Old Amarillo Route 66

I mentioned we drove around Amarillo’s old downtown Route 66 district the other day. I was kind of disappointed in what we saw. A lot of empty lots and empty buildings. And things not being kept up. A Route 66 mural that could use some TLC.

As could this one. What a shame that these have been neglected.

One of the few murals that looked fresh.

An old filling station that’s been turned into a restaurant.

Liked this snarling cat. Not sure what the business was…but you can make some guesses.

Stephen Marsh 3 who was instrumental in setting up the Cadillac Ranch – hope to go there before we leave – Cadillacs planted nose first in the desert – also put road type signs through out Amarillo. Only they weren’t real road signs – just signs he liked. We did find two of them. This one says “Homer”…We were moving fast when I spotted it - just managed to snap it.

This one “Et tu Brute”… Marsh just liked the ideas of signs for reading.

One of the many “antique” stores along 6^th St.

Another repurposed gas station.

One thing we found interesting were all the brick streets scattered here and there around the center of town.

We need to go that way again looking for the painted horses so maybe I’ll get some better pictures. There are a couple of older buildings that were very nice but the light was wrong and the pics didn’t turn out.

Today was warm and the wind has let up. We drove out to Palo Duro Canyon State Park. Where I took the picture for the new header. Very nice drive – will write about it tomorrow as I haven’t looked at the pictures yet. But coming back from there we passed a couple more painted horses – this one at a veterinarians. This one is called "Swordfish" no idea why as the paintings on him are western scenes. 

Also at the vets were these cute babies.

Hello. Want to play?

Then we passed this painted horse - but again he was off the highway a ways and we were moving. It is called "Ol' Roy"

So far we've seen six of 96...when I told Bill how many were left to find he just shook his head.

We are still watching John Wayne movies – I think today is the last day of them. Right now watching “North to Alaska.”  Hoping to watch the Nationwide race tonight but it keeps raining in Richmond where they are supposed to race.