2023 WB Day 10 - Texas Big

In Sayre, Oklahoma, old work trucks don't come to a garage for repair... they come to die.

The steel in the bridges though is still holding up.

As was a piece of no longer used and overgrown Mother Road.

Possibly the most inaccessible section of R66 we could access, it really transported us back in time.

Erick's panorama of musician and favourite son Roger Miller, has lifted the welcome in its Main Street...

...unlike Texola, fast becoming the front runner for ghost town of the state.

In fact the tiny town sits on the border with Texas.

The original split road pretty soon gave way to the interstate we would parallel the remainder of the day.

Wind turbines seem bigger in Texas, but really they're just closer to the road.

That road led to the Conoco at Shamrock.

We were lucky, Hazel was there to greet us... on her day off.

She opened up the cafe and we were instantly whisked back to a different era.

Across the street, a storm chaser lay idle, but stories from east bound travellers of huge hail stones and the inside of tornado bunkers illuminates the mind to the kind country we are in.

But the best illustration of what life on the road was like during the dust bowl was in McLean,

Photos at the Devil's Rope museum of what real struggle was all about.

In Alanreed the restored gas station was showing signs of nature wanting to return it to a state of disrepair...

Like other buildings across the street.

And in a scene reminiscent from the Cars movie, trucks slept by the traffic roaring along the i40.

There was another, smaller line up of vehicles too.

Bug Ranch had new artists at work, the five VW's long ago ploughed into the dirt.

There's a bit of ploughing going on in Texas, and as expected it was on a large scale.

As were the hats at the Big Texan...

...and the new mural Dmngo (yes, the spelling is right!) was being inked on a blank canvas wall on 6th St historic mile.

And there was time for a quick nosy into Cavenders to see a really big boot store...

before settling in for the night near Palo Duro Canyon with the locals.

...although not all the locals were as cute.