This is it, time to start getting our kicks on Route 66.  It is a day getting on and getting off, getting on and off, getting on and off Route 40, now the fast expressway, to see the old Route 66.

We start in Elk City, OK, at the National Route 66 Museum.  The museum is at the end of the town, which still contains some of the old, mid-century architecture that I just love!

The experience starts with a movie that reviews history, not just of Route 66, but the development of all transportation in our country; the bicycle, cars, rail, even flight!

I see all the pictures of those old bicycles people used to ride, but never really realized the significance of the bike.   I do now!  Especially since I now have a new favorite quote:

   “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.” 
― Susan B. Anthony

I emerge from this movie with all kinds of new found information!  Route 66 was decommissioned in 1985, but this little museum contains history dating back at least 100 years from that time.  It’s set up like a little village that you can walk around (they relocated many original Route 66 buildings to this location).   There’s a one-room schoolhouse, a doctor, a funeral director, a church, caboose at the old train station and even a soda fountain and drugstore for us to play in!

Terron and I don aprons and some pretended like we were serving up fountain drinks. I also bought and later ate my first ever Moon Pie!  Yes I have never once in my life tasted a Moon Pie; that is until today.  (Not bad, not great, but now I’m set for life on my fill of Moon Pies!)

Clouds gave us a cooler start to the day, but it doesn’t last long, as we soon hit 108 degrees. We make our way through Oklahoma which I’ve been to so many times before, but never until today, did I realize just how red the dirt is here.

We’ve seen plenty of wind farms in many states across the past 2 weeks, but today we crest a hill and I see dozens of those giant wind towers, all still.  Not one of them is moving.  It’s really rather eerie.  I feel like I’m in a movie where civilization is lost and you’re wondering if you’re the only one left!  Okay, so I let my imagination go for a few seconds.  Then I see all the other cars on the highway and am brought back to reality!

Over another hill the wind turbines are moving and this time they’re literally right next to the highway, so close that I can see how maintenance workers enter these giant structures.  The staircase that leads up to a door at the base of it, looks miniature, since the turbines themselves are so huge!  Furthering the miniature appearance of things here, I see hundreds of cattle grazing beneath these turbines.  They too are so tiny in comparison!

Next, we spot the famous Cadillac Ranch!  We pull off the highway and walk out in the middle of a field to see it.  This is an art installation created in 1974 and over the years, people stole the tail fins and added their ‘art’ to it.  There are cans of spray paint everywhere!  People are adding their graffiti to the cars, half buried in the dirt.  Terron finds a can and adds his own mark for us.

When we walk away, we see a guy at the entrance selling something from the back of his pickup.  He takes pieces of the thick paint that falls of the cars and then sands them down to reveal all the paint colors people added over the years.  Some are raw shapes, but others, he carves into Cadillacs, complete with the tail fin!  Of course we buy one for $10 and get the story on how he started this.

He said he brought his nine-year-old daughter out here with some paint and they really enjoyed painting up a car.  Then his daughter noticed a piece of paint on the ground and asked if he could make it into something for her.  He did and then decided to try making and selling these little souvenirs.  He said it was slow winter for his business of paint less dent repair and he was looking for something else anyway.  Eureka!

We end up crossing into Texas, and it’s so interesting to me how it suddenly goes from flat to Hill Country.   Across one stretch of road, I’m looking down the road and I see something but I’m not sure what it is. I keep squinting in looking and as we draw closer I can see whatever it is, there are a lot of it. Finally I notice it’s cattle.   Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of cattle out on an open range, the sun beating down on them. I have to say I feel bad for these cows (Terron CB’s me, “Look at all that steak!!”)

Time to get off the interstate again and back onto the old Route 66, this time for the town of Vega.   Not many icons of the old ‘Mother Road’ here, but there is an old saloon that Terron told me he read about.  Dang, it’s shuttered and for sale.  We see a few other places that unfortunately make this town kind of look like a ghost town.

A few miles down the road we get off again this time for Tucumcari, TX. Terron tells me that his research shows this town may be the most well preserved of all Route 66.  It is! I really enjoy seeing all of the little motels, one after the other, still fully functioning and still painted like they were back in the 1950s and 1960s.  This is my favorite style of architecture and in this town, it’s still evident in the diners, shops and gas stations.

We cross into New Mexico and I celebrate!  I’ve now been to all 50 states!  We stop to take a quick picture at the border and then find a stop for gas and a snack.  This is where we meet a fellow biker checking a trip down the ‘Mother Road’ off his bucket list.  Pierre is from Montreal.  I love listening to his French accent!  He rode from Montreal, to Chicago, to beginning of Route 66.  He’s going to follow it to the end in Los Angeles, then ride up to Vancouver, BC, then drop back in to the US to go across the Northern states to get back home. 

He offers us a few pointers on the route from his guide book and we shared a few points of interest from our travels. Terron gave him his business card, and told him to stop by once in Seattle, and we’ll take him out on the boat to catch some fresh crab.  Pierre sounded excited and sincere when he said he would certainly contact us.

Now it’s 108 degrees and I’m hot!  It’s so hot, the GoPro would not start!  Terron tells me it detects extreme heat conditions and says, “Ya, I’ll have none of this” and refuses to start.  But ahead, I see dark clouds!  Yes, again I’m excited to watch the lightning and hope that our paths cross!  Sure enough, we ride through a small shower, dropping the temperature on my bike to 75!  It only rises back to 88 as we roll into Albuquerque, NM.

My sister-in-law Crystal highly recommends we take the tram, so we head right the Sandia Tramway.  I quickly ask a few questions and learn that if we want to eat on top, there’s a restaurant called high Finance.  I quickly get on Open Table, secure a reservation, buy our tram tickets and we’re off!  We climb to 10,378’ gawking at the jagged rocks around us.  At the deepest point, while we are suspended on cables with 48 other people, the canyon below is 960’!  Just spectacular views everywhere.

We reach the restaurant and enjoy a wonderful dinner.  When it’s time to head back to the tram for our ride back down, the sun is perfectly setting on the other side of Albuquerque, spread out down below us.

This is an awesome way to end a spectacular day!