GC 322 The Beginning

Sometime in 2015 we decided to visit the Grand Canyon.  Then came making the decision on how best to get there and get around while there.  The Grand Canyon is located at a problematic distance from Wichita where the decision whether to fly or to drive is not a particularly easy one.  But THEN I realized that the driving route basically paralleled Route 66, so it was an easy decision after that!  

For Christmas Andrew gave me a series of guidebooks and maps to add to my existing collection of Route 66 material.  I spend a LOT of the winter months of 2016 reading and planning a Route 66 itinerary that – oh by the way – happened to include a visit to the Grand Canyon.  In the end we decided to rent a car and drive one way, and then fly back home via Las Vegas.

This then is the much delayed story of our trip down the portions of Route 66 in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona.  (See http://morgansroute66.blogspot.com/ if you want to see the parts of Route 66 we’d previously toured in Kansas and Oklahoma back in 2006.)  This blog is the very much the abbreviated story of our overall trip, almost as notable for the things NOT included as those that are.  On the same trip we toured the Grand Canyon, and some of Las Vegas, but I’m not posting any of those shots here.  Nor will you find many shots of the Painted Desert/Petrified Forrest, any of any of Meteor Crater, or many of all the other curiosities one can find “along the road”.

GC 003 Andrew and Virginia at Big Truck Tacos

We left Derby on Saturday, September 3, 2016.  Andrew came up from Norman and meet us at one of the classic Route 66 eateries in Oklahoma City.  This one is named Big Truck Tacos, for reasons far from clear.

GC 007 Erick OK Signs

After getting lunch we got back on I-40 West and zipped out to Erick, OK to rejoin Route 66 we’d left it over 10 years earlier.  By the time we got there at 4:22 PM CDT on Labor Day weekend everything was closed.  Fortunately, things being closed doesn’t prevent one from photographing the outside.

GC 010 Route 66 Inn

Now firmly back on Route 66, it was time to head for Texas and our first night on Route 66 at the appropriately named Route 66 Inn in Shamrock.  (I lost count of how many Route 66 Inns we saw in the 11 days we were gone.)  The place seemed like an older authentic place, though refurbished and NOT listed on the National Historic Register.  And while it is certainly not the focus of the picture, in the bottom right corner of the shot you can see the Toyota Camry we rented for the driving potion of the trip (at a cost of about $1,600 one-way!!).  But the cost was worth it, as I surely beat the crap out of that thing in the coming days, and it drove and rode plenty well.

GC 013 Tower Conoco

After getting settled in at the motel, and while it was still light, we set out to explore Shamrock.  The main attraction there was the “Tower Conoco / U-Drop Inn” a delightfully restored 1936 Art Deco gas station / café, that now serves at the Visitor’s Center.

GC 014 U Drop Inn

 

GC 030 Texas Motel

The next morning we were off down Route 66 to McLean, TX. McLean is also the location of the now abandoned Texas Motel.