Courtney's Blog July 13th, Day 8 of the Epic McFarland Journey!

...I looked across the table. Adam had foot stuck in his teeth. "You better brush your teeth good tonight", I said.....

We started the day early and we were excited to gain another hour of time today - we were moving into Mountain Standard Time! Our first stop was the VW Slug Bug Ranch. This was made in honor of the cadillac ranch (see below). This one was better though :-). The VW cars looked awesome and Abby had such a fun time reading all the graffiti.

Before we got to the ranch, we had a surprise stop! It was a little roadside attraction that combined all the cool aspects of Route 66 into one fake tourist trap. We contemplated just taking these pictures, slowly posting them to the blog and pretending we finished the trip, and then going on a real island getaway. We didn't. Check out the picture section for shots of this area. Speaking of shots, watch out, both kids are getting southern on me and are pretending to shoot in their photos....

We saw some small other random sites like the leaning water tower, the biggest cross in the south and the gas station that inspired Flo's Cafe in the Cars Movie. My favorite though? Stopping on yet another apocalyptic road to take pictures of the land people forgot. We have noticed that even the others who are traveling Route 66 and seeing the sites, are using the highway to get around, and only doing stops on Route 66. We are more than happy to have the little road all to ourselves. Especially because we can get out and take pictures in the middle of the road whenever we want. The highway travels RIGHT next to Route 66 most of the time, so we can see how traffic is doing!

We decided to stop at a famous restaurant on Route 66. So famous that anyone we talked to said "are you going to go to that famous steakhouse and eat the 72 ounce steak?" We checked it out and apparently if you eat some disgusting amount of food, you get it for free. I am not sure how this is a win-win, but people do it. We decide to have lunch there just so we can say we've been! The outside was cool, and the inside had lots of games and memorabilia. We ordered an appetizer that has a mixture of items like fried mushrooms, mozzerella sticks, fried jalepenos and.....rocky mountain oysters. Google this if you don't know what it is. Adam decides he is going to eat these oysters. I looked across the table. Adam had foot stuck in his teeth. "You better brush your teeth good tonight", I said. We look over and there is a picture of a bull looking disapprovingly at Adam as he gnaws on those...treats. We told Abby what it was and she had some choice words....PS - I don't think he brushed his teeth yet.

After we leave, we finally made it to the Mid-Point Cafe! This is 1139 miles from Chicago, and 1139 miles to LA. Do you know how many flies there are down here? We are constantly surrounded by flies! In the car, flies. Walking around outside, flies. In the hotel lobby eating breakfast, flies. Now I know you are thinking "Courtney, you have to shower"...but I tried that this morning. No Difference. We are in a constant fly battle in the car. Adam looks like a karate master (or newbie) trying to drive and smack flies.

P.S. Update on blankie: Blankie made it home, but they shipped him to the wrong address - they shipped him to my home address. Well...we stopped our mail. So now we had to Un-Stop our mail, and hopefully Gugs can get him from there, and mail him on to us. I swear, blankie should have his own blog by now!

Summary:

Made it to a new time zone, AND half way through 66! Adam has terrible breath, and we're ready for more fun tomorrow.

Ended the Day at the La Quinta, Tucumcari, NM

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