Route 66

11^th October Albuquerque – Amarillo on Route 66

Left Albuquerque on Route 40 but soon found the old Route 66 which runs alongside it. To our surprise it was a well maintained road as good as many of our highways!!!

En-route we passed through Santa Rosa (where I posted a parcel to Cash and India). Marg ended up coming in to see what had happened to me as it took soooooooooo long.

Passed through Newkirk, Montaya, Tucumcari in New Mexico. These were virtually ghost towns and I felt really depressed to see how the building of a new highway can have such a negative effect on the community.

After visiting Russell’s Tourist Centre, we crossed into Texas. Our first ghost town was Glen Rio. When I was planning the trip, I had us staying here until I checked the internet!!!

Our destination for the day was Amarillo. Quite a big town. We found accommodation at the Fifth Season Motel. It cost us $63 with breakfast. Lovely old motel with a huge atrium.

For dinner we booked at The Big Texan Steak Ranch in the Beef Capital of the World. They came and collected us in a limo with huge cattle long horns on the front of the vehicle. If you can eat a 72oz steak and the sides inside one hour, it is free. Apparently 9000 have achieved the goal.

The place was huge and done up as an old saloon with animal heads all around. We  sat next to 6 guys who had just been hunting elk. They had killed 2 and they said that once you had eaten elk meat, you would never eat steak. When we finished dinner, a limo took us home.