Stop 6 - Amarillo, Texas

Our relaxation day in Oklahoma City went OK. We did have a time of it negotiating the immense and hugely confusing road network but to be fair Pand’s command of the maps and road atlas was exemplary and we did get through! We also achieved what we set out to in the day. 

We visited the Stockyards known as Cow Town and sat through an auction.

 Our presence in it, by virtue solely of the fact that we were not attired in garish boots and white Stetson, led to the auctioneer addressing us (in the most friendly way) in the audience and we enjoyed some banter with him.  When he swapped duties with his colleague he came and sat in the audience with us. His name was Bailey – nice chap. 

We gleaned a lot of information from him. The Stockyards are HUGE. On a Monday they normally sell 5,000 cows in a sitting! The holding pens bear testament to this figure. They occupied acres of land. It was just all so big.

In the afternoon we went into the city itself and visited the Oklahoma Memorial following the tragic bombing that happened there in 1995. The guy that did it as a protest against the Government is now dead – they executed him.  The memorial is a quite striking piece of architecture.

After this we had one more exciting visit to make – to a launderette. And there were the smalls done. Great fun – should have taken more pictures. 

In the evening we went out for dinner (as usual). It was excellent (as usual). We were all in bed before 10 and looking forward to the 300 mile journey ahead of us in the morning.

That journey brought us safely to Amarillo, Texas and here we are as I type this.  And what a journey. For a number of reasons.  I can tell you I am glad to be out of Oklahoma and it is a State to which I will not return in a hurry. In fact we disliked Oklahoma quite a lot to be honest as a result of our negative experiences of the road system in Oklahoma City itself and following our encounters with “the law” today. More of this below....

We left at 8.30am and travelled through Warr Acres, Bethany, along Mustang Road and into Yukon. It’s a famous thing, the Yukon Trail but all that was really there was huge flour mills!

It was a pretty desolate looking place. We travelled on into El Reno and stopped to photograph one of the many dead Armadillos we kept coming across. The boys wanted to play with it. Are we doing something wrong in rearing our children!

Anyway it was in El Reno that occurred our first brush with the law. OK so I was over the speed limit but the speed limit in USA is SO LOW. You can be on huge open roads (in large part the attraction of the 66!) with miles visible ahead, behind and across and yet have a speed limit of 40mph. Its crazy really. The cop asked for driving licence, insurance etc but on discovering that we were foreigners didn’t have the wherewithal to cope with the administrative complexity of processing that paper-work and so waved us on our way. 

Off we went through Choctaw, Hydro, Geary, Weatherford and into Clinton. This drive was magnificent over the 1930’s concrete in good condition, totally straight for miles and miles and through fields and woods and over amazing bridges. We took a load of videos of it because it was awesome (whoops I’m going native) but we can’t post the damn things on here. They take so long to upload we keep losing the connection (don’t worry Owain it’s all over wi-fi!).

 We stopped in Clinton to visit the Route 66 Museum. All very interesting but you need to be there to appreciate it.

It was immediately upon leaving Clinton that we had brush number two with the law. This time I ran a stop sign. Now let me say something about stop signs. They are everywhere in America – even in the middle of nowhere. As you approach them it is blatantly obvious if there is anything coming towards to you and in 90% of cases you can also see for miles both left and right so that you KNOW , for a FACT, there is no traffic approaching that junction. So you slow down (just to be sure) before taking off again. This particular junction was one of the afore-mentioned 90% and was handled as all such junctions had hitherto been handled. However, on this occasion, the cunning plan was witnessed and on came the blue lights and we enjoyed a conversation with Officer Kennedy 15. That conversation began with the usual driving licence request but then it went haywire. According to Officer Kennedy 15 a UK driving licence is not valid in the USA. Really? How we managed to hire a car on presentation of one we did not know. Possession of such an invalid licence is equivalent to possession of no licence at all. How can this be? Well, it just is assures Officer Kennedy. “Step back in the car sir”, announces the officer as the driving licence is taken back to the patrol car for analysis. And there it was analysed – for ages – as we were forced to remain seated in the our car. Eventually the Fuhrer returned and explained that on this occasion he was going to let us go on our way with no more than a “ticket”. That is not a fine. It is a piece of paper that asks you to drive carefully on their roads. So what of the driving licence issue? Oh, Officer Kennedy was quite right about that.  They are invalid in Oklahoma State. They are valid in the States before and after on the 66 road but NOT in Oklahoma itself.  Really? I wonder why they didn’t mention that when we arranged the trip. Or when we actually hired the car! Or why the thousands of people who travel Route 66 are not warned of this major issue. Or could it be that Officer Kennedy needed to appear less stupid? Nah, couldn’t be. I need to advise the UK Government about this problem as soon as I get home!

