Well, only one picture today.  One of the fun things about traveling is that you get to see things you haven't seen before.  We stopped for gas in Springdale Arkansas this morning and this vending machine was next to the station. For $2.75 you get one dozen "premium night crawlers"!  I didn't bite, pun intended.  You just never know what you're going to see.


We have more or less given up on the Rt 66 idea for the rest of the week.  We found that the roads were either in too poor repair to drive on or they paralleled the interstate with about 20 yards of grass between the two.  We ended up driving the interstate and getting off at certain places to get pictures of things we knew about from our research prior to the trip.  The idea of driving  Rt 66 sounded good, but like many other things in life, the reality isn't as good as the idea. We may at some other time, visit some of the other places we have read about, but not on this trip.


We are spending a couple of nights in Branson Missouri and then will stop to visit Scot, Gina, Justin and Hannah in Murfreesboro before returning home.

This 66' tall stylized pop bottle complete with a straw, is located in front of Pops, a very unique convenience store in Arcadia Oklahoma.  Pops is a new attraction on Rt 66 which like many of the old attractions, is designed to catch motorists attention and provide a service and a point of interest during their trip.  This bottle has colored LED's inside each ring and at night they change colors, so the bottle can be lit up in several different colors.

There are three rows of gas pumps under the huge cantilevered awning in front of Pops.  The front and rear walls of the store are all glass and have glass shelves from floor to ceiling which are lined with thousands of bottles of pop in  various colors and flavors, in glass bottles.  The side walls are brick and extend past the rear wall of the store to provide an enclosed picnic area behind the store.  Inside the store is an old fashioned cafe with counter service as well as booths.  Pops offers almost 600 varieties of pop from all over the world.  Pops opened in 2007 and has already sold more than 1 million bottles of pop.  The adjacent paved and landscaped parking lot will accommodate about 75 vehicles.

  
About a half mile to the east of Pops is another attraction which has been there for quite a while.  It is known as the Arcadia round barn.  It was originally built in the late 1880's and in the early 1990's it was refurbished for the enjoyment of Rt 66 travelers for years to come.

We got on Route 66 in Grants New Mexico and followed it for several miles.  It parallels I-40 but is not in near as good condition.  At one point we had to turn around and backtrack because the road was just too rough to continue.  We have gotten off I-40 in several places and driven into the towns that Rt 66 used to go through and have taken some photos which will follow.  We also took a slight detour and went to Santa Fe for a few hours.

The New Mexico capital building is the only round capital building in the country, so we got a picture of it as best we could.

The San Miguel Mission dates back to 1610 and is claimed to be the oldest church in the country.

The Loretto Chapel is a very beautiful church building and contains a spiral staircase that goes up to the balcony.  The staircase makes two complete revolutions and has no center support or external support bracing.

That is real craftsmanship!

Turns out that neon is a big deal along Rt 66, so when we can we get some night shots.  This restaurant is one of better lit ones in Santa Rosa NM.

This motel sign also in Santa Rosa NM had very nice neon with the exception of a burned out L.

Adrian TX is the midway point between the opposite ends of Rt 66.  It is now barely a wide spot in the road.

Adrian TX also is home to the Midpoint Cafe and Gift Shop.

Amarillo has its' Cadillac Ranch, Conway TX has its' VW ranch, and not much of anything else that we were able to find.

Groom TX has a leaning water tower, note the two legs on the left aren't even touching the ground.  The tower was originally installed as a drawing card for a truck stop at the same location.  The truck stop is gone but the tower remains.

This old Phillips 66 station is in McLean Tx.

The proprietors of the Devil's Rope (barbed wire) Museum created these two balls of barbed wire, about 400 pounds each, as a tribute to barbed wire.  Some folks collect various types of barbed wire, yes barbed wire comes in many different styles and patterns.  This museum is dedicated to barbed wire.

