The personal authentic travels of a world-wide drifter, you'll always see pics of me at the locations being described (if the other blogs you're reading don't do that, odds are they were NEVER there, just saying…)
The Midpoint Cafe stands one what is supposed to be exactly on the midpoint of route 66, so that it is located 1139 miles from the route’s original endpoints in LA and Chicago (initially I was wondering WHICH endpoints on which date… since we already know that on the LA end it’s been moved a few blocks, but Wikipedia says the endpoint when it was first constructed in 1928).
The cafe has had many owners and names over the years, but according to Wikipedia, once the bi-passed towns began to organize themselves to try to put Route 66 back on the map…
“The president and founder of the U.S. Route 66 Association called me one day. He said, ‘Kid, you better do something because you are at the midway point of Route 66. You need to change that name.’”— Fran Houser, former owner of the Adrian Café
That said, I was DEEPLY impressed with the efforts they’ve made to drive home that point.
directly across the street from the cafe I was able to take this photograph, ALL BY MYSELF… no one there to help me… how you ask?
THIS is how
What you’e looking at is essentially a camera stand placed so as to give you the perfect framing for you photographs. You put your camera here, set the timer and run over to the sign and wallah, a perfect photo. (Of course I didn’t run, I used the count down mechanism I can trigger on my apple watch)
Same stand photographed from the other side so you can see the bright white line proving the point yet again, that the restaurant sits at the midpoint
In fact all its missing is a line down the middle of the floor
unimpressive gift shop, but I was tempted….
I didn’t eat here, so I can’t give a food review… while it all looked very tasty, there was nothing on the menu that was even remotely healthy. It consisted of things like grilled baloney sandwiches and pie… what I would describe as comfort foods for people who grew up in 50’s.
Located on Historic route 66 in Vega, Texas you’ll find the almost fully restored Magnolia Service Station. It was first built, in 1924, on what then the Ozark Trail (a system of locally maintained roads that connected towns in the southwest, that predated the Federal highways). The station already existed therefore, when Route 66 was developed (so as to connect the short pre-existing paved roads into one fully connected paved road that traveled through main streets of towns from Chicago to California), and continued to serve its travelers.
The station was closed when I got there, but they’ve placed so many historical explanations into the place’s windows, that I still learned a lot and the visit was totally worthwhile, in my opinion
And by looking through the windows, I still saw a great deal and got a pretty good gist of the whole thing…
Across the street from the station you see this….
The view across the street
I think it may be there to give you a feeling of what the station may have looked out towards back in the 1920’s, but with no docent on duty, I’m guessing.
Cadillac Ranch is one of those classic American public art works that everyone has seen in pictures, and of course its been on my list of things to see in person. The fact that it was cold and VERY wet and muddy, kind of added to the fun
Finding this was a little bit problematic. My GPS for my car had no idea where it was, and the address I had for it, the program didn’t recognize… but, as I was on I-40 there was internet, so Google maps to the rescue. It’s located between two off-ramps, so I took the one to the west of it, which brings you to a gas station. There I found a plethora of folks who had just come from there (and not one group of them either). I talked to a couple in the car parked next to me, and they assured me I was in the right place and it was about a half mile down the road and I couldn’t miss it because of how many cars were parked there.
In something I had read on one of the travel sites I had referenced before starting my Route 66 trek, a writer had warned that if it’s wet, the mud becomes like tar and almost impossible to get off your shoes afterwards. For the last four years I’ve been schlepping around a pair of rubber boats for JUST such an occasion (and yes this does mean I had the boots in my car back in 2016 in Canada at the boat graveyard when the muck had actually pulled my shoes off my feet, only I’d forgotten they were there).
Although some folks opt to take their shoes off and just kind of go for it… like this girl did… but it was raining and 48 F, what WAS she thinking…
It turned out this was a very good thing because in order to access the site you have to go through this gate, and because everyone takes a fairly similar path to the site, the ground is lower along the path and fills up with water, becoming a bog it’s very difficult to avoid stepping into, especially if like me you’re not sprightly.
Over the years the piece has become interactive, not just with the elements, but also with the viewers, which is tacitly encouraged by the artist who created (aka the permanently unlocked gate).
People bring cans of paint to use, but most times don’t use all of it and leave behind half used cans for the next person…
although others will come through from time to time looking for the empty cans and disposing of them.
Why yes, I’m in Texas. This big guy stands right on route 66, in front of a small gift shop (with an unimpressive collection of things I’ve seen 100 times already) that visitors to the Cadillac Ranch from Amarillo have no choice but to pass, and also functions as the check in office for a small RV park.
See the black box hanging from the fence?See the guy sitting in the car? He doesn’t look happy
Remember that black box hanging from the fence in the picture above? I managed to sit my iPhone on that, leaning it back against the fence, walked over the spot, and then used my Apple watch’s camera app to trigger a three-second countdown… I was seriously impressed with myself.
