Such was the impact of Blessed Mary, she gets a blog entry all to herself, and Chloe is still having nightmares!!
Leaving Amarillo, much of Route 66 lies directly alongside the I-40, moving away only periodically to go through some small forgotten twonship. One of these was a place called Groom. We should have realised something was amiss as the signposts advertised the town as having 'the biggest cross in the world'.
Sure enough it was BIG
Deciding it was time for the morning infusion of caffeine, we stopped at what appeared to be a delightful little roadhouse called 'Blessed Mary'. We had entered the famed US Bible Belt.
Walking in thorough the door, we should have got the message. The four or five people already in the place stopped what they were doing and heads turned and stared at us, many mouths paused mid-chew. We entered and sat at a table, Karen mentioning that her tiny denim shorts were probably considered inappropriate. Inspecting the menu we noted that there were no prices listed, instead a note requesting that a 'comparable amount be placed in the donation box'.
Whilst taking all this in, a voice screeched across the room "Watyalldrinking?". Blessed Mary had spoken. She limped across to us with disdain in her face. Karen and I ordered coffee, the girls saying they would settle for a glass of water. Mary made some sort of noise and clumped away.
When she returned she banged down two beakers of water in front of Karen and I, and limped away again. I moved the beakers of water away from us and placed them in front of the girls. Ignoring my action, Mary hobbled back over and louder still, banged down two more beakers of water in front of the girls.
By this time, the rest of the 'congregation' had resumed their own activities, although I couldn't help but feel they had one eye each on us, or had telepathically decided on a watch roster, whilst quietly thinking about where they had left their shotguns and whether they were loaded.
One guy was speaking quietly on his mobile phone, possibly calling for reinforcements.
Deciding discretion was the better part of valour, and vaguely recalling reading somewhere that there are more dead heroes in cemetaries than dead cowards, I said quietly 'let's go', and we beat a hasty retreat, calling out to Mary, 'forget the coffee, we're leaving, amen'. Expecting to be attacked by bats or something we retreated to the truck, quickly ensuring all the doors were locked from the inside. From this relative safety, I snapped the welcoming establishment for posterity, just as the Sheriff drove slowly past glaring at us the whole time (now we know who the customer was calling on his mobile phone)
Blessed Mary, Groom, Texas
Deciding Groom was probably not the sort of place to spend much time in, we headed for McLean just down the Route 66. Things didn't get much better. The main street looked like it had been closed for business for quite some time
McLean's pumping Main Street
The gas station has seen more prosperous times!Still in the theme of Groom, we saw what appeared to be a tombstone in the front garden of someone's house, and were relieved to discover it was nothing more than two headstones bearing the 10 Commandments - probably just in case you were out on your evening walk and needed to refresh your mind.
One redeeming factor about McLean, which bore a complete contrast to the rest of the dereliction of the town, was a very nicely restored original Route 66 gas station
Just before leaving Texas and entering Oklahoma, we called in at a little town called Shamrock which has a gem of a Route 66 icon, the art-deco Conoco Tower and U-Drop Inn. Although no longer a gas station, the restaurant part has been renovated and there are plans to turn the whole site into a tourist facility. The building was used as a model for one of the businesses which featured in the animated 'Cars' movie.
and so on to Oklahoma.....
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