Monday 5th November- An interesting day

We awoke at around 0815 and made some tea and sat around until about 08.55 and started thinking that we had better hurry down to the breakfast room before they clear up at 0930. Sitting in the breakfast room Jennifer espied a clock showing the time of 07.55 Wot is dis we asked, is zee clock wrong? but no it would appear that the clocks changed here on Sat night by one hour and we did not know oh well. So after breakfast we returned to the room to consider our options for the next week and do some planning for our visit to Fort Worth and Dallas. This completed we left the Hotel and in the car park was a large van marked 'Mallet Corvette' and as there were people around we went to see what it was. It turned out to be the owners of Mallet Cars in North Charlotte who had just returned form a meeting in Las Vegas and on their way home. They let me in to the trailer so that I could take a photo.
This Chevy Corvette had been somewhat modified and now sports a mere 900 BHP (brake horse power for the uninitiated) and could be considered to be  an extremely fast set of wheels. We chatted to the two brothers who owned the company and also one of their wives for about ten minutes and it was quite interesting. Its a long way from Las Vegas to Charlotte of around 2200 miles, not a bad round trip of around 3.5 to 4 days in each direction.  This company will take a standard car and modify it beyond your expectations.
We then left to visit a RV (recreational Vehicle) store where they have a selection of  historic RVs and it really is great to see such interest in old vehicles which have been immaculately returned to their original state and so well presented. They also sell the new versions as well and although size wise they have no chance in the UK whilst the internal colour is not to the European taste being very dark materials and internal wood which is also to dark, not for us although for the size they are very cheap compared to UK caravan prices.

From there we drove to the famous Amarillo steak house where if you have the appetite you can have Free of Charge, a 72 ounce steak with all the trimming for no charge proving you can eat it within one hour. No chance for us but we each had a small 8 ounce steak and then left taking a few photos of their restaurant and also the Motel/Hotel next door. From here we tried to find what is called the old historic part of town which route 66 still goes though but quite frankly apart from a couple of old shops and various signs mentioning Route 66 (Historic Route) there was nothing to see.
Time to visit the famous Cadillac Ranch where for arts sake the owner had buried the noses of ten Cadillacs in the ground and allows anybody to pay their respects by bringing spray paint to show they had been there. The only other couple there turned out to be from Chichester and were on a Route 66 revival route having started in Los Angeles and were now leaving the route to head South to stay with friends in Austin for three weeks.
Our sightseeing done we did some shopping for food for tonight and tomorrow, filled up the car with fuel and so as to be ready for the off for the long drive to Fort Worth of about 325 miles which hopefully should not take more than seven hours with two of us sharing the driving.

We plan to spend quite a few night in Dallas/Fort Worth enjoying the sights and also putting our feet up by the pool before heading off to San Antonio before returning to Austin for the Formala One GP-Cant wait for this!!!

All Amarillo photos on Phanfare at following link

http://noelgroves.phanfare.com/5797242_6641786