Motorcycle Ride from Casino route 66 near Albuquerque New Mexico to Amarillo Texas, on to Bristow Oklahoma, and finally to St Robert, Missouri - 20250619 - 20250621
A playlist of all of the videos from the ride of 2025-06-12 to 2025-07-01. Some of the playlist is hours of just riding, i.e. Slow TV videos, some are just short clips.
A videos of todays ride are in two parts, Albuquerque New Mexico to Lela Texas Part 1 and Lela Texas to Phillipsburg Missouri - Part 2.
June 19 - From Casino route 66 near Albuquerque New Mexico to Amarillo Texas
Texas is where the landscape started transitioning from dry desert to green fields. Since it was June there was still green in the fields, later it would all be tan dry grasses. This was part of the ride I was looking for. Riding through towns on the original Route 66, experiencing what they looked like after Route 66 was moved to the Interstate. Some of the towns thrived & grew, but there were LOTS of small towns, gas stations and motels that had been abandoned. You see this in other parts of the country, I just noticed it more more along the 'lonely' parts of Route 66:
The picture below was my second (and last) experience of wanting to ride on gravel roads. In the EZ66 Route 66 Prep book it warned about the 'ENDEE' road having mud and being rough after rain, but someone has added a couple (or so) inches of gravel on top and put a 'Road Closed' barrier on the road that was touted as being open. Combined with my experience on Aunt Mary's gravel road I swore off any travel that indicated dicey roads. Hence some of my travels on the main highways rather than following the EZ66 book to the letter.
The 'Road Closed' sign:
I looked forward to seeing two of the 'art' installations near Amarillo. I wanted to see the 'Slug Bug Ranch' but I found conflicting stories about where it was located, I *might* have passed it by on the other side of the road where I drove but I didn't look and may have just ridden by it. I also wanted to visit the 'Cadillac Ranch'. If you visit the Cadillacs bring your spray paint and you can add your touch to the art:
The I-40 Business Loop is actually Route 66, but somehow my GPS directed me onto the I-40 highway. A KOA was the stop for the night, found it no problem, set up the tent and all was good in the world.
June 20 - Riding from Amarillo Texas, on to Bristow Oklahoma
I got up, packed the tent and headed off for Conway to the the 'Slug Bug Ranch', but it was moved. This is what I saw. Interesting in it's own way. Abandoned Route 66, it is all an adventure :-):
Lunch was at the Sayre Oklahoma 'First Response Coffee House', classic Oklahoma BBQ worth stopping for. Over half way from Los Angeles to Chicago:
Barstow Oklahoma Evergreen RV park was my destination, got there, opened up the tent and slept.
June 21, 2025 - Riding from Bristow, Oklahoma to St Robert, Missouri
Early morning stop in Tulsa Oklahoma at the Route 66 Fire Station, the gentlemen at the firestation were nice enough to talk for a little bit. I lived in Tulsa for a while, Billy Ray's Bar-B-Q & Catfish in Tulsa right on Route 66 is another great BBQ place to stop if you get a chance. I found that starting in Arizona everybody was a little easier to talk to and have easy conversations. They are not as rushed to get through the day:
These are the oddities I was also looking for, the Blue Whale of Catoosa. Really just a way to play in the water, but a blue whale?:
I visited a friend near Miami Oklahoma (pronounced 'Mi-AM-uh', thank you). From there it was on to Missouri. The town square in Marshfield Missouri has a replica of the Hubble Telescope in the twon square, Marshfield was the birthplace of the astronomer Edwin Hubble. When I worked on the Space Shuttle I was on the launch team for the Hubble Telescope and subsequent repair missions so this had significance to me:
From Marshfield it was on to the city of St Robert, Missouri for the night.
Motorcycle Route 66 and Trans Canadian Highway
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Elevations for this ride so you can predict how cold you may get or if you may need to take breaks for altitude changes. Y Axis is altitude feet, X Axis is Miles travelled:
