The road out of Oklahoma City was the worst of the trip. I need to route around this one on the way back. This 20 miles or so of Interstate is in terrible condition and is crying out for repaving. Fortunately a few sections of it are single lane as they rip up a lane for rebuilding so there does seem to be an effort to repair it.
The Texas panhandle has been described by some as boring but i enjoyed the open range and 75 mile per hour speed limit. Windpower is very much in evidence as i drove through many miles of Wind Farms.
Panhandle oddities
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| Leaning Water Tower |
The drive across the panhandle is full of examples of Americana oddities, even some Indian lore mixed into the oddities. I passed a sign that said "entering tribal lands of the Apache Nation" followed by a little yellow billboard that said Lees Chinese Food, Authentic Chinese Cooking (on the Apache reservation?)
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| Large stainless steel cross |
One mans disgust with XXX billboards in Texas drove him to build this 190 foot high cross in Groom, TX as a protest.
Texas is a big country. Once you cross the border from Oklahoma there is the standard "Welcome To Texas" sign. Immediately following is a blue sign announcing, "Texas Visitors Center 100 miles". I guess out here on the range, 100 miles is just down the street.
Biti Pies
The Texas Welcome Center was an attractive building but not very busy. I seemed to be the only one here. I went to the information counter and inquired about finding Biti Pies in Amarillo. I saw a show on the Food channel about oddball places they had visited along Route 66 and one of them was the bakery making these tiny 4 inch diameter pies and cakes called Biti Pies. I did not have an address for the Biti Pie bakery other than it's vaguely on old route 66 in Amarillo. I wasn't sure if the nice ladies would know what I was talking about so i asked. Their response was "you're lucky, today is Monday". Huh, I asked puzzled? "Monday is lemon pie day!" The Biti Bakery makes little lemon meringue pies on Mondays. They gave me a map of Amarillo and circled the two locations of Biti Pies in Amarillo. The main bakery is a normal two story house on route 66. You walk up onto the front porch and knock on the door. inside what normally would be a living room, there is a counter and shelves with today's Biti Pies. A chalkboard indicates what's available. The second location is a small building with a drive up window to get your fix of Bitis.
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| A Biti Pie with plastic dome |
I stopped at the small Biti Pie building, parked and went inside to see what this was all about.
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| The Biti Pie store |
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| It's not much but there's a drive up window |
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| Inside, the young lady fills my Biti Pie order |
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| It's Monday, this Lemon Meringue Pie is delicious |
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Lemon Meringue Biti Pie
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Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo TX
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| Cow Pasture entrance to Cadillacs and Cows |
Amarillo is pretty famous for the Stanley Marsh 3 art installation "Cadillac Ranch". Texas millionaire Stanley March 3 had 10 vintage Cadillacs from 1949-1963 half buried at an angle in his cow pasture. All in a row sticking out of the ground is the lineup of Cadillac fins. The public is invited to come into the pasture and paint grafitti on the cars. This is a real working pasture. On some days the cows may be around the cars. When I was there the cows were in the distance but the next morning when I went by on my way out of town, the cows were among the cars.
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| 10 Cadillacs buried fins up in the pasture |
Spray painting grafitti on a Cadillac is pretty difficult with a constant 10 MPH breeze blowing across the field. You could see and smell spray paint flying everywhere as people tried their artistic best at graffiti.
I ended up finding a sheltered spot above the axle of Cadillac #3 from the right. This seemed to work as my red can of spray paint crudely lettered "Bluebird" on the axle.
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| My grafitti, "Bluebird" |
Cadillac #3 from the right is the one with my spray paint can on the tire.
And so I bid farewell for now to this unique part of Americanna. I've left my mark for others to paint and repaint in an everchanging art installation.
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| Farewell Cadillac Ranch! |
Time to get back into my car next to the gate and continue the Westward journey.
This old car lying next to Route 66 in Amarillo seems to have Morning Glories as the driver now. I guess when these old buggies died it's best to just leave them and move on.
