Today we got up early to visit Mom’s Great Aunt M. She had arranged to have this 90+ year old women cook us breakfast. Tween and Super Cop were excited to meet this long lost relative. I was just hoping that someone of this age didn’t mix up ingredients and end up feeding us something crazy.
Miraculously, we made it out of the hotel and to Great Aunt M’s house on time.
When we arrived, the girls presented their save the environment themed pictures they had drawn for the Great Aunt. The theme was appropriate because GAM was a bonified activist. Notice the signs we found in her house:
During the tour of the house I discovered where my wife obtained her obsession with calendars:
After the tour of the house we sat down for a good old fashioned breakfast and it was so good that Tween asked for the pancake recipe. As it turns out, this 90 year old woman was more lucid than we were after so many days in the car. At one point, one of her college age room mates (yes she has college age room mates) rolled out of bed to say a quick hello. I don’t know about you, but that caused my mind to explode (luckily, not onto the food):
Route 66
After breakfast we headed to the local Walmart to gather supplies for our afternoon activity (some spray paint). We continued to our next destination, a quirky souvenir shop on Route 66. We explained some of the history as we drove by all the abandoned shops:
We arrived at the souvenir shop and proceeded with our favorite activity. It was here that I finally found the Aliens I was expecting to see as we drove in the middle of nowhere at night. As it turns out, illegal Aliens can get driver licenses in New Mexico (I am talking about Aliens from outer space, so please take this as a joke):
After shopping, we headed to a route 66 diner for lunch. We were a little confused as one of our lunch spots was actually open:
After lunch, we were on our way to Texas, where they say everything is bigger. We crossed into Texas and made our way to the exit for the Cadillac Ranch. When we exited, we took a quick detour to the Love’s Travel Stop. These truck rest stops had some of the nicest restrooms. They also had all kinds of other amenities if you needed it, like a shower. “Who would need a shower?”, I uttered. Words that would come to haunt me later:
After the pitstop, we headed to the Cadillac Ranch. This was an art work that is living. It consists of cars planted upside down in the ground that you get to spray paint. As we walked in, we chatted with another family asking if they had brought any paint. They asked if you were allowed to paint the cars. I momentarily panicked, as I carried four cans of paint waving in the wind, but quickly replied yes since I saw a small truck with the words spray paint listed as a menu item. Notice the long gravel section in this image as we walked in as it is important later in our story:
As we neared the cars it looked like a disaster was about to happen. Thunderstorms had buried the cars in water. Normally, Mom the Clean would have told us no way. However, since we were in Texas she had lost all bearings and told us, “Just take off your shoes”. Of course, despite our pleas she chose not to join us.
Pig Dad, Tween Pig, and Little Pig proceeded to wade into the mud laden mess to tag the car. There is no better lesson then teaching your kids how to create graffiti, completely undoing all lessons about not drawing on the wall or creating a mess. I guess the new rule is “Only in Texas”:
We decided to tag it with “Epic Road Trip 2021 BEHM (our first initials). Look closely and you can see it in green, pink, and cyan):
After tagging the car, the kids continued to tag the ground and play in the mud. They loved the feel of the mushy mud. Little Pig even decided to slip and fall into the dirty water. Who could have predicted that would happen? I am pretty sure we got a video of it. We are just lucky she got up and she didn’t start to roll around:
As we left the exhibit we walked barefoot toward the car. You might say that our feet were not in a really good state to insert into shoes. We donated our leftover paint to others coming into the park. When we got closer to the exit we realized we had a problem, the entire exit was covered in gravel and we had no shoes. We sent mom to the car to get supplies. This consisted of small rags I had brought in case of emergency spills, a spray bottle I had added last minute to wet our cooling towels, and our jug of emergency water. After about 1 hour we sorta got our feet clean. If only we had some showers at a travel stop we could use (like the ones from the Love’s Travel Stop):
I guess what they say about Texas is true. Everything is bigger including the messes. Even the traffic lights were bigger:
We expected to spend about 30 minutes at the ranch, but after 100+ minutes we were ready for dinner. I desperately tried to find an Italian restaurant that was open. After striking out at our first location, we finally found a small restaurant that was open:
They had pasta for the kids and Mom and I shared a calzone. The calzone was a bit different because it was fried. Only in Texas!
On our way to our Hotel in Elk city we eventually ran into some have rain and thunderstorms. We also got stuck behind lots of truckers who liked to block the passing lane. When we arrived, we got stuck in a room next to the elevator. After I chatted with the front desk, they upgraded us to our best room yet… a suite with loads of room. Thanks Holiday Inn! We all showered, thankful to get the remaining mud off, spread out, and “promptly” went to bed. I am pretty sure that the Cadillac Ranch will be something we all remember for a long time!
