Old 66 Discovered - 379 miles

We woke Jack up this morning. Not really, but we were earlier than he expected, so he hurried in to the shower and rushed out to the assigned meeting point.

Now we were four bikes heading west.

The roads today were mostly freeway and following the old Route 66 - remember the song? The route is mostly replaced by super freeways now, but there are small sections left from where the old road curved around what the freeway now goes straight through.

Some of these sections are now tourist traps with shops selling kitch and memorabilia recalling the old days.

But in western Oklahoma off I-40 there are quite a few miles that are relatively untouched since the sixties. At Sayre, Jack pulled off the I-40 and we refuelled. It was coffee time so we looked for a cafe. By the time we ran around town and found it we decided to have lunch.

Off again and we did the correct AWRA thing and made several U-turns looking for the old highway. We eventually found it and wandered along under shady trees for a while on pot-holed concrete slabs that hadn't been used for years. Then it joined a still-used section and we spent quite a while on this bit. A four-lane road through farmland with the occasional almost empty town with disused motels and shops. Not far away, all the traffic was on the I-40.

We eventually re-joined the major road and powered on in to Amarillo. Checked in to our motel and looked for a place to eat. We were in Texas and naturally a steak was the go. Texas was ready for us. We were picked up at the motel by a huge limousine with the obligatory set of horns on the bonnet and taken - free of charge - to a nearby steakhouse. The specialty of the house was a 72 ounce steak that was free. Only condition was you had to eat it along with baked potato and salad and breadroll in under one hour. If you failed the cost was $72.00. We declined that but did go for the "normal" sized steaks on the menu. Mine was 18oz and very tasty.

We were returned to the motel in our limo for a good night's rest.

Despite being mostly on freeways, Charleen took a lot of pictures:

A very flash servo near Okalhoma City

Oklahoma City skyline

For some reason we thought this was funny

Where the wind comes sweeping down the plains - they are harnessed

I know a lot of towns have animal statues, but how many put them in uniform. Sayre, OK

Coffee anyone?

Every now and again the Route66 sign

The road was old though

The motels virtually empty and unloved

Jack carrying home his spoils from Wing Ding. Two perfectly good lower cowls.

Ken and Christine on Route66

Bob and Kerry not far behind

In to Texas

Roadside rest stop and tornado shelter. Ominous.

Apparently the largest religious cross

Adverts for our steakhouse.