Cadillac Ranch

Continuing with our travels along Route 66 featuring iconic motel signs and other landmarks.

November and December 2012 saw us taking our first winter sojourn away from cold and snowy Toronto. We drove across from Toronto to (eventually) Los Angeles and back in the spring of 2013. We made many stops along the towns of Route 66 on interstate 40.

Winter 2013 and spring 2014 saw us do the same trip but we took interstate 10, further south from Route 66.

A trip to Chicago gave us another Route 66 photo op.

In earlier years we had taken many vacations in California which also led to some Route 66 icons.

I am enjoying doing these posts as I research the hotels and motels along the way and learn many new things.
Wikipedia is usually my source.

The Glancy - Clinton OK
Blue Swallow Motel - Tucumcari NM
Wigwam Motel - Rialto CA
Holbrook AZ
Cotton Boll - Canute OK
Route 66 Museum - Clinton OK
El Rancho Hotel - Gallup NM
Will Rogers Hotel - Claremore OK
Bono's Fruit Stand - Fontana CA
Kingman AZ
Erick OK
Santa Rosa NM - cars
Santa Rosa NM
Shamrock TX
Vega TX
Elk City OK
McLean TX

McLean TX
Gallup NM
Gallup NM
Tucumcari NM
Tucumcari NM
Glen Rio NM
Glen Rio NM

December 2012 - Cadillac Ranch TX

Standing along Route 66 west of Amarillo, Texas, Cadillac Ranch was invented and built by a group of art-hippies imported from San Francisco. They called themselves The Ant Farm, and their silent partner was Amarillo billionaire Stanley Marsh III. He wanted a piece of public art that would baffle the locals, and the hippies came up with a tribute to the evolution of the Cadillac tail fin. Ten Caddies were driven into one of Stanley Marsh III's fields, then half-buried, nose-down, in the dirt (supposedly at the same angle as the Great Pyramid of Giza). They faced west in a line, from the 1949 Club Sedan to the 1963 Sedan de Ville, their tail fins held high for all to see on the empty Texas panhandle.

That was in 1974.
Yet Cadillac Ranch is more popular than ever. It's become a ritual site for those who travel The Mother Road. The smell of spray paint hits you from a hundred yards away; the sound of voices chattering in French, German, and UK English makes this one of the most polyglot places between the UN and Las Vegas.