The Texas portion of Route 66 begins at the Oklahoma state line and travels across the Texas panhandle for about 178 miles, ending at the New Mexico state line. Portions of the Old Route 66 merge with the Interstate 40 freeway, while other portions of the road have been abandoned, leaving only memories and ghost towns. Amarillo is the largest city you will pass as you travel west along the Route 66 trail.
One of the most famous landmarks along the Route 66 trail provides large steaks and soft beds. The Big Texan Steak Ranch and Motel in Amarillo is located on I-40. R.J. Lee, who opened the restaurant and motel on the original Route 66, created the landmark in 1960, providing travelers with a good overnight stopping place. The restaurant advertises a free 72-ounce steak for anyone that can eat the entire steak dinner in one hour. Stepping into the restaurant you will find stuffed wild animals and birds covering the walls and hanging from the ceiling. Then you step into a bit of Texas hospitality when you sit down at a knotty pine table under wagon-wheel chandeliers, and a waiter dressed as a gunslinger walks up and says, "Howdy, folks".
The Big Texan Steak Ranch & Motel
P. O. Box 37000
Amarillo, Texas 79120-7000
7701 I-40 East
Amarillo, Texas 79118-6915
800-657-7177
Bigtexan.com/index.html
The Devil's Rope Museum in McLean is a barbed wire museum. The museum's collection contains various kinds of wire, tools and artifacts. You'll learn the complete history of Texas "barbwire," its invention and its impact on the Old West. The museum also has a small collection of Route 66 memorabilia.
Devil's Rope Museum
100 Kingsley Street
P.O. Box 290
McLean, Texas 79057
806-779-2225
Barbwiremuseum.com
Glenrio ghost town, located on the original Route 66 along the Texas-New Mexico border, has only a few residents. The I-40 freeway bypassed the small town, leaving it to die. The town has the ruins of a Route 66 motel called the First/Last Motel. It was the first motel as you entered Texas going east or the last hotel going west out of Texas. The only business remaining open is the Little Juarez Café. The town is mostly a collection of buildings, a gas station and post office where you can relive the history of the old Route 66. With the post office closed, no mailing address exists for the town.
To visit the ghost town and relive the spirit of Route 66, travel west on I-40 to exit 369. Turn right at the stop and then left onto the frontage road, a two-lane gravel road that leads into Glenrio. For further information about the ghost town, check the Legends of America website.
LegendsofAmerica.com/TX-Glenrio2.html
