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Not a lot of words today, it’ll be mostly pictures. The trip from Amarillo To Santa Fe took maybe 5 hours and that included the taking of the Cadillac Ranch photos, a snack and a nature break, a photo stop in Adrian, TX, a slow cruise thru Tucumcari on Route 66 and a gas stop in Santa Rosa. |
Cadillac Ranch Edition of SORT
As of Monday, January 27, 2025 at 6:00 PM mountain time:
| Sport | Off-Road | Touring |
|---|---|---|
| 1960 Cadillac Series 62 | 2016 Cadillac Escalade | 1984 Cadillac Fleetwood |
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 |
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| Says sporty, more than being sporty. |
Off-roading in the lap of luxury. |
I’ll be hiring a chauffeur for touring in this one. |
Why is this week’s tile Cadillac Ranch Edition? Answer, “I was there just this morning.” |
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Here is what last week’s cars sold for, or bid to (if the reserve was not met):
Sport: Illuminated Porsche Sign Sold for $8,000 on 1/21/25
Off-Road: Illuminated Jeep Sign Sold for $2,250 on 1/23/25
Touring: Illuminated Acura Sign Sold for $5,250 on 1/21/25
A 400-mile, 7 hour driving day that included an actual Dunkin’ store, a Cracker Barrel lunch, a mildly disappointing Buc-ees visit, an almost hotel mix-up and four bits of Roadside America.
Back in May of 2023 on Donna’s and my trip to the Napier’s Hometown we were in the Holiday Inn Express across the street from the Dunkin’ in the travel center. When I went in, I walked back out, because there was only one person behind the counter and too many people in line. This time it was me and Sally staying across the street in a Home2 Suites and I stayed because there were two employees behind the counter and no one in there but me. Turns out I probably should have left, they didn’t get the order right, regular means 3 cream – 3 sugar and all I got was 1 of each.
Cracker Barrel didn’t disappoint even though they didn’t have the Pot Roast dinner I wanted; the Sunday Special was chicken pot pie that put Swanson’s to shame. Sally’s trout was also excellent, but I had to take her word for it because she refused to share, (truth be told, she did offer and I declined.)
Turns out this Buc-ees did not have a car wash (aww..) and there were none of the free circle stickers either (crap!), but the rest was terribly weird as advertised.
I almost did the same thing I did once before on a previous trip with an overnight stay in a Holiday Inn property. While trying to follow the somewhat confusing frontage road situations in Texas I pulled into a Holiday Inn, and before I would have embarrassed myself, I checked the reservation on my phone and realized I was in the Holiday Inn lot and I needed to be on the other side of I-40 Business in the Holiday Inn Express.
We stopped at the Texas Best Smokehouse Travel Center in Henrietta, TX to photograph the Dinosaur Parade there. Next was a Quanah Parker Trail Arrow in the town of Quanah, TX. I was here before with Donna and even though I can find no reference to it the blog, I can say with all assurance that we were here on a previous trip because I remember visiting the museum that is in the same parking lot.
After checking in to the hotel, taking an hour to settle in, we went for a semi-long walk around the hotel area, we hopped in the car and grabbed a couple more Roadside America sites near Amarillo that I had never been to before, the giant Tex Randall Statue in Canyon, TX 20 miles south and the Giant Legs of Amarillo on the way back to the hotel.
We left from the Airbnb around 6:30am after a failed attempt at getting one more decaf caramel latte from PJs. It was because it was Saturday and they don’t open until 7:00am. But that early start in the soft light of dawn allowed us to get to our destination around 1:30pm, the perfect time for a late lunch at the greatest hamburger place in the (Brian’s) world, Burgerland in Paris, TX.
Next stop was our hotel to check-in and semi unpack before setting out to the second reason that this town is a must stop whenever passing this way, la tour eiffel du Texas. When we arrived, there were a couple of families milling around. I even offered to take a picture for one of them. We also wandered over the Red River County Veteran’s Memorial Park. On our way in we were stopped by a fellow in flip-flops and what seemed pajama bottoms. He proceeded to tell us about somebody who’s statue or plaque was in the memorial. Then he asked if I served and I told yes, which segued into his experiences in Vietnam as a Navy Corpsman with the Marines. Sally would swear he wasn’t old enough to have had those experiences, but I couldn’t say one way or the other.
