Week 9 - Drive 5 states to Memphis, Tennessee

This week we get to over 7000 miles travelled in total and go through New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee. At Tulsa, we leave Route 66 and head more East

Saturday, September 4th - Santa Fe

We leave The Junkyard Brewery and head just outside of Sante Fe. We arrive at this very treesy campsite and we are give a camping spot alongside a camper from Richmond, they Bay Area. Small world/country, the campsite

thought they must be putting the Californians next to each other 😊

We quickly unhook the airstream and drive into Santa Fe, we park a little outside the center to get our steps in for the day. We walk into the town center and have a look at the Market Stalls and many shops and a lot of people. We walk around and find a quiet little coffee shop, and sit outside under an awning for heavy rainstorm, we are a little chilly in our shorts and t-shirt.

The heat comes back quickly and we walk to a recommended restaurant Tomasita’s. There is quite a line to get in and we are told it will be 55 mins, they text me an App to watch our names move up the list and the mins go by, I quite like this app. We find a seat outside under solar panels to avoid another rainstorm and enjoy our margaritas and chips and guacamole, this is a very nice way to wait enjoying the cooling rain and a rainbow.

Our name came to the top of the list and we move a few feet under the awning to a table and order/enjoy our meal and our first ever bite of sopaipilla bread with honey…delicious.

Sunday, September 5th - Tucumcari

Off on Route 66 again looking at Americana that has intrigued travellers since the 40s.

In Santa Rosa we stop at a natural Blue Hole that the local's use for swimming & diving.

We stay at another KOA in Tucumcari, the part of Route 66 is know for its neon signs, we drive into Tucumcari at dusk to be able to take some pics of the neon signs, Blue Swallow Motel, and there are a couple of refurbished motels in the 50/60’s style reminds me a little of the Jetsons (especially as there are planes coming out of the walls of one hotel). The restaurant is very friendly and we are happy to see sopaipilla bread again, our waitress tells us of the ways her grandmother and she prepares sopaipilla.

Monday, September 6th - Texas

From New Mexico to Texas, the panhandle, we stop at the Route 66 mid-point which is a bit of a ghost town - the only place open is a cafe like Flo's from Cars. Of course we have to stop at the Cadillac Ranch and tag the cars plus the road next to us:

Eventually we stop at a Harvest Host, Schaeffer Farm in Clarendon/Jericho. We go up a bumpy semi dirt road and receive a call from one of the Schaeffer brothers, yes we are on the right road, take a right by the dilapidated buildings into a field where we find the other brother Barry chatting to another RV driver, Barry has just mowed the field and filled the ruts in the track for an easier access.

Barry is great giving us the history of the area, Jericho the dilapidated buildings was part of the old route 66, it was a motel & gas station, now its home to tarantulas and bees. Barry and his brother want to make it more of an RV/Trailer destination. Barry lets us know that the rattlesnakes are in the longer grass and don’t worry about the turantulas as the males are in the middle of their breeding season and are looking for females and won’t bother us, the rattlers don’t want to waste their venom and will rattle for us to move on. I am inwardly freaking and don’t step out of the trailer again until Barry and his dog Misty, an Australian shepherd & leopard hound cross, she is really friendly; brings freshly picked zuchinni, okra, peppers, basil and eggs. A huge Bus-sized RV arrives and parks right next to us with their generator on, spoiling the silence and swoosh of the giant windvanes around us – URGH! Peter takes a stroll around our trailer and sees two turantulas which he doesn’t tell me about until we are on the road the next morning – thank goodness!

Tuesday, September 7th - Oklahoma

After a brief stop at another Route 66 "must see" - Round Barn ...

..we drive to Oklahoma, and stay in Agra at an Alpaca Farm, this road trip is so HOT! When they see us, we are offered a soak in their feed trough soaking metal pool, it has a pump and treated with chlorine and is marvellous it brings down my inner body temp down by 10 degrees.

We have a tour at 6:45 pm once the heat has almost left and we hear the story of how and why alpacas. The males are in one field and have their own shed and giant swamp cooler, I am jealous. The females have the same. They are very sweet natured and like the attention. We hear about the fiber side of how they process their coats, and purchase a couple of things. There is an amazing sunset and looks like a storm might be a brewing

We get back to the trailer and watch a distant lightning storm.

Wednesday, September 8th - Arkansas

The final Route 66 "iconic sight" is the Blue whale at Catoosa - it is quite sad, as its closed and the shine has rubbed off.

The roads are great in Oklahoma, as there are tolls, but the signs for turn offs are lacking and there are loads of turn offs and car entering the fast land of the Highway. We get to Arkansas, a harvest host - Post Winery in Altus. This is a large family winery with multiple labels, wineries in the area. We park in a lovely spot next to the lake, go into the air conditioned space for a cheese plate and our wine tasting, there is visiting family from New Orleans and we hear about the family members alive in their 100’s, the family is huge. We bought a bottle of their white wine, a very dry crisp one called Train Whistle – Seyval Blanc grapes…delicious.

We are the only ones staying here and Joseph one of the patriach’s pops by for a quick hello, very friendly place.

Thursday, September 9th - Memphis, Tennessee

We have a long drive to Memphis which turns out to be quite a challenging ride for us navigating the traffic and find our destination Graceland RV Park. This place is right opposite Graceland. We have supper at Marlowes BBQ Restaurant the deep fried chicken & salad is delicious.

Friday, September 10th - Memphis

We decided to go to Graceland today as we hoped this would be less busy than a Saturday or Sunday. The RV park is getting really busy, and we found out that its because of a American football game Tennessee State vs Jackson State on Saturday.

We purchase the regular Graceland ticket with audio which is really quite good and the memorabilia, the set up is interesting and the Graceland house is quite small homely, glitzy and fun. Lots of games room, it really has everything but on a small scale, apart from the two airplanes which are on the tour.

This tour brought back the memories of watching the Elvis movies with my Mum, we both really enjoyed watching these together <3