Volcanoes and Caves

August 23^rd, 2026

Grants, New Mexico

Woke at 8:00am, body said nope.

Woke at 9:00am, body said nope.

Woke at 10:00am, body said dude, no.

Finally gave up on alarms, and would just let body wake on its own.  It did, at noon.

Got showered and dressed and decided I still had enough time to make the day trip I had planned to ride today.

Got the bike uncovered, grabbed what I needed and hit the road.

Headed up to the nearest interstate intersection, and then crossed over the freeway to grab a highway heading south.

Road a bit down this before I noticed I was very low on fuel.  Range said I should be able to go out and back, but this will be a close one.

Took only about 30 minutes to get south and up into the hills a bit.

Reached our destination, the Bandera Ice Caves and Volcano.

The site is next to an old cinder cone volcano (1 of about 30 in the region) which has a trail hiking up to the crater.  The other attraction is the ice cave.

This cave sits in a collapsed lava tube (one of the longest in the country) and due to some unique conditions, maintains a yearly temperature of 31 degrees (F).  This means the 20 feet of ice sitting on the bottom of the cave rarely melts below that, and it can gain a foot or two each winter as rainwater seeping in over the summer will collect on the ice and freeze.

I arrived, went into the shop and got the general description of what was out there and some history, then paid my fee to hike up the trails.  I also bought a hat as I had left mine at the motel and lots of hiking in the sun would not due my head any good.

I hiked up the volcano first.  The trail is along the cinder paths which are not too rough or steep, and winds up to the saddle where the volcano blew out the side of the caldera on its last eruption about 10000 years ago. 

The lava flow from that eruption went about 23 miles south of the volcano, merging in with flows from other volcanos in the 10000-20000 year time frame.

The saddle sits at about 8000 feet altitude.

I took some photos, enjoyed the scenery, examined some rocks, and then headed down.

About half way down, you can take a scenic trail out across the lava field in this area, which will slowly bring you down the rest of the incline and intersect the trail to the ice cave.

The ice cave, which as mentioned sits in a lava tube, is about ¼ mile beyond the end of this scenic trail.  The full hike is about 1.5 miles.

Once you reach the entrance to the collapsed area of the tube, you have to come down a steep set of stairs (think there are about 50-60 of them) to reach the platform above the ice in the cave.

As mentioned, the bottom of the cave has a large pool of ice about 20 feet thick.  This ice maintains itself year-round and helps to keep the cave at 31 degrees.

It also creates an environment where arctic lichen and arctic algae can survive. (How they got here in the first place is still a mystery as the should not exist this far south)

The cave has a wall built in the back from stone, which was started by native peoples and maintained by settlers in the region later.  The natives and settlers all harvested ice from the cave for at least several 100 years, possibly longer.

While ice harvesting was stopped in the 1940s, it also started its life as a tourist attraction around then as well.

The shop had lots of artifacts on display that were found in the area, mostly pottery and items left behind by natives that had lived in the area.

I hiked the short distance back to the shop and spent some time talking with the people running the place (I think the older guy might be the owner of the land) and some of the other guests visiting.

I later went inside to buy a cold drink and look at the aforementioned artifacts and browse the gift shop.

Finally decided to head back, so got going and took it slowly so I would hopefully not run out of fuel.

Thankfully it was mostly down hill on the way back and at slower speeds I arrived with about 30 miles of range to spare, so maybe ½ a gallon of fuel left.

Stopped at station and filled the tank, then went back to the motel.

I pulled off stuff from the bike, then sat down to work on my financial stuff again.  Verify card charges, balance accounts, paid off cards, and move funds as needed.

I then decided to walk next door to the burger joint for dinner.

As I was leaving, a guy in one of the rooms down the row asked if I had any tools.

He was trying to remove door panel to fix his electric window which would not go up, and did not have the socket size he needed.  Sadly, neither did I, but I did have some needle tipped vice grips, and that worked to get the bolts out.

But the problem was not something easy to fix.  Appears that the cable that runs the window up and down has become jammed, knotted or fallen off the spindle that winds it up and down.  Likely will need to remove the motor to even try and fix.

Guy decided he would wait till tomorrow and he has to take it to shop for a problem in his transmission as well.  Wished him luck, put my tools away and then went for dinner.

Burger place is small inside, but figured out what I wanted and ordered.

Took a long time for food to be ready, though they do make things after you order it, so that does make things slower.  Only 2 people and 1 online order were in front of me, but still took 20 minutes to get my food.

I walked back to the motel to eat and then started to work on the blogs.

Now that this one is done, I will try to get them uploaded as I am behind again, and then do a few other updates.  Then I need to get route done, so likely no video work tonight.

Tomorrow we will get into Arizona, and probably bit over half way across.  As I have already stopped at many of the sites along the route in northern AZ, I am going to skip most of that stuff tomorrow and just get to area around Flagstaff at least, hopefully bit farther (hoping to reach Williams).

Catch ya down the road.

Todays Route:

Long roads of nothing and traffic jams.

August 22^nd, 2026

Grants, New Mexico

Woke early and decided to just get an early start since I had a longer ride today.

Got ready and then loaded the bike.

Checked over room, dropped the key in the box and hit the road.

Stopped on edge of town for a Route 66 photo op, then hit the interstate.

A large part of the ride today will be on the interstate as there are no older alignments left to ride.  Some of the oldest are still there, but are not longer accessible by vehicle, or are rough gravel sections that dead end in the middle of nowhere at bridges that no longer exist.  In some cases, the road is just gone.

A few alignments exist as frontage roads, but do not allow a continuous drive, you need to back track and get back on freeway to reach next section, so those I skip as well unless there is something really awesome on the route to see.

Stopped a bit later to get fuel and then back on the road.

