Day 18 Summer Vacation 2008

Today is Day 18 Thursday July 24 2008

We had to do some back tracking this morning. Yesterday we ran out of time and we had reservations in Holbrook, so we had to skip Winslow Arizona.

This morning we are heading back to Winslow and checking out that famous corner that the Eagles sang about. You know the song Taking it Easy. The Eagles immortalized this corner for ever in their song.

After standing on the corner we checked out the gift shop and bought the requisite t-shirts and postcards, we got back on Route 66 heading East.

Next stop was Jack Rabbit Arizona, a very popular Route 66 stop. There are signs all along Route 66 pointing you to the Jack Rabbit. A great photo op with the giant jack rabbit.

You can see that Route 66 is a little less travelled in this area, the grass growing up between the cracks in the pavement are a tell tale sign of how little this road is driven.

Geronimo Arizona and the Geronimo Trading Post. There are a lot of trading posts in this neck of the woods. They have a great outdoor display of old rusting farm and ranch wagons etc.

We are now back in Holbrook to check out a few things. Such as the WigWam Motel. Have you ever slept in a WigWam ? We haven’t either, but this place is open for business.

We had lunch at Joe and Aggies in Holbrook, another highly recommended stop for anyone travelling Route 66.

Karen and I have been thinking about buying a mobile home, it would make our road trips so much easier by not having to check into a hotel each evening. We had to stop and take a closer look at this mobile home, a little too rustic for our tastes, but still, it was pretty cool.

We came up to a dirt section of Route 66 between Holbrook and Chambers AZ. It looked a little too muddy, and not wanting to get stuck, we had to get back onto the Interstate for a few miles.

We did find a section of dirt 66 that was driveable near the Querino Canyon High Bridge.

Back on solid concrete again this picture shows you just how close the Interstate is to Route 66.

I prefer when you are on Route 66 and the Interstate is nowhere near you. It gives you a sense of what it must have been like back before the Interstates were built.

We have arrived in Gallup New Mexico and will spend the evening here.

You can check out all of our photos from today by visiting my FLICKR website.

Day 17 Summer Vacation 2008

Today is Day 17 Wednesday July 23 2008

We are up early, we have had breakfast and we are on the road by 9am.



Kingman Arizona - First stop on Route 66 today is to drive by the Beale Hotel and take some photos, then we are off to the Powerhouse Museum, a popular Route 66 museum. We spent an hour or so inside the museum, then we crossed the road to look at the old steam engine that was setup in a park.





Heading East from Kingman we encounter the Hackberry General Store way out in the middle of nowhere. This is a very well known Route 66 stop and must see. We spent about an hour here, poking around out back among the old cars and Route 66 memorabilia. The store itself is jam packed to the rafters with anything and everything that a weary road traveller would need.











Train Spotting near Valentine Arizona. Route 66 very closely follows the train tracks.



As we got close to Truxton Arizona, we found this neat sign.

It is time for lunch and the Frontier Motel & Restaurant is highly recommended in any Route 66 book that we have read, so we pull in off the road for a bite to eat. The place was packed with patrons, although I suspect they were locals rather than road warriors. Good to see a Route 66 business doing so well. However I thought the upholstery in the booths needed replacing. Large rips with stuffing poking out, it is time to re-upholster. I can understand the concept of original and authentic when it relates to Route 66, but I am not talking about small rips. Anyways, the food was good, the owner, although very busy, saw our Route 66 shirts and stopped by our table to thank us for stopping in.

Next stop is Seligman Arizona. Seligman is considered the birthplace of the resurrection of Route 66. When the Interstate system was completed, Route 66 was by-passed, de-commissioned and forgotten until Angel Delgadillo of Seligman AZ decided that he was going to see what he could do to put Route 66 back on the map. Although we did not get to meet Angel, we visited his now famous barber shop / visitor center.

Next door is the Snow Cap, we had a couple of milk shakes and a burger, but watch out because the staff is very clumsy and you may find yourself with mustard squirted all over your nice clean shirt.

