Editor’s Note: This is the fifth column in a series featuring the author’s travels along Route 66.

Our beloved Route 66 had become mostly frontage roads in the State of Texas. In some cases ranchers had installed cattle guards at property entrances to keep their cattle and other animals off the highway. We saw signs posted in other states warning drivers about free range cattle. Cattle guards are rectangular metal frames with rows of pipes crossing ditches that cross driveway entrances and even roads. Cattle and other animals avoid crossing them to prevent entangling their legs. In a sense, they are to cows what wireless fencing is to dogs.

Like Oklahoma, Texas had a very large barn swallow population swooping to and fro around the overpass bridges. Hundreds of nests made from mud lined the underside of the bridges.

It was early evening when we rolled into Shamrock, Texas. We had no problem locating the beautifully restored Tower Conoco Station, home of the Shamrock Chamber of Commerce. Even though the parking lot was empty, we chose to park beyond the four-lane intersection so our Chrysler Town and Country wouldn’t take away from the pictures we were about to take.

I offered to be a traffic lookout for an Australian woman who was attempting to get the perfect shot of the station without cutting off the last few feet of its tall tower. Just as we took our positions, she on the center line and me on the corner, we heard a voice from above, or so we thought, beller “Do not stand in the street to take pictures!” It was obvious this has been an ongoing problem, because a police officer sitting in a dark SUV was watching us from an adjacent lot.

We were impressed with a large granite monument of the Ten Commandments displayed on a corner and erected by the citizens of McClean, the last town in Texas that was bypassed by I-40.

Kitty-corner to the monument is a tiny gas station, the first Phillips 66 in the State of Texas and the first restored station on all of Route 66. It was built and leased to Phillips in 1929.

We spent the night at the Cactus Inn Motel, a mom and pop with the nicest towels on the Mother Road and had dinner next door at the Red River Steakhouse where our silverware was wrapped in red neckerchiefs that served as our napkins.

We passed many abandoned grain elevators of varying styles in Texas, just as we had in Kansas and Oklahoma. We were in and out of tiny towns with boarded windows, roofless buildings and dusty faded displays in dirty windows giving me an even deeper understanding of the point the movie “Cars” was attempting to make. Just as motels, gas stations and restaurants went up in little towns when Route 66 was completed, they were closed when the four-lane highways bypassed them. There are still hundreds of remnants of the businesses in the way of empty sign frames on tall posts, broken billboards and faded painted ads on the sides of barns, reminding passersby that these were once thriving communities that meant something to someone, a lot of someones.

Day 10 found us backtracking about 5 miles after my husband felt guilty for passing a minivan with the hood open. A wrecker was hooking up to the disabled vehicle as we made the second pass, meaning he was able to sleep that night.

After we got righted around we passed a leaning water tower east of Groom, Texas. The tower was moved here and intentionally placed in a slanted position, two legs above the ground with no guide wires or anchors, to draw attention and advertise a now defunct truck stop at I-40’s Exit 114. Even though many expected it to topple long ago, it still stands just as it was planted around 1980.

We soon came across the “Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ” the largest cross in the northern hemisphere, 190-foot-tall and built in 1995. The Stations of the Cross, The Last Supper, the Crucifixion and a replica of the empty tomb where Jesus arose, are also found here.

Panhandle, Texas is home to Slug Bug Ranch, a row of five Volkswagens that appear to be rising up out of the earth that buries them. It is possibly a poor man’s version of Cadillac Ranch farther down the road.

We saw far more wind turbines on the short 150-mile stretch across Texas than we saw in the remaining seven states combined, which gave us an eerie, disappointing view. The heaviest concentration runs from here to the New Mexico border, seriously detracting from the scenery.

We made a brief stop at The Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, who has been feeding people since 1960. Our purpose for stopping was not to attempt a go at eating a 72 oz. steak, dinner roll and three sides in one hour to get it free. Our goal was to press a penny in their penny press.

We were very surprised and happy when we stopped to fill the gas tank in the same city to discover signs with various Bible verses attached to the roof supports. It was the cheapest gas we’d seen – $1.79.

West of Amarillo on south Frontage Road between Hope Road and Arnot Road, is Cadillac Ranch where in 1973 Stanley Marsh buried nose-down 10 Cadillacs, ranging in model years from 1948 to 1963. Over the years vandals have smashed out windows, stolen the chrome trim, speakers, radios and some of the doors. Mr. Marsh welcomes visitors to paint graffiti on the cars and remnants of plastic paint can lids can be found embedded in the dirt surrounding the cars, even though two dumpsters are prominently placed on the property. Signs near the road put up by the Police Department forbidding graffiti beyond “this point” are covered with graffiti, too.

Another quick stop, our last in Texas, was made at mid Point Cafe in Adrian. It was closed but we were happy to snap a picture of the new Mid Point sign named because Adrian claims to be the geographic mid-point on Route 66.

On our way to New Mexico!

To Be Continued …