Had a few off the interstate routes, mostly just running along beside the interstate as a frontage road, and some short sections where the road cut across something the freeway went around. 

Also rode through a few small towns, but nothing much to see in them.

An hour outside of Albuquerque and we were able to get off onto some older alignments, most which still ran next to freeway, but going down the canyon, so was a scenic ride.

Few sections that did wind off into the hills a bit before coming back to the freeway corridor.

Finally came out of the canyon onto the main road across Albuquerque which was the original alignment into town starting in the mid 1930s.

NOTE: Before that time, Route 66 went north to Las Vegas and Santa Fe, NM before coming south.  There had been no existing roadway in the canyon when 66 was formed in 1926.

In the mid 1930s, a local guy who had lost an election and had some other politically motivated attacks aimed at him got a crew together and in roughly a month created a roadway from Moriarty to Albuquerque.  The state tried to stop it, but was too late.

He later commissioned to have the route moved, basically taking all that traffic away from Santa Fe, though they managed to survive anyway from other means.

The road which is now Central Blvd runs out of the hills and toward the center of the valley before heading back up the other side.  The 1926 route had actually gone south and then back up before the straighter route was built in the 30s.

I chose to follow the later route as the early route was not drivable in many spots and you had to follow a local highway, or even some gravel roads.  It then came back up to the interstate on highway 6.  (NOTE: Glad I did not take that route, as they had it closed near the freeway for some construction, so would have had to back track a few hours.)

After I entered the city, I rode about a mile or so in and then stopped to see if a friend I had here in town had seen my Facebook message I sent earlier that morning.

He had not, so I continued down the road, but about 10 minutes later I got an alert and it was him and he had finally seen the message.

I pulled off into an empty parking lot at a shop not open, and we exchanged a few messages and he just had time to meet me for lunch if we could get to it soon.

I found a Route 66 themed diner down near I-25 which was near the halfway point of the road anyway.

He was already close to that location, so worked great.

Took me about 15 minutes to get there, so he had arrived and gotten a table already.

I found the place, parked, grabbed a few bags (Albuquerque has a very bad problem with theft of stuff on/in vehicles, even entire vehicles.)

I could still see the bike from inside, but the critical stuff was with me.

Met up with Jack, who I know from the various conventions I attend and via our mutual friends Kathy and Wesley, both actors from the 1970s and 80s.

We had lunch and talked about various things; he then insisted on buying.  We then took a photo with our server and parted ways as he had to go do some work stuff and I needed to get back on the road.

I rode the rest of the way out of town, stopping on the edge to use the restroom at a Loves truck stop which was just packed with cars and people.

Got onto the frontage road and road a few miles on it till we reached the Rio Puerco bridge which is still standing, but no longer used for motor traffic.

I stopped at the gas station nearby to buy some drinks and take a short break, then rode over to the bridge to do some photos.

At this point the access road alignment runs a few miles to a dead end, so my only option was to get back on the freeway.  This would be the route for quite a distance.

A few miles up the road and traffic slowed to a crawl and then stopped.

Sat there for probably 15 minutes, Maps is now telling me it is a 1 hour delay due to construction.  WTF?

We would creep ahead a bit, then stop, repeat, and then we started to move.  Reached the speed limit, and 2 miles later, dead stop again.

Sat there another 10 minutes, repeated the same pattern.

Eventually we got going slowly, and then kept going.

The construction, lane closure and accident Maps kept telling me about never appeared.

NOTE: I guess there was an accident with a Semi Truck and many cars had been diverted or turned around, but traffic still backed up about 20 miles on the freeway, which was when I was on it.  During that 1 hour to go 20 miles, they finished cleaning up the accident, and the lane closure and construction finished for the day and lane was re-opened.  They are resurfacing, so must work just in the days till about 3:00, which was when this whole thing started for me.

Thankfully the 100+ degree temps I had seen most of the day (first hour was bit nicer in mid 80s-mid 90s) started to drop as a heavy overcast moved in.  Lots of rain showers visible in the distance on either side of the freeway and even ahead.  Winds picked up as well.

The overcast, combined with winds blowing and the moisture in the surrounding region cooled things off nicely, got down to 80 shortly after we cleared the traffic jam.

Once things cleared, I rode another few miles before turning off the freeway to use the older alignments again which are still drivable in this area.

This routes actually do get away from the freeway, up to 2 miles apart in many spots, and wide in and around canyons and hills the freeway just plowed over.

Finally came into edge of Grants where I will stay for the night.

Was not far into town when I found the motel I am staying at.

Pulled up and got checked in.  Host was going to walk me over to room, I rode bike over but then they changed me to a different room.  Guess they had just completed a bathroom remodel in the other room and the epoxy smell was still quite strong.

The other room was just a few rooms down and it had been finished a week or so back, so was not having the problems with construction smells.

The Southwest Motel is an original 1950s motel that the current owners are remodeling, and is not a bad little place.

I got bike unloaded and then decided to ride down the road a mile to the convenience store to buy some drinks.

Once back, I then put the bike under cover and changed into street clothes.

Decided to walk over to the pizza place a block down the road for dinner.

Got there and it was pretty dead.  One couple at the bar, and a father and 3 teens in the game room making a huge racket with the air hockey game.

I went into the smaller room and got a menu and sat down there, much of the place was closed down, so only a few areas you could sit.

Ordered my food, a 9 inch pizza and some breadsticks with toppings.

Food arrived.  Pizza as hoped, but the breadsticks were a full 16 inch pizza!!!

Ended up eating way too much food and did not even finish the breadsticks.

Worked on getting footage off the cameras while waiting and eating.

Then back to the motel and at this point I was exhausted.  Between the long day, heat, and not too much food, I decided to just go to bed even though it was only 8:30.

