Don't Mess With Texas!

It didn't take long to drive out of Oklahoma and head into Texas. We were going to be driving through what is known as the panhandle of Texas and there's not too much there. So we made sure to stop at the only gas station on the border of the 2 states. It was in a very tiny town called Texola. Ever see gas pumps like these anymore?


And the picture above was what you saw when you looked around the no name gas station where we stopped...not much!
We crossed the border into the state of Texas, our 7th state, and we realized we had gone over 2,000 miles from Virginia! Since we were in Texas now, I had to put my cowboy hat to good use...



This part of Texas is made up of many small towns, like the one we drove through, Shamrock. In this town you can drive on the historic Route 66 and even see some gas stations, restaurants, and motels that have been maintained to keep the vintage look of when they were built in the 1950s.




Here's a picture of the open road...


We drove through Amarillo, an actual city in the middle of a lot of nothing! We passed the Big Texan, a restaurant where they advertise on billboards that you can get a free 72 ounce steak. Only one catch...you have to eat it in an hour! 72 ounces is more 4 and 1/2 pounds of steak...that's a lot of steak!!! We decided that we weren't going to try that challenge. If you can't eat it in an hour, then you have to pay $50.
A few miles after Amarillo, we went in search of the famous "Cadillac graveyard." We realized we had missed the exit, and I told mom that we had to turn around. She thought I was crazy, but I insisted on backtracking to the exit so I could see the 10 Cadillacs that some millionaire half buried in the middle of a field. You cannot miss something like that!!! So for a short time we actually headed east instead of west.





People are constantly pulling off the highway to walk through a field and see these cars. Many of them come with spray paint and add their own art work to the cars. One guy was trying to stencil something on a car. It was extremely windy and the smell of spray paint was something you noticed as soon as you started walking towards the car lineup. Too bad we forgot to pack our spray paint cans! We have everything else in the car, but no paint! I'm glad we decided to make a u-turn...no visit to Texas is complete without this stop!





We got back in the car and realized how windy it really was in that field...nothing like a little dirt in your mouth! Soon after, we entered into New Mexico. Unfortunately, the picture of the welcome sign did not come out so well.