Wednesday: Pedal to the Metal

For those of you who are reading my blog each day, I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to write last night. During the last leg of our Wed trek, we decided to watch the movie Cars instead(I watched and Rob listened). Why Cars? Well, we ended our night staying here...




The Cozy Cone Motel in the movie was based off this Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ. More about that for tonight's blog post. Back to yesterday...

Last minute on Tuesday night, we decided to call the Big Texan motel in Amarillo after seeing signs on the side of the road. They still had rooms available, so we entered our saloon style room, complete with Wanted signs wooden shutters, and swinging saloon doors (Ours was in the Cattleman's Hotel).




Wed morning, we went to breakfast across the parking lot at the Big Texan restaurant - famous for it's 72 oz steak. If you eat the steak meal in under and hour, it's free! If you don't finish, it's $72. According to the steak dinner legend, in 1960 on Route 66, a table full of hungry cowboys competed for Big Texan bragging rights by eating 1 pound steaks over a 1 hour period of time. When the hour ended, one cowboy had eaten four and 1/2 one pound steaks, shrimp cocktail, salad, baked potato and bread. From then on, the tradition lives on. The current champ finished his 72 oz steak meal in 8 minutes and 52 seconds.









After the delicious breakfast, we headed deeper in the heart of Amarillo to see these...




Rob shrunk again! These were very impressive and so random. There were even cows grazing nearby. I wonder what they think every time they look up at these naked legs intruding their pasture space. Down the road, we found this giant cowboy standing outside of a restaurant..




Hopping back into the car, we drove a bit further down the road and stopped at Cadillac Ranch, a public art installation that consists of what were (when originally installed during 1974) either older running used or junk Cadillac automobiles, representing a number of evolutions of the car line (most notably the birth and death of the defining feature of early Cadillacs; the tail fin) from 1949 to 1963. I'll let the pictures explain.















After Cadillac Ranch, we continued west, had lunch at a Route 66 Restaurant in Santa Rosa, New Mexico (This was my first time in New Mexico, BTW).




The reason for the title of my post is because Rob's car had quite the experience hauling its trailer up the gradual rolling hills of New Mexico. Sometimes, he had the pedal all the way to the floor and it wouldn't go past 60 mph...but so far so good, and the car is doing one heck of a job getting us to L.A.

When we reached Albuquerque, N.M., we decided to hop off the Interstate and drive Historic Route 66 for about 20 miles. The nostalgia and old neon lining the streets took us back in time to what this place could have been like for those living during that era.









We also stopped and walked around in Albuquerque's Old Town, complete with street vendors, tiny old shops made of stucco, and Hispanic heritage.




After that, we drove all the way to Holbrook AZ, aside from stopping at Blakes LottaBurger for a nice greasy dinner. Yum!

Things Learned Today:
"Food eaten in local diners always tastes better than the chains."
"There is only one clear radio station in between Amarillo and Albuquerque."
"The game of 20 questions is the best when you are trying to get the other person to guess Roadkill."
"Cars can haul Uhaul trailers just fine...as long as there is some coolant on hand at all times."
"Gas is much cheaper out West."
"Bugs Bunny always takes wrong left turns in Albuquerque."

Question of the Day:
"I wonder who lives in those lone homes out in the middle of the desert..and what is their career?"