Laid in bed for a bit, but did get up and down a few times to adjust AC or use restroom or change clothing, even walked outside to verify cover was okay as I could hear the wind whipping it around.

Think I finally fell asleep about 9am, not really sure though, but body must have needed sleep.

See you in the morning.

Todays Route:

Day to relax and explore

August 21^st, 2026

Tucumcari, New Mexico

Slept in a bit, do not even recall when I got out of bed.

Showered and dressed, then walked outside to look down the road to see if the diner was actually open.  Looked like it was, so got helmet and other items and rode the half block down and parked at the diner, Rubee’s Diner.

Had a good late breakfast, though place was a bit slow to get order, but food was very good.

Left and rode a few blocks over to the Mesalands Dinosaur Museum.

This small museum is affiliated with the Mesalands community college and their Paleontology program as well as some other artistic programs.

I walked in and the lady did tell me they would be closing in about 35 minutes for lunch, but decided I could probably get through it in that time as I rarely read every sign and note and gloss over some artifacts anyway.

Museum went over several fossil finds in the area, even had a case of finds by students during their workshop programs they offer.

Lots of the skeletons are actually bronze casts, something they do at the facility or nearby school as part of an art program.

Several other items were also casts of real bones. 

A few actual fossils on display though to round things out.

Some diorama type displays and some stuff aimed at kids as well.

Finished up and looked over things in gift shop, but really do not have room to buy stuff.

She locked up as we both walked out and I went back to the motel to relax and work on stuff.

Got some videos converted and some other things cleaned up, and then wasted some time looking on social media.

Left early for dinner, thinking I would work on video conversions while I ate.

Rode down to the other edge of town to eat at another recommended place called Del’s Restaurant.

Parked and went inside, got seated and food ordered.  I then got laptop out and started to work when server came back and conversation about the videos came up.

Then couple at table next too me chimed as they had overheard and more discussions ensued, and a couple at the bar got involved as well.

Lots of discussions of travel, people we met, and various topics, mostly between 2-3 of the 7 or 8 people in and out of the area.

Spent much of it talking with the lady at the other table as she was interested in my travel plans and ideas and how I was working to share the experience with others via various platforms.

We eventually started to get ready to go.  Paid my bill and left and rode back to the motel and continued to work on video conversions till I finished what I needed to edit another video.

I then sat and wasted some time before I remembered I needed to plot tomorrows route still!

So ended up being up till 1:00am to get that done, so now I am going to bed!

Stopped a bit later to get fuel and then back on the road.

Had a few off the interstate routes, mostly just running along beside the interstate as a frontage road, and some short sections where the road cut across something the freeway went around. 

Also rode through a few small town, but nothing much to see in them.

An hour outside of Albuquerque and we were able to get off onto some older alignments, most which still ran next to freeway, but going down the canyon, so was a scenic ride.

Few sections that did wind off into the hills a bit before coming back to the freeway corridor.

Finally came out of the canyon onto the main road across Albuquerque which was the original alignment into town starting in the mid 1930s.

NOTE: Before that time, Route 66 went north to Las Vegas and Santa Fe, NM before coming south.  There had been no existing roadway in the canyon when 66 was formed in 1926.

In the mid 1930s, a local guy who had lost an election and had some other politically motivated attacks aimed at him got a crew together and in roughly a month created a roadway from Moriarty to Albuquerque.  The state tried to stop it, but was too late.

He later commissioned to have the route moved, basically taking all that traffic away from Santa Fe, though they managed to survive anyway from other means.

The road which is now Central Blvd runs out of the hills and toward the center of the valley before heading back up the other side.  The 1926 route had actually gone south and then back up before the straighter route was built in the 30s.

I chose to follow the later route as the early route was not drivable in many spots and you had to follow a local highway, or even some gravel roads.  It then came back up to the interstate on highway 6.  (NOTE: Glad I did not take that route, as they had it closed near the freeway for some construction, so would have had to back track a few hours.)

After I entered the city, I rode about a mile or so in and then stopped to see if a friend I had here in town had seen my Facebook message I sent earlier that morning.

He had not, so I continued down the road, but about 10 minutes later I got an alert and it was him and he had finally seen the message.

I pulled off into an empty parking lot at a shop not open, and we exchanged a few messages and he just had time to meet me for lunch if we could get to it soon.

I found a Route 66 themed diner down near I-25 which was near the halfway point of the road anyway.

He was already close to that location, so worked great.

Took me about 15 minutes to get there, so he had arrived and gotten a table already.

I found the place, parked, grabbed a few bags (Albuquerque has a very bad problem with theft of stuff on/in vehicles, even entire vehicles.)

I could still see the bike from inside, but the critical stuff was with me.

Met up with Jack, who I know from the various conventions I attend and via our mutual friends Kathy and Wesley, both actors from the 1970s and 80s.

We had lunch and talked about various things; he then insisted on buying.  We then took a photo with our server and parted ways as he had to go do some work stuff and I needed to get back on the road.

I rode the rest of the way out of town, stopping on the edge to use the restroom at a Loves truck stop which was just packed with cars and people.

Got onto the frontage road and road a few miles on it till we reached the Rio Puerco bridge which is still standing, but no longer used for motor traffic.

I stopped at the gas station nearby to buy some drinks and take a short break, then rode over to the bridge to do some photos.

At this point the access road alignment runs a few miles to a dead end, so my only option was to get back on the freeway.  This would be the route for quite a distance.

A few miles up the road and traffic slowed to a crawl and then stopped.

Sat there for probably 15 minutes, Maps is now telling me it is a 1 hour delay due to construction.  WTF?

We would creep ahead a bit, then stop, repeat, and then we started to move.  Reached the speed limit, and 2 miles later, dead stop again.

Sat there another 10 minutes, repeated the same pattern.

Eventually we got going slowly, and then kept going.

