Route 66: Day Four

We slept in and a got a bit of a late start today. Beth was a little nervous last night that there severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes north of us last night. Everything was fine.

We awoke to 51 degree temperatures. And it wasn't until 10am when we got in the car, with our first stop at, for the first time this trip, McDonalds. After a couple of bacon egg and cheese biscuits, we were on our way to see the Cadillac Ranch just west of Armarillo, TX. The Cadillac Ranch is a ranch you can walk on to visit a number of Cadillac have been buried in the ground. Cattle run free and they might even walk up to you. Along this line of buried cars are empty spray paint cans and markers that people have discarded over time after they have placed their artwork on these cars.

Our next stop as in Adrian, TX where lays the mid-way point from Chicago to LA. It's day 4 and we're only half way there?! We stopped at the Midway Cafe, which sits exactly on the half way point. We met Fran, who was the owner and/or manager there who told us some stories about the place. They too were met by the producers of the movie Cars, where their restaurant was the model for Flo's V8 Cafe in that movie. Two of her waitresses were the inspiration for the twin Miatas in the movie as well. These two waitresses were also invited to the premiere of Cars in South Carolina at the SC International Raceway. They were given the total red carpet treatment and got to meet many of the people behind the making of the movie.

We crossed the time zone into Mountain time and the New Mexico border. We later met up with "Peter from France" and the rest of his French motorcyclers. For a long stretch of the way in New Mexico, Rt 66 is either not passible or no longer exits. Therefore, we had to travel on I-40, where the speed limit is 75. So we made some pretty good time today.

The car is handling very well on the trip. The fuel mileage is so good that I have to pull over every once in a while and drain some gas off. Today was a new fuel mileage high... 32.7 mpg. It was a bit cold this morning and we travelled with the top up. This is when I realized that I get better fuel mileage with the top up. It's also been very windy; I might have had a tail wind.

But the one thing I realized how this trip is different is that most vacations we take, we hussle and scramble to catch a flight or bus on time. We wait in lines, hail cabs and do whatever and stress out just to reach a destination. This trip is not really about a destination, it's more about the journey to that destination.

Tomorrow we should enter Arizona. We have reservations for Saturday night at the Wigwam Village in Holbrook, a motel with units built like Indian TeePees. We can probably make it there by tomorrow if we really wanted, but there's plenty to do around there. We might hang around there for a while. There is the Petrified Forest, Meteor Crator and Windslow, AZ.

Stats:
Miles Travelled, Today: 294 Miles/299 Miles (after going to dinner)
Travelled, Total: 1,378
Today's Travel Time: 8 hrs
Today's Average Speed: 36.75 mph
Today's Fuel Mileage: 31.5 mpg
Number of Wind Farms: 3