This old Conoco station was designed and built in the early thirties to attract customers who passed through Shamrock TX on Rt 66.  It is very ornate for a gas station and it also contained a car wash and a cafe.

This Magnolia gas station is also in Shamrock TX but it isn't near as big or fancy as the Conoco station in the previous and following pictures.  The pumps are from an earlier time as well.  Magnolia was a Texas panhandle oil company founded in the early 1900's.  They later merged with Standard / Mobil Oil.

Here's the Conoco station after the neon lights come on, very attractive.

We came to this valley overlook a little ways south of South Fork Colorado, it's not hard to understand why folks fall in love with Colorado.

This is a view of the road from Silverton Colorado to Ouray Colorado.  It is very winding and scenic.

The structure in the distance is the remains of the Yankee Girl mine, south of Ouray Colorado, at one time one of the richest silver mines in the country.

We left Colorado and went to Moab Utah.  Moab is likely one of the most popular destinations for folks who like to Jeep or bicycle on slickrock, a form of sandstone.  We went there to rent a Jeep and do some trail driving and slickrock driving. The photo above is Navajo sandstone which is found in great abundance in the Moab area as well as in Zion National Park, a few hours away.  This particular stretch is along the highway that runs along the Colorado river just west of Moab.

This particular piece of Navajo sandstone in the same general area is named Jug Handle Arch.

After we got off the highway and onto the trail, literally two dirt tire tracks with lots of rocks and dust, we came across this piece of sandstone that had interesting patterns sculpted into it, no doubt caused by erosion from wind and rain over the years.  We thought it somewhat resembled a fish.

This view of the Colorado river is from an overlook a little farther along the trail.  The trail runs along the river for several miles and then moves up the valley away from the river and through a series of switchbacks, works it's way up the cliff to Canyonlands National Park.

This is the Jeep we rented.  It is a stock Rubicon model with 4 cylinder engine and automatic transmission.  It also had front and rear axle lockers for use later on the really steep portions of slickrock.

This photo shows some of the valley trail.  We traveled about 14 miles on this trail, most of the time at less than 10 mph. We did encounter other vehicles including a few bicycles going both directions, so sometimes we had to pull over or back up and pull over so they could get by.

This is a view of some of the early part of the slickrock trail. The black area you see is the tire track of previous visitors and helps you know where to go, there are also white dots painted on the rock from time to time to help you stay on the trail.  They also give you a piece of paper with a small sketch of the area and a few notes about things to avoid.  As you can see the area in the immediate foreground disappears over the edge.  This is one of the reasons that slickrock is so much fun, so exciting, so scary, so interesting, so challenging or whatever you prefer to call it.  You start down something like this and until the front wheels get over the edge and down a little ways, you can't see where you are going, woo-hoo!

Here is another picture which shows the rapid changes in elevation quite clearly. 

This is a good example of why a 4 wheel drive vehicle with lots of ground clearance is the only way to get through this course.  When I hit this one straight on the suspension hung me up, I had to get a little bit sideways to get the rear wheels over this one.

This picture gives you a very good idea why sometimes it was a little scary.  Jane said there were a couple of places she closed her eyes because she was scared, this was one of them, after she took the picture.  The folks at the bottom were from Des Moines Iowa and they had 'prepared' Jeeps which handled much better than our stock rental.  The gentleman in the center of the picture was the senior person and he gave me hand signals to get me lined up, once I had the front wheels over the edge and the nose pointed down so I could see him.  Needless to say we made it!  This trail was about 8 miles long and it took us about 4 hours to complete. By the end of the day we were pretty well worn out, but next time I think we will spend more time and do more slickrock and less dirt trails.

This picture and the two following were taken at Lizard Head Pass, just south of Telluride Colorado.  After we left Moab, we went back into Colorado, to Telluride and then down to Cortez and into New Mexico, more on that next time.  

I don't think there is any such thing as too many pretty mountain pictures.

