Day 8 Amarillo to Santa Rosa – 197 miles (1404 miles so far)
Woke up nice and refreshed after a great nights sleep in the Big Texan, comfiest beds yet! Took some last minute photos of things such as the pool which was in the shape of Texas. We hit the road and visited the Cadillac Ranch on the outskirts of Amarillo, a row of cadillacs buried nose first in the dirt and all spray painted. Apparently they are sticking out of the ground at the same angle as the pyramids.


We then drove along enojoying the scenery til we got to the Midpoint of Route 66 in Adrian, Texas. We stopped for elevenses (we had no breakfast in anticipation) at the Midpoint Cafe which is famous for its ‘ugly crust’ pies. We both had the banana cream and it was heavenly, so much so that we bought their recipe book (the owner and all the staff signed it). The staff were all so nice and chatted endlessly, lots of y’alls. There was a group of middle aged women who were doing route 66 together, complete with matching route 66 jackets, tshirts and bags!


Our last stop in Texas was the ghost town of Glenrio on the border, it has an old ruined motel which famously has a sign which says last motel on texas on one side and first motel in texas on the other, sadly it has fallen apart a lot and it wasnt really legible.


Our first stop in New Mexico was a huge tourist info centre just over, they loaded us up with lots of leaflets and set us on our way. The landscape changed a lot almost instantly, it was suddenly very mountainous wtih canyons all over the place, quite different from the flat ranchland of western texas.


We stopped in a town called Tucumcari for lunch - time went back an hour on entering New Mexico so we were in good time for lunch even though it was later for us. We went to a place called Del’s Restaurant and I had a BLT and K had the salad and soup bar. Tucumcari is a town of much neon and a lot of the old motels have great signs so it was snap-a-rama. We visited a dinosaur museum which was pretty good as it encouranged touching things (kid and v and k friendly). There was some really cute families, including a little girl with the biggest hair ive ever seen and one with a geek kid who kept saying things like ‘rocks are my favourite mineral’! The museum was part of paleontology centre so there was a sort of lab thing you could see and the geek family got taken on a special behind the scenes trip. There was also a lot of amazing murals in Tucumcari.


We then tooted on to our destination for this evening, Santa Rosa. The road here was littered with abandoned gas stations and ghost towns, pretty awesome. Santa Rosa is ‘the city of natural lakes’ so we checked some of them out, including the Blue Hole which is what is says on the tin, a pretty small 80ft deep hole where people go scuba diving. Today it was just full of local families throwing themselves off the rocks into it and swimming about to cool down. After that we went for a walk round a local park and went to see a dam. We then went to an amazing mexican restaurant for dinner, we werent very hungry but it hit the spot perfectly. I had a wrap with slow cooked pork in a chilli sauce with salad and guacamole and K just had zuccini fritters (about a million of them I kid you not).

Now we are on a Wifi hunt, we cant find any but the owner of the cafe we are in (the Silver Moon, we are having pie) said just to go sit outside one of chain motels and use theirs, so we will but we wont have time to upload photos.


Our motel here is lovely, it so 50s, it is called the Sun n’ Sand Motel and our room is massive with 2 king size beds – for $44 dollars!


Ps We have no phone reception in this state thus far!
PPS We heard a song on radio today called ‘An ode to Susan Boyle’ – I kid you not, it was I dreamed a dream with lyrics about ‘our Susan’! First line, I dreamed a dream of Susan Boyle. We were also asked about her in by our cave guide.