Relics Along Old Rt 66, 2023 Westward Journey part 3
/Our westward journey has taken us near Rt 66 for a good bit of our travels from Missouri, through Oklahoma, Texas and into New Mexico. For the most part, we stayed on the interstate driving the motorhome and ventured along Rt. 66 when we stopped for the night. Much of the old stops along Rt. 66 seem to be gone or if they are there, they are pretty run down. It is a shame to see this historic travel route disappearing.
When I was in my early 20’s, I took probably one of my my most memorable vacations. I helped a friend move from Pennsylvania to California. Picture two 22 year old girls traveling alone in a TransAm in the early 1980’s. We took a week to cross the country, staying in Motel 6’s along the way and then spent a week traveling up the California coast from LA to San Fransico. From my perspective, it was a trip of a lifetime and gave me the traveling bug. From that point on, I always wanted to get an RV and travel so I could see more of this country.
One of the highlights of the trip was stopping along the way to see the sights along Rt. 66. Although much has changed, Tim and I have followed a good bit of that journey on this trip, even stopping in many of the same cities for the night. This has definitely been a trip down memory lane for me.
For Tim and I, our last couple of spots along Rt. 66 were in Amarillo, TX and Tucumcari, NM. After we got into New Mexico, we have deviated from my route in 1982 so that we could see much more of this state. Look for future blogs on our various stops in New Mexico.
In the meantime, I will share what we saw at these last couple Rt. 66 stops. First up, Amarillo, TX. We stayed 2 nights at this stop in the Texas panhandle at Oasis RV Park which was very nice with all paved, pull through sites. It was on the west side of town and really close to Cadillac Ranch, a longtime Rt 66 attraction. This tribute to the Cadillac tail fin was created by a group of artists in 1974 and is one of the iconic Rt 66 roadside attractions. Over the years, many visitors have defaced the cars and added their own art with spray paint. There is a souvenir truck there that still sells spray paint to anyone who wants to add their own touch to the Cadillacs. Since the RV park was very close to this attractions, it was our first stop after setting up in our site.
The next day, we decided to enjoy nature and the outdoors so we headed over to Palo Duro Canyon State Park. The ride there is along a fairly flat desert so it was hard for us to believe that we would see much scenery. As we approached the park, we started to see ridges and drop offs forming in the distance. Yes, it really is a long deep canyon out there in the desert and it was quite beautiful. You enter the park at the top of the canyon and wind down a steep road to the bottom and the views were incredible.
We saw a truck pulling a travel trailer coming up out of the canyon as we headed down. With that tight winding road, I don’t think I would ever be brave enough to drive our motorhome down there. I think you definitely need a smaller, more nimble vehicle than ours. Once in the canyon, it was a fairly long loop road with many spots to pull off an enjoy the scenery. There was a a bicycle race going on when we were there so we had to be careful along the road and some areas, parking was a bit tight. Luckily, we were able to pull over where we wanted to and didn’t get slowed down with the race or the traffic leaving when it ended.
After Amarillo, we headed a little further west to Tucumcari, NM. For this stop, we stayed 2 nights at Mountain Road RV Park. This was a much smaller park, right off of the interstate with easy access to Rt 66. The park itself was all dirt/gravel with fairly small sites. There wasn’t much room to sit outside at our site and unfortunately, it was too windy and dusty to enjoy. We were there on a Sunday and Monday which didn’t work out so well to see much in town. The Rt 66 museum that I wanted to visit was closed both days and some of the restaurants/diners in town were also closed. Luckily, we found a couple of places open so we got to eat at a Rt 66 diner and we drove around town finding the various murals painted on the old buildings in town. From the pictures, you can see that many of the old Rt 66 establishments are there but boarded up and closed down. We did find a few old motels, gas stations and diners that were revitalized and still open. I think we have to come back through this town another time when the museums are open so we can learn more about Rt. 66 in its heyday. Enjoy the pictures!