Route 66 to Paso and so much more! (5649 miles on vinyl!!)

Well, this will be the start of a pretty intense post capturing the highlights of a cross-country journey from Tulsa, Oklahoma along old Route 66 (on and off) and up to Paso Robles, California then back to Tulsa in CathyH's vibrant 60 Chevy!!

For now, I'll be posting some digital images taken along the way...but I also shot 600 pictures on 35mm that I have yet to develop, scan, crop and resize back home....so lets get started with Day One!!!

The first stop of interest was in Davenport, Oklahoma at a restored old Texaco station for a few photographic memories!!

 

This station was alive with character, nostalgia and stylish charm! From the license plates on one wal, to the old sign...and even the old truck parked beside it!! (I got several good detail shots of the truck on film)...

 

Another thing that many might miss in sprawling downtown Davenport was a tiny, unassuming shop belonging to a humble guy by the name of Leonard Compton.

What caught my eye was the collection of 1967-68 Mustangs parked around his building...and since the shop door was up, we stopped in for a visit.

(No digital pics from Leonard's shop...but I'll have some on film later)

Anyhow...Leonard gave us the quick and friendly tour of his shop, filling us in on the details related to the various Mustang projects going on there. He;s good friends with Gene Winfield and their incredible Mustangs have graced the pages of a few magazines recently. The cars get completely rebuilt from the ground-up with all new suspension components, new style "modular" Mustang Cobra engines and the whole works! Leonard and his wife do all the work in their little shop...she gets in there and does some of the welding, bodywork, etc and he does the drivetrain, chassis and finish work.

He is also in the early stages of building what he says will be the world's fastest 51 Merc...on a modern Crown Vic chassis from a discarded local cop car featuring one of his own twin turbo'd and supercharged 5.4 litre engines!!

His shop door is normally closed with the air going...but we caught him at a good time and were honored to see some of his work up close and personal!!

 

Then it was on to Chandler, Oklahoma. There, we found a few cool buildings, including one Strret Rod Shop!! That green 52 Chevy four door looked awfully familiar (Hey Stiff...you didn't move to Oklahoma, did ya?! )!!!

 

Just past Chandler, Oklahoma following the old Mother Road, we came to the picturesque 'Round Barn' and stopped to snap some digital and 35mm pics...

 

Let me tell ya...Oklahoma was (and is!) HOT! It turned out that the hottest part of our whole trip was Day One out of Oklahoma! I didn't mind the heat too much myself...but we had to use the aftermarket air conditioning with a little restraint...or the temp guage would wander into the Red Zone before too long!!

That was fine...sweatin' to the oldies on a vinyl bench helps recapture the bygone era when families and individuals traveled cross country in old Biscaynes and such! Windows down...a warm rush of outside air...and one disproportionately tanned left arm on the window ledge as you steer through each new and interesting town!

Our next stop was at a HAMBer's shop in Yukon, Oklahoma. The car cooled off as Pooch gave us the nickel tour of his place! Dig the sweet hard line mastery on that multi-carb set-up! Great guy...and a talented car builder!!

 

From Pooch's Place...it was a short run down to Mustang, Oklahoma to catch up with Roothawg and his infamous Drag-N-Fly! Root and wife Kim were friendly hosts, and he also had a couple cool dogs patroling his compund!

You really have to see Root's digger in person to fully appreciate it...the car is simply amazing! Thanks for the quick tour, Bro!!!!

 

Roothawg then escorted us up the street to Dragrcr50's place where we caught Sam relaxing after a full day in the shop. He showed us around and even fired up "Agent Orange" to give us the full effect! I can only imagine what the big block must've sounded like...that 406 mouse motor really shook the rafters with authority!!!

Sam is a first class guy...and the stuff that comes out of his shop is incredible!!! That impressive Hemi is going into a striaght-axled 57 Chevy that was just getting underway that very same afternoon!!!

 

Not too far outside of Mustang, Oklahoma we spotted this old roadside sign! Too bad the place itself was long closed...we coulda gone for a deal like that by this time of the day!!!

 

As daylight faded, we arrived in the small town of Shamrock, Texas and managed to get a few pictures of the magnificent old Conoco station as the townsfolk were rolling up the streets for the night!

This building may look a bit familiar to those who have seen the Disney "Cars" movie!!

 

Our motel for the night was just up the street from the Conoco station. No places to eat that "late" in Shamrock, Texas...so I found comfort in a bag of Fritos and a six pack of Miller Lite after several long hours behind the wheel! Cathy went for a ham & cheese bagel from the cooler we brought along and skipped the beer...then I passed out till the rooster's crow at dawn...but that will be Day Two...still to come!!!!

 

Okay...back from dinner and rested up enough to continue the saga here, so let's jump right back in where we left off...

Day Two...

We woke up in Shamrock to find it cold and rainy. Looked like Michigan had come to Texas (well, except the roads were better in Texas and the gas prices were lower!!). We had planned to drop in on Flat-top Bob to explore his junkyard empire a bit, but figured that wouldn't be so much fun in a cold, steady rain...so we just rumbled on towards Amarillo.

