Off in the distance sits one of America's iconic roadside attractions ... Cadillac Ranch.
When I was a kid someone told me that old story about a Texas millionaire so rich and eccentric that when he tired of one Cadillac he'd "retire" it in one of his cow pastures and buy a new one. That "someone" was probably my father - it's the type of story he would have loved. Anything was possible in those wide open Texas plains. I must have inherited his romanticism because I prefer the old yarn to the real story.
When you drive across the country it's a bit of a roller-coaster, anything from weather to landscape to mood can change quickly. These photos are from a drive in October 2017.
When I left Southern California the temperature was 40 degrees Celsius - a full blown scorcher of a heat wave. A couple of days later I was freezing, just west of Amarillo, Texas. The temperature wasn't much and it came with a side order of icy wind - I didn't linger here long!
Although it's not true that an eccentric Texan millionaire retired his old Cadillacs by planting them nose first in one of his fields, there was a wealthy Texan - Stanley Marsh 3 - who backed this unconventional project. In 1974 the art collective Ant Farm, with Marsh's funding, installed ten vintage Cadillacs nose down, tail fins up - in a field near Amarillo, Texas. The cars' model years ranged from 1949 to 1963.
Almost from the start the "art public" made it their own. Cadillac Ranch quickly became a popular - one could say interactive - roadside attraction. Souvenir hunters and scavengers made off with the tail fins and other parts of the cars, and then came the spray cans of paint. At first I was dismayed when I saw the old Caddys covered with graffiti, because I love old cars and had seen early photos of the exhibit where each car still retained its original color and distinct shape. But I've since had a change of heart. Both Marsh and the Ant Farm seemed to welcome and embrace the deconstruction and evolution of Cadillac Ranch. The cars were periodically repainted along different themes (my favorite is the pink era) and eventually the whole shebang was even relocated to a new site adjacent to Interstate 40 as Amarillo city limits expanded.
Vive la change ... maybe next time I'll even bring along some paint.
Photo & content credit: Sojourner Tam (Lover of road trips, open roads, aspirational trucker).
#CadillacRanch
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