I’ve been reflecting on the Route 66 trip we took with my husband’s brother and sister-in-law in June 2023 and all the amazing memories. So much of it was food-related, and the relaxed-paced time we spent with each other around tables telling stories and sharing life is what I enjoy so much about travel without a strict itinerary. John Steinbeck got it right in Travels With Charley – “we don’t take a trip; a trip takes us.” At my favorite little cafe in Adrian, Texas, I had a piece of pie that I think I’d pay a hundred dollars for if I were offered one right now. The Midpoint Cafe is one of those places with a distinct authentic cultural flair and retro furniture that awakens a back-in-the-day vibe. Our server, whose aunt makes all the pies from scratch, told us stories of growing up right there on that land with its windmills and vastness. I wrote a reverse nonet poem today in reflecting – nine lines, with syllables of the line number on each line counting down to one.
I love hearing others’ stories of slow-paced travel, memorable moments, and food. Please share a favorite in the comments if you’re reading today.
I didn't want to leave our hotel -
prairie dogs were entertaining
me to no end, their antics
suspicious, unaware
of our eyes on them
skittering, then
standing still,
taking
ground
How
could a
famous row
of graffiti'ed
buried Cadillacs
come close to competing
with Amarillo Sunrise
prairie dogs in their merriment
of this Tru hotel fenced-in playground?
To prepare for our own trip, I’d been watching YouTube videos of people who had traveled Route 66 and documented their experiences through videos, and that’s how I learned that there is a chunk of the Blarney Stone from Ireland right here in the good ‘ole US of A! There’s a husband and wife team who have a YouTube account called Yankee in the South, and they taught me all sorts of things about Route 66 that the travel books didn’t teach me – – including the bit about this Blarney Stone in Shamrock, Texas!
My brother-in-law kissing the Blarney Stone
Since my brother-in-law and his wife (I call her my sister-in-law, even though he’s the technical in-law) have loved their trips to Ireland, I thought this was worthy of a stop along the route. We had to do a little searching, but we found the Blarney Stone right along Main Street in Blarney Stone Plaza. Sure enough, it was brought here in 1959 after being knocked off the original stone and was ceremoniously installed in the town to bring the luck o’ the Irish to all who kiss it on this side of the pond.
I’m now one of the lucky ones, sprinkled with magical rainbow dust by the invisible leprechaun who dwells within the stone. (Side note: my husband was sitting in the car, waiting for us to return from all the kissing).
Me ~ kissing the Blarney Stone
There are other places to kiss part of the Blarney Stone in the United States, I have learned: Emmetsburg, Iowa; Irish Hills, Michigan; and at Fitzgerald’s Casino Lucky Forest in Reno, Nevada.
If you’re traveling through, make the stop ~ pucker up and luck on up!
Our buddy Nick celebrated his 66th birthday the week before we drove half of Route 66 from Chicago to Albuquerque. He asked me to send him a few photos of Route 66 signs and to “take notes” to share with him, since he plans to drive Route 66 sometime before he turns 67. I assured him I would take “copious notes” – – which turned into my ChroNICles just for Nick. In case you plan to travel Route 66, these may be of interest to you as well.
We embraced a slow form of travel by only traveling half of the route on this leg of the journey. We flew into Chicago, rented a Ford Explorer one way from Chicago to Albuquerque, and flew home from there. Every point in between was filled with wonder of our nation, so it’s fitting that on this Independence Day as we celebrate America, I can look back and share 12 slices of what I learned along the highways and byways of Route 66.
Take the road trip! There is no better way to celebrate our great nation and to experience the changing landscapes of America than by taking a drive. Ever since I was a child, I have loved going different places to broaden my horizons and explore a variety of cultural flavors! I’d visit a place – Paris, London, Berlin, Orlando, Asheville, Nashville – – thinking I’d seen France, England, Germany, Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee. Boy, was I wrong! Worse: I hadn’t truly “seen” any of those cities, either – just a landmark or two at most. I realize now what John Steinbeck meant when he said, in Travels with Charley, that “We don’t take a trip. A trip takes us.” To see a slice of America by car, watching the changing landscapes from state to state, is the way to experience the diversity of our land and its people. We find it in the roadside diners, in the conversations with waitresses and other travelers.
Get in touch with your inner criminal graffiti artist self with the situation allows! Buy more than one can of spray paint from Wal-Mart in Amarillo, where they keep it locked behind the glass and will have to help you get your colors. Go for the yellow and black, and add the white and pink. Then drive on over to Cadillac Ranch and paint. But do not – I repeat, DO NOT – wear a hat. The wind is so fierce, it’ll lift you off the ground at times and take your hat with it.
