Slug Bug Ranch

Any fan of old Route 66, or anyone who has ever traveled through the Texas Panhandle on Interstate 40, is familiar with Cadillac Ranch, a collection of vintage Cadillacs buried nose down in the earth on the south side of the highway. Generations of travelers have stopped to look at the old cars and adorn them with graffiti, making them a folk art landmark. But have you ever heard of nearby Slug Bug Ranch?

Just east of Amarillo on Interstate 40, there are five old Volkswagen Beetles buried in the same hood-down fashion, sort of a poor man’s version of Cadillac Ranch, I guess.

Nobody seems to know when this European-origin imitation came into being, but just like Cadillac Ranch, visitors stop to leave their mark in spray paint on the old cars. Both places are free, and while Slug Bug Ranch doesn’t seem to attract as much attention as its predecessor a few miles to the west, it’s definitely worth a stop just to say you were there.

The old Volkswagens are next to an abandoned gas station and a couple of other rundown buildings that were once the Longhorn Trading Post and Rattlesnake Ranch, which closed sometime around 2003.

Parking is somewhat limited, though it shouldn’t be a problem because not many people stop at Slug Bug Ranch. At least not as many as at Cadillac Ranch. At both locations, visitors are advised to be careful as they crawl around the old cars or poke their heads into the remains of the buildings at Slug Bug Ranch because you never know when you’re going to run into a rattlesnake in a place like that. Eugene Meadows, who supplied the photographs for this blog post, said they encountered a 5 or 6 foot diamondback living in one of the old Volkswagens.

Slug Bug Ranch is located at exit 96 off of Interstate 40 on the southwest corner, across the street from the Conway Inn and Restaurant. Check it out on your next trip through the area.

Today is your last chance to enter our Free Drawing for a USB drive loaded with all of the digital back issues of the Gypsy Journal RV travel newspaper for the years 2003 through 2017. They are in PDF format and will provide you with weeks of great reading about places to visit from coast to coast and our adventures as fulltime RVers. The normal cost of the back issue collection is $75. To enter, all you have to do is click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.

Thought For The Day – Ignorance is the absence of knowledge. Stupidity is the rejection of knowledge.