Great Plains Roadtrip Part 3: Route 66

Introduction

This post continues with part #3 of the Great Plains Road Trip.

• Part 1: The North Road
• Part 2: The Western Expanse
• Part 3: Route 66

In this chapter, I begin the return journey heading east from Santa Fe, New Mexico. On the way back to Ohio, I’d drive a stretch on Route 66, passing through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Illinois and Indiana, seeing roadside attractions, cities and even a salt mine along the way.

Strategy

During the actual trip, I followed the tips and tricks described in these guides.

• How to Buy Gas
• Guide to the Great American Roadtrip

In the year leading up to the trip, I positioned for a road trip by:

• Earning a 90k signup bonus from a Chase Ink card.
• Earning Hyatt Globalist status from a 20 night status match challenge.

The Journey

Rather than driving the entire way on I-40 / Route 66, I started off heading east from Santa Fe on I-24 and then state route 104 after passing Las Vegas, NM.

Conchas Dam

About two and a half hours into the trip, I arrived at Conchas Dam. This state park is a New Deal era construction with a really nice picnic area and lots of little lizards. There’s a campground a little past the picnic area, as well as a small dock for boaters. The campground looked a little neglected, but also like it could be a nice chill place to spend a night. I had plans to stay in Amarillo so I moved on, heading back to the highway and Route 66.

Cadillac Ranch

My first stop on Route 66 was Cadillac Ranch, just outside of Amarillo. This roadside icon was originally proposed by Ant Farm, an avant-garde architectural and design group out of San Francisco. It features 10 cadillacs buried nose first, highlighting the evolution of the tail fins.

When they originally proposed it to local millionaire, Stanley Marsh III, he responded.

”It’s going to take me a while to get used to the idea of the Cadillac Ranch. I’ll answer you by April Fool’s Day. It’s such an irrelevant and silly proposition that I want to give it all my time and attention so I can make a casual judgment of it.”

Approved and completed in 1974, visitors are encouraged to paint the cadillacs, adding their own mark to them. Over the years, the paint has built up inches thick in some places.

After the Cadillac Ranch, it was just a 5-minute drive over to the Amarillo Hyatt Place where I stayed for the evening.

Palo Duro Canyon State Park

Leaving Amarillo, I drove south to Palo Duro, the second-largest canyon in the United States.

This is a very nice state park. You can drive around the rim and down into the canyon. At the top, they have a small museum and visitor center with lots of swallows nesting in the roof. A stream winds around the bottom of the canyon, alongside campgrounds, trails, and a general store and restaurant. Facilities are excellent throughout.

The park has a very sad history. In the summer of 1874, Comanches, Kiowas, and Cheyennes left their assigned reservation and moved into Palo Duro Canyon. The US army was sent in, forcing them to flee. The army burned their lodges and teepees, destroyed food stores, and slaughtered nearly two thousand horses. With winter approaching, the tribes were forced to return to the reservations. Palo Duro Canyon had been inhabited as long as 12,000 years ago.

Bug Ranch and the Leaning Tower of Texas

The Bug Ranch is about 40 minutes east of the Cadillac Ranch, at exit 96, and features Volkswagen Beatles instead of Cadillacs. It’s not as well maintained as the Cadillac Ranch, with most of the surrounding businesses now closed.

Another 20 minutes down the road, you’ll see the Leaning Tower of Texas. Ralph Britten bought the original tower from the town of Lefors, hauling it 34 miles, then setting it up with a deliberate lean to use as a prop luring drivers on Route 66 in to his truck stop. The truck stop burned down but the leaning tower stands.

Sandhill Curiosity Shop

This small “shop” was started by two musicians, Harley and Annabelle. It’s been a top Route 66 landmark for decades, and the shop may have been the inspiration for Lizzie’s Curio Shop in Pixar’s movie “Cars.” Sadly, Annabelle passed 10 years ago and it’s been just Harley ever since.

