You’ll see Amarillo

Tuesday, June 23, 2026

We started the morning with a minor hick-up. Our alternator belt was making noise. We looked at it and thought it was loose, but then had a better look and realized it was shredding. In Brad’s forever an Eagle Scout preparation, we had a spare belt in the trunk. With help from our friends Allan, Brandon and Jimmy, we were rolling once again.

We headed out of Oklahoma City and made our way Southwest toward Amarillo, Texas. The weather was dreary. At some point I said to Brad, I didn’t think you could have wind and fog, but we did. We also had a lot of rain. The roads were soaked. We would drive down Historic Route 66 with water flying like a wave out of both sides of the car. One racer told us the water actually went in their car. It was messy and the cars looked as bad as the day before, covered in dirt and mud.

We finished the morning in Elk City at The National Route 66 Museum. The museum is set up like an old town and has various shops set up like they would have been 100 years ago.

We did not spend much time at the museum, but I did spend time there in 2014 on our first Great Race. Our friend Kathleen Grace and I drove portions of Route 66 as we made our way home from Florida. We stopped at several road side attractions including this museum.

The rain continued most of the day and the fog in the afternoon made it hard to see much, but from what we could see it was a lot of scrub. When we arrived in Amarillo the weather was not improving. The car show festivities that we have at the end of each day had mostly been cancelled.

The only picture I took all day were these crazy clouds. We don’t see these in California.

We were fortunate that our friend John Adams suggested we try a local cafe. The cafe happened to be on the street where we ended the day. We walked in and the place would have been called a “Dive” on Diners Drive-Ins and Dives, but it was delicious.

The cafe is called the Golden Light Cafe and Cantina it is arguably the longest running restaurant in Amarillo and on all of Old Route 66. The cafe is about 30 feet wide and 70 feet long. It is a tiny restaurant with great burgers and super hospitality. The people who work there love their jobs and the longevity of their employees shows how much they love it. Many of the employees have been there for more than 10 years. If you ever find yourself in Amarillo, it is worth a visit.

Thank you again to Steve Capra and Danny McCollister for making the journey to Oklahoma City. We appreciate all you do for the Great Race, and Brad and me. We enjoyed our visit!

Thank you to Allan, Brandon and Jimmy for getting us back on the road. You make this possible and so much easier for us.