Why yes, I’m a geek. What’s your point? It’s a statue of the Helium molecule that’s located next to a Don Harrington discovery center that was closed by the time I got there. (It closes at 4:30, on a Saturday!!!?????? This is a Science museum in a major city… WTF?)
It’s a sun-dial, but it was rainy, windy and overcast
By visiting it I learned something I had not known, Amarillo is the Helium capital of the world… who knew?
Falling into my “big things” category, but not for the usual reasons…. This restaurant is sort of famous in the US (really, how many restaurants that aren’t major chains warrant a Wikipedia page?), not because the food is so amazing — it’s good, but I wasn’t deeply impressed (and even sent back the first dish)… but more for being an impressive tourist trap. In the vein of “everything is bigger in Texas” this place challenges the consumer to snarf down a HUGE 72 oz steak, a bread roll with butter, a side salad, and a fried shrimp appetizer in under an hour.
IF the customer can, then the meal is free, if they can’t, it costs $72 (the other large steaks cost slightly over $1 an oz, so still a discount); and the challenge comes with a very specific set of rules.
This is what a 72oz slab of steak looks like
As this was the question asked most by my Facebook friends…. According to the Wikipedia page: The challenge began in 1960 and “as of February 2018, over 9,500 people out of about 62,000 have accomplished this feat”… so in about 58 years, about 1,070 people try a year…
That’s me, eating the steak
According to the manager I spoke with, HE said they average about 35 challenges a week — which sort of jives with my math (20 people a week) if you figure it took some time for the word to spread and with the number of people stepping forth to try it escalating over time.
Note the date: this article is from 2007, so if true, 1,500 have done it in the last 10+ years
That said the restaurant has evolved over the years from just being a restaurant to being a “road side attraction”… aka tourist trap
Not only is the main building kind of huge (this is a picture of it from the front and side)
It property comes complete with its own Motel (and sufficient parking for Trucks and RV’s)
I arrived on a Saturday night and the poor girl who meets you at the front door essentially has the job of standing there and saying “It’ll be a 15 to 20 minute wait” while handing out buzzers… almost once every 30 seconds….
for folks who show up single there’s a bar in the waiting area which gets very little traffic, where you can sit almost immediately (I didn’t take a picture of it, but it’s fairly long and there at least 10 spots held for solo eaters that I could have sat at, had I wanted to). This is because waiting sections of the place are HUGE and diverting. There’s a massive gift that is as big as if that were their sole business…. and stuffed to the brims
I was tempted by this … but where would I put it? (This sign is particularly funny in Amarillo as they’ve NOT marked where 66 is… they sort of designated one area of town to 66 but it doesn’t seem to link to the rest of the road in any meaningful way, and almost feels arbitrary and resurrected for the tourists, unlike in say LA or Albuquerque, where the are actually roads that link to form a whole)
AND there’s a gaming area with a shooting gallery for the kids/families AND gaming machines (see right side of image) for the adults
Behind THAT there’s a section with tables for people who just want to sit with a drink and talk while waiting, but on a Saturday night it was pretty empty
And behind that is the hallway to the bathrooms, which was lined with those moving pictures that change based on where you’re standing… all of which were historic portraits that changed into horrific images…. these sorts of things…. which kept me and a few other people entertained for a good 10 minutes as we decided which were the worst (and which could be purchased at the gift-shop). I.e., the “customer holding pen” is designed to separate you from your money, is almost as big as the eating room (which is two stories), and I’d bet is probably more profitable.
Only then do you enter the main eating area…
Note the desert table at the bottom left
It is two stories high (happily I didn’t have to climb stairs), and is (I believe) set up so that anyone taking the challenge is sat in the central area and becomes part of the attraction; they are not only observable by most of the other customers.
One of the things I noticed was how WHITE the room was…
But there’s a clock located below the massive cow-head, that can accommodate up to six competitors at once. But, no one was competing when I was there, which is why I think they have these guys walking around entertaining the guests (sort of a country western Tex/Mex nod to the Hispanic tradition)
I arrived at the restaurant having not eaten all day… other than a cup of coffee. So I was pretty hungry. I consulted with the various guests around me, and one of them … who was eating Chicken fried steak convinced me to order that. It is very much NOT on my allowed diet (both steak and fried) but its one of my very favorite things. I ordered it with the vegetable soup and baked sweet potato (sweet potatoes are MUCH MUCH MUCH healthier than normal ones, and are even diabetic acceptable). I was also drawn to try the baby-back-ribs, which this place sells in a sampler menu of three as an appetizer.
