As with the previous day, the plan was to get on the road to put miles away before it got too hot.
As we got ready to leave Farmington, New Mexico it already felt warm. Thankfully, once we started to move it cooled off a little more.
We jumped on US-550 right outside of Farmington to head south and east. I won't go so far as to say US-550 is a great motorcycle road since it is mostly flat and what turns there are tend to be sweepers, but it was probably a highlight of the trip so far. US-550 is four lanes and at least on Sunday morning is devoid of traffic. This made it very pleasant to really enjoy the scenery. And, the scenery on US-550 is unbelievable. In 2009 when I went through Northern New Mexico, I thought it was one of the nicest areas I had ever been through and this was reinforced on this gorgeous Sunday morning. The scenery was enhanced by the shadows and broken light from the partly to mostly cloudy skies.
All good things must come to and end and eventually we came to the end of US-550 and got on the interstate. Most of the rest of the day was spent on I-40. Once east of Albuquerque, I-40 is mostly scrub brush ranch land and is very flat. Traffic wasn't too bad on I-40 (all things considered). I actually really enjoy the Big Empty areas of the United States, but I missed US-550.
We stopped for lunch in Santa Rosa and had a very, very disappointing lunch that took forever to get. Oh well, the lunch stops like this make places like the Hy-Vee Market Grill a week ago much, much better.
It started to get very hot after lunch, but we soldiered on, crossing into Texas later in the afternoon. About 60 miles into Texas and just outside of Amarillo we had to stop at the definition of American kitsch. Cadillac Ranch is probably more performance art than anything else. It was created in the mid-1970's by some artists on land owned by millionaire Stanley Marsh III. It is on private property, but visiting it is encouraged and spraypainting the Cadillacs "planted" in the ground is not discouraged, although spray painting outside the private land is, as signs warn.
We parked the bike and walked up to the cars. I'm not sure it would be worth a special trip, and it is not nearly as interesting as Car Henge, but being this close we had to stop and see it. It was MUCH better than the time and money spent at the Four Corners.
It was funny to see the ecclectic group of people who stopped to see it. Equally as interesting was the many, many layers of paint on the cars. Former creases and sharp lines are now rounded in paint. According to Wikipedia, the site of the Cadillac Ranch was moved in 1997 since Amarillo was growing too close to the original site.
After the kitsch, we continued east to our hotel in Amarillo. We had seen signs for The Big Texan. This is part restaurant and part tourist attraction as it has been featured in several TV shows I've seen with "eating challenges." The challenge is a full meal including a 72-ounce steak; finish it and it is free.
We opted to walk there from the hotel which was probably a mistake since it ended up being farther than we thought. We just decided that we earned our meal with the walk, although we opted for a ribeye over a gigantic gut-buster. The steak was really good and the prices surprisingly reasonable given that The Big Texan was geared toward tourists. The service left a little to be desired, but I guess that is sometimes to be expected in places like that.
We took some fudge back to the hotel to eat while winding down for the day.
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