Murphypalooza Day 13: Gettin our kicks

We woke up in Oklahoma determined to drive as far as we could today while keeping most family members reasonably happy. After a slow start, we hit the road.

Just after Oklahoma City, route 40 follows the old route 66, so we spent the day looking for glimpses of the old, cracking pavement running parallel to the highway, spotting locales from the movie Cars and seeing more of America's quirkiest roadside attractions.

In this photo, you can kind of see that little ribbon of pavement next to the highway. It's neat to see it and follow the route, but kind of strange to see so many abandoned gas stations, motels and tiny little ghost towns.

The wind is so strong here and the plains so flat, the few trees that are around all lean over.

Our 12th state!

Which looked a lot like this:

Ranch after ranch after ranch. And then little Shamrock, Texas where we just had to drive through to see the U Drop Inn. I guess it's a route 66 classic, but the boys are more familiar with it as a car wash in Cars.

More ranches. More hot cows.

Flat.

We drove through Groom, Texas, home of the purposely-leaning water tower.

And the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere, at 190 feet.

The Jesus Christ is Lord, not a swear word travel center.

And my personal favorite, Cadillac Ranch, west of Amarillo.

That's right, it's a whole bunch of Cadillacs that a rancher planted in his field.

People pull over on the highway and graffiti it up. The boys took one look, grabbed their crayolas and went to town.

 

We had to walk about a quarter mile into a field to get to the cars. On the way back, Finnian declared that it was too hot, too dusty and way to windy to ever live in Texas.

Then, New Mexico! Which was a big deal for me because it was the last state that I have visited in my lifetime. I've been waiting for Arkansas, Oklahoma and New Mexico for years.

We had dinner in the town that was the inspiration for Radiator Springs in Cars. This mesa is featured in the movie.

There are tons of neat, but sad little remnants of Route 66 here.

 

And on the way out of town, our first clouds and rain since Annapolis. And, our first rainbow.

We had such a great road trip day, that we just kept going. And now, we're pulling into a hotel in Albuqurque to crash late and hopefully sleep in. We'll be sightseeing in Northern New Mexico for the next few days. And, we only have 800 or so miles to go.