The route between Oklahoma City and Albuquerque lacked the types of places at which we’ve been staying, and like: Harvest Hosts, state parks, military bases. There were a few RV parks, but I used freecampsites.net to find out that some rest areas allow RVs to park overnight. I’d used that site before to locate tent camping; it’s a helpful site.
Our first trial of this was to stay at the Welcome Center in Texas just outside Amarillo. I remember the town from my first cross-country trip to San Diego. We’d seen the billboards for the free 72oz steak if you could finish it. It’s still there, 20 years later!
The Welcome Center was really nice! There were several RV designated parking spots. We had a few other RVs as company overnight, and there was no rush to get going in the morning as it wasn’t busy. Nor did anyone come out and move us along. I was able to work some, so that was nice. Cody did not like the metal cutout cows they had around the property. He barked and kept his distance. =)
When driving along Route 66, you have to stop at the random Americana spots. Google has made these much easier to find nowadays. We stopped at the Slug Bug Ranch in Texas. These are just cars upended into the dirt. I have no idea what the backstory is, we just enjoyed the excuse to get out and stretch the legs.
The Cadillac Ranch is much more popular than the VWs. They sell spray cans for people to leave their marks. We opted to just observe.
So much paint!!
We had lunch at the Midpoint Cafe. It was good food; definitely the local hangout. It’s in Adrian, TX. I didn’t realize that Route 66 doesn’t span the full width of the country, like 50 does. It starts in Chicago.
Our final stop was the Route 66 Auto Museum in Santa Rosa, NM. Here was another flashback from that first trip along 66. Santa Rosa is where Mom, Dad, and I stopped the last night before getting to San Diego. It was my first time in New Mexico, and in desert landscape. I don’t remember if we saw this museum. It may have been closed when we got there. The museum is pretty small, but it had a decent collection of cars. Some were even for sale!
Ben and I picked cars. Not surprising, his was red, and mine was blue. I’m going to imagine mine is a convertible, not a hard top. Ben’s cost $92,000 while mine was a mere $24,500.
We had planned on staying in a rest area within an hour or so drive from Albuquerque, but that rest stop was not like the one in Texas. We pushed on to Kirtland AFB. Kirtland’s RV park is different than most other bases in that it’s first come, first serve. We couldn’t rely on a reservation, which is why we were looking into other options. Luckily, there were plenty of spots available. It was nice to have power and water after several nights on generator. I flew home for work the next morning.
Ben and Megan Travel the World 