Kinsley, Kansas claims to be the midway point between New York City and San Francisco.  We aren't going to either this trip, but we did make it to Kinsley.

Kinsley also has an old steam locomotive on display.  While it is not in great condition it was interesting to see how massive it is.

The main drive wheels on this locomotive are about 8' tall.

Spearville, Kansas has a wind generator farm to be proud of. The initial plan which was completed in 2006 included 67 generators, some of which are shown above.  Additional generators bringing the total to 99 are expected to be in service by the end of 2010.  


The crop in the foreground is milo.  Milo is a very popular crop in western Kansas and eastern Colorado.  Milo is used primarily as an animal feed.  The seed cluster on the top contains from 750 to 1,250 seeds which are harvested to be converted to feed.  The entire plant which looks a lot like corn except it is only about 2-1/2 to 3 foot tall, can also be chopped up to create a silage type feed.

This picture is of some of the individual blades for the additional generators yet to be installed.  These blades are about 100' long.

Corn is another very popular crop in Kansas and Colorado. When the corn crop is greater than the capacity of the elevators, temporary mounds are created by building a plywood containment wall about 4' high and then mounding the corn up to a height of about 25'.  There are ducts under the mounds and ventilation fans attached to prevent spoilage.  Once the containment area is full, plastic tarps are used to cover it to protect it until it can be shipped to customers.  The containment mounds above are about 100' wide by about 500' long.  The one on the left is still being added to so it is not covered, the one to the right is completed and has been covered.

Mountains are one thing that Colorado is well known for and has lots of.  These are just west of Salida, Colorado.

This picture shows the approach from the east to Monarch Pass.  Monarch Pass is one of the highest passes in the U.S. that is maintained so as to be passable year round.  At the summit it is 11,312' above sea level and is on the Continental Divide.  Monarch Ridge which rises 12,000' above sea level, is directly above the pass and is accessible by a gondola lift.  In the distance are the slopes of Monarch Mountain Ski Resort. 

This trip is all about seeing the countryside and staying off the interstates as much as possible.  We started out by going to Mt. Eagle and then getting off I-24  and dropping down to US 64 and taking it all the way across the state to Memphis.

We haven't taken very many pictures so far.  Most of what we have seen has been agricultural in nature, and while I find it interesting, it generally doesn't make great photos.  We traveled up the eastern side of Arkansas a little ways north of Memphis and then turned west.  As far as we could see in any direction, for miles and miles were fields in various stages of development as well as some that had been harvested.  I would say that in the northeastern part of Arkansas. the crops we saw were about 40% soybeans, another 40% were rice and the balance was cotton, corn and hay. 

We have seen storage bins like these in Arkansas and Kansas. They are typically used for the storage of soybeans, corn and wheat.

  
We have also seen grain elevators similar to this one in Argonia, Kansas.  Some appear to be owned by a co-op such as this and some have corporate names on them.  We have seen some with the name Bunge which is a company that McKee purchases soybean oil from.

As we got over toward the northwestern part of Arkansas the Ozark Mountains came into view.  This shot was taken from an overlook just south of Harrison Arkansas.  This area looks very much like some places we have been in Tennessee and Texas.

This picture I took for my Dad.  He loves old Nash's and this one looks pretty good.  It has spotlights on the windshield posts and a red light and siren on the right front fender so I am guessing it was used by law enforcement at some time in the past.

This is the Thorn Crown Chapel which is located just west of Eureka Springs, Arkansas.  It was completed in 1980 and is open to visitors year around.  It is set in the woods on the side of a hill and provides a place to relax, meditate and appreciate the beautiful surroundings.  The structure is almost completely glass with just enough wood and steel to hold everything in place.

This is the view from inside the chapel.  The chapel can be reserved for weddings and other special events.  There is also a worship center on the same property which is available for special services.

We've got a stowaway on this trip.  I refer to him as Bee Hind since he's a bee and he's well, bringing up the rear!