I’ve seen mixed reviews online, with some claiming that Harley is very rude and others saying he’s the best thing since unsliced bread. I suspect he’s just a cool dude that has good days and bad days, just like the rest of us

During my stop, I was the only one there, and Harley was jamming away on his guitar well before I entered the building. I think I surprised him, and he was really just playing for his own entertainment. He has a German Shepherd dog who was a bit skittish, and Harley took a moment to introduce us before returning to his music, which was quite good, electric blues.

I was a little unclear what to do there, so I poked around a little and left a modest tip. Harley seemed fine. I don’t think anything in the shop is for sale. It’s more just a backdrop to his performances and a little celebration to eccentricity.

After the curio shop, I drove another two and half hours out of Texas, into Oklahoma, staying at the Oklahoma Hyatt Place off Northwest, now permanently closed.

Strataca

The next day, I left Oklahoma City, driving up I-35 into Kansas to visit Strataca, the state’s top ranked tourist attraction on Trip Advisor. It did not disappoint.

Strataca is a working salt mine, a mining museum and a cultural and historical archive all rolled into one.

Twenty-five dollars buys you a ride down into the mine down the same elevator shaft once used by miners. Once below, you can explore a large section of the mine, complete with several exhibits, a gift shop and an event space. Your $25 also buys you a guided train ride through the darkened halls of the mine, and this was a highlight.

As I mentioned earlier, Strataca is also an archive of sorts. The salty environment and natural climate control make it ideal for preserving a variety of materials. The original negatives for movies “Gone with the Wind” and “Ben Hur” are both stored there alongside costumes from Batman and Matrix movies. It’s also been used to store medical records, oil and gas charts, and documents from all 50 states and many foreign countries. They have a small selection of movie props on display for visitors of the mine museum.

Wichita

After leaving Kansas, I backtracked a little to stay two nights in the category 1 Wichita Hyatt Regency (an absolute gem). From there, I spent the following day exploring the city, walking through town and along the riverfront.

Downtown Wichita is a pretty quiet place, but nearby there’s lovely biking trails, a place to rent boats, a baseball stadium and a pretty cool looking science and technology museum.

Mushroom Rock State Park

Leaving Wichita, my first stop was a tiny state park called Mushroom Rock. This 5-acre park, accessible by a short gravel road, is known for its interesting geological formations which look an awful lot like shrooms. Formed by erosion, the statuesque mushrooms have perhaps two hundred years worth of carvings engraved.

Eisenhower Presidential Library

Ike’s homestead and presidential library sits an hour east on I-70. It’s located in a picturesque middle-american small town called Abilene. I arrived on a day when most things were closed, but I could still walk around the outside exhibits as well as a section of the library.

Freedom Park and Atomic Annie

Another 30 minutes east on I-70, I stopped at Freedom Park to see an M65 atomic cannon, sometimes called Atomic Annie. The cannon was capable of hurling a 600lb nuclear round 20 miles. Seems a little close for comfort to me. Only twenty were made and just seen remain.

Lawrence, Kansas and The Elms

I stayed the night at The H-H-Haaaaaaauuunted Elms northeast of Kansas City. This Hyatt was destroyed by fires in 1898 and 1910 and is said to have the ghosts of a gambler haunting the pool and spectral housekeeper. Allegedly the ghosts are all “friendly” but curiously the hotel has no Room 217.

The day before, I stopped by the Lawrence sign, just west of Kansas City. This is a well known landmark from the show Supernatural.

After my night at The Elms, I took a more direct route home, driving eight hours to a Hyatt Place in Indianapolis, and then another three hours home to Columbus, Ohio the next day.

Lodging

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Cost Summary

Overall, it was a great trip. I cut back a little on driving, covering just 900 miles in 5 days. Although I would have preferred some category one Hyatts, and some of the hotels had peak pricing, it was still pretty cheap, averaging under 9k per night.

Part #3 Only

• $170 in gas
• 6 Hyatt nights @ 40.6k

Total Trip Costs

• $400 in gas
• 14 Hyatt nights @ 115.6k (8.3k/night)
• 2 IHG nights @ 42k (21k/night)
• 1 Hilton nights @ 44.8k
• 2 nights camping @ $30 ($15/night)

Continue on the adventure:

• Part 1: The North Road
• Part 2: The Western Expanse
• Part 3: Route 66