Whale We Made it Midway

Well we landed halfway on 66! Adrian, Texas is the exact middle of the Mother Road. Cameron and I had a fun trek through New Mexico back into Texas. Like everywhere else in the West we hardly saw any cars traveling along 66. When we got to the midway point there was not a soul in sight at first. It was so empty that I was able to play in the road and take pictures of the 66 painted on the pavement!
 

Definitely couldn't do this in the road back East!

Midway of 66 is a cute must see stop. There are two little shops there and a welcome sign. It was definitely one of Cameron and I's favorite places to stop there was so much to take pictures of! The store owner came out and told us he was not open to serve food but he would keep the shop open in case​ we wanted to buy any souvenirs. We actually never went inside the shop, we spent the whole time outside taking cool pictures because there was so much neat stuff. It was the perfect Texas day the sky was so blue and the clouds made a great back drop for our pictures. While we were there some bikers came and another car load of people. Cameron found another truck that he liked! It was neat everyone who has stopped at Midway signed the Ford in sharpie leaving quotes or their names to show they had made it to the Midway point. There's not much else to say about this beautiful stop in words, make sure you check out the gallery pictures to get the full experience and enjoy it like we did!
 
 After feeling very "welcomed" by Adrian, Texas we decided to continue along to find Cadillac Ranch! For those of you that are not familiar with the iconic 66 Landmark, it is basically a farm that is famous for the art sculptures planted in it. Cadillac's are lined along the farm and visitors come to deface the cars with spray paint and enjoy the artwork. It is one of those things that pictures really don't do it justice.
 

It would be interesting to see how thick the layers of paint on each car have gotten over the years. This was also one of our favorite stops on the road. It was just cool how completely random it was. Almost like Bottle Tree Ranch. It was literally in the middle of a corn field. The farmer had to plant his corn around these several cars. There was nothing but field in every direction and then tons of tourists flocked around the cars.
This Texas visit was a lot different from our last one. Last time it took us almost two days to drive through the state. Being from Eastern states we're used to driving twenty minutes and being in a different state. This time we were in the panhandle (that little square up top) so we were in Oklahoma in no time.
My favorite part of Oklahoma was the dirt. That sounds weird but it was really cool. Coming into the state we started passing all of these big 4x4 trucks and SUVs covered in bright red dirt. I always joked that we needed to go where they were coming from because it looked like fun! Apparently they were just coming from Oklahoma. All the dirt was bright red. Like as bright as a can of Coke. If you own a car wash in Oklahoma you must make a killing.
Our one stop in Oklahoma was the Whale. I'm pretty sure that's all it's called... Basically it's a dock in a really tiny pond that someone turned into a whale.
 
Honestly I didn't see why this was a major Rt 66 tourist attraction. I'm sure it was cool when it was first built and brand new but now some parts of it look like they have lacked attention for some time. The paint was chipping, spiderwebs were everywhere, the ladders seemed rickety, and some boards were rotting out. For flippers the whale had slides that you could slide into the water but there were chains across it and big signs that said no swimming. Even the pond that it was in was covered in algae and had tons of sticks sticking out of it. It didn't look very inviting anyways if you ask me. I'm not saying that I wouldn't suggest seeing it. It's cool to look at but don't get your hopes up based on the amount of advertising you'll see for it.

Actually the coolest thing we saw at the Whale was parked just outside the gate and it was perfect for Rt 66!
 

He didn't want to trade...
​
Driving through some of the windy back roads (well one road...) of Oklahoma which was some of my favorite driving on the trip. I feel like I say that a lot... The red dirt was really cool to look at. We love that backwoods stuff.

Once the dirt turned back into its normal color we had made it to Kansas. Kansas only has 13 miles of Rt 66 running through it so pay attention or you'll miss it!
We tried to find a shot glass for Rose but, go figure, everything was closed in the few little towns we went through. This one was extra weird because it was the middle of the day. Typical for our trip though. Once we gave up on finding a shot glass we just continued on. We were driving down the road headed out of Kansas when we stopped seeing Rt 66 signs. After consulting our map we decided that we missed a turn. So we turned back and saw a little sign on the side of the road that said "Field of Dreams." If it hadn't been our second time past it we probably wouldn't have even seen it. We both liked the movie and I knew it took place in Kansas so I figured why not, it'd be cool to see a replica or whatever museum they put up for it.

Nope... It was the real thing!
 
 
It was so odd to see something this big and nice in the middle of nowhere. I guess if you build it they will come right? It was just really cool to see something this iconic in real life.

The rest of Kansas passed quickly and before we knew it we were in Missouri!