Advertisement
Published: June 26th 2012
Edit Blog Post
We don't know if we have slight colds, hay fever of if our nasal passages and sinuses are just completely desiccated due to the very low humidity here?? Not to worry, apart from having sore noses and sinuses, we feel OK.
Yay, this morning we had the Mustang's nose heading west right from the get go - no doubling back to catch up on what we missed yesterday today! We set off on the I-40 for a short while until we reached the exit for Bellemont and headed off on a very scenic stretch through Brannigan Park and and over Fortynine Hill, the highest point of Historic Route 66 in Arizona.
We were quite excited to see some more prairie dogs along the Wagonwheel Road/Old 66 section of the drive. There were several prairie dogs scampering around the paddock alongside the road so we pulled up and watched them for a while. We attempted to photograph them, but they were a long way away.
Arriving in Williams we did a loop to drive Historic Route 66 in both directions and photographed pretty much all of the iconic landmarks in town: Rod's Steakhouse, Twisters 50s Soda Fountain, the Red
Garter Bed and Bakery (in a 1897 bordello) and the Mountain Man at Old Smokey's Restaurant.
Our next stop was Ashfork where the 1958 Desoto still perches on the roof of Desoto's Beauty and Barber Shop despite the business no longer being in operation. After another very brief section of interstate driving we took the Crookton Road exit to reach Seligman. This is the home of Angel Delgadillo who founded the Historic Route 66 Association in Arizona and has played an important role in preserving and promoting the Mother Road as an important part of America's heritage. We had lunch at his late brother Juan's Snow Cap Café. Bizarre! It was a toss up between the Snow Cap Café and the Roadkill Café.
After rounding Chino Point, Route 66 diverged northwards from the interstate for quite a few miles. It was along this section that we disturbed a small flock of turkey vultures from their roadkill feast. Although our guide book extolled the virtue of visiting the Grand Canyon Caverns we resisted. We have come to the conclusion that the author, Jerry McClanahan, is a bit obsessed with all things dinosaur.
After passing through Peach Springs, Truxton,
Crozier, Valentine and Hackberry we arrived in Kingman. We visited the Powerhouse Visitor Centre, which incorporates the Route 66 Museum, on the west side of downtown. We talked to a lovely couple of ladies in the gift shop. One used to live in Chicago and the other in Wisconsin and they were very interested in hearing about our Route 66 adventure.
When we went upstairs to the museum we nearly got away with paying the seniors entry price. The dear old lady at the desk (with her oxygen bottle) took one look at Bernie's grey beard and must have assumed we were old enough to be let in at the concession rate??? Bernie fessed up though and we paid the extra dollar per head for the full adult ticket price. Even though we have been to other Route 66 museums this one was different again in the way it was presented and we leant new things. We especially liked reading the memories of people who had personal experiences of Route 66.
From the museum we headed across the road to Mr D'z Route 66 Diner where I had a chocolate malt and Bernie had a vanilla malt. Delicious,
but soooo filling! We both remembered stopping at this colourful turquoise and pink diner with Michael, Samantha and Simone when we toured with them in 2006.
We had to drive back to the east end of town to check into the Best Western hotel for the night. Unfortunately, Trip Advisor's No. 1 rated restaurant in Kingman - Rednecks Southern Pit BBQ - was closed on Sunday night so we went to the Dambar & Steak House instead where we enjoyed some really good ribs. Even though there are 80 trains per day (and night) through Kingman they didn't keep us awake at all.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.1s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 13; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0575s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Judy Carthew
non-member comment
Happy Birthday
Happy Birthday for tomorrow. The nose thingy---------- that happens to us when we head North to the "dry". Cheers Judy