The construction, lane closure and accident Maps kept telling me about never appeared.

NOTE: I guess there was an accident with a Semi Truck and many cars had been diverted or turned around, but traffic still backed up about 20 miles on the freeway, which was when I was on it.  During that 1 hour to go 20 miles, they finished cleaning up the accident, and the lane closure and construction finished for the day and lane was re-opened.  They are resurfacing, so must work just in the days till about 3:00, which was when this whole thing started for me.

Thankfully the 100+ degree temps I had seen most of the day (first hour was bit nicer in mid 80s-mid 90s) started to drop as a heavy overcast moved in.  Lots of rain showers visible in the distance on either side of the freeway and even ahead.  Winds picked up as well.

The overcast, combined with winds blowing and the moisture in the surrounding region cooled things off nicely, got down to 80 shortly after we cleared the traffic jam.

Once things cleared, I rode another few miles before turning off the freeway to use the older alignments again which are still drivable in this area.

This routes actually do get away from the freeway, up to 2 miles apart in many spots, and wide in and around canyons and hills the freeway just plowed over.

Finally came into edge of Grants where I will stay for the night.

Was not far into town when I found the motel I am staying at.

Pulled up and got checked in.  Host was going to walk me over to room, I rode bike over but then they changed me to a different room.  Guess they had just completed a bathroom remodel in the other room and the epoxy smell was still quite strong.

The other room was just a few rooms down and it had been finished a week or so back, so was not having the problems with construction smells.

The Southwest Motel is an original 1950s motel that the current owners are remodeling, and is not a bad little place.

I got bike unloaded and then decided to ride down the road a mile to the convenience store to buy some drinks.

Once back, I then put the bike under cover and changed into street clothes.

Decided to walk over to the pizza place a block down the road for dinner.

Got there and it was pretty dead.  One couple at the bar, and a father and 3 teens in the game room making a huge racket with the air hockey game.

I went into the smaller room and got a menu and sat down there, much of the place was closed down, so only a few areas you could sit.

Ordered my food, a 9 inch pizza and some breadsticks with toppings.

Food arrived.  Pizza as hoped, but the breadsticks were a full 16 inch pizza!!!

Ended up eating way too much food and did not even finish the breadsticks.

Worked on getting footage off the cameras while waiting and eating.

Then back to the motel and at this point I was exhausted.  Between the long day, heat, and not too much food, I decided to just go to bed even though it was only 8:30.

Laid in bed for a bit, but did get up and down a few times to adjust AC or use restroom or change clothing, even walked outside to verify cover was okay as I could hear the wind whipping it around.

Think I finally fell asleep about 9am, not really sure though, but body must have needed sleep.

See you in the morning.

Half way to the end of Route 66

August 20^th, 2026

Tucumcari, New Mexico

Woke at normal time and got going as I was hoping to get out early today.

Had bike loaded and ready to go by a little after 9:00am.

Hit the road and followed the route out of town.

Not much to see along this section of the route, even the route is mostly just running alongside the freeway.

Stopped for fuel so I could be ready for the higher speed sections today since some of the route is the interstate.

It was at least cooler today, was only in mid 80s and sky was mostly overcast, so cut down on the direct sunlight.

Crossed over into Texas, and road became even more dull, just running along the interstate and not much around, even the trees had thinned out.

First stop of interest was the old U Drop Inn and Conoco station in Shamrock Texas.  Walked around the old building a bit and then went inside to check out some of the interior displays.  I checked out the café and bought a brownie as I was hungry.

Ate out by the bike and then just as I was getting ready to leave, the skies opened up with a medium rain.  I had seen several small showers on the horizon and even a few sprinkles along the way, but this was a good rain.

Drove out of town and rain was done in just a few minutes, then sun started to come out more and clouds thinned out.  Was only about 80 at this point, but I could tell it was going to warm up now.

Bit farther down the road and we stopped in McLean Texas at another old gas station which had been restored some.  This one was just external, nothing inside, but took a few photos.

We then started to reach the interstate sections where all the road alignments throughout the 100 years are now under the freeway, not even the access roads are part of the original route, or only for a few 100 feet.   

While some of the roads in the area are original and off the freeway, they are the first segments in the mid 20s, and never had pavement, so are rough gravel at best, some are even beat up enough to make driving them difficult if not impossible depending on vehicle.

Many sections are just gone, no longer existing, or now on private property and no longer accessible.

The only way to drive many of the alignments here is to get off and drive out to the dead ends and then back track.  Just not something I want to do at this time, so will stay on the freeway, which technically was Route 66 prior to the Interstate system using the same route and laying on top of the original route.

In the areas that the access road served at least in sections as the original route, I would ride some of them just to avoid being on the interstate as loaded up the bike really does not want to go above 65mph, and freeway is 75mph, and most drive beyond that.

I did several sections where some of the access road was original, other parts were not.

At one point I had to back track though as an accident had occurred on the frontage road that I was on (and it was original route).  Thankfully it was only 1 mile back to the interstate access ramp, and then I was able to get off and back on the frontage road after 4 miles.

A few older bridges still on some sections, but mostly just plan road and much of it has been freshly surfaced (at least in Texas, the Oklahoma sections were very old concrete).

At one point the Google Maps did its usual thing of changing my route midway, and even though I had set it up to avoid the interstates this time, it had me on the wrong side of the freeway, so I was riding just a normal frontage road, and not the original route which was the other side.

It did make it easier for me to stop at the leaning water tower at Britten though as I was now on the correct side of the interstate and did not have to cross over.

Stopped there for a few quick photos, then had to adjust my map as it was still trying to route me to a spot back down the other road, but once I deleted that stop point it found the road I needed to use.

Not long after and we reached the section where all the routes were under the interstate.

