Last Route 66 Kicks & Santa Fe

The actual town of Shamrock, TX was our first stop once we got back onto I-40/Route 66.

You may be surprised to find there is a lot of Irish iconography here!

We parked across from this cute restored service station.

Shamrock is famous for its not one, but two Blarney Stones. Encased in this green concrete... thing... is the “real” one, which was cut off of the original in Ireland and shipped over when the officials of Shamrock asked really nicely.  But might this story be a whole heap o’ blarney itself??  Since this one doesn’t have an attendant who sanitizes the rock after every kiss, like the real deal, I opted for an air kiss.

At some point the town felt the need to have a second extra-extra-blarney-y stone made and installed a couple blocks away.

Texas Theaters was once a state-wide chain.  This is the only one that still shows a new movie on a regular basis.

Authentic Irish Tex-Mex

The most popular tourist stop in Shamrock is this gorgeous restored Art Deco Conoco station with an attached coffee shop.  It’s now a gift shop and visitor center.

The cafe section has been display-only for decades, but the lady in the gift shop said they’re planning on making it operational again later this year!

Elvis once stayed at the inn across the street, ate in this cafe, and then had his foot run over by a local kid on a tricycle.

A ways further down Route 66 in McLean, TX, is another old and very tiny service station.

Near Amarillo, we stopped at Cadillac Ranch, a line of old Cadillacs stuck grill-first in the dirt. 

Over time visitors started to tag the cars, and eventually every other man-made surface nearby, with spray paint.

There is now a truck parked to the right of the Cadillacs selling spray paint at marked-up prices, but I picked up the first discarded can I found and it was more than half full!  Time to be a Li’l Punk!

I thought hard about how to best express my torment and angst, but all I could think of was “REBA” 

The paint is so thick it looks like the beginnings of cave formations.

Before we left Texas, we hit up a rest area with a large scenic overlook deck.

That’s a whole lotta Texas!

If this Horse Motel had free HBO I’ll bet it would be a lot busier.

The truck (which runs on diesel) ran out of DEF fluid suddenly and we had to make a couple emergency stops to get more as we crossed into New Mexico.  The second stop took us through Tucumcari, NM, where we passed the popular Blue Swallow Motel.

The truck fully DEF-ed, we drove on to Santa Fe, NM and our site for the night in the Rodeo de Santa Fe Fairgrounds.

RV parking is only available here when there isn’t an event, so there are no bulls, cowboys, and thank god no clowns, but we were greeted by a couple of horses who live on the grounds.

The RV hookups are on the north and south sides of the arena.  Our camper is on the very far left.  Once we were docked, I took a walk around the grounds and found the rodeo mascot.

Our laundry bag was getting full, so we ran out to a local laundromat and just managed to finish before closing.  While the clothes were drying, Dad and I went across the street to pick up dinner from Lotaburger, a local fast food joint that does burgers NM style with green chile sauce.  Good stuff!

I’ll end with a very special edition of Daily Sunset Photo featuring a Beef Jerky truck parked next to an Express Crematorium, taken from the Lotaburger parking lot.  Laundry, body disposal, junk food.  All your basic needs on one block.