Driving Across the United States New Mexico to Oklahoma: Day Three
On day three of our trip we made up much of the time we lost in our Grand Canyon detour. We shot all the way across New Mexico, Texas and into the middle of Oklahoma. This is 11 hours of driving, but we still made time to see plenty of cool sites.
We got an early morning start in Farmington, New Mexico to make the 3-hour drive to Albuquerque. The goal was to hit Duran Central Pharmacy for a late breakfast/early lunch.
Duran Central Pharmacy is a classic right in Old Town Albuquerque. They are noted for their Frito Pie. New Mexico Frito Pie is much different than the Texas version. I like it better and made my own when I got back to San Diego. You can check out my recipe.
Being in New Mexico I also had to try a bowl of red chile (I had green chile the night before). The waiter warned us before hand that the chiles were running extra this year. It was indeed spicy, but I ate every bite.
We would have liked to spend more time in Albuquerque. Personally, on my to do list is to visit the sites from the TV show Breaking Bad. Unfortunately, we still had 8 hours to go to reach Oklahoma City.
The stretch of I-40 across eastern New Mexico and the panhandle of Texas is pretty isolated. We had to make a stop at one of the classic Route 66 towns, Tucumcari, New Mexico.
Tucumcari is one of those towns that has seen its fortune decline with the rise of the high-speed interstate system. There are still quite a few motels, but you can see many places that have been deserted.
We stopped at the gift shop next to the Blue Swallows Motel. The Blue Swallows advertises 100% Refrigerated Air. This sign, along with the nearby Tucumcari Mountain were featured in the Pixar movie Cars.
The gift shop, officially called The Route 66 Townhouse Welcome Center & Gift Shop, is probably the best place to buy Route 66 memorabilia. The lady who runs it is very friendly and we bought some t-shirts. Next door is where Clint Eastwood stayed while filming Rawhide in the early 1960s.
From Tucumcari it was on through the Texas panhandle. Amarillo is the major town of the Texas panhandle and it has a couple of interesting sites.
Right off Interstate-40, about 10 miles west of Amarillo is the Cadillac Ranch. This free roadside attraction features 10 classic Cadillac’s buried front-end down. Visitors are free to spray paint the cars. If you didn’t bring spray paint there are plenty of cans lying around.
The other Amarillo spot we stopped was the Big Texan Steak Ranch. This huge restaurant/motel is famous for its 72-ounce steak. It costs $72 but if you eat it in under an hour it is free. There is also a brewery on site. We just did a quick stop to take a break and check out the gift shop before hitting the road for our final stretch.
We got another great deal on an Oklahoma City hotel via Hotwire (see our guide here). In this case it was the massive Holiday Inn Hotel & Suites for $62. This place was quite nice for such a price.
We rolled into Oklahoma City fairly late and most places were closed. Oklahoma is noted for their hamburgers, but most of the top places were not open.
One place that was open was Garage Burgers & Beer. We were trying to avoid chains, but this was at least a small chain. Reviews on places like Yelp were stellar.
I was glad we ate at Garage Burgers. Not only did I get to try a classic Oklahoma onion burger, but our food ended up being free. They misplaced our order and so they comped the entire meal!
This ended by far as the longest day of driving. Tomorrow we are taking some time to see Oklahoma City before heading to Memphis, Tennessee. That is a short 7-hour drive.
For our adventures on Day Two go here.
For our day four adventures in Oklahoma City and Memphis go here.
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