 |  |  Historic bridge of the Old Route 66. |
 |  |  Through Indian land and Navajo Reservations. |
 That's how they build roads here: If there's a hill in the way, they just blow up a piece of it. |  From here the water is flowing into the Pacific Ocean again. |  We're coming to Arizona. |
 Rest area. |  This gigantic meteor crater lies on our route and so we visit the place. |  Quite a big rock must have fallen from the sky here once and left a hole in the ground. |
 You also have to view over the crater rim. |  |  For the one hour guided tour along the rim I am to weak due to a bad cold. |
 The rock, that we could see through a telescope, is as high as a house... |  ... and the figures on the ground of the crater cannot be seen with just the bare eyes. |  |
 As in American museums usual they show a informative movie. |  |
Sunday, January 08, 2006
12-29-2005 Albuquerque, New Mexico - Flagstaff, Arizona
12-28-2005 "Show Me The Way To Amarillo" and "Get Your Kicks On Route 66"
From Oklahoma we drove through Texas to New Mixico today. Until our first stop in Amarillo there were again lots of land and lots of sky...
The most interesting attraction for horsemen and westernriders is the museum of the American Quarter Horse Association, short AQHA, that has there headquarters here in Amarillo, Texas.
The museum shows everything about the history, usage, treatment and characteristics of the American Quarter Horse, that was originally bred as short distance race horse. It was also very useful in working with cattle on the giant ranches of the west.
We watched movies, there are countless information boards, pictures, modells of horses and cowboys and many old original saddles and other equipment.
The exhibit is interesting and we could have spent more time here, but we still had a long way to drive.
In addition we had an appointment for lunch with Jon's old friend Damon, who he hasn't seen for years.
After Amarillo the I 40 leads directly next to the historic Route 66 west. Along this legendary American road from Chicago to L. A. there are many tourist attractions and curiosities, like the Cadillac Ranch shortly behind Amarillo with its eight pink Cadillacs sticking out of a large wheat field.
There's no entrance fee and visitors have put and still do graffiti on the cars making it a bizarre, colorful piece of pop art.
In Vega we visit Dot's Mini-Museum, a wild collection around the "Mother Road". Again entrance is free and the incredible mess is worth a view.
A piece of history: the Route 66
With the border to New Mexico we also get to another time zone and win an hour thanks to Mountain Standard Time, that we need to get to our destination in time.
Nevertheless it's getting dark long before we reach our destination and it's almost seven when we finally get to Albuquerque.
The most interesting attraction for horsemen and westernriders is the museum of the American Quarter Horse Association, short AQHA, that has there headquarters here in Amarillo, Texas.
The museum shows everything about the history, usage, treatment and characteristics of the American Quarter Horse, that was originally bred as short distance race horse. It was also very useful in working with cattle on the giant ranches of the west.
We watched movies, there are countless information boards, pictures, modells of horses and cowboys and many old original saddles and other equipment.
The exhibit is interesting and we could have spent more time here, but we still had a long way to drive.
In addition we had an appointment for lunch with Jon's old friend Damon, who he hasn't seen for years.
After Amarillo the I 40 leads directly next to the historic Route 66 west. Along this legendary American road from Chicago to L. A. there are many tourist attractions and curiosities, like the Cadillac Ranch shortly behind Amarillo with its eight pink Cadillacs sticking out of a large wheat field.
There's no entrance fee and visitors have put and still do graffiti on the cars making it a bizarre, colorful piece of pop art.
In Vega we visit Dot's Mini-Museum, a wild collection around the "Mother Road". Again entrance is free and the incredible mess is worth a view.
A piece of history: the Route 66
With the border to New Mexico we also get to another time zone and win an hour thanks to Mountain Standard Time, that we need to get to our destination in time.
Nevertheless it's getting dark long before we reach our destination and it's almost seven when we finally get to Albuquerque.
12-27-2005 Kansas
Today we drove through Kansas, which is mostly flat and has hardly any trees. It has more trees than Nevada, but there is really nothing out her. Corn cannot grow here because it's too dry, so farmers just grow wheat. Or the land is just dry, brown grassland, very unspectacular but very wide, wider than everything I'm used to from Europe.
The eye has no point to hold on to, so the horizon can be ten or figty miles away, it doesn't matter, because everything is equal.
Amazingly the drive wasn't boring or tiring, because we stopped a couple of times.
After leaving Kansas City quite quickly in the morning - we'll have to come back for sightseeing and barhopping - we arrived Wichita after three hours. The town is known for their large aircraft construction industry, but we wanted to buy my christmas present from my parents: a smaller digital camera, so that I don't always have to carry Jon's large camera around when I go hiking on my own.
Unfortunately you have to pay tolls on some of Kansas' Interstates and because we had to leave and go back to the Interstate before we'd found the store, it was a little annoying and complicated to always stop and pay here a quarter and there forty cents. We wondered if that was worth the spends for them.
