When Your Plans Go South

As well as this day (Friday) turned out, it did not start well. The first thing I heard as I woke up was Cheryl croaking "Doan gum neah me I'b zig". Where this cold came from, we'll never know. You'd think that two people sharing a two seater would share everything. 

Before heading West today, we took an unplanned 30 mile detour south to Palo Duro Canyon State Park. At 100 miles long it the second longest canyon in the US and is called "The Grand Canyon of Texas". The drive down into and through the canyon was spectacular. Unfortunately, just like check in at last night's hotel, part of the park was closed off for "W"'s bike event. Still the ride was well worth the trip south.

Once headed West again, our next stop was "Cadillac Ranch"  about a strip of old Cadillacs buried nose first in a field. It's "art". Another vette was parked there when we stopped. It was a couple heading east on Route 66 from Oregon. They're actually traveling to South Carolina and figure on spending a month to 6 weeks on the trip. We picked up the old road several times today including one strip where the pavement ran out.  Lunch was at the Midway Cafe. Exactly half way between Chicago and LA. Great food, nice people, and a real Rt 66 photo op. We found the TX/NM border ghost town of Glenrio next. Population Zero (or close to it).

There is a nice stretch of 66 through Tucumcari, NM. The town, once said to be two blocks wide and two miles long, still has 34 motels all with kitschy neon signs. Albuquerque popped up ahead of us. Since we gained another hour (mountain time) it was a good time to give the car another washing and do a quick load of laundry. We tried to go to a restaurant recommended by some friends; luckily we called first...they had closed at 7:30! What...a restaurant that closes at 7:30? Oh well.
No other Corvettes today except for the Oregon travelers. 358 miles.

We Got Our Kicks!

So here we are...finally on Route 66! Just west of Oklahoma City we found the old road and headed west toward Amarillo. In some places Route 66 was easy to find...in some places it was almost impossible. We added almost 50 miles to our forward progress in turning around and re-tracing our path to find the Route again. Toured two Route 66 museums and took lots of great photos. We drove a long way on the old road. We were disappointed to find Lucille's closed and for sale. A new and "improved" Lucille's is now further down the road.The landscape was so flat! We could see for miles. As we approached Amarillo we drove into and out of a Texas size rain storm.Turns out we're sharing the downtown Amarillo Marriott with a VIP no one wants to "officially" name. Rumor has it it his initials are "W". We waited almost 20 minutes to be allowed into the hotel check in parking. The place is swarming with Amarillo cops. The staff here were extremely solicitous to us after we called to ask why the police turned us away from registration parking. A desk clerk actually brought a luggage cart out to the parking area for us. We waited a while in the hotel bar this evening in case "W" decided to hang out, until Cheryl remembered that he doesn't drink any more. She'll be in the fitness room first thing tomorrow, just in case.

At dinner tonight we were waited on by two very nice young ladies, Crystal & her trainee, Mary, whose only knowledge of New Jersey was based on the show "Jersey Shore". We assured them that New Jersey is nothing like what they see on TV.
291.3 miles today....2 Corvettes.

Real Roads Have Curves

Out to the "Happy Bays" car wash at 7:30 this morning. Cute place that plays music in the car wash bays so you can dance around while you wash your car. Our baby was looking pretty sad after a few days of driving in the rain and the front was full of dead bugs. Now we're on our way to Oklahoma City. The first half of our trip was through Ouachita National Forest. Of course it started to rain as we left the hotel. It was a beautiful winding road that went up and down the mountains. The most common road sign was "crooked & steep ahead". And inside the car there were some white knuckles. Following our tradition of being a day late...or a day early....we missed "Red Solo Cup $1 Beer Tuesday".

The second half of our day was a straight shot on I-40 into OKC. It sure is flat out here! We've driven half way across Oooooooklahoma and we haven't seen any corn or elephants yet.

For those of you who are keeping track we drove 348 miles today and saw 5 more Corvettes, including 1 that followed us for almost an hour through the National Forest.

People You Meet Along The Way

Tuesday evening in Hot Springs we met 2 couples traveling east from Grand Rapids, MI to North Carolina. They were also Corvette owners and were amazed when they saw all the stuff we got out of our trunk. We were amazed to find out that they were traveling for 12 days on motorcycles and apparently had everything they needed in the saddlebags of the bikes!

Later we visited the Hot Springs Elks Lodge. The bowling team had just gotten back from a "roll off" that they lost and were drowning their sorrows. We were more than happy to join them. Everyone had suggestions of what we should see and the route we should take to reach San Francisco. Two of the guys were originally from California. Why are they living in Hot Springs? It turns out we just missed a Corvette weekend in Hot Springs.....maybe next time.....

An Iconic Day

Tuesday is about two of Memphis, TN most memorable icons. The Peabody Ducks and Elvis Presley.. We grabbed good seats at the bar and settled in with a bloody mary to await the ducks 11 AM arrival. It was a rather big production as far as duck parades go. Two elevators were closed off to the public while the "duck master" brought them from their rooftop palace. They have been doing this daily for over 70 years (not the same ducks). It all began as a prank and the rest is history.

On to Graceland. It was as tacky as we expected. The "King" was all about opulence over elegance. The fabric walls, fur lampshades, mirrored ceilings.....sensory overload! However, the display of gold and platinum records was mind boggling. And he had quite a few beautiful automobiles.

Now, we're off to Hot Springs....the roads in Arkansas are even worse than the roads in New Jersey....if that's possible. The countryside was flat and pretty boring until we got closer to Hot Springs. Dinner at the Bleu Monkey Cafe. If you go there try the Bleu Monkey Tini!

Only 2 Corvettes today. One was really ugly...yellow with a tan top....I think he got it on clearance sale! 221.5 miles today.

You Can't Get There From Here

First of all....let's just say that Owensboro, KY seems like a nice place....but every "nice" restaurant in town is closed on Sunday. We got off to a bad start on Monday morning. The GPS had to "recalculate" because of a closed road and we were taken way out of our anticipated route to Memphis.

Every cloud has a silver lining....if we didn't have that detour we never would have seen this sign!



Our arrival in Memphis coincided with rush hour but we made it to the Peabody Hotel long before sunset which we observed from the rooftop. Several people had recommended ribs @ Rendezvous but, guess what....it's closed on Monday. Are you beginning to see a theme here? So we took another recommendation and had a yummy rib dinner @ Blues City Cafe. Afterward a couple of hours walking around Beale Street and listening to music.

4 Corvettes today - 308 miles.

Kentucky

We found Maker's Mark

You probably never heard of this place

After saying our goodbyes we took off for Kentucky Sunday morning. Our first stop, though was to be a chili place in Cincinnati. Our GPS did a great job of getting us to the right place only to find it totally closed up....like it's not opening anytime soon. We tried a second location and found it closed on Sunday. We finally got to taste the Cincinnati style chili after we crossed into Kentucky! It was different than we're used to. Mark had his the Cincinnati way - served over pasta. The drive through Kentucky was beautiful. We saw hundreds of horses and probably thousands of cows and dozens of pro-life billboards. We avoided the interstate as much as possible. Some of the little towns had 1 gas station, a post office a few houses and 4 churches. We lost count of how many times we were on "Main Street". Today's miles were 400 and we saw 6 corvettes!