USA - Canada - Mexico 2016 - Day 30

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Wednesday, 5 October 2016 - Shamrock, Texas - Santa Rosa, New Mexico

Headed out from Shamrock this morning in a nice cool 14 degrees C. Nice because we are getting used to it and actually enjoying it. No need for much warm gear even. Unfortunately, once the sun was up and giving some warmth, the winds started again but not as bad as yesterday. I know I've put up photos of the wind turbines before and unfortunately, the ones tonight do not really convey what I would like to show but I have never seen so many wind turbines in one place before. Through this particular area there would have been hundreds of them. Impossible to count but to give you an idea of what we could see, imagine looking straight ahead at the horizon then turn your head 90 degrees to the right, imagine that at the horizon there are turbines all the way around that arc. No kidding.

Into Amarillo for a look at the place, unfortunately one of the places we were going appeared to be closed, certainly, no one around but no signs. A lot of construction and refurbishment going on in the business area so things must be going well.

I had identified a car museum in Amarillo, Bill's Backyard Classics, that I thought would be worth a visit. It absolutely was. If you don't enjoy pictures of old cars, you may want to skip the photos. There are something like 170 cars in the collection all owned by Bill with the exception of five owned by one of his sons. There is not enough room to display the whole collection, even with some in storage. The two rooms we were in were crammed with vehicles A new facility is under construction for next year. We were very lucky to have Bill himself show us around as he detailed each of the cars and told us the story of his life and many of the cars. This is a man extremely proud of all his cars and a genuine lover of older vehicles. A former racing driver as well, he was showing us some photos of his youth with his first car and Therese asked if he liked model cars as a child. He looked at her and said "No, I only ever liked the real ones". These cars are not classic restorations and in many cases far from original, many are hot rods with high-performance motors, wheels and suspensions. This guy really loves his cars. If you love the classic cars and are ever in the Amarillo area, check it out.

Of course, we touched on a section of the old Route 66 as we left Amarillo to get a view and picture of the Cadillac Ranch, 10 Cadillacs half buried nose first in the ground at an angle. It was established in 1974 by three men who were part of an art group.

From Amarillo we continued west stopping at a little place, Vega, where almost immediately we found a lunch spot. Things are looking up.

Then on to Tucumcari where we stopped at a souvenir shop for a look at some Route 66 memorabilia and Navajo indian produced articles.

Tonight we are in Santa Rosa, New Mexico and have enjoyed dinner at a cafe and souvenir shop established in 1959 on Route 66. While travelling Route 66 was not a key part of this ride, there is not getting away from it as these little places survive on the Route 66 story and the business that comes from the nostalgic and curious travellers of the highway.

We again have vary limited mobile phone reception. I think that may be the result of our Australian phones only operating on one of the bands available here. Must be the weaker one.

Tomorrow, Albuquerque.

456 klms today, total to date 11,697 klms.