Historic Route 66 and the Wild, Wild West

We start the day with a visit to the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, which is located in Oklahoma City. We expect to find quite a small museum that is mostly about the everyday life of cowboys and Indians back then and now, and we are surprised to find a nice big museum. The admission fee is quite low with $10.00 per person, and it really offers a lot for the money. You can learn about cowgirls and cowboys from the early 1900s until now, learn about their equipment, find a "Hall of Fame" of western movies and TV series, learn about native Indian culture and history, find a lot of beautiful paintings and sculptures of sceneries and people of the West, you can stroll through a replica of an old Western town at the beginning of the last century, take a break in the beautifully designed gardens, and much more, rendering our investment more than worthwhile. So, we end up staying much longer than anticipated. Finally, we leave the museum and start our search for the historical Route 66, which, according to our travel guide, at times proves to be a delicate task since one cannot find signs for miles, and sometimes one has to guess where to go. And, soon enough we discover that this was not an exaggeration and it really is not easy. Eventually, we find the Route 66 after leaving Oklahoma City and follow it for a while. This part of the "Mother Road" really looks deserted and seems to be in the middle of nowhere. At one point when we hit the big I-40 again we decide to have a quick lunch and to go on cruising along the 66. However, we quickly realize that this part of the 66 is not exactly thrilling since it winds it ways at the left and right side of the I-40 all the time, being more or less a simple service road. This fact is a bit disappointing as it does not really change after leaving Oklahoma and entering Texas, the Lone Star State. Until now, we have not really had the feeling that one always hears about when people talk about the legendary Route 66: This huge vastness of the scenery with nothing but stretched out dry country to your left and right without many signs of civilization. But, our travel guide promises that one will have lots of this on the way to California, and so we keep our hopes up and go on driving and driving, partly on I-40 and partly on Route 66, where we pass numerous run-down or deserted buildings, gas stations, and stores, the last witnesses of a once glorious past of the Mother Road. In the midddle of our Texas interlude a huge thunderstorm catches us, and it pours down like somebody was emptying a giant swimming pool over our heads. By sunset, we reach Amarillo, and Ingo is very disappointed when he realizes that the Western Store, which he was hoping to pay a visit, was already closed. A few hours later, we finally hit Tucumcari, New Mexico, and decide to rest there for the night.