We visited a famous roadside attraction, Cadillac Ranch, an art installation of ten Cadillac cars, buried nose-first in the ground since 1974, in Amarillo, Texas.
Graffiti on the road:
They sell spray paint and merch; people are allowed and encouraged to spray on the cars:
Approaching Cadillac Ranch:
Lots of people when we visited:
A fun roadside attraction.
We stayed at Oasis RV Resort & Cottages in Amarillo, Texas. (Campground Reviews listing.)
A couple of nights in Texas on our journey east.
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Our review on Campground Reviews:
Convenient stop off I-40 in Amarillo
We needed a short stay while traveling through the Texas panhandle, and this place was perfect for that. It’s a large park with long, wide (mostly) pull-through sites. There are concrete pads perfectly placed if you’re a motorhome with tow, but not quite right if you pull a fifth wheel or trailer. So many places have it the other way around, so it was a nice change for us to be able to park in the optimal spot. Close to I-40, but not much noise. Disappointing that they close the pool seasonally regardless of what the actual weather is doing, and also that they are a “resort” and don’t offer trash pickup, which is the bare minimum to be a “resort,” IMHO. We camped at Oasis RV Resort & Cottages Amarillo in a Motorhome.
The map:
Interactive map:
Our site:
Other sites:
Outdoor cat:
Cabins:
Bathrooms and tornado shelters:
Office:
RV in the style of Cadillac Ranch:
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 99 miles from Tucumcari, New Mexico to Amarillo, Texas.
We drove our coach 99 miles, about 2 hours of driving, from Tucumcari, New Mexico to Amarillo, Texas.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map:
Leaving the campground (and taking out the trash):
Heading to I-40 east:
I-40:
Leaving New Mexico:
Texas state line:
Entering Central Time Zone:
Welcome to Texas:
Rest stop:
Fuel stop:
$321 of diesel:
Roadworks blocked our access to the campground; we had to detour through the Loves truck stop:
And duck between cones:
Our destination:
Oasis RV:
Our site:
Merry Christmas to all who celebrate, or Happy Holidays!
To mark the occasion, here’s a post out of sequence. We stayed in New Orleans around Thanksgiving this year, and while there attended the New Orleans City Park’s Celebration in the Oaks holiday lights. The blog posts about New Orleans aren’t scheduled to be published until February (yes, I’m rather behind; we do things faster than I can post about them!). But I figured I could bring this one forward to a more appropriate time.
This holiday celebration has driving and walking options; we did both. Here’s a map of the routes:
We started with the driving portion, where one drives along roads in the park that have holiday light decorations:
A timelapse video from my 360 camera of the drive:
We then parked at the mini golf in the park, and played a round (Jenn won):
Then proceeded to the walking part, wandering around the New Orleans Botanical Garden and environs, with lots of holiday lights:
Jenn reaching for a star:
A cute narrated Cajun Night Before Christmas story, with synchronized lights:
An amusing New Orleans variation of 12 Days of Christmas:
Model trains:
Amusement park rides were also included, but we didn’t participate in any (considered the train, but it was full, and the carousel, but didn’t want to wait):
It is a nice historical carousel, though:
A fun festive evening. Always interesting to see local variations of holiday lights.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!
We stayed (again) at Tucumcari / Route 66 KOA Journey in Tucumcari, New Mexico. (Campground Reviews listing.)
We still hate buddy sites, but needed to stop here to pick up a package that was delivered after we left, so figured we might as well stay one night.
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Our review on Campground Reviews (from our previous visit):
Buddy sites, nuff said
This is an older KOA with new owners who are working on improvements. I see a lot of potential and will stay here again because it’s just so convenient to I-40, but the rates are a bit much for what it is currently. The staff here are all fantastic. Friendly, helpful, and on the ball when you report an issue. And who could argue with cooked breakfast brought right to your door? However, the biggest drawback is that most of the sites are buddy sites. They have nice, new concrete “patio” sites at the back of the park but ruined it by having them all be buddies. I cannot overstate how much I dislike buddy sites. We camped at Tucumcari KOA Journey in a Motorhome.
Tip for Other Campers: Kix on 66 was very tasty and has that whole Route 66 retro vibe going on.
An interactive map:
Our site, facing another site:
We usually make sure we arrive before dark, but this was an exception; we decided to travel at night rather than stay at the truck service center another night, mainly to help catch up with our scheduled travels. Our coach on arrival:
Our site in the morning:
Utilities:
This was the first time we’d had a sewer hookup since we were here the previous time, before the Balloon Fiesta — 11 days. We did get a water top-up at the truck center, which was good as it was down to about 20%. After all that time, our gray tank was up to 67% and black to 83%, not too bad:
(We have since purchased a water bladder and sewer tote tank, and accessories, which will alleviate concerns about dry camping in the future.)
Other sites; the place was pretty full when we arrived, but emptied out early in the morning:
A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 139 miles from Moriarty, New Mexico to Tucumcari, New Mexico. A rare night drive!
We drove our coach 139 miles, about 3 hours of driving, from Moriarty, New Mexico to Tucumcari, New Mexico.
A rare nighttime drive! Our coach was finished being fixed at the end of the day; we could have stayed overnight again, but we were keen to get back on schedule. So we decided to head out, even though we normally avoid driving at night. It helped that we were familiar with the route, having done it (both ways) recently, plus were familiar with the destination RV park, since we stayed there on the way to Albuquerque.
Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:
An interactive map:
On the road again, back along I-40:
Not sure what that truck on the left is hauling:
Clines Corners truck stop:
Flying C Ranch billboards:
We stopped at Flying C Ranch again:
Sunset:
Lots of swag:
DQ for dinner:
Back to our coach:
Sunset reflected in our coach, plus a sliver of moon:
Driving in dusk:
The cameras weren’t overly useful when driving in the dark:
Going past the rest area where we were stuck for a couple of days:
Arriving at the KOA:
Paladin on the passenger chair:
In our site:
We unexpectedly stayed at West Truck Services Center in Moriarty, New Mexico, after getting towed there due to a brake getting stuck on the way from the Balloon Fiesta.
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An interactive map:
We arrived after they closed, but one of the techs was still there, and provided a power cord and water hose for us, parked out front of the shop:
We walked across Route 66 to a truck center:
We had dinner at Lisa’s Grill, a diner in the truck center:
Back to our coach:
Sunrise the next day:
A tech unstuck our brake, and we moved the coach into the shop for more diagnosis:
We went back to the diner for brunch. On the wall, a history of Moriarty:
Our tow truck with another customer:
Another tow truck delivered another truck early in the morning:
Our coach getting worked on:
See the Braking: Bad blog post for a summary of the breakdown, tow, and repair.
Our stay here was as pleasant as one could expect from a repair situation. It was nice to be able to put out our slides, have power, and a diner across the road. Plus, of course, getting our coach back on the road!
A timelapse of our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, being towed 65 miles from Santa Rosa, New Mexico to Moriarty, New Mexico, after one of the brakes seized up. (With a badly synced picture-in-picture from our truck.)