Patricia Montgomery

After leaving Tucumcari, we headed east to San Jon, our last stop in New Mexico. San Jon is another small town on Route 66 with abandoned motels and businesses. The photo below shows a rusty sign that once glowed neon for the Western Motel. That is a 1960’s Plymouth sitting in the yard. Doubt that it runs, but someone did put a modern sun shield in the back window.

As we edged into the eastern side of Glenrio, we saw our first town on the route in Texas. The first sign that there had once been life in this town was an old metal sign leaning at a 90-degree angle, almost obscured by overgrown trees and bushes. All of the signage had been blown out, but the guide book showed that it once read “Deep Rock”.

Further down in the abandoned town we discovered one occupied home sitting back behind the ruins of Glenrio’s business district. Now it is surrounded by a junk yard of remnants of the once thriving town. Nearby is the Morel Café and Last Motel in Texas. In its heyday if you had driven into town from the west, you would have been that the sign read the First Motel in Texas. As you can see by the photo below the sign is barely there, probably a victim of the ravages of the storms and hail that recently hit Texas.

Next stop on Route 66 was Adrian, which claims by its signage that it is the mid-point of Route 66. From Adrian it is 1,139 miles east to Chicago and 1,139 miles west to Los Angeles. I must note that the next town on the route is Vega, which disputes that and also claims to be the mid-point. However, Adrian is the one with the great looking mid-point signs and The Mid-Point Café, home of the Ugly Crust pies. We came through town right after lunch and were too full to try one of the pies, but we heard they are the best!

The old town of Vega was the last cruise-through for today. We didn’t have time to stop at Dot’s Mini Museum which is touted to have a great collection of Route 66 memorabilia. There were several old signs and The Vega Motel looked like it might still be in business. A cool photo op just off of Route 66 and closer to downtown was a restored gas station from the 1920s with a green & white Magnolia Gasoline pump in front. The photo below is colorful Roosters, a Mexican restaurant.

I would not recommend starting out on a Route 66 drive without a good guide or map to direct you down the road. We have two books, one with good maps that showed clearly whether the road was running on the north or south side of I-40 or if the road no longer existed. The other book listed all the towns in geographical order and recommended points of interest for each.

All the guide books and maps on the market for Route 66 start in Chicago and direct you west toward the Pacific Ocean. I assume that is because this is the way that The Mother Road started out after she was born and where she finally matured out west on the Santa Monica pier.

But if you are driving east on Route 66 as we are, then you have to learn to read backwards.

Just kidding!

But you do have to flip pages backwards in the map/guides to see which town is next on the eastern route. When we first started east, I was having a bit of a hard time figuring out where we were going next. But I soon became adept at flipping pages backward and then reading forward. If I can do it, anyone can!

RECOMMENDED TRAVELING COMPANIONS (besides your loved ones):

“Route 66 Adventure Handbook” (3rd Edition) by Drew Knowles
This book directs you to points of interest and attractions. Without this book, we would have missed so many amazing sights and side trips. Throw this one into the convertible before you leave home!

“Route 66 Traveler’s Guide” (Collectors Edition) by Tom Snyder
This book has good maps showing where the road is in relation to I-40. It also indicates where the road no longer exists and will recommend alternate routes.

Both these books can be purchased on www.amazon.com