Story By: Jon Stalnaker AKA The Studebaker Dude
I was feeling pretty confident about the car. It was running fine despite the fact that I had to disconnect the battery every night to keep it from draining overnight. I couldn’t lock it, but we had many friends following us on Facebook and many of them were keeping us in their prayers. So off to Texas we go with the immediate goal of making it to Amarillo before noon. By morning, we were at the western border of Oklahoma, so we were in Texas early.
Our first order of business was to fuel up for the day. We were approaching Shamrock and decided to take the Hwy 40 Business Loop as that is typically the old Route 66. We figured there was a good chance of finding a gas station there. As we entered into town we found a few old Studes parked behind chain-link fences and stopped to take a few photos. What we found just up the road was the highlight of the trip. As we approached the Conoco Station and Café our faces just lit up. We wouldn’t be able to gas up here, but the U Drop Inn curio shop and museum was the exact kind of place we were looking for. You may recognize the architecture as that of Raphael’s Garage in the movie “Cars”. This place was the inspiration, and the cartoon version was nearly identical. We HAD to stop.
It was early and we were the only ones there. Carlene looked around the store and museum and I went outside to take pictures. We stocked up on more Rt 66 memorabilia at this great curio shop. The clerk inside was a wonderful lady by the name of Hazel. They say Texas women are the friendliest and she was certainly that. We looked around the café as it was just for display and Carlene had some fun behind the window of the old-time post office. We took advantage of her hospitality and got a picture of the three of us sitting in a booth. Thanks Hazel, for taking one of the few pictures we have of all three of us together.
It wasn’t long before others dropped in, and it was time for us to find a real gas station so we could still make Amarillo by morning. My sister told me on Facebook that there was a roadside rest area in Groom, Texas that I should not simply drive by. She said to look for the giant cross from the freeway. I’m sure glad she told me about it because I would have seen the cross for sure, but you have to stop to appreciate what is there. Under the huge cross is a series of bronze statues that depict the crucifixion. It was awesome and well worth the stop. The cross was much bigger than it looked from the main road.
It was starting to get late, so we moved on out to Amarillo and Cadillac Ranch. We made it before noon and were on the lookout for protruding fins when Carlene saw them off in the distance. I completely missed it, but Carlene was on the ball. We had to take the next exit and double back for it. You have to hike in off the frontage road to see the display and remember it has been raining on us this whole trip. It wasn’t too muddy out there but there was considerable mud out where the cars are. As we entered the property, I told Carlene we should have brought some spray paint to graffiti up the cars. When we got out to the site, there were paint cans all over the place and some of them still had paint in them. So, we added our names to the cars and figured there was a good chance they would be painted over before we even got back to the Studebaker. Yet another great photo op moment for us. This is turning out to be a great day.
We were going through the panhandle portion of Texas so I figured we would easily make it to New Mexico today. The next roadside attraction we saw was Midpoint Texas. Midpoint is the established halfway point on route 66 as it is 1139 miles from Chicago and 1139 miles to LA. A good place to stop this week’s story. Will we make it?
