Day 1 - Gettin' Our Kicks on Route 66!

Got off to a little later start than we had hoped. Seems there's always "one more thing" to do before leaving on a long trip. And, when you know that you're going to be gone for an entire year, well that makes for quite a few "one more things." The little birds that come to my feeder in the backyard were enjoying the bird bath/fountain so much I just had to snap this picture. I'm going to miss watching them over the next year. I won't be able to put up a bird feeder where we're going.

We finally got out the door about an hour later than planned. Our first stop was just a couple of blocks away to have breakfast at Flying Star. I love their breakfast burritos. A perfect send-off.

We got a lot of rain along the way. I hate driving in the rain, but knowing how bad parts of New Mexico need the rain it's hard to complain about it. It stopped raining just long enough for us to stop in Tucumcari, NM. There's a Route 66 monument there next to their convention center. We're going to be spending a lot of time on I-40 which overlaps Route 66 in a lot of places. I had heard about this monument and thought it would be nice to take a few pics there. Like many small towns along Route 66, there are all kinds of businesses with "Route 66" in their names....Route 66 Diner, Route 66 Automotive, you get the idea.

A lot more rain and then we stopped at Cadillac Ranch. It wasn't raining when we got there, but it sure was muddy. The last time I saw Cadillac Ranch was 17 years ago. The cadillacs were all painted blue then. Now, they are all graffitied. In fact, graffiti is encouraged. We stayed there a long time because I kept getting stuck in the mud and was afraid I'd slip and fall. Don't worry, though, Rich had the camera and would have snapped as many pics as possible if I had. My feet and sandals were so muddy when we got back to the car. It took a long time to scrape the mud off. I didn't think to take a picture until after they were mostly cleaned up. Sigh.

Lots more rain. We stopped in Amarillo for lunch and decided to forgo some of the other items on the itinerary and head to Canyon, TX and check into our hotel. After checking in and resting for a bit, we drove to Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Pictures don't begin to do this place justice. It's the second largest canyon in the country (I'm assuming Grand Canyon in AZ is the largest). The rain let up so we hiked a little bit (a very little bit) and stopped at several "scenic view" spots before heading down to The Pioneer Amphitheatre for dinner by The Big Texan Steak Ranch and the musical drama "TEXAS." It was a wonderful show, but, you guessed it...it started raining. It was just a very light misty kind of rain during the first act. Hardly noticeable. Then, during intermission it picked up a little. We put on our emergency ponchos (Be prepared.) and by the middle of the second act it was really coming down. No thunder or lightning though so the show went on. The performers sang and danced as if nothing unusual were happening. They were fantastic.

We didn't get back to the hotel until after 11:00pm. A long, but fun, day.