By lunchtime (ANY time can be "lunch time" if you ask me!!), we arrived at the world famous "Big Texan" steakhouse...home of the FREE 72 ounce steak!

(The catch being it's 'free' if you can eat the whole thing plus all it comes with in one hour or less with no help! If you make it, your meal is free and you get to sign their list of former winners and share in their glory...but if you don't eat it all, you gotta cough up $72 for the meal!! I wasn't up to tackling the monster sized steak, so I went with a more 'normal sized meal...which was VERY good by the way! Once you finish your meal, try the shootin' gallery, buy some fudge and scope out the gift shop!!)

 

After our delicious meal, we back tracked a little bit to check out a few sites along 66. The rain had stopped, leaving us pretty decent weather for the early part of the afternoon.

This desolate looking area in or near Conway, Texas was home to a few neat looking old buildings, as well as the Bug Ranch...which was a colorfull spin-off on the nearby Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo!

 

We found this old Chevy standing guard at the Conway location. Upon closer inspection, we found the remains of a big block Chevy short block sporting 'pop-up' pistons between the fenders! This must've been a very interesting car once upon a time!!!

 

Next stop was the Cadillac Ranch back in Amarillo. This is an actual ranch, so you need to park your vehicle along the fence out on the service drive, then open the gate and walk across part of the pasture to get up close to the cars if you want to see them in any detail. There are lots of empty spray cans around from those who've stopped to leave their mark on this interesting monument...but the cattle out freely wandering amongst the cars seemed to do a pretty fair job of keeping things under control so the graffiti artists don't go TOO crazy painting everything in sight!!!

 

If you take the time to motor through downtow Amarillo, you will find many of these painted horses around. Some colorfull, some plain. Unlike the Caddys and the Bugs half burried in the ground...I don't think visitors are encoraged to 'tag' these horses at all...so good thing we didn't have any spray bombs handy!!!

 

Further on down the road, we came to a tiny little town known as Vega, Texas. I was thinking that was a pretty cool name for a town...although I didn't see even ONE Vega the whole time we explored the place!! A nice older guy drove up in a dark green VW Bug to talk Chevy crate motors with me for a few...but not a single Vega to be found!!

There WAS this nicely restored building and gas pump to look at in Vega, though!

 

Traveling further along lonely Route 66 on a gorgeous weekday afternoon, we encountered this truck outside a building just shy of the Midway Point (between Chicago and Santa Monica).

 

Of course, there's always some old piece of forgotten Americana along Route 66 as you wander Westward! Here's a few more buildings we passed on our way towards New Mexico...

 

At the actual Midway Point, we discovered this old service station/cafe/gift shop...and another 60 Chevy...although this one was a faded old red four door hardtop Impala!

 

Naturally, I just couldn't let a cool photo opprotunity like this one pass us by...so I backed Cathy's 60 four door Biscayne in next to it's sadder looking sister for a few side-by-side pics of this impromptu 60 Chevy roadside family reunion!!

 

Anyone who's traveled the highways and biways of this great Nation over the past few decades will no doubt remember always seeing the Stuckey's signs at various startegic loactions...so we took a moment to stop into one and shoot a few pics outside.

 

Thats kind of funny....earlier today I was just thinking how I want to drive a hot rod on rt 66 to paso someday. Very cool man looks like it was alot of fun.

 

Thanks, Man!!

All I can say is...DO IT!!! Really...it's an unforgettable experience!!! Just bring LOTS of film...trust me!!!!

(There's many pics I have yet to develop...I'm just working with the digital images for this post!)

 

Well You're Doing One Hell OF A Good Job......

 

One of the cool aspects of this trip was that much of Route 66 and Highway 40 run real close to BNSF railroad lines, which were formerly the pride and property of the legendary Santa Fe Railroad, so we got to see LOTS and LOTS of trains on this trip! Most were newer green and orange BNSF locomotives (a color scheme adopted after the merger of Burlington, Great Northern and the Santa Fe railroads years ago), but we did catch several still wearing the old silver and red Santa Fe paint, as well as a few in the very attractive blue and yellow Santa Fe paintwork. This old Santa Fe boxcar was spotted near a gateway into an acess road for someone's field. I just HAD to snap this pic (as well as several on my 35mm camera!)

There were old rail cars and cabooses scattered all over various parts of the Route 66 trip...just another fascinating aspect of this journey!!!

 

A "must stop" location on old Route 66 is the tiny little forgotten town of San Jon, New Mexico! It's not a big town...but man, there are LOTS of cool old buildings, signs and hidden treasures waiting to be dicovered and captured by your lenses here!

Right off of the Highway 40 exit, you'll spot this little roadside cafe with the classic "EAT" sign!

 

Yeah, That looks like a one trailer town.

 

Rumbling slowly down old 66 through what's left of San Jon, you will spot many neat buildings...so drive slow...listen to that nasty-cool exhaust lope and take it all in!!!

 

Rub your eyes and take a closer look at this particular building...

...like look INSIDE of it!