Look for the things no one tells you about – There’s a place somewhere near Albuquerque that plays America The Beautiful if you drive along the teeth of the roadway. We missed that. When we start leg #2 in California and drive back to Albuquerque, we will find out where this is and drive on the teeth on the very end of our Route 66 adventure, coming sometime in the next year! We had deep discussions about the things we don’t see.
Stay on the path, but stray from the path, too. Build enough flexibility in your plan to be able to throw it all out and do something spontaneous. We had planned to go to Meramac Caverns, but after going up in the St. Louis Gateway Arch, we wanted to see it from the river, so we took a river cruise instead, then planned a different cavern the next day. We saw signs in Uranus, Missouri for the Uranus Fudge Factory, where they claim that “the best fudge comes from Uranus,” and the t-shirts were too inappropriate to pass up. We built in some iconic landmarks, some quirky stops, some experiences in nature, some retro diners and some ice-cream-for-dinner nights, some chain hotels and some back-in-the-day motels, a peak and a canyon. We wanted the sampler platter of America, and we savored every bite! We were early to bed and early to rise so we could take it all in and still have some energy to enjoy it all.
Keep your eyes peeled for the unexpected – – you just might see it! Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought I’d see a Road Runner and remains of a Mohave Rattlesnake on the trip, but I did! I saw Prairie Dogs, too, and we watched them playing from our room overlooking their playground. The simplest moments turned out to be some of the most memorable ones.
Take the time to talk to the servers! If you’ve never eaten “the special” breakfast in Tulsa, Oklahoma at a hole in the wall cafe with a waitress who’s the Queen of Bling and has a red tattoo of a Q and the shape of diamond right next to her left ear on her cheek to prove it to anyone who doubts it even after seeing the bracelets that line her arm from elbow to wrist and then, when you ask if she’s from Tulsa, she coughs the raspy smoker’s cough and emphatically says, “HELL no, I’ve lived here for 40 years, but I’m from Wisconsin,” as if you’ve offended her, you might want to try it. She may have gotten a few double-takes from some traveling diners, but I realized I was in the midst of my kind of people when I sat down and heard the blatant honesty spew forth from her lips, telling us about a recent storm she’d endured. And talk to April at The Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, Texas over a piece of pie and a cup of coffee. She’s a single mother in her young 20s but knows the whole history of her corner of the world and would climb one of those tall windmills for $56.00 an hour if she could repair them. This is how Steinbeck wrote Travels With Charley – from the lively conversations with his fellow Americans!
Pack light, but bring home some souvenirs and mail some postcards! Memories are the best souvenirs – – photos, journals, blogs, and t-shirts help bring us back to those moments. We have a rule: if it won’t fit in the carry-on and personal bag, it doesn’t come home with us. We pack a 3×3 for a week’s trip – 3 bottoms, 3 tops. That makes 9 outfits and leaves plenty of space for bringing back some new socks, t-shirts, bracelets, and other small things that will fit in our bags.I even found room for a Texas Longhorn and a Highland Bull! I found a turqoise and mother of pearl bracelet in Old Town Albuquerque in a store called Warpath with a red door that reminded me so much of my mother I had to have it. It keeps her on my mind and keeps the memories of the trip close at hand, too.
Wear a great pair of shoes and carry the best water tumbler you can find. My inner hippie couldn’t drive Route 66 without my trusty Birkenstocks, but for getting out on the peaks and in the canyons, I relied on my On Clouds. Even though it’s a road trip, there’s a lot of walking and stair climbing in parts. The water tumbler: I filled it with icy water at every single restaurant and hotel along the way (except one, where it smelled a little funky), and it cut down on the amount of bottled water I had to buy and kept me cool and hydrated.
My new bulls, and a wine cork noted with the date, people, and place of savoring.
Make a countdown list of the things you need to do so you can leave at peace and embrace slow travel (without stressing) at its finest. The most challenging thing for me to remember is holding the mail, but the USPS makes it easy to arrange online, so even if I remember at the airport, I can still make it happen!
Leave something behind – a time capsule, a signature on a sign, some graffiti. We left a styrofoam cooler, inviting someone else to use it and give it a new life, then share it with us if they felt moved.
Eating Lupper (supper off the lunch menu) at The Big Texan in Amarillo
Take a group – you’ll share fabulous company and financial costs, but whatever you do…..don’t talk politics. It can ruin a trip. Enjoy the moments without splitting hairs over differences. We met a couple from New York, who dove straight into their political stance as we all sat outside at The Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico. When they realized all of us were not in agreement with them, my husband broke in: “What you’re looking at right here in the four of us is a wide part of the political spectrum. From the moderate to the conservative, we have a wide gap.” They were amazed, and asked, “How do you do this, traveling together?” My husband was quick: “We talk about other things besides the POTUS. We talk about the places, the food…. we respect each other’s opinions, and we keep it that way.” He wasn’t afraid to speak the truth we could all agree on….and when we returned from dinner, the couple was sitting elsewhere.