I thought about riding the frontage roads anyway, but since I was trying to make a longer distance today, I had planned the route using the freeways to save time.

I did pull off going through the small towns on the original route, but then back on the freeways.

We finally reached Amarillo and was able to follow the old route into town on the north side and then it drops down into the center of town before heading back out to the west.

Was not a bad route, only the routing was a bit confusing as the original roadway in use back in the day was now a one way road heading north.  So, I had to use one of the southbound roads a block to either side.

I had decided to use the road to the east as the overpass to get over the rail yard was bigger and would give a larger view of the city.  This ended up being a bad choice.

Due to some work on the north bound road I could not reach, they had EVERY SINGLE east west road closed for 9 blocks, over a half mile.

So instead of crossing on 6^th street, I had to go all they way to 10^th street to get over, and then go back north on another road farther west to reach the Route 66 alignment on 6^th.

This was also right in downtown, traffic was busy, and like always, I got stopped at EVERY SINGLE traffic light, and they take forever here just like in Oklahoma (seriously, lights can stay red up to 2 full minutes, traffic or not).

Once I was back on the route, I started to look for a place to eat.

Not a huge number of places, and most were very run down looking and had little to now parking and not a place I was going to leave the fully loaded bike to walk inside a windowless building to eat.

When rode though another historic district, they had lots of nice places, but almost zero parking other than the street, and it was of course full up.

Ended up getting to edge of town and never finding any place that looked like it was worth stopping at that had sufficient parking that I could keep an eye on the bike while I ate.  Or in a few cases the place was good, but was not open for some reason.

Left Amarillo and headed along the freeway on the access roads.  I saw a billboard for a Pilot truck stop, so figured they would have something food wise and I needed to get fuel again as the freeway legs had definitely drunk it up faster.

Reached the place after 20 minutes and pulled off the route to go south of the freeway to reach it.

Pulled up to the pump and damn thing would not read my card, or something.  It just hangs up on Please Wait….

Finally cancelled it and moved to a new pump.  It’s also over 100 degrees again, so melting in the heat and humidity (though that has come down some).

Fueled the bike, and then moved it over to the front of the building.

Inside they did not have a restaurant, but had hot foods in a deli case, so bought a hamburger and a few cold drinks to eat while sitting in the seating area to stay cool and keep eye on the bike outside.

Once done, we were back on the road, went back over to other side of freeway and found the route again.

At one point, it routed me an odd way again, taking me off the Route 66 onto a different road, still not sure why, but then the routes ended again and back on the interstate.

At this point it would stay Interstate the entire way except for the small down business routes.  I had planned to take a 1.5 mile gravel road on the 1926 alignment to reach a long paved section of that route, but decided I was not in the mood to be on loose gravel in this heat.

I deleted that routing point when it came up and stayed on the Interstate.

We pulled off Adrian along the route going through town and stopped at the Mid Point marker.

This is the exact middle of the Chicago to Los Angeles Route, though I did not see what alignment they were using as the distance changed over the years.

I pulled up and waited on the side of the road as three other riders were doing photos with their bikes and the markings on the road and sign behind.

Once they were done, I pulled up and did the same.

While I was trying to do the sign selfie, a guy asked if I wanted him to take the photo and since I could not get me, the bike, and the sign on my own, I let him take the photo.

Then we got to talking, and a few others in his group came and went.  They all had accents, I am thinking British, but could have been another one of the commonwealth countries, I never had been good and detecting the differences.

At one point the guy asked if he could sit on my bike and take a photo and let him do that, then one of the girls wanted to do the same.

I then moved my bike over in front of the gift shop with the group of Harley riders that had been there before me.  They were all from Mexico and had ridden up.

The group of people were now setting up a photo in front of the sign and asked if I could take the photo so they could all be in it, which I was happy to do for them.

They left about then and I went inside the MidPoint Café to buy a cold drink.

Sadly, the can of Coke was not really that cold, but was still better than nothing.

I went outside to drink it and then got on the bike to continue on my way.

Short way down the road we crossed into New Mexico, and then reached Tucumcari which has a nice long section of the route going into the center of town.

Rode through town, and lots of old motels and hotels are still here.  Some are in better shape than others.  A few do look abandoned, or might be apartments now.

Lots of older buildings still to look at.

I found my motel on the west edge of town, but as I was still 10 minutes too early, I back tracked to find the Circle K I had passed so I could buy some cold drinks.

Once done, I returned to the motel and was good to check in.

There was one other car in the lot, otherwise place was empty, which is odd since it is an older property and in decent condition.

But also, not as much around here, definitely not walking distance.

I unloaded the bike and then sat inside for an hour to cool off.

Then decided I was ready for dinner as it was about 5pm, and might be nice to eat before things get busy, if they do.

I had asked motel guy about good places to eat and he recommended two.  Both were Mexican, though the one had lots of other stuff as well.

I rode down the road to the one I had seen on the way in as it has a very bright yellow building with cool hat structure on the top, called La Cita.

Ordered a thing of Nachos and 3 tacos, not realizing how large the tacos would be.  Way too much food, was quite stuffed when I left.

Rode back to the motel and then worked on a few online things, but was really tired, so did not get much done, even though I was up till quite late still, mostly just reading stuff or scrolling through other people’s stuff.

I will try to get some work done tomorrow, but now I am going to bed.

Catch ya down the road.

Todays Route:

66 History plus going out of this world

August 19^th, 2026

Elk City, Oklahoma

Woke early, but still very tired, so sat in chair hoping I would nod off, but not go into deep sleep or when alarm goes off in 45 minutes.

That seems to have worked.  I dozed off, but when alarm did go off, I felt a bit more awake and body did not hurt as much.

Showered and geared up, then packed and started to load the bike.

