Day 10
3:15 am – Boom, woosh, clang clang
Uhhhh what was that……oh it is just a massive Texas sized thunderstorm barreling our way. Turn on the t.v., fire up the internet and figure out if we are in the path of a locomotive. It sure sounds like one is heading our way. Beep Beep Beep…..Oh great national weather service has a tornado warning for our area. Thank God for the 24 hour Fort Wal-Mart across the street. Hunker down – Hunker Down…….!
Well we survived and the tornados cut a wide path around us. Nonetheless it made us aware of how vulnerable we are in this tin-can on wheels….no offense Kodi. With a new lease on life after surviving the storm we returned to our westward pilgrimage with renewed vigor and determination.
New Mexico here we come. The first hurdle of the trip was to make it to Amarillo. While the worst of the storm has passed by in the night we were still left with mile after mile of drizzling monotony. As we entered Amarillo we couldn’t help but notice a 40ft. tall Texan standing by the road side. The Big Texan as it is called is a roadside restaurant, casino, trucker stop and slice of Americana that was too choice to pass up. To our mild disappointment the power was out in the building so there wasn’t much to see. People were still being served lunch from a simplified menu. We weren’t sure if their signature “eat for free if you live” special was available. The Big Texan is famous for offering a free steak dinner free of charge for whoever can muster the intestinal fortitude to ingest an enormous 72 ounce steak with all the fixings including a baked potato, salad, dinner role and shrimp cocktail. Only 18% of the 42,000 attempts were successful most astoundingly a recent champion was an 11 year old boy. We heard that a Cincinnati Red’s Pitcher ate the whole thing in 9 minutes and 30 seconds. Whoa baby – literally the guy had to look pregnant after ingesting that much food.
Pressing onward just west of town we spotted a route 66 icon. In the middle of a soggy field we literally skated our way across the fertile mud to the Cadillac Ranch. The ranch consists of 10 Cadillacs buried hood first up to their front windshield at about a 25 degree angle. It is quite a menagerie, every inch of each car has countless layers of graffiti and being situated right in the middle of a verdant field the whole thing drips with roadside attraction kitsch that made route 66 so famous.
Not long after the ranch we crossed into New Mexico. We stopped for a photo of the border. We picked up some info from the tourism office and tried to not become overwhelmed by the bizarre stench of cow manure wafting throughout the rest area. Ahhh the fresh air of the open range.
Then changing topography as we continued west was awe inspiring. I have never seen land like this. The starkness of the land compared to the tropical landscapes of Florida and the Appalachian mountains of the Southeast is jaw dropping. It was hard to even grasp how vast the land was, with the horizon continuing so far in both directions I felt like we were back in Kenya.
We decided to stay in Tucumcari for the night having read about it’s heyday as route 66’s premiere NM stopover. Pulling through town was a lesson in what can happen to a towns economy when it is bypassed by the freeway. This town has been forgotten 80% of the old businesses, gas stations, restaurants, retail stores, motels were empty and rapidly decaying. It was a veritable ghost-town. We kept expecting to see some sign of revitalization but none appeared. The Disney movie Cars could have been a fictional depiction of Tucumcari’s actual death. It was so sad and we were both filled with a sense of loss and longing. There is a certain mystique that surrounds route 66 and it is unfortunate that the magic that was once alive here has faded away never to be witnessed again, at least on this stretch of road.
To the RV park we retreated. Kam cooked up some great chili and we settled in and watched a DVD and then we were off to bed with dreams of Albuquerque running through our heads.