USA (Part 1) - Route 66 Road Trip!


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October 14th 2010
Published: October 14th 2010
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USA Road Trip Part 1


Back on the road!Back on the road!Back on the road!

Watching out for those things on the left.....
Arizona, here we come (with dengue fever!)

So we left Central America behind us and flew to Phoenix, Arizona where we arrived on September 21st. Straight after dropping our bags off at the hotel we got a taxi to Scottsdale Hospital which although wasn´t the closest hospital to the hotel in Phoenix, was recommended by the receptionist as being nicer and probably having shorter queues. Well our initial consult wasn´t too long a wait, and about an hour later both of us had been set up on a drip in triage and been pocked and prodded having a few tests. After a few hours they were no closer to working out what was wrong with us, but they decided that I would be admitted and Patrick not. So Patrick went back to the hotel and I was moved up to the 5th floor. I would stay in the hospital for another 2 nights after that, with the doctors none the wiser about what we had. The infectious diseases doctor was fully convinced it was dengue fever, but we wouldn´t have that confirmed until a few days later as for some reason the blood test for dengue fever takes a week to confirm.

The hospital was actually quite good, though very busy, no private rooms here but I guess 2 in a room is better than a ward! The food though was actually very good, and with my appetite back to normal I certainly took advantage! I was actually feeling much better after some fluids on the first night, the only symptom I really had left was a rash and really really itchy swollen feet which was well annoying!!

Scottsdale

After the first 2 nights at the hotel in Phoenix (which we´d booked before we´d arrived), Patrick had moved us to a hotel closer to the hospital in Scottsdale (about 20 miles from Phoenix). A couple of days after leaving the hospital we actually went out and explored a little bit. We weren´t staying far from Old Town Scottsdale, which had been done up like the old wild west towns, with shops and restaurants. Quite a nice area as were the other parts we saw of Scottsdale, which looks like somewhat of an affluent city. It was, as most US cities are, definitely a driving city but with the temperature being about 105 degrees you wouldn´t want to walk outside much anyway!

Road Trip!

On September 27th we went to pick up our hire car for the next 6 weeks. We´d considered the different options for travelling through the states, including the cheaper options Greyhound and Amtrak, but in the end with a bit of help from my sister we managed to find a good deal on a hire car, which now, given the amount we have seen, seems like the only logical option.

On September 29th we finally left Scottsdale and headed north towards the Grand Canyon. We´ve actually both flown over (in a plane and helicopter respectively) the Grand Canyon before, but while we were in Scottsdale we had so many people ask us if we were going up there that we eventually thought we´d better!

It was quite a way up though from Scottsdale so we broke our journey up in Flagstaff the night before, first stopping on the way at Slide Rock State Park. This park was situated in red rock canyon, a beautiful red rock (obviously) area with fantastic vistas as we were driving through. Slide Rock was quite a cool area where a river has carved through the
At the Grand CanyonAt the Grand CanyonAt the Grand Canyon

I couldn´t quite make it back to the spot after I pressed the button for the timed shot!
rocks smoothing the rocks where it still flows and creating a bit of a natural slide. Unfortunately we arrived at the same time as about 50 kids, but the area was large enough for me to have a bit of fun falling about and sliding down the rocks while Patrick looked on and laughed at me. Definitely nice to cool off in the heat too.

The next day we headed the 100 miles from Flagstaff to the Grand Canyon National Park (the south rim). It´s a pretty steep entrance fee we think at $25, but ok yes it was probably worth it. The park is set up with a driving trail on the east side, and walking trails (shuttle only) on the west side. We fit in as many look out points as we could in the 5 hours we were there, and although the views started to get a bit similar the canyon is really pretty amazing to see. It´s definitely hard to get perspective of the canyon, although there are trails to go down into the canyon if you´re so inclined (which we weren´t!). We were glad we made the detour to head up there to see it though.

