Days 5-6, July 2-3

When we arrived at the Elk City/Clinton KOA it was starting to rain. This was the first night we had planned to camp, and the idea of setting up camp in the rain made me shiver a bit. I thought $24 extra was a great deal for staying dry all night, so we rented a “cabin with a k,” as Eli affectionately calls them. He really does speak of them with affection, as it is his goal to avoid sleeping outside at all costs.

I had given a lot of time in the itinerary to set up camp, so after cooking hot dogs for dinner, we had time to just hang out together and then went to bed early.

The next morning I woke up early and sat on the porch swing writing and drinking coffee out of a mug that Emily gave me. We really miss her on this trip!

When Eli woke up, we had breakfast and then he went swimming at the pool while I chatted with our cabin neighbors, Colt, Sierra, and Brice, who were having breakfast on their front porch.

Colt (in the middle) is a Firestone Technician and Sierra stays home with their two year old, who was with grandma while they were on a road trip for few days. Brice, Colt’s brother, is only 17 and a budding professional musician. Who knows, we may have met the next Elvis on this trip!
We had a lot of time to waste before the National Route 66 Museum opened at 2pm, so we waited as long as we could to check out of the “kabin” and then went to lunch at a local hang out, The Cowboy Cafe in Elk City, OK.  At the cafe, local people were just arriving from church dressed in their Sunday best bolo ties and cowboy hats. They all seemed to know and greet each other, as people usually do in small towns (How I miss that at times living in the city!) We definitely stood out as foreigners, but they were friendly and welcoming. Eli had the country fried steak that was as big as Texas and I had the Texas chicken.  The picture below is AFTER Eli finished his steak…It looked like a side of beef before he “dug in!” The food was good and there was definitely a LOT of it!

After lunch we made our way over to the museum, where we still had to wait 30 minutes for it to open. As we were waiting, a group of about 12 people drove up in cars from the 1950’s. None of them seemed to speak English and so I didn’t ask them about their cars as they toured the museum with us.

After touring the museum, we drove across the Texas state line into Shamrock, Tx to see the Conoco gas station that is depicted in the movie Cars.

Eli’s favorite part of the Conoco station was the Tesla charging station out back. The child is obsessed with Tesla cars!

When we drove up, the same 1950’s cars were parked out front and the group was standing around speaking English with some people who had stopped to ask about their cars.

It turns out that they are a group from Sweden called Cruise 66 who shipped their cars over in order to drive historic US highways. I know, you’re probably responding like I did…insert totally confused face here…Why would you ship…oh well, different people, different bucket lists, but I learned from them that Americans haven’t completely cornered the market on extravagance. Here is part of their agenda:

We saw them again several times on the road.  Who knows, maybe we’ll see them at the Grand Canyon…we should be there around the same time!

After Shamrock, we went to Groom, Texas to see the biggest cross I’ve ever seen. Yes, that’s Eli standing at the base of the cross!

There are also many life sized statues there depicting scenes from Jesus’ path to crucifixion. The area is created and maintained by Cross Ministries.

We arrived at the KOA campground in Amarillo around 6:30 and set up camp…

It’s a campy camp ground with great facilities!

Too bad we didn’t stay all night…but that’s a story I’ll save for tomorrow! Much more to come!
The song of the day is my favorite version of Route 66.  This is part of Natalie Cole’s tribute album to her father, Unforgettable with Love.