There is a lot of neat Route 66 memorabilia around behind the Sno Cap, so if you have some time to spare, it is fun to poke around behind the store.

Next stop is Ashfork Arizona. We visited their Route 66 Museum and drove around town looking for DeSotos Barber Shop, it wasn't hard to spot. Yes that is a real Desoto on top of the building.

Williams Arizona is next and we stopped at Twisters 50's Soda Fountain. This is a fun little spot and the decor is reminiscent of the old soda fountain ice cream shops of the 50's and 60's

We by-passed Flagstaff as we had spent a week here earlier and we headed for Twin Arrows Trading Post. Although abandoned long ago, there are still remnants of the old trading post and what remains of the iconic twin arrows.





Two Guns and Meteor City Trading Post were our last stops for today before checking into our hotel for the evening.









For all of my photos from today (170 photos) you can click on the link to my Flickr site to view them.

Day 16 Summer Vacation 2008

Today is Day 16 Tuesday July 22 2008

Today we are going to start heading for home, via Historic Route 66, but first, there is something that we want to see and since we are in the neighbourhood (sort of) we will go and check it out.

We are going to go and see a bridge. Do you recognize this bridge ?



More about this famous bridge later, first, lets get out of Las Vegas. We had fun here and enjoyed our stay, we will be back, but it is time to move on. Route 66 is calling us. Route 66 is the primary reason for taking this trip.

We started out by heading south to Needles California, a Route 66 town.



Along the way, we could see something blue and shimmering way off in the distance. I thought it was odd that we were seeing such a large lake way out here in the middle of the desert. As we got closer and closer I began to realize that what we were seeing was not a lake, but rather a very large solar plant. What we were seeing is Mirrors that are used in the process of collecting the solar heat, to heat water to boiling temperatures that will then create steam, to power steam generators to make electricity. I found out later that what we were seeing is the Nevada Solar One facility.



We are heading South to Lake Havasu City Arizona to see The London Bridge. Yes, the London Bridge that was made famous in the old song Londong Bridge is Falling Down. It seems that the bridge was actually falling down and rather than being destroyed, it was put up for auction. The city of Lake Havasu was the high bidder, and they took the bridge apart and transported all the pieces to Lake Havasu City. You can actually drive on the bridge, it is part of the city road system. Well worth the visit.



We ate lunch, then headed back north to Topock Arizona and this is where we will get on Route 66 and begin our roadtrip along The Mother Road, Main Street America. Actually we couldn't find Topock, it is just a pile of dust in the desert, so it turned out that Golden Shores is where I took the first picture of several thousand along Route 66.

It is very hard to choose a couple of photos from our first day on Route 66 to place here in my blog, but here are a couple that we took between Golden Shores and Oatman Arizona.

The scenery is beautiful, I don't think we saw anymore than a handful of cars between Golden Shores and Oatman. I like this weathered sign pointing the way to Oatman.

Some will tell you that Oatman Arizona is an old ghost town, but I can tell you that it is very much alive. We parked the car and stepped back in time into an old gold mining town. Oatman is very proud of its Route 66 heritage, and most stores and shops have Route 66 souvenirs for sale. Also for sale are carrots. Why carrots... well to feed the wild burrows of course. These burrows are wandering the street and sometimes wander into the stores.

We left Oatman and followed Route 66 as it twisted and climbed up to the summit at Sitgreaves Pass. 3550 ft altitude. There are plenty of twists and turns, lots of switchbacks, no guard rails and some very dangerous and steep drops if you got too close to the edge of the road. Care is required when driving this.

From Sitgreaves Pass it is now downhill towards Kingman Arizona. The road twists and turns its way into Cool Springs

Cool Springs is an old restored gas station, however it was closed today, so we took some photos and carried on towards Kingman Arizona where we will stay the night.

To see all of our photos from today, please click on my link to my site on Flickr