We are all unpacked and settled into our hotel room here in Flagstaff Arizona. The Days Inn is right on Route 66. They have a fabulous breakfast buffet. Not your typical bagels and cereal like at most hotels. This place has a real buffet, with Belgian Waffles as the main feature, but they also have bacon, eggs, different breads, bagels, a variety of cereal, fresh fruits and wonderful pasteries. They are stingy though, because more often than not, I had to track down the hostess and point out to her that various trays or items needed replenishing. For example if there was no Frosted Flakes Cereal, I would have to ask and she would go to the back room and bring out 2 packages. I tried to explain to her that what she should do is bring out a dozen and quit letting things run out, but she never caught on to that concept. I am sure she got tired of seeing me every day, because I was always pointing out something that needed refilling. Beyond that, the breakfasts were the best we have had so far on our journey.
After breakfast we drove around Flagstaff to get our bearings and stopped into the Visitors Centre. We picked up lots of brochures and asked some questions. While we were driving around we found a Baskin Robins very near to the hotel. They even had Karen's favourite flavour Double Chocolate Fudge. It is very rare that a Baskin Robins will have this flavour, so it was a special treat every night for the next 5 nights to go to Baskin Robins for dessert.
We had lunch at the Crown Railroad Cafe, it was a neat little restaurant that had several railroad tracks laid out with trains running on them. After lunch we headed out to what is possibly Flagstaffs most popular Route 66 attraction... The Museum Club. Flagstaff is a Route 66 town, and although we are not officially starting our Route 66 roadtrip, since we are here we might as well take in some of the Route 66 ambiance.
As you will see in the upcoming pictures in the days ahead, our car is featured in many of our photographs.. The car is very photogenic.
There is a huge wishbone like tree trunk in the entrance door of The Museum Club. Somewhere on the internet is a photo of when this tree was originally cut down. The trunk is inverted, originally there was the one trunk coming out of the ground and then the two branches above. When turned upside down like this it looks much like a wishbone.
The Museum Club got its start as a very odd tourist attraction. Built in 1931 by Dean Eldredge as a museum to house his extensive taxidermied animals and curiosities, it has become a Route 66 landmark. Early Route 66 tourists would stop at his museum and for a mere 25 cents would be shown some of the strangest oddities of nature. In 1936 after Dean passed away, his museum was turned into a night club ~ or a road house. A lot of the taxidermied animals are still inside. Looking at the photos closely, I can see a lot of the 1931 dust and cob webs.
We stayed for a couple of drinks, but needless to say, we did not stick around for dinner, as the sign in the next photo indicates what is on the menu.
When we got back to our hotel room, we started going through our brochures that we had picked up and found a tour company that offered tours to the Grand Canyon. We called and they had room for us on tomorrows tour van, so we booked our spaces. They will come to the hotel to pick us up at 9am.
We then went across the road to a popular Route 66 Restaurant. The Galaxy is a very typical 50's style diner. The burgers and shakes were delicious.
As it happened there is a show and shine every Friday night so after dinner we got to wander around and admire all of the old cars.
Check out my Flickr site if you wish to see all of my photos from today.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21055823@N07/sets/72157606389645435/
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