Route 66 Part Three: Onto the Great Plain

Half way point:
Sunday August 31st, 2008
Texas

On Saturday night, the moment we got into the car at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, the skies opened. It was a deluge, a can’t see out the windows, driving on the crest of the road, black night deluge. The 30 miles to El Reno took us a bit longer. Brian’s iPhone suggested we take the InterState but I reasoned we should take Route 66, even if we couldn’t really see it. (we DID see a bit of neon before we got out of the city!).

Sunday morning, August 31st, dawned bright, blue and promising. We were in El Reno, revered birth place of Ruby Z. Montana, our friend and the woman scheduled to marry us the following Sunday morn. Brian had researched Road Food and learned that El Reno was infamous for something called an Onion Burger and he was determined to find one for breakfast. What my fiancé was realizing was that it was Sunday morning and though the cafes were famous for serving up this griddle fried wonder starting at 6 AM, they would all be closed. Fry cooks need to go to church too. One after another we drove slowly by the burger stops, Robert’s, Johnnie’s, Jobe’s and Sid’s, all were dark. In the quiet of a Sunday morn people were startled awake by the sound of Brian’s dreams shattering.

Spirits lifted a little once we got on the road, (after a sorry stop at a Sonic Drive-In), and we had a glimpse of the Great Plains. Rainfall had left the soil bright red and the grass deep green, and we were back on the two lane pristine portland cement of Route 66. We blared our theme song on the radio and headed for Texola.

The road architecture continued to amaze us. In Texola we found a hundred year old Territorial Jail where ne’er-do-wells were locked up together in the stone building. The door and windows were open to the August heat and the January cold. Miscreants were not coddled back in the day.

A few minutes later we were in Texas. Shamrock held a vintage Conoco and a restored Magnolia service station. In McLean we visited The Devil’s Rope Barbed Wire Museum, where docent Anita Sealy followed us around to make sure we signed the guest book. The place was a hoot, and I was amazed at the collection, the displays AND the Gift Shop.

After McLean we headed to Amarillo where we had Sunday supper at Dyer’s, again guided by Road Food. Another hour of awe inspiring scenic driving on 66 got us to Adrian, YES, Adrian, Texas, the Route 66 midpoint between Chicago and Los Angeles. Again, disappointment for Brian, the famous MidPoint Cafe, home of the Ugly Crust Pie was closed for the day. But there was a big sign and a photo op then we bravely . . . if pielessly, drove on.

We made it to the Texas/New Mexico border by 5:15, crossed a time line and it was 4:15. It wasn’t far to Tucumcari and the vintage Safari Motel right on Route 66, dinner at the Pow Wow Lizard Lounge and the end of our third day on the road.

I felt as if I had left Adrian, MICHIGAN, far far behind.

- - - David