Monday, September 17, 2012

We Got Our Kicks on Route 66-Day One

I've decided to start over and blog our trip in chronological order. Bren and I teamed up for a road trip down Route 66/I 40 on our way to Art Unraveled 2012.  

Bren flew from Georgia to Amarillo.  The original plan had been to pick her up and hurry out to the Cadillac Ranch before dark.  Alas, Bren's plane was late.  I did go out and take some pictures before her plane got in though.


Cadillac Ranch


Cadillac Ranch is an art installation just west of Amarillo along I 40. I had only seen older photos of it with the cars in their original conditions so I was surprised by the graffiti.  According to the Wikipedia link above graffiti is encouraged so I guess the boy scouts who were painting under the watchful eye of their scoutmaster weren't being as bad as I thought they were. I think I was almost the only person there without a spray can.  Tiny children had spray cans.  There was at least a quarter inch of paint on every part of the cars. 


Cadillac Ranch at dusk.

The colors were very bold, although they don't show as much in the dusk. The clouds were ever changing and dramatic at times.


Cadillac Ranch

Each car is nose down in the dirt. 



Cadillac Ranch


I could see rain showers in various areas and managed to catch this rainbow. 


Cadillac Ranch sign  


Hmmm...the signs were the only thing on this side of the fence.

I picked up Bren at the airport and we drove to Tucumcari, New Mexico.  We were a little worried that we might not make our hotel before the office closed at ten.  Then we realized we crossed a time zone when we got into New Mexico and had an extra hour, so all was well. 

Tucumcari has a little over 5000 people and 1200 hotel rooms. Many of the old hotels that were popular from Route 66 are still in operation. We made a point of staying at the old motels on our trip. 

Check out Bren's blog at ShortWired Studio for her trip blog posts. 

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