Once loaded, rode over to the office to drop off the key, which was really easy as one of the employees was just about to go in and asked if I was checking out and took key from me so I did not have to walk inside.

Rode next door to fuel up the bike, and then decided to go buy a breakfast item from the deli, settled on the breakfast burrito as they looked better than the sandwiches.

Stood by the bike and ate, thankfully early enough that the building blocked some of the sun.

Got on the road and headed out of town.

We soon were riding the frontage road along the interstate.  This will be a common thing for the next few states as I-40 pretty much took over and, in many cases, there is no original road left, so will be doing more interstate riding as well.

Not too far out of town we took a more northernly route and found ourselves at the Bridgeport Bridge.

This 3,944 foot bridge, completed in 1933 and part of Route 66 since 1934 (bridge was built for this re-alignment), it is made with 38 steel pony trusses which remain on the bridge today, even though it was given a new, wider road surface in 2023.

Took a few photos from the end, and then rode across it.

Not long after, we stopped at the restored Lucille’s Highway Gas Station.  In a building originally built in 1929 to serve as a fuel stop with living space above, it was eventually acquired by Lucille and her husband in 1941 and run as a gas station, restaurant, store and even motel till her death in 2000.

A local businessman bought and restored the place so travelers can still stop and see it, and the Lucille’s name and tradition was moved to a hotel and restaurant in nearby Weatherford (I did not stop at those).

But while in Weatherford, I spent a few hours at the Stafford Air & Space Museum.

Named for Thomas P. Stafford, who was born and raised in town, later graduated from the US Naval Academy and became and Air Force test pilot.  This lead to him becoming part of NASA in the early days where it later flew on Gemini 4, Gemini 9, Apollo 10, and the Apollo-Soyuz docking mission in 1975.

Rising to the rank of General, he was instrumental in the creation of the Stealth aircraft programs within the US forces (though that information was not publicly known for 20+ years after the fact)

The museum has a large building next to a small runway for the civilian airport.

Inside are sections on early aircraft with many recreations of early planes like the Wright Brothers Flyer and Spirit of St. Louis. 

Then you move into the space related stuff which is a large collection, having several rocket engines and components from various systems throughout the history of the US space program.

They even have the actual Gemini 6 capsule that flew in space.

A large room holding the body and an inert version of a Titian Nuclear missile, components from Saturn V rockets, including some of the recently recovered launch stage components from the early Apollo missions (the piece on display was an engine turbine from Apollo 11!)

A really cool full size mock up of the Apollo moon lander setup.  A training model for the Space shuttle as well as a full set of Space Shuttle tires (after use).

You then get a small hall with a few fighter jets in there, one being a replica and the others actual planes, including a F117A Stealth Fighter that saw lots of deployments before its retirement.

Outside the building, there are additional fighter aircraft displayed where you can walk up and under the aircraft and really get a feel for the size.

The grounds also contain a really cool playground for the kids with rocket shaped equipment to climb on.  If I was only much younger.  A UFO in the sandbox, and several models of rockets and shuttles next to a small tower.

There were other spaces for outdoor events, picnic ramadas, a water fountain and a reflection garden with mirrors, rocks, bells to allow one to focus or reflect on themselves.

Once I had seen it all, I returned to the bike, uncovered it and got back on the road.

I though about stopping at another local museum that had some cars and a helicopter, but was mostly just a local history of life on the prairie museum.

As I had spent much longer at the Air & Space Museum, I decided to skip the other one and continue toward my destination.

I had thought about stopping for food, but the one place I saw that I might want to stop at was packed, and everything else was Mexican food, which I have eaten too often last several days, so wanted something different.

I stopped on edge of town to see the large painted mural on a wind turbine blade and see the smaller version of the Vietnam Memorial created here locally, but serving the same function as the bigger one in Washington DC.

From here it was mostly smaller towns and not much to see or stop for food wise.

I finally had to stop and use the restroom, so picked a local convenience store chain that I know serves deli type foods.

Bought a slice of pizza and chicken sandwich and a few cold drinks.

Sat in the AC and had lunch, then back on the bike for the final half hour into my destination town of Elk City.

As I had not taken the long lunch I had hoped, I was running a bit early to check in to the motel, so decided to go ahead and do the National Route 66 Museum tonight instead of in the morning, which will let me get out of town faster as well tomorrow.

I passed by my motel a short distance to reach the museum, pulled in and parked.

The place is a large complex of several museums that are all connected and your access to one gets you access to all of them, not bad for $5.

I stared with the Transport museum I had parked by and entered.

They had a few bikes on display, an airplane, some car related stuff and a little bit of Route 66 stuff, including an art project a guy did back in 2019 travelling the route and taking photos of people with a Kodak Instant camera, then having them sign the photos after it printed out.

They also had an old firetruck and a large display in memory of the emergency personal that responded to the Oklahoma City Federal building bombing in 1995.

Next was the Route 66 specific museum.  It has several old cars, some other related items, and several large displays along with audio stories about life on 66.  Also had a huge map on a curved wall showing the route.

After this they have a small town mocked up with buildings built to appear like they would have in the earlier days of the state, guessing late 1880s to 1920s.  A few of the buildings were actual buildings moved to the site that had been used back in the early days of the state.

They had a large house holding more stuff about the city, but I skipped that one.

Visited the old stable building with lots of buggies and the railroad setup with an old caboose.

I stopped inside the mockup pharmacy which was also a soda fountain mockup, but they did sell candy, ice cream and bottled soda, so bought a bottle to drink and one for later in the room.

I spent some time talking with the lady running that area, and then decided I was ready to go check in, it was nearing 4:00 now.  I skipped the farm building and blacksmith shop, seen enough of that stuff over my life.

Rode back down the road to the motel, and the owner was actually just putting some stuff inside when I arrived, so was able to quickly get checked in, though was a bit of a challenge as the guy spoke very bad English.  Seems like he knows the words, just cannot pronounce them in a way that makes sense.

