Epic Road Trip: Texas Surprises to Santa Fe (Part 5)

Early the next morning we continued on route 66 and our initial stop of the day was the first Phillips 66 station in Texas in the small town of McLean. Built and leased to Phillips in 1929. Outside of the plaque on the wall, the station is a pretty much abandoned relic of the past.

Next we drove past the Leaning Tower of Texas, an abandoned water tower that was moved to the field adjacent a service station to act as a roadside attraction. Now it’s pretty much abandoned.

We also took the opportunity to stop early in the morning at the VW Slug Bug Ranch. Buried Volkswagen Beetle cars are along the road and available for graffiti. We brought cans of paint with us but made a small donation. Unfortunately it was rather windy that morning but the kids did get to leave their mark. The nice thing was we were also the only people there at 8:45 in the morning. Might not be as popular at the Cadillac Ranch (see below).

The big event of the day was we were contacted to come and visit the National Roller Coaster Museum and Larson International in Plainview, Texas. During our planning we opted to skip the invite because it was about an hour detour of the way and we planned on going to Meow Wolf in Santa Fe. However, they oddly were not open on Tuesdays during the summer, so we suddenly had availability and shuffled around the day to make this happen.

Boy were we glad we did! As an amusement park family, getting to see the museum up close was rather an emotional experience. Seeing rides from our childhood like Memphis Kiddie Park (Cleveland) or Cedar Point brought back great memories.

The museum is not open to the public yet, but you can read more about our experience in our newspaper article on the Sandusky Register.

Heading back to our route, at this portion of the day we swung by the Cadillac Ranch. During our 2019 trip we drove past this site, but opted not to stop as were on our way back home.

Sadly, besides saying you did it, the Cadillac Ranch was sort of a bust. The vehicles were all sitting in a lake of water, so no one could get near the cars. The site clearly is not maintained well as the couple garbage cans onsite were overflowing of disposed spray paint.

We also found it amusing that despite signs all over, the entire road and retaining wall adjacent to Cadillac Ranch, and the only area to park, had graffiti everywhere.

My wife had requested we stop in Tucumcari, New Mexico on the route so see some more of the old town appeal. We stopped at the Tepee Curious shop which was cute and checked out the historic Blue Swallow Motel.

We ended our day up in Santa Fe, and upon the recommendation of the our tour guide at Larson, we ate at Maria’s New Mexican Kitchen. Here we were over 300 miles from the museum, and this restaurant was the real deal. What made it special though were two things. One, they had bottles of honey on the table. Upon asking what it was for, we used them with the chips and salsa, and dare I say it was life changing. The spiciness of the salsa blended perfectly with the honey, and I am not sure I could ever go back to eating them without again. The second thing was the honey was also used for our first time having sopapilla. So, so good, and so was our main dishes. I do not even know what I ordered as I told the waiter to choose for me.

That evening we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Santa Fe again in a two queen bed suite with pullout sofa. The price point again was so affordable, it made no sense to redeem points. It was also nice that our Diamond IHG status not only got us free bottled waters, but also a bag of Knott’s Berry Farm shortbread cookies, which the boys enjoyed.

Daily miles driven- 375 miles
Accommodations Cost- $132

Continue reading about our journey below.

Just like our 2019 National Park Road Trip, we will break down the trip each day in separate posts as highlighted below.

Epic Road Trip: National Park Tour (Part 1)
Epic Road Trip: Cleveland to St Louis (Part 2)
Epic Road Trip: Silver Dollar City (Part 3)
Epic Road Trip: Rt 66 to Texas (Part 4)
Epic Road Trip: Texas Surprises to Santa Fe (Part 5)
Epic Road Trip: Four Corners and Arches National Park (Part 6)
Epic Road Trip: Canyonlands National Park (Part 7)
Epic Road Trip: Capitol Reef National Park (Part 8)
Epic Road Trip: Bryce Canyon National Park (Part 9)
Epic Road Trip: Zion National Park (Part 10)
Epic Road Trip: Knott’s Berry Farm (Part 11)
Epic Road Trip: Universal Studios Hollywood (Part 12)
Epic Road Trip: Meow Wolf Las Vegas (Part 13)
Epic Road Trip: Worlds of Fun (Part 14)
Epic Road Trip: Trip Wrap Up (Part 15)

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