Route 66

This is the obvious road trip in the US, driving down Route 66. Actually though Route 66 was formally decommissioned in 1985, and the road has now been swallowed up by Interstate 40 in most parts in the South West. There are a huge amount of websites and books dedicated to the old route though, so we decided to try and at least drive parts of it.

So on October 1st we drove from the route 66 town of Flagstaff to Gallup (over the border in New Mexico), passing by a few Route 66 old towns, coming on and off the I-40 as we went. The town of Winslow was featured in an Eagles song ´Take it Easy´ with the line ´standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona´ and the town has preserved the main street, together with Route 66 signs, probably one of the nicest Route 66 towns we saw.

Gallup itself, where we stayed for the night in a dodgy looking motel, was a bit of a sad looking place. Unfortunately with the decommissioning of Route 66, and the new I-40 bypassing most of the small towns, a lot of business was diverted leading to the closure of a lot of the classic diners, gas stations and motels, which was obvious in a lot of the old Route 66 towns we saw. Some places have been lovingly restored though, like the old El Rancho hotel in Gallup which had a very cool western decor in the lobby. This hotel had in the past many famous guests who were filming in the nearby national and state parks in New Mexico, like John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Lucille Ball and many others I can´t remember, but there were hundreds of signed portraits in the lobby.

Go LOBOS!

Trying to follow Route 66 further we drove to Albuquerque and tried to visit the old town there, but we couldn´t find parking so we carried on to the University Stadium to park up for the college football game (american football that is), New Mexico Lobos vs UTEP (University of Texas at El Paso). On this trip Patrick had wanted to go to lots of football games, both college and NFL, but after searching through the bigger games we realised that would cost us a fortune (tickets for big college and any NFL games
Lobos vs UTEPLobos vs UTEPLobos vs UTEP

The ´spirit hands´ (!) band are spelling out UNM (University New Mexico), about the most impressive thing we saw anyone from UNM doing that day!
going for at least $150-$300 for any good seats) we decided to try and find some smaller games. One of which would be the Lobos vs UTEP. Unfortunately the Lobos record so far in the season wasn´t good (4 losses), and even worse is that we didn´t check last year´s record which was awful, 11 losses, 1 win! Before the game we went to the Lobos homecoming (for alumni of the uni) tent where we had a mexican buffet and were introduced to the Homecoming Court, 3 guys and 3 girls who were competing for the title of Homecoming King and Queen which were announced during half time of the game. All this stuff is completely alien to English people, we have none of this fraternity, sorority, king, queen business going on in our universities, guess we´re too busy drinking for that malarkey! Anyway, following listening to the alumni band we filed into the half filled stadium to watch the game. Although the Lobos lost again (38-20), it was actually quite entertaining, watching the massive ´spirit hands´ band during the breaks, and the (not so good) cheerleaders, ending with an actually quite impressive 90 yard touchdown return at the end, which most people missed as they´d walked out early.

With that we drove that night south through thunderstorms (our first rain since we´d been in the US to be fair) and stayed at a bit of a better looking motel for the night. This was Ryder Cup weekend (yay Europe!) so we left late morning after it finished for the day and drove more south to Alamogordo. It being Sunday and NFL day we spent the afternoon in Chili´s (my new found favourite restaurant), followed by a healthy Pizza Hut dinner. Our food choices haven´t been the healthiest up to this point, lots of fast food chicken wings, pizzas etc, the easiest (and cheapest unfortunately) option when staying at some of these motels which are generally positioned on the freeways in the middle of nowhere. We would eventually come to discover Walmart salads which are actually quite good.

White sand, Billy the Kid and Smokey Bear!