Got into the room and turned on the AC to start cooling and unpacked the bike.

Once done, I closed the door, but noticed the room was still quite warm, but thought it was just me.

I used the sink to splash cold water on my head and face, and arms, and stupid watch clasp fell apart when I tried to take it off.  Parts falling in the sink with the running water.

I managed to find them all I think, so will try to put it back together later.

I pulled off several layers, and moved the desk chair in front of the AC unit in the wall and sat there for about an hour, think I might have dozed off even.

 I noticed though that the AC unit would run for a minute or two, then stop and just blow humid air for a few minutes, then repeat the cycle.

I turned it down to the lowest setting and then took a cold shower and got dressed.

Still hot in the room.

I decided to first go buy some cold drinks, so got on the bike and rode about ½ mile down the road to the Love’s station in town and bought some cold stuff, then came back to the room.

As I walked in, it was definitely still very hot.  The unit has a mode to show the room temp and it was saying 87 degrees, even though the AC had been running at 61 degrees for at least 30 minutes, and 67 degrees for over an hour before that.

I decided to go complain at the office, but first went to put my drinks in the fridge, and it was warm.  Starting to get annoyed now.

Looked around and the surge strip it and the microwave were plugged into was shut off.

Turned it back on, and could hear it start up, so put stuff in the fridge and shut it, should stay cold enough till it cools down.

I stopped in the office to see what they could do about the AC, thinking either a fix they might have, or moved to a different room, but only option they gave me was a fan to blow the cool air farther into the room.

I figured that might work some, and easier than moving rooms, if there is anything open as this is one of the older Route 66 motels that many people will stay at.

Put the fan on a table I moved in front of the unit and started it, and then decided I would let it run while I went to have dinner.

While I had thought about going to the steak house recommended by the lady at the local museum, I did not want to ride the 4 miles there, so opted to just eat at the Braum’s which was 2 buildings over.

A burger and some chicken strips were enough food and much cheaper too.

Came back to the room, and did notice a small difference.  The overall temperature was bit less, and I could feel the cooler air now in the back of the room, but still too warm, but hopefully as the night cools off the internal air will as well.

I sat down to try fixing the watch.  I realized I was missing a piece, and found it in the trash can in the bathroom where it had bounced off the counter and landed.

Spent about 30 minutes trying to get the damn think to go back together, but it just kept shooting one end of the pin out and onto the floor, after the 3^rd time, I said fuck it and tossed all the parts in the trash. 

Put the watch in a bag and will just worry about it when back in AZ.  I liked having it to count my steps and it also takes my blood pressure (though I do not use it as much), but can live without it for now.

I then sat down to upload the footage to the laptop, and then plotted the route for tomorrow.

A large part of the route tomorrow is on the interstate, there is no original road, even a frontage road, to drive, and even when the frontage road is the original road, in many cases there is no access without back tracking for a mile or more, so skipped those parts.

Will be about 1/3 freeway tomorrow, but will make a bit better time and distance, so decided to push through Texas completely and end the day in New Mexico, where I will stay for 2 nights again to rest from the long day and also get some work done again.

Other than the midpoint of the route, not much to stop at tomorrow, a few old gas stations and buildings I might do a quick photo of. 

I will have a small 1 mile section of gravel tomorrow, I thought about skipping it, but the frontage road there is the old route, and only way to get on it without a large back track was that section of gravel which is also mostly original route as well (just never paved, was moved before that happened).

Hopefully it will cool off a little tomorrow as we head into higher elevations in New Mexico, but probably not enough to make a difference.

Now I think I will get a few small things done and go to bed, try to get an earlier start tomorrow to still arrive early enough to avoid being in the late afternoon heat as long.

Catch ya down the road.

Todays Route:

Another day to rest and get some editing done

 August 18^th, 2026

El Reno, Oklahoma

Alarm went off at 8:00am, went back to bed, woke finally around 10:00am

Sat around the dark room in zombie mode for at least an hour or so, then got showered and dressed.

Did some online checks and then decided to walk over to the Wendy’s on the other side of the gas station for lunch.

When I got closer, I noticed another place just beyond Wendy’s called Braum’s.

Looked like they did burgers and such along with ice cream.  Decided that would be something new and went there instead.

Had a big burger with fries and a drink.  Food was pretty good, and reasonably priced.

I was going to have some ice cream, but was not hungry anymore and decided to just go over to the gas station and buy a few drinks and some chips to snack on later.

Once back at the room, I started to work on editing a video while snacking on chips.

Completed the video after a few hours and ran the export while I went for food.

Just walked over to station again as they have hot food in a deli type setup, so bought a sandwich and some cheese sticks and ate them at the tables in the station.

Then came back to the room to upload video to YouTube and get the blogs caught up.

Now I just need to plan tomorrow’s route and then pack up a few things and go to bed.

Catch ya down the road.

Short day, but lots to see

August 17^th, 2026

El Reno, Oklahoma

Woke at 8:00am today, but no hurry to leave, so went back to bed.  Woke again just after 9:00 am got the morning stuff done.

Packed and started to load the bike.

The lady that had helped me with check in last night was there cleaning the other rooms.

She sat and talked while I loaded the bike and even for a bit after.

Once I was done, I let her have the room to clean and got on the bike to depart.

Rode out of town and started to make my way done the route toward Oklahoma City.

Not many detours this day, much of the route is a single alignment over all the decades.  I a few small adjustments here and there, some I followed, others I did not.

Stopped a at a few of the older gas stations for the first part of the ride, but then just rode past the remaining ones I saw.  Most are not open for any kind of business, and one was actually just a ruin.  Got enough photos of similar places.

