Route 66, Day 4 – Amarillo, Texas, to Albuquerque, New Mexico

by Keith Morgan on Wednesday, November 5th, 2014

Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Everything they make in Texas is oversized, why they even grow Cadillacs.

First stop on day four of the Altimate Rogue Trip on Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica was the Cadillac ranch. There, ten classic examples of the prestige marque are planted in the red dirt. Three members of a local art group created the art installation in 1974. The cars represent the evolution of the car’s tailfins from 1949 until 1963 and their final ‘disappearance’ as a notable feature.

Interestingly, they are half-buried nose-first at an angle that corresponds to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Visitors spray paint graffiti on the cars and pose for photographs by their contribution to the art.

You can’t escape the animated Cars movie on this trip because this installation is mimicked in the popular kids’ move where they appear as a mountain range!

Today’s 500-plus-kilometre trek took us through the midpoint marker for the 1966 line of the route at Adrian. That alignment made the route around 3,670 kms but our group of Candian auto journalists will drive the 2015 Nissan Altimas and Rogues about 4,000 kms as we are mixing up the stretches from different historical alignments.

Drive partner Mark Richardson, from the Toronto Star, and I struck out on our own and took what was little more than a dirt track for almost 15k, which dated back to a route taken in the 1920s. It starts just after the New Mexico border and brought us out near to San Jon. The one-lane track opened up amazing vistas in this very Big Country.

The freeway buried most of the route in the last 100 or so kilometres to our bed for the night in Albuquerque. Thursday we motor to the Grand Canyon, Arizona, for a night under the stars. What has been dubbed Team UK will be spotting locations used by the TV series Breaking Bad.

Check back for a further installment of this blog tomorrow and look out for an expanded feature in Black Press papers later this month and a full report and picture gallery online at the same time.

Contact: keith [dot] morgan [at] drivewaybc [dot] ca

Follow Keith on Twitter @ChangeGears

Learn more about his journey by searching #nissanroute66