Anyway, back on the sightseeing trail, on October 4th (after a Ryder Cup morning again) we headed to the White Sands National Park. This is situated in a basin surrounded by mountains and as there is no river to wash away
Cemetary near Fort StantonCemetary near Fort StantonCemetary near Fort Stanton

We just happened on this cemetery, near an old army base (in the 19th century) and army hospital (in the 20th century). There were loads of unmarked graves for some reason (you can just about make out the rainbow in the back too)
the normally soluble gypsum (not actually sand but looks like it) creates large dunes as it gets blown across the basin. We have seen a few different sand dunes on our travels, but the brilliant white was quite cool to see.

Back through Alamogordo we headed northwards to Ruidoso Downs, home of the Billy the Kid visitor centre. Billy the Kid was a famous 19th century outlaw and called New Mexico home. There is even a Billy the Kid National Byway going through some key landmarks, including the old town of Lincoln which we went through. Lincoln´s 20 or so buildings have been preserved and is where a big 5 day gun shoot out took place, bit of a convoluted (but interesting) story which I´ll spare you but where Billy the Kid´s notoriety took hold. He was eventually killed about 100 miles north of Lincoln in Fort Sumner where he is now buried but not before he shot some 20 people (according to legend anyway).

Before Lincoln we visited Capitan and the Smokey Bear Historical Park. Smokey Bear was a character created by the US government in 1944 to educate the public about the dangers of forest fires but in 1950 there was actually a real bear cub caught up in a forest fire in Capitan who became the real smokey bear for 26 years (at the zoo in Washington). After his death in 1976 he was buried at the Smokey Bear Historical Park. Another bear, Little Smokey, took over the reins until 1990, when no new bear was named the ´real´ Smokey again, although the character is still used in forest fire campaigns still. Ok, so this was a bit silly but it was on the way!

No Aliens here

We ended up in Roswell for the night, home of the aliens. Actually Roswell was a little disappointing. Everyone I think knows the story of the so believed alien crash in Roswell in 1947 and the following apparent cover up by the government (so called the Roswell Incident). You would have thought they´d make a big deal of this in Roswell but all there was there really was the UFO museum (which wasn´t that great at all) and a few alien references in the local McDonalds and a few other restaurants and motels (oh and a few alien lampposts). Maybe the residents are bored of it but I´m sure much more could be made of it. So our expected day wandering the streets of Roswell looking at alien stuff turned into a chill day where Patrick finished the Nicaragua blog and I got back into my novel reading.

Back to Route 66

We thought we try some more of Route 66 so headed up to Amarillo in Texas. This was definitely just a driving day of some 200 miles. We had debated going to Lubbock, home of Buddy Holly, or Fort Sumner for more Billy the Kid history, but decided both detours were too far and headed straight for Amarillo. Patrick has done all the driving on this trip as I´m a bit of a wimp when it comes to freeways, although I´m more of the hotel and attractions research person so I´m sure it all balances in the end!
We´d see Amarillo´s route 66 downtown the next day which was again another disappointment, maybe they just don´t get enough tourists in these parts to warrant making a big deal of these things. Anyway, we´d see enough route 66 things this day to make up for it. First was Cadillac Ranch, which is a strange sight of 10 Cadillacs buried nose down in the ground. It was created by a billionaire in the 70´s as ´art´ for people to stop and gawk at, and there started the tradition of spray painting the cars. It´s actually quite a cool sight, and very popular evidenced by the amount of people that were there at the same time as us. Not so popular on the east side of Amarillo is the Bug Ranch, which is 5 VW beetles buried in the ground, done by restaurant owners to try and drum up business, which obviously didn´t work very well as the restaurant is now a ruin! Patrick tried his hand at a bit of spray painting....see the photo!

