Parks and Paths

Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, TX

Amarillo billionaire, Stanley Marsh 3 wanted to create an unusual piece of art.  He brought in 3 art-hippies who called themselves "The Ant Farm," and they created Cadillac Ranch on route 66 (now I40) in 1974.  

Ten Cadillacs were half-buried, nose down, into one of Marsh's three fields (supposedly at the same angle as the Great Pyramid of Giza).  They faced West in a line from a 1949 Club Sedan to a 1963 Sedan de Ville with their rail fins stuck up in the air.

As people stopped to view them they defaced and vandalized for souvenirs, which was OK with Marsh and The Ant Farm, both of whom encouraged it.  Today they are stripped to their frames and covered in paint, and yet more popular than ever. It was moved further west in 1997 as Amarillo's borders expanded.

There were a couple dozen cars lined up on both sides of the road when we arrived Weds.  You could smell the paint before you entered the gate.  Many came with paint cans and others, like us, picked up ones left by others.  There is a dumpster outside the gate (also covered with grafitti) but debris still littered the field around the cars.

Stanley Marsh 3 (he thought the Roman Numerals were pretencious) died in 2014 at 76 amidst a terrible scandal.

 

The entrance gate was painted.

When it's really windy, like today, paint uphill!

The back sides were painted.

The insides of the cars were painted.

The road was painted.

This picture is evidence.  I could have lost my new phone, heck, I could have lost my arms!!  I was trying to get a picture of the graffiti on the dumpster and Pat tried to roll up my window.

Down the road was the Cadillac RV Park.

Dinner was delivered to our RV site tonight by The Big Texan.  I thought Pat would take the 72 oz. challenge for a free meal (included a salad, potato, appetizer, roll and had to be done in an hour) but you had to go to the restaurant to participate.

The Big Texan opened in 1960 on Route 66 but moved in 1970 when I40 bypassed Route 66.

The Big Texan owner and his brother
 were taken on a road trip when they were young and they ended up where there were dinosaur statues.  These memories are what immortailize route 66, so the dinosaur statue.

Pat finished his meal.  That is only half of mine--I get to enjoy the other half tomorrow. It was delicious!

  

Our boys on our 1996 west trip.

In 1996 we took the boys to The Big Texan.

Map of our 1996 trip that took us to The Big Texan.

This is The Big Texan RV Ranch, our home for the past 2 nights.  It used to be the Amarillo RV Ranch.  We wondered if we stayed here when we were on our 1996 West Trip?

The limos sitting at our RV park waiting to transport anyone that wants to go to The Big Texan to eat.