Day 4. Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico

Oklahoma was very welcoming--signs every few miles inviting travelers to stop at attractions and casinos. Unfortunately, it was after five and most parks and museums were closed, and we were not interested in gambling.

The long hot drive through the Texas panhandle was accented by some side trips on Route 66. It was nice to have a white car, but the black dashboard absorbed a lot of heat.

We stopped at the Texas welcome center for a picnic...and were careful to stay away from the rocks and high grass.

We made a Route 66 stop in Shamrock, Texas to see a watertower and a couple of restored gas stations.

And later we stopped to see what was advertised as the tallest cross in the world (hard to tell with the elephone pole in the foreground).



The highpoint of our drive through Texas was the Cadillac Ranch. We talked to a guy from Houston (seven hours to the South) who was spray-painting his name on a car. The experience reminded us of the fence at Carnegie Mellon.

The Cadillac Ranch

Except, for the Cadillac Ranch and some storms in the distance, the landscape looked pretty much the same. I tried about 20 times to get a photo of the lightning bolts out of he window, but missed every time.
Driving towards Sante Fe, we could finally see some mountains in the distance.