After all we bought a Nikon Coolpix 4600, a nice camera, which has many interesting modes and can even make movies.
I just couldn't take too many pictures today, because there was hardly anything to see.
So we could put all our attention to a long German lesson. jon can say no what you can buy in a liquor store. (Jon: "Amerikanisches Bier ist Pferdepisse").
Short before the end of the drive we stopped in Liberal, Ks. Everybody who has watched the "Wizard of Oz" on TV knows that Dorothy lives in Kansas, but a Tornado blows her and her house, her little dog and her to the land of Oz. On her way to the wizard of Oz over the yellow brick road she meets many fantastic creatures who become her friends.
Due to a crazy coincidence Dorothy's house is in Liberal and so we had to look at it more closely.
Munchkins are the small inhabitants of the country Dorothy's house lands in.
After visiting the grounds despite a cold harsh wind, a lady of the chamber of commerce led us through the little farmhouse itself, which is furnished in the style of the beginning century.
We were allowed to visit the land of Oz, a machine shed holding the story of Dorothy and Toto (of course you walk over the Yelllow Brick Road through the exhibition).
There was also a small merchandise shop, but we had to continue our journey, because Adam had told us about a great steak house and a good place for nice and cheap breakfast in Guymon, Oklahoma.
So we climbed back into the car and drove over the border to Oklahoma (still in the same time zone), where the landscape was the same as in Kansas.
Unfortunately the recommended restaurant is closed until Saturday and the pancake shop is closed entirely, but the hotel was nice with Internet, fitness equipment, swimming pool, hot tub and a clean large room. We can't complain at all.
Tomorrow we're driving further through Texas, where we're meeting a former class mate of Jon who is making weather forecasts for the local TV station.
In addition there's a large Quarter Horse Museum in Amarillo that we want to visit.
The eye has no point to hold on to, so the horizon can be ten or figty miles away, it doesn't matter, because everything is equal.
Amazingly the drive wasn't boring or tiring, because we stopped a couple of times.
After leaving Kansas City quite quickly in the morning - we'll have to come back for sightseeing and barhopping - we arrived Wichita after three hours. The town is known for their large aircraft construction industry, but we wanted to buy my christmas present from my parents: a smaller digital camera, so that I don't always have to carry Jon's large camera around when I go hiking on my own.
Unfortunately you have to pay tolls on some of Kansas' Interstates and because we had to leave and go back to the Interstate before we'd found the store, it was a little annoying and complicated to always stop and pay here a quarter and there forty cents. We wondered if that was worth the spends for them.
After all we bought a Nikon Coolpix 4600, a nice camera, which has many interesting modes and can even make movies.
I just couldn't take too many pictures today, because there was hardly anything to see.
So we could put all our attention to a long German lesson. jon can say no what you can buy in a liquor store. (Jon: "Amerikanisches Bier ist Pferdepisse").
Short before the end of the drive we stopped in Liberal, Ks. Everybody who has watched the "Wizard of Oz" on TV knows that Dorothy lives in Kansas, but a Tornado blows her and her house, her little dog and her to the land of Oz. On her way to the wizard of Oz over the yellow brick road she meets many fantastic creatures who become her friends.
Due to a crazy coincidence Dorothy's house is in Liberal and so we had to look at it more closely.
Munchkins are the small inhabitants of the country Dorothy's house lands in.
After visiting the grounds despite a cold harsh wind, a lady of the chamber of commerce led us through the little farmhouse itself, which is furnished in the style of the beginning century.
We were allowed to visit the land of Oz, a machine shed holding the story of Dorothy and Toto (of course you walk over the Yelllow Brick Road through the exhibition).
There was also a small merchandise shop, but we had to continue our journey, because Adam had told us about a great steak house and a good place for nice and cheap breakfast in Guymon, Oklahoma.
So we climbed back into the car and drove over the border to Oklahoma (still in the same time zone), where the landscape was the same as in Kansas.
Unfortunately the recommended restaurant is closed until Saturday and the pancake shop is closed entirely, but the hotel was nice with Internet, fitness equipment, swimming pool, hot tub and a clean large room. We can't complain at all.
Tomorrow we're driving further through Texas, where we're meeting a former class mate of Jon who is making weather forecasts for the local TV station.
In addition there's a large Quarter Horse Museum in Amarillo that we want to visit.
 Jon is driving through Kansas. |  Wheat and grain elevators. We left the Interstate short after Wichita. |  wide flat land with lots of space for interesting cloud formations. |
 There are many historic roads in America, just like this supply military road to a fort. |  These hills are called mountains here. |  Dorothy's house in Liberal. |
 Kerstin as Munchkin. |  "You can be a munchkin!" |  The Yellow Brick Road |
 Dorothy's new friends: scarecrow without a brain... |  ... a tinman without a heart (The nice young man next to him has one though!)... |  ... and a lion without courage. The wizard helps them all in the end. |
 Our travel log. |
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