The ribs were tasty … although, as I explained to the people next to me when they asked, “I’m Jewish”… they went quite for a second and then broke into laughter… “so really, I think they’re tasty but in 50 odd years it’s only like my 3rd time eating them.” The guy next to me asked if the meat was falling off the bone, which it was… and was it tasty, which it was… so he declared that meant they were good.
The soup was a bit thin… it was watery sort of soup with mushrooms and potatoes and other veggies in it, with a little bit of a kick (spice). But it was good, and since it had been a cold rainy day and my nose was running a bit, it was satisfying.
Then the “star” of the meal, my Chicken fried steak with white sauce, which is how they do it in Texas. (It was very pretty, but I didn’t take a picture of it, sorry.) I had my first bite and…. BLECH!!!! Firstly, it was neither cubed steak nor an actual fillet (which is how I prefer it), it was hamburger … and FATTY hamburger at that… and pretty much ALL I could taste in my mouth was a mouthful of fat. BLECH! I pushed it to the side and continued to eat my soup, with an intention of then starting on my sweet potato.
After a while a waiter finally came by (wasn’t impressed with the wait staff’s attentiveness) with an obligatory “how’s everything” which wasn’t genuine and I could tell he assumed would be “ok” only to be shocked when I pointed to the now cold plate of chicken fried steak… that was pushed to the far side of the table… which he REALLY should have noticed if he were any good at his job… and said, “I don’t like that.”
He went, and got the manager, who asked why I hadn’t like it… so I described my diet and how Chicken fried Steak is really one of my favorite foods, but that this one wasn’t good enough to justify breaking the diet… so he then suggest I order the grilled Salmon instead, which I did. And, unlike the day before when I had ordered salmon and got served trout… today it was actually salmon, and a fairly large slab of it.
It was well cooked (by US standards), but firm but not dry… and sort of heavily spiced with spices I’d normally reserve for steak. But, by the time it had arrived I’d had 3 ribs, a cup of soup, a piece of Texas toast and 3 bread rolls… so I ended up packing up it and the sweet potato to have for lunch the next day (I had booked in a rest day from my travels, which a forecast of really lousy weather ensured I’d take…)
That said…If you’re hungry but not THAT hungry, they also offer 12, 18, 24 and 36 oz steaks (see menu), which is what the owner originally was selling and referred to as his “Texas sized steaks”, before coming up with the challenge. Oh and if that weren’t enough…
Then, as you’re leaving you are forced to walk past this gauntlet, A a gelato, fresh fudge and pastries stand…
….even though this is technically in the front area right by the entrance to the restaurant area, I noticed most people bought from it just as they were leaving the store… to take home for later (so that your full stomach shouldn’t be the master of your eyes… which is kind of brilliant if you think about it from a marketing perspective)
Saw this in my ongoing pursuit of “big things” during my Route 66 travels, but it was about a half hour directly south of the route as it passes through Amarillo. This is less of a “tourist trap” and more of a symbol of ethnic pride, if you can believe it… think “everything is bigger in Texas.” Finding this wasn’t all that easy because the address given wasn’t showing up on my GPS. HOWEVER the Mexican restaurant directly adjacent to it was and this thing is SO tall that by the time I was 3 blocks of it could see it towering over the trees and buildings. That said, this statue is one of the bigger ones (apparently there’s a 54 foot one in Dallas) AND it has actual clothes on it… see the description below.
On the topic of no one appreciates what they have… There were two teenagers (looked to be high-school freshmen, or about that age… when I asked them to take this picture of me, the girl said to me, “You’re not from here are you?” They were genuinely shocked that I considered this worthy of coming down all the way from Amarillo just to see it.
And by looking through the windows, I still saw a great deal and got a pretty good gist of the whole thing…
It turned out this was a very good thing because in order to access the site you have to go through this gate, and because everyone takes a fairly similar path to the site, the ground is lower along the path and fills up with water, becoming a bog it’s very difficult to avoid stepping into, especially if like me you’re not sprightly.
Not only is the main building kind of huge (this is a picture of it from the front and side)
I was tempted by this … but where would I put it? (This sign is particularly funny in Amarillo as they’ve NOT marked where 66 is… they sort of designated one area of town to 66 but it doesn’t seem to link to the rest of the road in any meaningful way, and almost feels arbitrary and resurrected for the tourists, unlike in say LA or Albuquerque, where the are actually roads that link to form a whole)
Finding this wasn’t all that easy because the address given wasn’t showing up on my GPS. HOWEVER the Mexican restaurant directly adjacent to it was and this thing is SO tall that by the time I was 3 blocks of it could see it towering over the trees and buildings. That said, this statue is one of the bigger ones (apparently there’s a 54 foot one in Dallas) AND it has actual clothes on it… see the description below.
Rebecca Radnor's Personal Blog: Consider yourselves warned! 