From midpoint on 66, we headed to Glenrio, the last town before New Mexico

With Mrs Fogg comfy in the back of our Chevy Captiva

This desolate location was cutoff overnight when the Interstate was opened and feature briefly on the Billy TV show

Only one person lives in this isolated place that once flourished with a gas station and motel

And here on the edge of town you move from Texas to New Mexico and travel back in time by one hour. What fun it would be to travel back 50 years and see this road and town in its prime before the advent of the interstate

The destination for tonight, Moriarty New Mexico, another slowly decaying town

We met Sherlock’s Nemesis here.

Here we are at MidPoint on Route66 in Adrian Texas. This morning Mrs HopSkotch made it all the way out on the dirt (a good 1000metres) to have her picture taken at Cadillac Ranch, just outside Amarillo Texas, only problem was the 1000m hobble back again.

So time for food at the world famous MidPoint Cafe on Route66.

Half Way there from here.

Welcome to the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian Texas. We apparently are 1,139 miles from Chicago and 1,139 miles from Santa Monica in California. We managed 650 miles of our trip on the Harley but at least we have both made it in one piece to the midway point.

This cafe was opened in 1928 and does not seem to have changed much judging by the old pictures on the wall. It evokes a cool 1960’s feel inside now and serves Midpoint “ugly” pies for desert. I’ll have to try one to be able to tell you what they are. It’s ok, I’ll force myself to eat it.

Our trip today was from Weatherford, Oklahoma to Amarillo, Texas. A four hour drive on the I-40 so doing Route 66 would be a challenge as this tends to add a couple more hours.

We arose to severe weather warnings of serious storms and tornado risks across Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle (I’ll explain where that is in a second). We opted to travel a teeny bit of Route 66 and then cover distance on the I-40.

We were doing ok, cloudy skies but no dodgy weather. I had read that there was a great Route 66 museum in Elk City on Route 66 so we headed there. The museum looked ok but was not geared to crutches – too many buildings and walkways between them so we looked in the main building and that was enough for my one leg and arms to cope with.

On then to find lunch in Elk City. Hmm, no chance, dump springs to mind. As we were checking out a possible coffee shop (crap) the owner advised us that the severe weather warning was active and due to hit at 3pm. It was about 1.30 so we hit the I-40 hard to try to get out of the way.

We diverted to McLean on old Route 66, to the fab Barbed Wire museum. Ah Billy you were wrong, it was not boring at all, lovely lady there and just a bit quirky, so right up our street.

By this time we noted the skies darkening and cloud swirling (see the picture). Setting off again we went right for the I-40 with no plans to stop.

Then the weather hit. Incredible dark skies, howling side winds and then large hailstones, immense gusts of wind, spray. Cars were stopping under bridges to shelter but there was no room for any more so us and others had to continue on. Fork lightening struck either side of the road, rain and wind lashed us while trucks carried on barrelling along.

We went carefully with other cars, saw at least two overturned huge trucks just two cars ahead of us and still the thunder and lightening crashed. I was on tornado watch (thank goodness nothing) as we slowly passed out from the blackness into lighter skies. Phew.

On then towards Amarillo and a touch of sunshine. Texas itself is flat, flat, flat. The upper part where Route 66 runs sits sandwiched between Oklahoma and New Mexico and is called the Texas Panhandle. It looks nothing like a panhandle but does reflect a much thinner slot of land like a handle holding onto Texas.

Texas is also dusty and full of cows. So, what to do in Texas?? Eat steak of course.

Back to the weather then….severe storm warnings are still in place for Oklahoma and stretching into the Texas panhandle. We are not worried. We are checked into a very posh hotel, modern build with great staff. So far the skies look wonderfully clear, it’s just windy but looking at the open land, my guess is that it is windy all the time here.

Another long drive tomorrow to a place called Sherlock Holmes’ arch enemy. Elementary my dears!