4/18/2014 From Elk Lodge to Elk City

(On the Road to Elk City, OK)

As much as we hated to leave the nice people of Lodge 1172 in Tucumcari we had to get on the road once again.

Next stop, Elk City, Oklahoma.

We had spent more time in New Mexico than we had planned on so this sign was quite welcomed.


Normally we would dread this sign!


Not so much this time because we aren’t traveling across the state which would take us several days, but instead just through the corner of it, 150 miles of it tops.

We did get to go through Amarillo which is home to the Cadillac Ranch.



We came upon it too fast to make the turn onto the frontage road so that we could actually stop and get up close pictures. 
 
According to Wikipedia, Cadillac Ranch is a public art installation and sculpture. It was created in 1974 by Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michaels, who were a part of the art group Ant Farm. It consists of what were (when originally installed during 1974) either older running used or junk Cadillac cars, representing a number of changes in the car line (most notably the birth and death of the defining feature of mid twentieth century Cadillacs, the tailfins) from 1949 to 1963, half-buried nose-first in the ground, at an angle corresponding to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

It was originally located in a wheat field, but in 1997 the installation was quietly moved by a local contractor two miles to the west, to a cow pasture along Interstate 40.  in order to place it farther from the limits of the growing city.  Both sites belonged to the local millionaire Stanley Marsh 3, the patron of the project.

Cadillac Ranch is visible from the highway, and though it is located on private land, visiting it (by driving along a frontage road and entering the pasture by walking through an unlocked gate) is encouraged. In addition, writing graffiti on or otherwise spray-painting the vehicles is now encouraged, and the vehicles, which have long since lost their original colors, are wildly decorated. The cars are periodically repainted various colors (once white for the filming of a television commercial, another time pink in honor of Stanley's wife Wendy's birthday, and yet another time all 10 cars were painted flat black to mark the passing of Ant Farm artist Doug Michaels or simply to provide a fresh canvas for future visitors. In 2012 they were painted rainbow colors to commemorate gay pride day. The cars were briefly "restored" to their original colors by the motel chain Hampton Inn in a public relations-sponsored series of Route 66 landmark restoration projects. The new paint jobs and even the plaque commemorating the project lasted less than 24 hours without fresh graffiti. (Picture courtesy of Wikipedia)

Once again we passed this cross in Groom, Texas.  I do believe you can see it for miles around since it stands 19 stories high.  It took over 100 welders to construct this cross nearly twenty years ago.

This picture was taken quite  a ways down the road.

 

This one taken much closer.

 

LaVon, I was thinking about you.  Haven’t given you one of these in a long time.  Here, a dead tree picture just for you!

 
Before we knew it we were in Oklahoma.



Do you think it will fall?

 

We both remarked how red the soil (clay?) is out here!


We found the campground we stayed in this evening in our Trailer Life Campground Directory.  It was listed as the nicest campground on Route 40.  I’d like to meet the person that wrote that!

The roads were hard to navigate, there was no cable as advertised (it became too expensive I was told) most of the trailers seemed to permanent, old and not well taken care.  Well, it was only one night and we would stay inside.

Tomorrow….ARKANSAS!