towns full of teepee curios and roadside diners, stopping at most of them, if only to look around. We chose Joseph's Diner for our meal because they were well known for having great biscuits for breakfast. After our meal we passed into Texas, excited to spend the day in the Lone Star State. Here in a town
called Adrian, we reached the famed Midpoint Cafe, located at
the direct midpoint of Route 66: 1139 miles to both Los Angeles and Chicago. We had hoped to have lunch here but the Midpoint Cafe seemingly did not possess the draw that the owners had intended and had gone under years ago. This small setback in the plan though
not necessarily a disappointment, would begin our slow downward spiral in luck for the day. One of
the major attractions we wanted to see in Texas was next on our list of Route 66 stops: the Cadillac Ranch. The Cadillac Ranch consists of 10 Cadillac's lined up in a straight line and buried nose deep in the middle of a corn field at the exact angle of the Great Pyramids in Giza. Yearly they are painted a base color of white or blue and then within days are covered in spray paint by the locals. Guided by my wayward navigator, we drove around unable to find
the Ranch for about 15 minutes before we stumbled upon a large truck bearing the words "theDonut Stop." Katie made me pull over the car immediately to take a picture. Apparently one of her friends had passed by this exact location a few years ago while looking for the Cadillac Ranch as well. Katie spent the next 10
minutes talking to him on the phone while I took the time to read the directions myself and got us there in 5. When we arrived we were the only ones out in the field. The sculpture has been moved from its original location and is right next to the highway now
only accessible by a service road. For all the traffic in the area, you still feel alone out there. Right as we approached the cars themselves we noticed a veritable graveyard of used spray paint cans littering the trail before us. We walked around for a bit messing with the cars, spinning tires or peaking in to see what was left inside. I found a spray paint can that still
had some juice in it and left our mark on the side of one of the Cadillac's. After hastily spraying "R + K" and taking pictures from a few different angles, we were ready to go. In Amarillo, we noticed that there wasn't much to do and we were torn about whether to continue driving the day away or to try and find something to do in the area, hopefully stretching our legs for a bit. We decided on the latter and headed north of Amarillo to try and visit the Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument. It was a little less than an hour away and when we arrived there at 3 p.m. the rangers were already leaving for the day. We stopped and talked to them for a minute and they told us that they are only open by appointment, they had only had 2 visitors that day, and they never stayed open past 3 p.m. We were given the option to come back the next day and they would take us on a tour to the site of the quarries but we told them we were just passing
through and would not be able to partake. Our northern excursion failed we decided to head back to the city and eat dinner at the famed Big Texan restaurant. We have been aware of this place for days. In Wall Drug like fashion it has signs and billboards littering the roadside as far away as Flagstaff Az. Their
big attraction is the "FREE 72 OZ. STEAK" you can receive there if you can put it down in under 1 hour. Sadly there were no takers while we were at the Big Texan. We would have known immediately because they had a big elevated table in the center of the restaurant with digital clocks above each seat. The food was not nearly as good as the atmosphere but we still had fun and were glad that we got to see what all the hype was about. It was just about dark by the time we left the Big Texan and we decided to stay in Amarillo and visit a Starbucks for a couple hours before continuing down Route 66. We sat down and noticed the problem immediately. My computers charger had definitely seen better days and it seemed that finally its end had come. Without a charger my laptop was worthless since the battery was already about empty. Seeing no other option we headed to Best Buy and bought a $100 replacement. To add to our frustration we went to another Starbucks that did not have any outlets and we were forced to retreat back to the original. After about an hour neither Katie nor I were getting anything done and we thought that our time would be better spent driving.
The night was truly dark now as we began to wind through the Texas back country without a street light for miles around. All of a sudden looming out in the distance we began to approach what we would find out to be the worlds largest cross. We drove up close to it and craned or necks to the sky and looked in awe of this enormous shining beacon. Our spirits somewhat uplifted from our stressful day of disappointment and inactivity we continued on into the night not knowing what sign would cross our paths next. At a speed of about 60 mph we drove through the darkness over a hill to be greeted by a small herd of deer in the middle of the road. I slammed on the brakes and swerved to the right but there was nothing for it, we were about to have impact. Instead of staying where they were, the deer decided to try and cross the road in front of me but they weren't quick enough. Amid our screams of panic, there was a loud thud as we hit the second deer with the side of our van. We continued down the road, both Katie and I in a slight state of shock. We didn't know what to do. Katie wanted to stop immediately and check on CJ, but she was running fine and I did not want to have to face a suffering animal in the middle of the road. We drove a couple miles in the darkness until we reached a lone street lamp near and intersection which we decided to stop at. Still on edge, I went to open my door and discovered it was jammed shut. Wrenching it open, I was happy to discover the damage wasn't that bad. We looked and aside from a small, well placed dent on the side, the van was virtually untouched. We began to become hopeful, thinking that the deer may have just slammed into our side and was perhaps unharmed. We decided to go back and check on the deers status hoping to either find him gone or else completely dead in the road. The worst thing in my mind would to be for it to be struggling for life in the middle of the road. Then I would have to slit it's throat or kill it with my hatchet, both options that I hoped I didn't have to face. We again drove into the darkness, this time driving extra slow since our nerves were on edge and we weren't sure if the rest of the herd had left the area or not. We were getting nearer to the site and our anticipation was building when all of a sudden a cat jumped into the middle of the road and was flattened by a loud "pop" underneath our tire. Katie and I couldn't believe it. We were in utter shock. We began to laugh. The desperate crazed laugh of someone trying to do the right thing but, doomed by fate, only inflicts further hurt on the world. There was no need to stop or turn around for this animal, it would be nothing but a flattened pile of blood and guts. Our hysterical laughter continued until we reached the site of our first victim. Faced with our misfortune, the laughter stopped altogether. The deer was dead... thankfully. It was in the center of the road, blood pooled near its head. Upon further inspection of the van, we could see small lines and scratches on the front of the van where we must have collided with it head only to swing the body around, thus denting the side. After this we decided that the 20 miles left in Texas of Route 66 were better left untraversed. We hit the highway and got the hell out of Texas, bedding down in Oklahoma where we had a clean slate and hoped to start a new day in the morning, with this awful day of misfortunes behind us.
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