Route 66 and bygone days

 Today we drove from Amarillo, TX to Albuquerque,NM. We had to say goodbye to this big cowboy before leaving Amarillo.

Our first stop was Adrian,TX, population 150. It was the midpoint between Chicago and Los Angles on Route 66.

It was a tiny town in it’s heyday and there’s not much left of it now. Here’s what’s left of a classic old gas station still sitting at one end of main street.

Here’s another one just down the street.

The motel here is occupied but not open for business. The Midway café next door is about the only thing open. There was a tour bus out front when we arrived so we had to have our pie as take out. It was worth it!

There was another cool old windmill just across the street.

Right next to the café in front of yet another closed gas station sits this ford pickup that has been used as a kind of guest book.

Then on to New Mexico.

And the town of Tucumcari. That’s it’s name, really. It’s quite a bit larger at 5989 and was known as the town that is 2 blocks wide and 2 miles long although it is actually longer than that. It seems to be humming along fine still although there are many interesting relics from one end to the other.

The Blue Swallow Motel has been completely restored but with all of the original looks and the cool neon sign.

Each room even has it’s own garage.

Most of the old motels haven’t fared as well though.

This motel was practically next door.

Route 66 runs right through town and before the Interstate so did all the traffic.

This station is not nearly as old as some of the others but I could tell it had been closed for a long time.

Here’s a clue, regular gas was $0.35/9 per gallon.

This is just a sampling of the vacant buildings.

They sure make me wish I could go back in time and see them at their prime.

All of these were in Tucumcari.
Now we are in Albuquerque. We’re going to stay and extra day here because the annual Balloon Festival starts on Saturday and we have tickets for the big lift off.