Anyway, “allowed” to move on off we went through the rest of Oklahoma, now apparently driving illegally on an invalid licence although with police consent. Yeah right.

We travelled on through Canute and then Elk City. At this point we decided to buy “gas”. My travelling companions were all thirsty so when I went in to pay I thought I’d pick up 4 bottles of water at the same time. I like sparkling water so I asked the guy if he had any. The conversation proceeded thus:

HIM:  “Any what?” he said.

 ME: “Sparkling water” I replied.

 HIM: “Ain’t never heard of that. What is it?”

ME: “You know, carbonated water”

HIM:“You want water with carbon in it?”

ME: “No,no. Carbon di-oxide is what it is. But you know fizzy water, sparkling water”

HIM:“Hey Marv, this guy wants carbonated water. You ever heard of it?”

Out comes Marv.

MARV: “What d’ya want?”

ME:“Oh Jesus, fizzy water”

MARV: “You mean flavoured water?”

ME: “No water with bubbles in it. Look it doesn’t matter. I’ll just have this”. I picked up a bottle of still water.

MARV: “There’s only one kinda water that I know”

ME: “Where I come from we call this still water.”

 MARV: “Hell man you don’t wanna drink still water. It’ll make ya ill” So now he thinks I drink swamp water.

Ever seen the film “Idiocracy”? watch it. I reckon they made it in Oklahoma. Can’t wait to get out of this place!

Before we could we drove onwards to Sayre. Loads of 66 stuff started to soothe the fever!  Especially as we drove through Hext Road and Erick where we came upon the very oldest manifestation off 66.  Now inaccessible by cars but there it was.

Our fever was fully quenched when we came to Texola, knew that this was the last town before Texas and then at last the State Line. In to Texas we drove.

Texas is big. No that’s not right. It’s huge. No that’s not right either. It’s MASSIVE MASSIVE MASSIVE! Its just open plains. Massive open plains managed by the ranches that you come across every now and then. It’s real cowboy territory as you picture it. There was nothing dull about this drive.

In fact, having gone through Shamrock and Lela we came to McLean where we had the option take what was called the Dirt 66 Option. Essentially this was about 5 or 6 miles of real basic original route. Not even road but dirt track. It was a pleasure to be on it. You wouldn’t believe the dust in our suitcases when we got here!

 After McLean we drove on through Texas where largeness in everything abounds (even crucifixes or religious statements which, as has been the case since Chicago, pepper the scenery).

We drove through Alanreed and on through the increasingly arid landscape. The temperature gauge in the car was now reading  88 degrees.  We drove through Groom

and into Conway from where the speed limit actually rises to 70mph even on the 66 (the only place in Texas where this is the case) but it only lasts for a few miles. Still, we exploited the opportunity! We then arrived in Amarillo.

Here we are. We’ll be going out for dinner shortly. And tomorrow we will be up early again as we have another 300 miles to drive to Santa Fe in New Mexico. Today took us 8 hours including the interactions with Officer Kennedy) and this is in large part because of the low speeds we have to travel.  But honestly the drive is such pleasure and so easy that you really do not even notice the time. I feel like we’ve only just left Oklahoma City. However, now that I am a registered boy racer I shall have to be careful so tomorrow might take some time! Still after a night’s sleep all might be forgotten eh?

We are meeting up in Santa Fe with Matt and Katie and are looking forward to that.