Ranch House Café Truck, Tucumcari, New Mexico Poster

"Ranch House Café Truck, Route 66, Tucumcari, New Mexico" by Catherine Sherman. A decrepit truck with a decorated wooden camper shell is parked under an old neon sign at the abandoned 1950s Ranch House Café along Route 66 in Tucumcari, New Mexico in this photograph from April 2014. The years have taken a further toll since then, and google maps shows that most of the wooden camper shell has disappeared. Pearl and Dugan Barnett opened the Ranch House Cafe in 1952, but business began to wane when Highway 40 bypassed Route 66. The café slogan was "Good Food Always - Always Good Food." Was the truck was parked at the café when it was open or whether it was a later addition as a photo opportunity? Or maybe someone just wanted to get rid of an old truck. The truck must have been loved at one point because a sticker proclaims "U toucha my truck I breaka U face. US Route 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, but it was officially removed from the United States Highway System in 1985 after it was entirely replaced by segments of the Interstate Highway System, according to Wikipedia. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona have been communally designated a National Scenic Byway by the name "Historic Route 66", returning the name to some maps.