We made it back to our desired destination last night, although rather later than we wanted. The restaurant we ate at in Flagstaff was an old Route 66 place called Granny’s Closet, that used to be home of the very first fiberglass muffler man/lumberjack statue. They donated it to the University of Arizona as a mascot, but have a smaller replica at their cafe. I actually have a picture of the original from my friend Laurie, who sent it to me years ago.
Traffic around Flagstaff was terrible; we tried to make a 45 minute hop off the road for lunch, and it turned into 3 hours because traffic in town was slow, and then they had 2 exits to I-40 closed due to construction and traffic backed up for miles. Very strange way to handle construction. That put us behind the curve by quite a bit, but at least we made it in.
We also hopped off to get gas at round dome gas station, and indian blankets at the Meteor City Trading post, but those were both short stops.
Yesterday was a pretty tough day driving. We had to travel from Williams, Arizona (about 1/3 of Arizona left to traverse) to Victorville, California (most of which is across desert). As we traveled through the day, the temperature kept climbing – I believe it topped out at 127 degrees at one point.
We stopped off in Seligman, Arizona and met Angel Delgadillo, one of the icons of Route 66. Angel has owned a Barbershop on Route 66 for decades, nearby is the Snowcap restaurant that his brother Juan owned. The town of Seligman is one of the first to start to preserve the history of Route 66, which is why in western Arizona, the Mother Road is meticulously taken care of and well marked.
We made a couple more stops at some old gas stations – one in Hackberry, which is basically a ghost town now except for a General Store, and one in “Cool Springs” that was anything but “cool” – this is where we really started noticing how seriously hot the weather was and the VWs were noting the exterior temperature of over 110 degrees. Cool Springs was an important stop for early Route 66 travelers before the next leg of their trip. For many years, it was a ruin, but has now been restored.
There are two Route 66 alignments from Kingman southwest to the California border. The pre-1952 alignment along the Oatman Highway is by far the most beautiful, providing numerous photographic opportunities, legendary Route 66 icons, and a peek at the wild old west in historic Oatman, Arizona.
However, this old route travels through notorious Sitgreaves Pass, the most intimidating portion of Route 66, with its steep grades, narrow road, and sharp hairpin curves. In addition, the highway does not allow vehicles over 40 feet, so, if this is you, think about coming into Oatman from the south through Topock, an easier route.
This is the section of road featured in the Lucille Ball/Desi Arnaz movie called “The Long, Long Trailer” – where they drive over it in an RV, ironically, that’s illegal to do.
Update: after googling, this isn’t road from the movie – someone told us that along the way, but it was actually another road in California.
I had no idea what we were going to drive through. Nine miles of winding road up the Black Mountains and back down, with sheer cliff drops on the right side of the road. Gorgeous, and very very difficult to get through, even at 15 miles an hour. The rest of the caravan was ecstatic to be on it; we were terrified. I’ll try to do a google map image of it from above if I can do it through my cell phone internet connection (still no wireless at the Motel 6, even near L.A.) ; it is pretty amazing. Here’s a pretty good image of part of it, from this link.
Sitgreaves Pass Google ImagesSitgreaves Pass Google ImagesSitgreaves Pass
And something I will never, ever be doing again. Between the Grand Canyon and this, I believe I’m also finished with rollercoasters, too. What was I saying the other day – I grew up in Iowa, where it’s nice and flat, and you can’t fall off things?
At the bottom is the little town of Oatman, Arizona – a tourist spot that still resembles the Old West mining town that it once was. Back in 1939, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent one of their honeymoon nights in the 1902 historic Oatman Hotel. They are also famous for the burros that hang out in the streets (And follow you around, hoping you have carrots.)
After a few minutes shopping and recovering from the Sitgreaves Pass experience, we headed out towards Needles, California.
Just as we were getting into Needles, California, Earl’s car started to have serious problems. We pulled into a 76/Conoco station so the guys could try to figure out what was wrong, and the manager ran us off because he thought we were interferring with his business. So we moved to the snow cone shop across the street, and they were kinda crabby with us, too. Eventually some of us had to park our cars at the Jack-In-The-Box across the street and get in out of the heat.
After an hour and a half, the guys got the car fixed, and we got back on the road – we still had about 2 and a half hours of driving to get to Victorville, and we were a bit behind. The rest of the drive was pretty uneventful, but tiring. Once the sun went down it was a bit easier to travel, but the beginnings of L.A. traffic driving into Victorville – we’re really nervous about getting around today.
I’m up and about in the motel room; Stephanie’s trying to catch a bit more sleep. We’ve been cutting it pretty short on the sleeping, by arriving very late and getting up with the rest of the caravan. Hopefully today we can hang out and be more leisurely; we only have about a 4 hour drive to Roswell.
I’m on a high-speed wireless connection, finally, and I’m hurriedly uploading photos. The Blue Swallow doesn’t actually offer it; some kind fellow named Shawn has left his/her network open. Thanks, Shawn!!
I’ll try to go back and insert some relevant photos into the last several posts about the trip if I can before we actually get up and around.