Next it was back to the hotel for a couple hours, her to the gym for a bit and me to chill and surf the web. We rendezvoused at 6;00pm to walk across the parking lot to the DQ next door and have a Blizzard to finish the day. As you might guess mine involved caramel…
Whatever happens next during my visit with Sally, “We’ll always have Paris.”
Last day here, tomorrow it’s ‘On the Road Again.’ It has been fun, but it is time to head back to Santa Fe in the state of New, as allowed by a little talked about clause in the same Executive Order that renames the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Today there was an only children lunch out with the birthday girl in Hammond and a late coffee/snack meeting of the grandchildren/cousins in Mandeville leaving yours truly to fend for himself for lunch. When I broached the subject with Sally about my desire to eat the Waffle House once while we were here, she kind of grimaced and said, “We’ll see.” Back in Aiken Donna and would walk to a close by Waffle Hut every other Sunday or so. We would take the Sunday paper 1 to there to split a waffle and a double order of scattered and smoothed hashbrowns. This was my chance.
They must still like me though, even if my food dining choices are eh, as I was invited back for the Hammond 2.0 event in late April so I can drive Miss Salley back to an appointment with her (& Adele’s) Dermatologist.
My long 2 day nightmare was over, this morning PJs coffee was open so I could get my usual 16oz Decaf Caramel Latte.
Today is actually Sally’s mom Adele’s 98th birthday, which is the reason we are all in Hammond. Tonight’s celebration meal was cooked by Sally’s daughter Claire and was attended by all 3 of her children, her oldest Steve, middle child Susie and the baby Sally. One of Susie’s daughters Allie, Chef Claire and the hangers ons of Steve’s wife Janet and the no relation narrator me.
Adele goes to a local gym called Spoga, which I keep referring to as Spago, three times a week and on her 90th birthday they had promised to get her own parking spot right up front. Well, early this week they surprised her with her sign early.
This morning Sally and I were in Academy Sports to shop the sale racks and on entering we saw these bicycles right up front and kidding said that we should buy one for the birthday girl. If you think your city goes over the top for a holiday or festival, they ain’t got nothing on south Louisiana baby.
The morning was spent inside, except for my brief outdoor walk around to get the first two photos below. We walked for lunch at Lee’s Drive In, a Hammond institution, because it was just two blocks north of the Airbnb. By the time we left for there at noon the street was almost entirely free of snow. Sally had the chicken topped salad and had a patty melt. And because her mom will probably never read this blog, we split an app of Fried Pickles which were the best I’d ever had.
After that we visited with the Birthday Girl at her house and the roads were pretty much all clear, except for the last 50 yards before turning into her Cul de sac where the trees prevented the sun from doing its radiant energy thing. There was a little bit of sliding there. Talking of New Orleans memories and telling tall stories of past exploits with the granddaughter/daughter Claire.
When Sally and me returned to the Airbnb, had a small dinner, we were both still a little full from lunch, and then watched a movie that had Justin Timberlake in it. Just because when the Airbnb’s host dropped by (see explanation below the photos) she told us that Mr. Timberlake stayed here while filming the movie The Open Road. Unlike last night’s Hallmark Christmas movie with a couple of movie stars in it, this was more like a badly written, poorly filmed and edited one with a bunch of movie stars in it. Closed Captioning might have helped, but I couldn’t figure how to get it on the Fire TV we have. I told Sally that for Friday night one of us picks a movie that they have seen and enjoyed enough to watch a second time. That way, worst case scenario, at least one of us will enjoy the show.
 AirBnB |
 Fleur de Lis |
 Spiral Staircase |
 Hydra |
1) Outside of our Airbnb. 2) Closeup of the fence surrounding the place. 3) The spiral staircase to the 3rd floor loft with bed & bath number three. 4) Hydra.
The last one needs a little ‘splaining. The heat pump worked fine until the hard freezing temps and snow arrived. The night before last when the temps plummeted to single digits it couldn’t keep up and inside the Airbnb it was 53°. The heating contractor come out to fix it right away, so the host gave us a space heater. With it we got the interior up to 61 before bed, but we of course turn the heater off to be safe. This morning it was 51° inside. Our host works at Neil Corporation that trains salon owners and she knew we were still cold, so today she brought over another space heater and this contraption, used for something hair related or what they use to keep hamburgers warm in the cafeteria.