East Bound and Down

The Wrap Up Post...

The cool thing about traveling on I-40 is it weaves it's way in and out of the Old Route 66! As much as I could get off the high speed interstate and take the 2 lane black top and enjoy the slower pace, I did! 

Wilma enjoyed it too, she never said one word about making a U-Turn. 

See only 42 miles per hr.  You can see things at that speed!!  

When I came into Tucumcari, NM there is a Rt 66 Museum, I was still in museum mode from the day before and I was ready for lunch so I stopped.  NO one was inside but me.  

... the thing about this museum is I remember using most of this stuff now it's in a museum! You do recall how this works right?

a coke for 10c 

and more cool stuff...

All these things very familiar to me! 

Man what a beauty!! '66 Thunderbird

This is also the convention center its a huge building...

entry is free...they appreciate donations

...back on the black top you pass all sorts of bygone, as the interstate highway killed the local businesses..

brought some of this mud home with me underneath the van...

a cool mural along the way...except for the Swamp Cooler..

and more disappearing  Americana...

Soon I was welcomed BACK TO Texas...

And I passed the Cadillac Ranch...all these Caddy's buried in the ground...and with some psychedelic paint jobs.. 

near Amarillo TX off rt 66

even the trash can has a cool paint job!

The leaning Britten Water tower...I think it's leaning more than the last time I saw it...

I stopped in this town to mail my Rt 66 post cards and fill up the tank, and spotted this..

Roger Miller Museum! Erick, Oklahoma.  It was just a quick stop I didn't go in.

I spend one night at a Wally World in Shawnee, OK, just off the highway, passed through Arkansas, and once I got to Memphis, TN I dropped down through the corner of Mississippi and onto I-22/ Hwy 78 and spent the night in a Wally parking lot in Hamilton, Alabama...and once I reached Birmingham, I got on 1-20 east and all I had to do was get through Georgia and I'd be home free!! So 3 long days driving and 2 nights just parking and sleeping and I was in the homestretch. 

I stopped at the Georgia Welcome center and was welcomed by one of my favorite TV characters...

Daryl Dixon!!  (the Walking Dead) Yes I like bad boys in film...go figure but in real life I'd be telling him he needs a hair cut and put that stupid cross-bow down. In your imaginary life you can be a completely different person, be anything you want or anyone you want, or if you live in NYC you can do that too.  

I picked up a brochure called: Georgia's Undead Trail of Zombies and Vampires. The town  where the Walking Dead is filmed is about 60 miles south of Atlanta, Senoia, and the Vampire Diaries is filmed in Conyers and Covington.  You can visit the towns of Woodbury, Alexandria, and Mystic Falls.  If you're a fan you know what I'm referring to. 

 Norman Reedus, who plays Daryl Dixon,  and Gregg Nicotero, who is one of the directors and creative engineers, have opened a restaurant, called Nic and Norman's in Senoia and they can be seen hanging out there! What a fun trip that would be; a set tour, and a studio tour of about an hr, and visits to the "towns" where it all takes place, and if you're lucky they will be filming.  That would be something very different for me as I normally go OFF the beaten Path not towards it but I could def get into it for a day or two...maybe get into walker costume and be a walk-on walker?? I hear they pay $100 a day for walkers. But don't forget the Georgia heat and humidity! 

Star Struck. The young fellow at the visitors center insisted on getting a photo and me and bad boy Daryl. 

Daryl was not impressed with this messy grey haired odd ball southerner who got excited over cardboard.... he keep looking the other way...Haha! 

I had such a fun trip, met some really nice people, saw some awesome scenery from the beach, to the mountains, to underground, and museums and I got a better feeling of what it's like in the tropics too!

I saw 68 new bird species in the 25 days I was traveling just over 5,525 miles!-- Life list now at 398 I am wondering what will be my 399 & 400th bird, and even more important where will I see those 2 birds??? 

I can't wait!  I'm sort of----- kind of -----maybe---- planning to spent the summer in Colorado.  We are trying to cook up a plan. Nothing is in stone as it is never in stone when one of us is 92 so we shall see! Currently mom is in the SC mountains for another week visiting her youngest daughter
(my other sis M) while E & I have been doing lots of cemetery headstone photos!

"I now continue with regular blogging of life in real time." Thank you guys for reading along and sharing your comments and ideas with me. 

PEACE

Eleanor Roosevelt: You must do the thing you think you can not.