I stopped at the Seaba Motorcycle Museum which is right on the route.

The place is another old service station.  The one part is a gift shop with things to buy, and possibly some storage or work space at the back.  The other half of the building is where several dozen old motorcycles are packed into the small space.

Lots of older bikes, mainly 60s era from various makers, though I did see quite a few British makes.  They are packed in a bit tight, so hard to really see some of them, and only about half are marked with a sign with any details.

A few bikes up on shelves or tables, a some hanging from the ceiling.

Lots of motorbike gear laying around as well, helmets, riding suits and jackets, shirts, and tons of spare parts.

A few newer bikes in the mix, one bike still in original shipping crate, and even a few bicycles.

I did not talk much with the guy up front, but I did see some bikes had what might be prices on them, others had sold signs on them, and others had old auction cards with them, so not sure if they sold signs were from when the museum acquired it, or if they actively sell bikes as well. 

Some of the stuff had others names on it, so possible they are just on loan.

Looks like they hold motorcycle part swap meets at the site as well.

Cool place that would not take that long to see if you were in the area.

Just down the road, where the route crosses the Interstate, there is a giant push pin art installation that marks the midpoint of the route in Oklahoma. (There is also a midpoint of the full route I will reach the next time I ride.)

Once I finished up there, I got on the bike and just a short way down the road was an old routing I followed.  This one has 2 different types of concrete that were used in road building at the time and both ended up on this short route.

Oddly this short route also has a sign where a local resident found themselves talking with Paul McCartney, who drove the route in 2008 with his then girlfriend in an old Bronco and had stopped to ask if the road was part of Route 66.

Once back on the main road I stopped again shortly after at the Round Red Barn in Arcadia.

This old round barn is one a few that have survived in the region.

I took a photo from the road, but then saw a sign for parking at the barn and decided to check it out.

The barn was open to visit.  Outside it has lots of old farm implements laying around.

Inside the main level has been turned into a gift shop, but selling donated items like a thrift shop.  The funds help to maintain the building.  They of course ask for donations at the door as well, though not required. (I left the recommended $2).

I walked around a bit and then went outside to walk up the metal stairs to the 2^nd level.  Not sure if the metal replaced older wood stairs, or if the original access would have been ladders, but once up there the room was just a big empty space that can be rented for events, but under the huge dome of the roof.

Makes me wonder if this was always a second level, or if the floor was added later?

Back down the steps and back on the bike to keep going.

Barely a mile down the road and we stopped for lunch at Pops.

This gas station is also a large gift shop, restaurant, and store selling 100s of different kinds of soft drinks from around the world (though mostly small makers here in the US from what I saw).

Parked the bike and covered it, then went in and sat at the counter and ordered food and drink.

While eating I eventually ended up talking with one of the girls working the counter and spent quite a bit of time relating some of my travel stories to her and a few of the others as they had time to linger between tables and such.

When done, I wandered the store a bit, but since I cannot carry anything else on the bike, and carbonated beverages do not like being shaken all day either, I did not plan to buy anything.

I had mainly stopped to eat as I needed food, and I had actually been here before 15 years ago, so had already shopped through all the sodas and even bought some back then.

Back out to the bike and got ready to ride.  Rode over to do a photo with the bike soda bottle sculpture, then hit the road.

Not long after and we came into the Oklahoma City metro area.

Here the road cuts across the north through what at the time would have been small towns, but are now part of the greater city space.

Then it heads directly south.  The original road follows what is a main road in town today, the later 4 lane section became the interstate, which I was not going to follow.

There are some bypasses as well that were part of the original routes, but I ignored them, taking the original 20s route all the way into the center of town near the capitol building, and then the road crosses the south edge of town before going back north a bit to start heading west again.

This was another long, and mostly boring ride through a busy city.  There were not many old buildings or other sites to see, so really not that impressive.

The downtown area does have the government buildings, and the next sections are some much older architectures, but roads were being worked on as well, which made riding a bit more of a challenge.

Finally reached the route that takes you out of town to the west, which was again the main route for nearly all the decades.

This is also running through mostly modern construction in the suburb of Bethany.

I reached the top edge of a big lake on the edge of town and here there is an old bridge that is on the route.  Last time I was here 15 years ago, you could not drive on it, but seems they have updated the road way or something as now they are letting cars across.

I pulled off to take a few photos and then rode across the bridge.

Then a bit of congestion to get back on the 4 lane section as it now takes over the alignment completely.

This runs you through Yukon and eventually out of town till you reach the next town of El Reno.

Here is where I will stay the next 2 nights.

I need another break, and also want to launder the riding jacket and pants.  They are starting to smell quite badly from all the heat and humidity last week.

I had already found a laundromat in town, so made sense to stay here and give myself the extra day to take care of other things.

I found the motel, got checked in and then as I was crazy hot again, I had to sit in the room and cool off for about an hour.

I then got ready, loaded the gear on the bike and only having the helmet for protection, slowly rode the bike over to the laundromat, which is about 5 minutes away.  A bit risky riding without the other gear on, but sometimes you have to do things you prefer not doing.

Reached the place and it was not busy at all, which was nice.

Found a machine big enough to handle the load, and then bought some laundry soap at the vending machine.

Washing took about 25 minutes, and cost me $7 with the soap cost included.

Once done, I loaded the damp clothes on the bike for the ride home. (Cannot dry them in dryer.)

Once back at the motel, I hung them to dry, then secured and covered the bike.

I sat around looking up stuff online and then walked over to the fuel station and store next door.

Bought a hot sandwich and some drinks.  Ate the sandwich there in the station at some tables, and then came back to the room.

I spent some more time online taking care of some business related to my next travel project, and then wrote up this blog.

I am going to wait to put it online though as I am now very tired and ready to sleep.

Catch ya down the road.

Todays Route: