In the morning we were eating at the cool train-based McDonald’s when a train (BNSF) started going by very slowly and quietly. It was either the second or third locomotive that was an old Dash 9 Santa Fe warbonnet.
I attended school from a motel on Route 66, which was a Motel 6, and right next door, there was a “Motel 7.”
We cruised top-down on 66 and turned onto the soon-to-be demolished 100-year-old bridge over the train yard., next to the old Santa Fe Harvey House. We got off the bridge and parked around the outdoor train museum for a while.
From there we drove to Tehachapi, remarking on 20 Mule Team Road, looking at the airplane storage area, and talking about the Carter Administration and Iran.
In Tehachapi we ate at the Burger Spot & got out of there. After Bakersfield, we stopped at a Shell station to try to clean all the melted Rolos off the floor.
After that, the only interesting thing was seeing all the red & white stripey silos in orchards. That concludes our awesome adventure, but our Miata adventures have just begun! 😉
On Sunday Henry & I arose early and braced ourselves for what was to be the longest leg of our trip—just over ten hours in the MZ! I’ll pass the mic to Hen to narrate the whole day:
Albuquerque, NM: In the morning, we cruised over to the train station with our Breaking Bad Lego minifigs (courtesy of cousin Tony) for pics.
Hovering over the skyline were hot air balloons. At the gas station, we bought a very, very cheaply made neck pillow that immediately sprang a leak. We traded it in for another neck pillow, which was a combination monkey-wiener dog!
After a while, we stopped at the Petrified Forest visitor center, where we met some cool Illinoisans.
After that, we stopped at the Painted Desert Trading Post, which had lots of cool old teepees and dinosaurs. This store was on old 66, which was basically cut of road that was next to I-40.
Next, we stopped in Holbrook, AZ, at the Wigwam Motel. (Side note: this was the real-life inspiration for the Cozy Cones in the movie Cars!) Outside the teepees, they had lots of cool old cars such as a rusty old tow truck labeled “Tow Mater’s Grandfather.”
Come take a spin with us!
Later, we stopped by Flagstaff, AZ, to see what we think is the westernmost Culver’s, as well as their cool old locomotive.
When entering Kingman, we were following an intermodal train. Next, we went to Mr. D’z, a wonderful 50’s diner. Next, we went to see their big Santa Fe 4-8-4 steam locomotive, #3759, and some old cars all along Route 66. Across 66 was the visitors center (the ex power plant) and the train lines. It was almost completely dark, so their cool neon sign lit up.
After loading up on milkshakes, we faced down a final three (!) hours of driving. My little “R2 unit” Hen thankfully conked out while I powered us through all the way to California.
If you haven’t already, please check out the day’s photo gallery before you go. And tune in next time for the conclusion of our epic journey. 😌
Henry was such an energetic scribe/wingman that I get to pass the mic to him for most of this update. 😌 Here’s how he recorded things in our journal (Hen text indented throughout, mine regular):
After Cadillacs we ate an excellent lunch of fried chicken and gravy. While we were there, someone began the challenge of eating the famous 72oz. steak in an hour.
After that we went to the Amarillo Train Museum, which had a model railroad and lots of equipment from the nuclear weapons disassembly plant’s train (three guard cars, electric buffer cars, a car to carry bombs, and a helium car).
You know who’d love to take you on a narrated 15-minute tour inside, outside, and on top of those trains? Why Henry Nack, of course. Take ‘er away, Hen:
In Amarillo we saw a Santa Fe steam engine—the prototype #5000—and five BNSF locos in H1 paint schemes.
After finally getting our fill of the museum & city, we headed west once again, hoping to grab lunch at the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, TX (population 166). Well, good news/bad news: it’s hard to find a living soul there, much less an open restaurant, but the antique ruins are fun to explore:
Hen writes,
We were trying to find the Midpoint Cafe, but instead we found an abandoned Phillips 66 station with an old Coke machine, vintage gas pumps and signs, and most importantly, a very cool Texas farm route sign, which is in the Miata as I write!
All was well until we grabbed that sign. As we were somehow finagling it into the Miata, an ominous white pickup truck started running slow laps on the road in front of the service station—and the afternoon took a turn I can only describe as “Murder-y.”
We hightailed it out of there as fast as the old car would carry us, and I swear for the next hour on the freeway, I kept nervously checking the rear view mirror, honestly expecting a Mad Max-style pickup truck full of hooting, pipe-wielding yokels to speed up on us. 😬 Thankfully that never happened, of course—and Hen and I had a good chat about following one’s gut and not taking things without permission, even if they seem long abandoned.
So, moving right on…
While going to Tucumcari, NM, we were in the endless fields of wind turbines. We found an enormous pile of their blades!
When we arrived, I started to notice all the abandoned gas stations, motels, etc. on Route 66 (acting as the Main Street). But, I also noticed all the cool historical motels and gas stations. We stopped at Teepee Curios and got some cool stuff.
We took the clerk’s advice to eat at a restaurant down the street, which had a fake cow on the sign. In Tucumcari I noticed the sign for the Blue Swallow Motel. You may ask why this is so special, and it is because I saw the sign on one of my many postcards. While leaving we saw another scene from one of my postcards.
And with that, we settled into our final 3-hour (!) drive of the day:
We saw several trains and many mesas. We also saw a huge truck wreck on the median, where there was merchandise thrown everywhere & one of the trailers was mangled. While writing this I had my head down, and dad joked that I was a prairie dog, and I was gonna be served up as “chicken”!
Given how late we’d rolled in the night before, I thought that Hen might want to lag a bit in the morning—but given the prospect of catching sunrise at the famous Cadillac Ranch art installation, he was up and raring to go!
