Route 66 - Day 6 (Amarillo to Albuquerque)

Today, I got up in Amarillo and drove out of town stopping at the novelty Route 66 attraction Cadillac Ranch which is just outside of the city limits. A field full of half-planted old Cadillacs which have been spray-painted over and over again in colorful layers. The received wisdom from fellow travelers is that you buy your can of spray paint to leave your mark and then leave the spray paint can behind for others to use after you. Not the most environmentally-friendly phenomenon but it is something to behold. I rode through Texas/Tejas and stopped for lunch at Midpoint Cafe in Adrian TX which is *exactly* on the half-way point between the beginning and end of Route 66. Moving from Texas to New Mexico, it was fun to watch the landscape change from flat and canyons to mesas and rolling sandhills. I stopped off in Tucumcari for a bit in the afternoon, checking out their history museum. They're known as the 'Gateway to New Mexico' and were right on the line of the AT & SF railroad and the Conchas Dam. After that I tried to stop off at a swimming hole called the Blue Hole of Santa Rosa which was recommended in guidebooks. I'm sure it was, at one point, a beautiful serene natural lake in the desert but now it's just an overcrowded, glorified waterpark in a suburb so I kept driving. :) I got into Albuquerque and checked into my hotel, Hotel Albuquerque which is right next to the Old Town. Little did I know there was a Grateful Dead and Company concert in town so the place was hopping. I had dinner and crashed early with plans to get up super-early the following morning (see next blog post...).