Route 66 Chicago to Los Angeles: Day 5–Oklahoma City to Amarillo, Texas

Today’s drive was 280 miles; almost all of it on Route 66 and very little Interstate.

My brother David chose most of the music today and we listened to a lot of American folk music, which was just fine with me.

We started off with a drive to the Big Milk Bottle…..an advertising sculpture for Braum's, a chain of ice cream and dairy parlors. As you can see from the pictures posted on this blog, everyone on Route 66 prefers to build very large sculptures/statues of giant size things…..Muffler Man, milk bottles, chairs, a 5-story stainless steel cross, Buck Atom…..you name it, and they construct a giant-size sculpture of it to put near the roadway.

Next, we stopped at El Bueno, OK to see a caboose from the Rock Island Line and a gate where lovers put their names on a lock and then lock it to a wrought gate.
I guess this is a thing they do it on a gate in London....but I don’t get it.

Next stop -- an Indian Trading Post…..very cool stuff. All the guys got something; for me it was a new cowboy hat.

Shortly, after leaving the Trading Post, we experienced our first flat tire. Along a pretty deserted portion of Route 66, Marv blew a back tire on the ‘66 Caddy. With a lot of help from the guys, the spare was put on and we were underway again.

We had lunch at DJ’s Country Kitchen; a local establishment (no chain, of which there are thousands along the Route). Very good. Most of the diners were having lunch after church services; today being Sunday.

Then -- on to the National Route 66 Museum. It is a re-created small Texas town built in the style of the 1930’s with interesting exhibits. Several vintage cars and lots of car paraphernalia and the ever-present gift shop.

Finally, our last stop outside Amarillo was at the Bug Ranch. Someone has taken about 6 VW Bugs and buried them nose-in to the ground. The cars were stripped a long time ago, and now passerby's spray paint the cars in all kinds of psychedelic colors. Turned out the locale made for interesting pictures when we pulled our 1999 VW Bug up close to these wrecks. Tomorrow our first stop will be to the Cadillac Ranch (much more famous than the Bug Ranch) where someone has buried a number of Cadillacs nose-in similar to the VW’s. I’m sure we’ll try to get Marc’s Cadillac in close for pictures.