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 Getting My Kicks on Route 66 I left the Canyon de Chelly campground around 8 a.m. on a beautiful and sunny morning. My first stop that day was at the Hubbell Trading Post, a National Historic Site about an hour away managed by the National Park Service. I'd driven by the Hubbell Trading Post several times during my previous trips through northeastern Arizona but had never stopped. This time, though, I wanted to see it, so I pulled into the Visitor Center, talked to a Navajo park ranger for about a half-hour, walked around the trading post and shot some pictures. The trading post is still actively used today and is pretty interesting – it's definitely worth a stop. After an hour, I hopped back in my truck and hit the highway.
I was heading for what is probably the most commonly misspelled city in the U.S., the quirky town of Albuquerque. I strolled around the Old Town area there, an interesting part of town, for about an hour. I had never spent much time in Albuquerque during my previous trips around America, but from what I saw, I thought it was a pretty nice place. Some may disagree but I think Albuquerque is much more pleasant than Santa Fe, which is a few hours north and a city that's so super-saturated with adobe red architecture that it'll make you puke. Be careful, though, because according to Santa Fe's City Code, you can puke there only in a deep shade of adobe red. Jeez, even the McDonald's in Santa Fe has the red adobe motif. It's just crazy.
After visiting Old Town, I stopped by my company's Albuquerque office and finally met several folks, including Toni and Hunter, whom I've worked with over the phone during the past year. Then I left Albuq... whatever... and headed east that afternoon across New Mexico, following the new Interstate 40 and the old U.S. Route 66.
Finished in 1926, U.S. 66 was the first paved highway across America. It extended 2,500 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles and passed through hundreds of small towns in between. From the late 1920s until the early 1960s, hundreds of drive-ins, gas stations, and, best of all, weird roadside attractions sprung up along Route 66. I still have vague memories of traveling on Route 66 with my family when I was little during our summer road trips across the country. However, when the Interstate Highway system was completed in the mid-1960s – a system that was designed to whisk travelers from one major city to another with speed and efficiency – many of the businesses and most of the weird roadside attractions along Route 66 folded up.
I generally don't like Interstate freeways because they provide a bland view of America, and I usually avoid them if I can. I much prefer two-lane highways, including the old Route 66, which I think are much more interesting. Technically, Route 66 doesn't exist anymore, having been officially decommissioned in 1985, but a lot of the older cities along its route, like Tucumcari, New Mexico, and Seligman, Arizona, still have some of the Route 66 charm. I walked around Tucumcari for about an hour and poked my head into lots of shops and closed-up drive-in restaurants and chatted with some of the locals. Route 66 may be gone, but for a short while there in Tucumcari, I felt like I was right back in the 1950s.
A few hours later, as dusk was falling, I pulled into Amarillo, Texas and got a funky motel room on old Route 66. The motel room, I'm sure, had plenty of stories to tell if it could've talked. Good thing it couldn't.
Amarillo means "yellow" in Spanish, so it's supposed to be pronounced "ama-REE-yo." But this being Texas, people here say "ama-RILLO." There are a few sites of interest here, including the Cadillac Ranch just west of town, where a fellow planted several old Cadillacs into the ground many years ago, apparently hoping they would grow. But the biggest tourist attraction in Amarillo is – now get this – the world's largest helium factory. No, I'm not making this up. As I drove into Amarillo that evening, I wondered if they let you inhale helium on the tour (like wineries that let you sample the wine) so you can talk like Donald Duck. Probably not, I figured, liability and all.
I thought the most interesting thing in Amarillo, though, was the Big Texan restaurant. If you can eat a 72-ounce steak, baked potato, salad, roll, and shrimp cocktail here in 60 minutes, it's free. About a quarter of those who try it succeed. The rest fork over $56 – and then promptly throw up. I used to like gorging myself, years ago. A few years ago, in fact, on the morning of a Super Bowl Sunday, I bought 10 McDonald's cheeseburgers. They were on sale that week for only 49 cents each, so I figured I'd eat a couple cheeseburgers while watching the game and then put the rest in the refrigerator for later that week. Shortly after kickoff, I ate one. Then another. Then another. And after just forty seven minutes I had eaten all 10 cheeseburgers. Then I started feeling a little weird (as in "light-headed" weird, not "sick to my stomach" weird). That was, understandably, the last time I tried gorging myself stupid. It was not, shall we say, a "Happy Meal."
But getting back to Amarillo, the next morning I packed up my things in the funky Route 66 motel room and hit the road. On my way out of town, I stopped at the Cadillac Ranch and drove by the Big Texan restaurant. The Big Texan was interesting, especially with the 20-foot Hereford fiberglass cow quietly standing guard outside. However, with memories of those 10 McDonald's cheeseburgers dancing in my head, I decided not to try eating a six-pound steak for breakfast. I just took a picture of the cow, instead.
Above left: This is the Continental Divide on Interstate 40 in New Mexico. From this point on, all waters head east – as will my truck for the next several weeks. Above center: After working with the Parsons Brinckerhoff folks in Albuquerque, New Mexico for the past year over the phone, I stopped by their office and finally got to meet them. Above right: The fountain in Old Town, Albuquerque.
Above left: Inside a Route 66 curio store in Tucumcari, New Mexico. Above center: An abandoned drive-in restaurant in Tucumcari. They went out of business, apparently because they served... snakes? Above right: I was planning to camp near Amarillo, Texas, but after driving past funky Route 66 motels all day I decided to stay in one. This is the Bronco Motel in Amarillo. It was definitely funky. Perhaps a little too funky!
Above left: Hey, it's Del's Restaurant! It must be a great place, huh? Above right: Several years ago, an Amarillo businessman buried 10 Cadillacs on his wheat field west of town as a tribute to his favorite automobile, thus creating the Cadillac Ranch (and inspiring a song). There are no signs or markers, but it's plainly visible from Interstate 40 and you can walk out to it as, obviously, some graffiti artists have done.
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