The Big Texan was entertaining; lots of beef. Of course their featured attraction is a “free” 72 oz. steak – if you eat the whole thing in an hour, plus sides, salad and bread. I did not try. Two guys did while we were there; if you’re attempting the challenge, they stick you at a table on a raised platform with a count-down timer. Neither of them could do it. I took pictures, of course.
We drove from Amarillo, Texas to Tucumcari, New Mexico in a wicked looking lightning storm (I tried to video it; well see how it comes out.); fortunately it didn’t open up and rain much. I think today we’re going to poke around Tucumcari a bit; they have lots of great old googie signs and route 66 shops. Then we’ll take off for Roswell.
Tomorrow most of the day in Roswell is free; all we have to do is wash the car and find some wireless access. And see aliens, of course. Saturday is when the car show and parade start, and Sunday there are activities, too, although most of the day is free. Monday we head out on the rest of Route 66.
We finally pulled into the motel at 11 Chicago time, and saw a huge row of beetles lined up; very fun. Too dark to take photos.
Traffic in Chicago sucked hard, but we managed to get into town, finally. We parked in a scary-ass parking garage with the steepest ramps I’ve ever seen, and went to the Summerfest in Lincoln Park. It wasn’t terribly impressive; just a bunch of junk booths selling knock off purses and clothes, a way-too-loud lame band, and the thing we came for – about 6 Smart ForTwos, which we got to test drive.
The we walked down Clark street and ate dinner, then headed out to Joliet to meet everyone else.
At some point, my cell got confused and started sending all my twitter messages through chat, and I couldn’t figure out what was going on on my end; very strange. Hence the strange twitters.
“We should all have the right to live with the same dignity, opportunity, safety. It shouldn’t matter what anyone’s sexual orientation is.” — Cyndi Lauper, True Colors Tour, 2007
We’re getting ready to head out to Grandma’s for Thanksgiving day. Our trip yesterday was pretty uneventful. We drove Stephanie’s Beetle (named Phoebe, for those of you who are just joining us) because it’s a fun roadtrip car and somewhat more comfortable than my truck. So I had the opportunity to take pictures out the car window and mess with the manual settings on me camera, which was enlightening. I learned all about the different color settings for my camera. A round barn in sepia tones:
It’s a six-hour drive to Brighton, Iowa from Indianapolis. Brighton’s population is about 700 people, and my extended family numbers around 50 people, so we drastically increase the town population when we show up. We’re staying in Washington about 11 miles away, because there aren’t really any motels in Brighton, although there is a bed and breakfast.
Washington has about 7,000 people and is the county seat, so they have a community center with theater performances, and they’re expanding their public library. They also have an evening Thanksgiving Day parade around the square. We sometimes catch the tail end of that if we go to the single-screen, retro movie theater in the evening to see whatever children’s movie is out over the holiday.
Between the weekend before Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, my girlfriend Stephanie and I:
1) decorated my house and put up my tree, then did the same at Stephanie’s house.
2) Attended Six family Christmases involving 3 road trips (my Grandma’s in Iowa, my mom, my dad, Stephanie’s mom, Stephanie’s Dad and Stephanie’s friend Michelle’s family Christmas)
3) introduced Stephanie to all of my family, and Stephanie introduced me to all of her family (which involved drawing up family trees to keep track of everyone)
4) Attended twelve parties between the two of us (Dan & Doug’s tree decorating party, Mittie’s birthday, Jane Rae’s birthday, Elizabeth’s birthday, Rachel’s baby shower, Jen’s Christmas party, Stephanie’s work Christmas party, John’s skating party, my thanksgiving at work, Stephanie’s thanksgiving at work, my Christmas gift exchange at work, Dan and Doug’s New Year’s Eve Party)
5) Threw a Christmas party, where we watched Christmas specials and drank egg nog and ate cookies
6) Had Christmas dinner with Stephanie’s friend Erin
7) Had my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and Dad and step mom visit to see my house
8) Missed two Christmas parties (Jennifer’s Christmas party and Michelle’s Christmas party)
9) shopped and wrapped gifts for everyone, baked holiday cookies, and sent out around 90 holiday cards
10) Attended Elizabeth’s mom’s funeral visitation
11) had two photo shoots for the Nuvo article
12) Had my furnace break down and repaired, and Stephanie’s roof repaired and front door repaired
13) Had Stephanie’s car broken into and the window repaired, had my gas tank tampered with, had one flat tire on Stephanie’s car, had the CV joint replaced on her car.
14) Loaned Stephanie’s car to her friend Jan
15) Went to Stephanie’s State Skating Competition
16) Were snowed in with a foot of snow, then had sub-zero temperatures
It’s been a hectic holiday season, to say the least. Although it was fun for the most part, I’m very glad it’s over.
Bluebird of HappinessAs cool as it was to watch Stephanie’s whole road trip vacation online, it just wasn’t the same as having her here. I had a sort of half-way dream one night that maybe the whole relationship was only a figment of my imagination. So I got up and got one of the cards she gave me and put it next to the bed, so I could look at it and know I wasn’t making the whole thing up in my head. I really do have a girlfriend! That still surprises me sometimes. She should be home late tonight, and I’ll get to see her tomorrow. I can’t wait!
