Gray Hair Pony Tail Society
October 19, 2024 – Day 9
Cracker Barrel, Edmond, Ok — Lake Ute State Park, Logan, UT
We woke early. That’s pretty common for us when driving west because we’re still kind of sort of on some other time zone. The Cracker Barrel lot was fairly empty. We were just thinking about having breakfast—inside our RV, not inside the Barrel — then we noticed the parking lot was really getting full. It was real Saturday morning as opposed to, say, a Tuesday morning which for us is Saturday, because “every day is Saturday” when you’re retired. (Thanks go to Susan’s cousin Donna for that witty turn of a phrase). So of course it being real Saturday people are going to breakfast. What a concept. We got out of there lickety-split and went next door to the Flying J for breakfast with a view.
This is the second of amusement parks we saw driving through Oklahoma City.
Driver’s change in Clinton OK. They say they have 5,000 boots. The billboard didn’t say if that was 5,000 pair, or 2,500 pair for a total of 5,000 boots. We didn’t stop to count. Or even go inside to ask if it was boots or pairs. Driver changes are all about fast pit stop changes. (susan here: just like the pros. Or something like that.)
Exit ramp and driver change in Clinton, TX.
Check out the neat plants in a clump off to our right.
Shamrock, TX
Sometimes we see super successful farms, other times, we see failed ones.
We’ve seen this before when we went through Groom, TX
In reality, it was the work of a heavy-duty vehicle and a bulldozer. Ralph Britten, a man who wanted to start up a truck stop and restaurant off Route 66 in Groom, bought the water tower from the town of Lefors as an ingenious marketing technique to attract new visitors. He towed the enormous thing 34 miles to Groom, wrote “Britten USA” on top, and then, using a bulldozer, elevated two of its legs off the ground, dangling them in midair without support, so that the water tower made an 80 degree angle with the ground.
This helped his business immeasurably. It would catch the eye of every passing motorist on the route for years, many of them becoming terrified that the tower was in the process of collapsing. This played right into Britten’s hand. Worried route-takers often swerved off the road and into his truck stop, shouting “watch out! That tower’s about to fall!” Britten responded that it had been like that for years, and then asked them to sit down and buy food and a drink.
Cotton? Windpower? It must be Texas. We’re still in Groom.
Susan realized that we could go to the Bug Ranch this time. We missed it last time we were in Amarillo. Paul got the latitude and longitude from Atlas Obscura, which noted that it was closed and had rattle snakes nested in the cars. It was next to an abandoned motel. Here’s that motel, along with 2 cars and two buildings, all of it covered in spray paint.
Both Apple Maps and Google Maps had an entry at a different location. We should have looked there first. (susan here: It was really windy. If I wasn’t holding onto my hair I would have looked like Cousin Itt.)
Susan and Paul disagree on this art installation. Paul much prefers the nearby Cadillac Ranch, and the Carhenge installation in Nebraska. To him both of them had a genuine feel to them, even though Cadillac Ranch has been moved several miles down the road from its original location to private land. He’s sure the original Bug Ranch had the same feel but thinks this one is the Disney version, the cleaned-up mall version. They even had signs tell you what to paint and what not to paint. Susan thinks Bug Ranch is cool as a Fez (susan here: they are!) and because they’ve put their own twist on the format. Also Bug Ranch is a lot more fun to say than Cadillac Ranch.
Logan, NM
The campground is first come first served, a format we’re not all that fond of but you take what you get when traveling without plans. We drove through several sections some of which were closed. After a bit of driving we found an open section and grabbed a spot sheltered from the brutal winds. Other sites were not so lucky. Big surprise, those sites were empty.
Later on, the gray pony tail society had a meet up.
Daily: 372 miles.
Total: 2,080 miles
Driving miles/Day: 347 miles/day
Overall miles/Day: 231 miles
mpg: 6.2