I mentioned in yesterday's photos that there were two primary reasons why I chose Amarillo for my first overnight stop. The first reason was because of the Big Texan Steak Ranch. The second reason was because Amarillo is also the home of the Cadillac Ranch.

The Cadillac Ranch is a public art installation located along historic Route 66 on the western end of Amarillo. Before continuing my eastbound journey to Georgia, I headed to the west side of the city to check the place out.

The story of the Cadillac Ranch begins with an art group from San Francisco known as the Ant Farm. Members of the group approached Amarillo native and slightly eccentric millionaire Stanley Marsh 3 about sponsoring an art project that centered around the evolution of the Cadillac tailfin.

Marsh was known for being an eccentric prankster. He used the Arabic numeral "3" in his name instead of the Roman Numeral "III" designation because he felt the latter sounded pretentious. Marsh was also known as a supporter of the arts and agreed to the Ant Farm's proposal seeing it as something that would baffle the locals. In 1974, 10 junked Cadillacs from 1949 - 1963 were brought to one of Marsh's wheat fields and buried nose-first in the ground.

The cars were buried in an east-west line at an angle the same as those of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

In 1997 when the ever-expanding city of Amarillo started to get too close to the Cadillac Ranch, everything was moved two miles west to its current location, (a cow pasture also owned by Marsh).

At first, the project was nothing more than 10 Cadillacs buried in the ground. But visitors soon began to spray paint the cars with graffiti, a practice encouraged by Marsh and the Ant Farm.

The Cadillac Ranch attracts visitors from all over the world armed with cans of spray paint and ready to leave their mark at the site.

On this day, I was armed only with a camera.

I pointed the camera and started shooting.

Two people can be seen in the photo above taking a selfie on top of the last car.

I would think climbing on top of the cars would result in getting covered in rainbow paint.

These two guys didn't seem to mind, and were happy to take the risk.

The Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, Texas.

The first car in line is a 1949 model, (listed on some sources as a Club Sedan), that lost its roof at some point.

1949 Cadillac Club Sedan.

The second car is a 1950 - 53 model with a roofline that suggests it may be a hardtop sedan.

At some point, this car lost its entire body side and part of its floor.

Surprisingly, the frame is still in good shape, relatively speaking.

The third car is a 1955 model hardtop coupe.

The rear differential on this car shows the layers and layers of paint that have been applied over the years.

The fact that the fins are the smaller stubby variety means it is not an Eldorado.

The fourth car is from 1956 that seems to have some of its driver's door window frame still in place.

This was the final year for the smaller stubby Cadillac fins.

The fifth car is a 1957 model where the fins started to get larger. This car looks like a hardtop sedan that seems to still have some of its front seat frame intact.

Fifth car is a 1957 model.

The sixth car is from 1958 and appears to be a hardtop sedan.

The sixth car is a 1957 model.

The seventh car is from 1959.

The tailfin reached its pinnacle in 1959 with the iconic shape that has become a symbol of the "fins and chrome" era of the 1950s.

The eighth car is a 1960 "Flattop" 4-window sedan. The term "flattop" refers to the roofline and how it meets the rear window.

After the peak in 1959, Cadillac fins began to shrink in 1960.

The ninth car is a 1962 model.

The fins continued to shrink in 1962.

The ninth car is a 1962 model.

The tenth car is a 1963 hardtop sedan.

The Cadillac tailfin would remain this size until its demise for the 1965 model year.

The last car in line is a 1963 Sedan de Ville.

1963 Sedan de Ville.

I tried to get all 10 cars in one panorama photo. The photo above is panorama picture #1 of 2.

Panorama picture #2 of 2.

Two picture panorama of the Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, Texas.

Since this is an interactive art installation, some people get creative with their ideas.

This was a great day for a great place. I'm glad I stopped. But now, it was time to continue my eastbound journey home.

In yet another "believe it or not" moment, a full 10 hours would pass from the time I left the Cadillac Ranch before I took another picture. Unfortunately, this is where my return trip got interesting.

I was en route to my second overnight stop in Brinkley, Arkansas when I had an unfortunate encounter with a rogue truck tire along Interstate 40 outside of the city of Conway. It appeared in the center of my travel lane leaving me with nowhere to go except over top of it. A pealed 22.5 truck tire tread can be problematic for any vehicle, but especially so for a BMW Z4 with limited ground clearance. The only thing I had time to do was grip the steering wheel and hold on.

Things seemed ok after the impact. And by this, I mean I felt no vibrations in the steering, no loss of power levels, and no issues with braking. All of the gauges continued to read normal. And none of the warning lights in the dash came on. I didn't want to stop along a dark interstate in the middle of nowhere. And the car gave me every indication that I wouldn't have to. So I continued onward until I reached a Pilot Travel Center in North Little Rock where I could assess the damage. In short, I got lucky !

The impact broke the bottom of my bumper cover, (on the left side of the photo above). My lower grill was completely gone, as was the forward underbody splash shield.

The a/c condenser and radiator were both bent, but not broken. I thankfully didn't lose any fluids.

The impact tore the underbody splash completely off the car and breaking the air deflectors at the radiator.