Research, read, and explore ahead of time so you’ll appreciate all the things you’ll see. Get the Roadtrippers Plus app for planning the journey, and print a hard copy of your planned-but-flexible itinerary to take, along with a hard copy of a travel book and a map in case you don’t have good cell service.
Happy Birthday, and enjoy the Route 66 Experience, Nick! There’s nothing quite like it!
Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Canyon, TexasA Texas Longhorn
We were driving through Palo Duro Canyon State Park in Canyon, Texas when I spotted him. We’d taken a last-minute cruise through one of the campground loops to see how big the campsites were and whether they had water and electricity hook-ups. I’d just remarked that the awnings over the picnic tables were a blessing of shade out in the brutal heat when I saw something out of the corner of my eye; it looked like a legless bird with a hooked bill, a crested head, and a long tail.
“Stop! Back up a foot or two!” I urged my husband.
There, resting under the picnic table of an occupied campsite, was a Lesser North American Road Runner. At first, I thought it was a Greater North American Road Runner, but now that I’ve compared the notes on the differences, I am convinced that it was the Lesser North American Road Runner. With names like these, I’m wondering whether these birds inspired Dr. Seuss to write The Sneetches.
Lesser North American Road Runner resting under a campsite picnic table
A Road Runner. Not the kind from the cartoon. This one didn’t say Meep! Meep! and take off running from a coyote that left its outline where it crashed into a rock wall. I asked Google what the Road Runner says, and a Big-Bird-sounding Meep! is not part of its call. It sounds more like an impatient robot strumming its metal fingers on the counter at a Dollar General waiting on a cashier.
Apparently, this bird eats almost anything – rodents, snakes, lizards, other birds’ eggs, berries, cactus fruit, rabbits, spiders, and crickets. It can run at speeds up to 20 miles per hour and has an 18- inch wingspan.
I was conducting a bird observation in eBird when I saw this species I’d never seen in real time. I snapped a few photos to add to eBird’s media documentation and we carried on with our drive, but my heart stayed right there under the picnic table with that roadrunner – – until we saw the remains of a Mohave Rattlesnake in the road. My husband spotted it, and sure enough, it had the black and white tail bands, the greenish hue, and the eye stripe and body patterning that I could still make out to get a positive ID on the snake. I’ll leave its photo at the very end so that if you are squeamish of dead snakes, you’ll have had a heads-up.
Speaking of Heads-Up: My sister in law spotted the water snake with its head raised up in the center of the photo – it was checking us out! It’s coming out of the rock just above the waterfall.
We also saw Texas Longhorns, a water snake (observed by my sister-in-law, who despises snakes), a porch full of barn swallows, and several other species of birds, including a pair of Northern Cardinals.
The Bird Blind at Palo Duro Canyon SP – with identification photos and an observation log!
Palo Duro Canyon State Park is well worth the drive for its beauty and its wildlife viewing opportunities. Looking back through the bird observation logs, I noted that a day or so before we were there, someone had observed a wild male hog!
Baby Barn Swallows peeking their heads over the edge of their nest
If you love wildlife and enjoy the beauty of nature, don’t miss Palo Duro Canyon State Park! You really don’t know what you might see out there in the big Texas wilderness!
One of my daughters is celebrating a special journey today, and it reminds me of the journey she took along Route 66 last year. She sent me pictures all along the way, and I’m sharing some of these today as I celebrate her. She truly enjoyed spray painting the cars at Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, and so we’ll create a similar scene and share the picture with her. when we drive half of Route 66 later this month. As I prepare, I’m taking the time to learn about these iconic landmarks prior to the trip so that I can more fully appreciate them when I see them.
She says of her trip, “It was one of the happiest weeks ever. I loved this trip. You can hear how windy Texas is in the Cadillac Ranch videos, and Oklahoma is the same. It’ll damn near knock you over.”
Second Amendment Cowboy
You can hear the Texas wind. Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, TXCadillac RanchMy daughter at Cadillac Ranch, sporting her artwork in pink
You can hear the wind of Texas here in this video of the buried spray-painted CadillacsWe’ll see this sign! We will travel into New Mexico as far as Albuquerque. We’ll come back later in the year to see this sign. We’re taking our trip at a slower pace and only traveling half of the Route 66 roads from Chicago to Albuquerque.
Cheers to all the journeys we celebrate – both inward and outward. Life is full of amazing adventures, and I’m always fascinated by her energy, her humor, and her unique perspectives as she shares her travels with us!
Common Threads 