought to myself what a hoot it would be tobuy a dozen or so of the largest ones they had and plant them in the front yardjust to see what the homeowners association would do. After getting somephotos, we got ourselves back on track and heading up hwy 287towards Route 66.

Amarillo, Texas

Hwy287 took us through Childress, Goodnight, and on to Amarillo. InAmarillo, we stopped at The Big Texan Steak Ranch and Brewery just offI-40 on the east side of town. We took the usual tourist photographs infront of the giant steer, the huge lizard, and the big sign out front. Itwas then time to seek out The Cadillac Ranch on the west edge of town.

The Cadillac Ranch

As wepulled off the feeder road to park, we noticed many others were also here toinspect the presentation before us in the adjacent field. In the distancewe could see ten old Cadillacs stuck in the ground nose first as if theycrashed into the pasture from high in the sky. All of them were spraypainted with graffiti of every color, heralding and documenting thevisits of those that made the journey before us. I had picked up two cansof spray paint before our trip just for this special occasion and was excitedto get my chance to make my mark on this great monument. But it would notcome to be, without stepping knee deep into the mud and water surroundingthe great automotive pillars before me. So, as a last resort, I took thecap off the white paint, shook it, and sprayed the wet dirt beside myfeet. The wind had picked up and it was hard to get the paint to stick tothe wet earth. The ground sucked the paint in and the letters Iwrote on it were disappearing as quickly as I sprayed. Finally wehad enough to barely make out what I wrote in the earth and we took thephoto. We also took other photos to use as backgrounds for my work. We were now ready to venture on west to the next town, Vega.

Wild Goose Chase In Vega

On Facebook, I had seen aphoto of a billboard someone put up telling Liberals to keep driving on I-40until they were across the state line. Since it was such a controversialsign, I felt it my duty to take a photo of it. There were reports thatthe sign had been taken down, but I wanted to be sure. As we watched bothsides of the road and the miles rolled by, it was evident that the rumor wascorrect, ... no sign.

Adrian, Texas

In just a few minutes we found ourselves in Adrian, Texas. This is where a line is painted across the old Route 66 pavement marking the Midpoint of the journey between Chicago and Los Angeles. On the north side of the road at the line is a sign Which welcomes the visitors, acknowledges the midpoint, and details the 1139 miles to Chicago or Los Angeles from this point. Adrian is also the home of the Bent Door Cafe which used to be a Phillips 66 gas station and the Midpoint Cafe. Both were closed during our visit,but we were able to visit the Sunflower Station and purchase some souvenirs. It was now almost 4:00 pm Central time and time to hit the road again, bound for New Mexico.

Old Phillips 66 Gas Station

The Bent Door Cafe

Old Route 66 midpoint in Adrian, Texas.

Midpoint of Route 66.

Midpoint Cafe

Debbie found an old friend in front of the Fabulous 40 Motel.

Sunflower Station

Souvenirs, ... get you some!

Next Stop - Tucumcari

It was just 65 miles from Adrian, Texas to Tucumcari, New Mexico. We were anxious to get to the Blue Swallow Motel and get checked in so we could get our bearings and start photographing vintage roadside before it got to dark. As we exited I-40 and dropped off onto Old Route 66 at Tucumcari, we instantly started rolling by old gas stations, diners, motels, and RV parks. It was incredible, almost as if we just drove back in time. WOW!