We swung by a Home Depot to grab some spray paint, then booked it to the outskirts of town. Upon our arrival, Henry was so excited that he went running out ahead of me.
Just as you’d guess, he went right to work applying his “HSN 2021” monogram, then inserting a few salty modifications to pro-Trump remarks we found. 😛
After dropping our half-used cans of spray paint (our gift to the next wave of visiting artists), we headed back to the Big Texan for some biscuits & gravy, then off to see atomic trains; next post coming soon!
The crazy thing about trying to recount our trip, I’ve come to realize, is that on each day we packed so much in—as many adventures as could usually fill a whole series of blog posts and galleries—that it’s all a bit overwhelming to gather, recount, and relive. But what the heck, let’s give it a shot. 😌
To start us out, Henry writes,
We stayed the night in Chandler, OK, in the Lincoln Motel, which was right on Route 66. In the morning we visited the “Route 66 Interpretive Center.” We also visited an old Phillips 66 gas station.
After fueling up at a fun 50’s-themed diner & scoring a few Legos at the thrift store in Chandler, we dropped the top for our first real time cruising down Route 66. Check it out!
We stopped off at a neat motorcycle museum in Seaba Station, followed by the famous Round Barn in Arcadia:
Here, join us for an epic spin around the barn! Tap the video below to play:
From there, Hen writes, “We went to Oklahoma City and went to the awesome train museum (with a Frisco F-unit).”
Of course no trip to Oklahoma would be complete without “cooling off” at Braum’s Ice Cream, which Hen & I cheerfully did following our museum visit. Afterwards, Hen writes,
On the way to Amarillo we visited Slug Bug Ranch, which had a handful of VW Beetles dug into the ground next to some abandoned (spray-paint-covered) gas & motel buildings.
We stayed at the Big Texan hotel/restaurant, and we slept in an awesome cowboy/wild-west-themed room.
We like to think that the Miata met its big, longhorn-sporting brother. 🥰
And with that, we fell asleep, as exhausted as you must be reading this & seeing all the photos!
We awoke early in Kansas City to ensure that we could score ourselves a helping of Maria’s infamously delicious Bready Magic, after which she accompanied us to KC’s historic & beautifully restored Union Station.
Much to everyone’s delight, the station is packed not just with historical artifacts, but with enormous model train displays—some of them Lego!
When we’d finally gotten our fill (okay, most like a taste—but time was a factor), we headed to an early lunch. As you’d imagine, Henry enjoyed the one-of-a-kind burger-delivery system at Fritz’s Kansas City! Check it out:
After hugging it out with Maria, we hit the road for Tulsa, eager to arrive in time to check out Buck Atom’s—a “Cosmic Curio” shop right on Route 66 run by Margot’s high school classmate. Loaded with ironic midcentury ephemera & guarded by the enormous Buck, it did not disappoint:
Here’s a draggable 360º view:
Having scored a couple of “Oklahoma Route 66 Passports,” gotten them stamped, and loaded up on fun gifts, we rolled back up 66 for a real treat—getting to see our dear friends the Swiney’s for the first time in 20+ years!
It was amazing to catch up with Mr. & Mrs. Swiney, Quin, Mick, and Mick’s wife Veronika (with whom I swapped tales of being pleasantly traumatized on our first meetings with the full Swiney brood 😛). Afterwards Mrs. S. pronounced Hen “hilarious.”
Our two hours together felt like 20 minutes, but we had to press on in order to maintain our pace. Thus we closed out the day an hour’s drive later in Chandler, OK—setting the stage of the next morning’s exploration.
“The journey of 2,000 miles begins with a single tiny roadster,” I think the old saying goes. 😌 Whatever the case, after getting Miata fully spiffed & packed, Henry and I set out on our epic journey on Wednesday, March 24.
Besides being an excellent wingman, Hen’s also a great documenter of our travels, both via camera & the written word. You can check out the gallery of shots we took together, and as for narrative, I’ll pass the mic to Hen, as captured in the little leather-bound notebook we picked up at our first stop.
“We drove to Le Claire, Iowa, and visited the American Pickers store. We bought some typeform and stickers.
I (Henry) was observing silos on the way to Iowa 80, the world’s largest truck stop. I had an amazing DQ milkshake, with ice cream, brownies, and Oreos, too! Iowa 80 had the absolute coolest truck museum ever!
I saw some interesting truckloads there, such as a trailer carrying four teardrop trailers, two trucks with half-assembled combines, trucks carrying parts of silos, and… TWO HUGE TRUCKS CARRYING WIND TURBINE BLADES! We drove across four states in seven hours.
Also, we ate Kansas City BBQ at Joe’s Gas Station with Maria.
Henry & I kicked off our epic road trip by flying to Chicago, then meeting my folks in Rockford. (The Clock Tower Inn is long gone, but the O’Hare shuttle lives forever. 😌) Hen of course made a beeline to set up Uncle Ted’s old Farm Country, Lionel train, and Matchbox collections, and the two of us enjoyed browsing antique stores and knocking back some Canova’s Classic pizza as well as Grandma Nack’s famous pork chops & rice.
A special highlight was getting to see Uncle Ted & his kids. I accompanied him on the tail end of his morning milk run, getting to help wash down the truck before swinging by Weber’s Meats and scoring some cheese curds. Afterwards he picked up Jenna, Austin, and Morgan so that they join us for some epic train times plus hide-and-seek with Henry. “The cousins are so great,” he says. “They’re a disappearing breed of kid that’s not all about video games!”