We stopped at Shamrock, another town on Route 66, for lunch. Opposite the diner was a restored gas station, originally built in the 1930´s, which had been fantastically restored, quite an iconic Route 66 building. Soon after was Texola, the last town before the Texas Oklahoma border, and quite a ghost town. Seeing this little town also meant we missed the Oklahoma border sign on the main freeway, so we turned round after 5 miles to go back through Texas for 8 miles to come back. Patrick was none to pleased when I missed it the second time!!! But anyway, now into Oklahoma it seems this state takes a bit more of a big deal of its Route 66 section, with glossy brochures about the route and 3 different museums on the route. We went to the first Route 66 museum in Elk City, part of the Old Town Museum Complex. It was quite a cool museum with old cars and Route 66 memorabilia, but I was actually more impressed with the Old Town Museum which is absolutely packed full of all memorabilia tracing the history of Elk City from the 19th century to the present, including a big section upstairs on the rodeo.

We then tried to go to the Route 66 museum in Clinton, but, another Tracy mistake, my watch had decided to stop when we were in Elk City (I´ve been having problems with my watch since wearing it in the hot springs in New Zealand) so I thought it was only 3pm when it was actually 4pm so we didn´t make it in time before it closed. Oops. So we ended the day making it to the Days Inn in Oklahoma City (oh yeah after Tracy´s 3rd mistake of the day thinking another hotel was only $32, not $32 per person, so having to search for another cheaper motel! Our limit is about $45).

Oklahoma City

On October 8 we visited Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum. On April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City was rocked by a bomb on the Murrah Federal Building which killed 168 people, including 19 children. I have to say I can´t really remember this happening, but I definitely lived through the tragedy during our visit to the museum (have a read of the event on wikipedia). The museum was brilliantly done, set up in sequence of events, from the morning of the bomb, through the investigation and conviction of Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols for the crime. Outside is a memorial to those who lost their lives, with 2 gates (9.01 and 9.03, signifying the time before and after the event), a reflection pool in between, and 168 bronze and stone chairs representing each victim. We spent 3 hours here and I would totally recommend it to anyone visiting Oklahoma.

More Route 66?!

Following this we thought we try do something a bit more upbeat and went on the Route 66 trail again, this time east of Oklahoma. Our first stop was Pops in Arcadia for lunch, which isn´t an old landmark having only opened in 2007, but just shows that Oklahoma is trying to revive the old Route 66. In front of the cafe, shop and gas station stands a 66 foot soda bottle which is lit up neon at night. Unfortunately we didn´t see it at night, but very cool all the same. Past the Old Round Barn (apparently the only true round barn in the US, built originally in 1898 and restored in 1992) we stopped at the Route 66 Interpretive Center in Chandler. This was quite a small museum but a bit different with old car seats and beds set up to watch some Route 66 themed short videos. There were quite a few photos of old iconic Route 66 landmarks as well and we were pleased to see we´d actually seen quite a few of them. On the way back to Oklahoma City we stopped at a restored gas station which now housed a motorcycle museum. There must have
The old Seaba gas stationThe old Seaba gas stationThe old Seaba gas station

A 1929 Harley and behind the signs of the businesses of the old building, a D-X gas station, Seaba engine rebuilding and Seaba antiques shop
been about 40 motorcycles in there dating back to the 1920´s, and according to one of the owners that was there all but 5 were owned by his partner! Quite a collection and another great restoration.

Here ended our Route 66 trail as we would be heading down south to Dallas, whereas the route goes north east eventually to Chicago. As I mentioned before Route 66 is obviously the most famous drive in the US. I´m not sure I would actually want to drive the whole route. Firstly it´s quite difficult to follow given some parts have been integrated into the I-40, and secondly some of the towns really were quite sad looking. Some parts, especially through Oklahoma were very picturesque with restored buildings but some parts were very run down, which I guess adds to the Route 66 appeal, but to me just highlights the economic problems in the US right now. Maybe in the future the US will realise the importance of some of this history, and help restore it, and we can once again re-live the hey days.


Additional photos below
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Gross!Gross!
Gross!

Patrick nearly ran this over on a road and had to stop to take a picture. Not sure why he would put his hand so close!
Our stamp at Bug RanchOur stamp at Bug Ranch
Our stamp at Bug Ranch

Just to the left of the window


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