....don't forget Winona, Kingman, Barstow.....

Of all the towns along the Route, I think Seligman offers the most, but we had seen it, and missed Kingman on our first trip, so that was the stopover today.  The Museum in Kingman tells the story, not only of the road, but the folks who traveled that same path before, when the drought and depression lead thousands to leave the midwest and head for California for a better life.  Some walked, some loaded all their belongings and families on trucks and set out on a muddy path, most not finding anything better.  

The green thing sticking out the window of this old Studebaker is air conditioning!

 

In addition to the museum and some historic homes and buildings, there is the requisite diner and steak house, and another museum that looked very interesting.  My traveling companion, however, was feeling the effects of altitude and allergies, and getting tired, so we decided to move on.  Oatman would have been one more good stop, an old mining town with the descendants of the donkeys roaming the streets, and shoot out reenactments, but the road there is treacherous and we would have to have left the coach and done it by car.  So we headed toward California, and believe it or not, have camped for the night just outside of Barstow!  Right in the middle of the Mojave Desert, we pulled in at 5pm, with temps still reading 97 degrees!

I HAD to have my picture taken with Smokey!!

Some of the literature and museums say people are enamored by the romance of the old road, and I have to admit I am one of them!  

Williams, AZ....the gateway to the Grand Canyon

Williams is also the last town to be bypassed by Rt 40, fighting mulitple legal battles before giving up.  A young man in a great store called Addicted to Route 66, sporting a 50's shirt and slicked back hair, told us that the town did suffer, but as of the 90's, has started to make a comeback.   

They make the most of their heritage with old fashioned street lamps, the old shields on the lamp posts, and tons of places to buy souvenirs.  Addicted to Route 66 had some actual old shields that were selling from $1-3,000 dollars!  

Probably the neatest place in town had a car on top, and a smoker out front billowing BBQ flavor, and we succumbed to an early dinner.  Food was pretty good, not great, but the ambiance was terrific!  Live music on the patio accompanies lunch and dinner.  

While we always encounter many Europeans and often Asians at the parks, this town was amazing!  I felt like we were the only Americans at dinner!  

We stopped in a grocery store for a few odds and ends on the way back to camp, and when the couple in front of us were obviously foreign, I just had to remark to the clerk,  Always, he said....they come to see the Grand Canyon.  He had told his wife that he learned to say eggs in Chinese, and then demonstrated pointing and cracking motions to explain how the woman had apparently communicated with him!  Very cute!  

We had overheard a couple explain they were English, but lived in Amsterdam, to two other couples who explained they were from Austria.  The whole world comes to enjoy the beauty our great country has to offer.  

Can't forget our campground...this is the entrance.  I accused Clem of picking it for obvious reasons!  Actually an original Route 66 motel, a couple from California bought it, added an RV park, and several train cars that you can stay in, in addition to some cute cabins.  

Williams is also home to the old steam train you can ride to the Canyon, but since it is a two hour ride each way,  Clem preferred to drive the 45 minutes in the car.  A woman I chatted with who had taken the train said it was wonderful, however.  

How do they know???

Somehow they can now tell the difference between stopping for lunch or gas, and stopping to register at camp site! Loki takes the front seat, Sas on ledge or table. Smarties!!

Lasagna!

The long drive from Tucumcari to Williams left me too tired to even want to go out to dinner! But we had a special home made treat in the freezer for such an occasion. And boy did it taste good with a little of the red!

Where next, Mom?

Loki supervising the blog and route plan!

Interesting people

Last year we had seen a small museum in Utah dedicated explorer Powell, who made multiple explorations of the Colorado River in a wooden rowboat!  You can imagine them taking the rapids in that!  One of the rapids we saw from an overlook rated an 8 out of 10.  A monument nearby was erected to Powell, who traversed below.  

Teddy Roosevelt, champion of the National Parks, visited, and was photographed by the Kolb brothers. 

Very interesting story of an English immigrant named Fred Harvey who vastly improved railroad food and service, and built many hotels along the train routes.  He hired and trained thousands of young women, The Harvey Girls, who were trained in service and manners, wore uniforms, signed contracts to not marry for a year, and lived in the upper levels of his hotels.  

 Mary Coulter, once a teacher, became a famed architect, and in 1901 started working for Harvey, creating landmark hotels, including many in the park, and this rest stop.  Listed on the National Register, her work reflects Pueblo Revival, Spanish, Mission, and streamline moderne, as well as craftsman.....very interesting.  Two huge fireplaces, here and in one of the lodges, reflect the land, with layers of rock, like the strata of the canyon, and make me think of Frank Lloyd Wright and his work as it relates to the  countryside.

Canyon Sights and Vistas

Approaching overlooks, people look like mere dots, giving some perspective to the giant hole that is the Canyon!  Sometimes as wide as 20 miles, it averages 10 miles across.  

 One of the fist stops was The Kolb Studios, where brothers created a photography business in the canyon in the early 1900's.  Braving the depths and the river, they shot stills and early movies, and ran mule trips from their studio, perched on the side of the canyon.  

We hiked between some of the overlooks, then hopped back on the bus to the next, being 9 in all.

 One could take a million photos and still not capture it. 

 Sometimes along our hike, we were along an edge, and knowing Clem would not pose for this spot, I snapped this couple.




Photo to left was first glimpse of the Colorado River.....tiny beautiful aqua streak on left!

The Grand Canyon!

We finally made it!  And I don't mean this trip!  We have talked about this, and were once headed for it, but never made it, when Chris was young.  (long story)  This is your first glimpse when entering the park and visitors center.  From here we took a free park shuttle along the scenic road, stopping off at various overlooks.  I was disappointed not to see a condor, said to have a nest at one site, and to soar through the canyon.  Quite a few of the big ravens were enjoying riding the currants, however!  

The day started at 41 degrees at our camp site, and 29 at the rim!  So we layered up for what turned into a beautiful 75 degree day, and hiked between a few of the lookouts.  The elevation at our camp site is nearly 8000 feet, and we found ourselves taking deep breaths, even though the park is actually a bit lower, between 6 and 7000 feet.  The canyon, of course, is stunning in its magnitude in addition to its beauty.  We had to admit, however that we have seen so much stunning beauty, that it didn't hit us as we thought it might!!  Still, a wonder of the world, and we can check another one off the list!  

This was clearly a destination rather than journey day!  Clem for some reason was anxious to get to the next stop, and I obliged and pushed on, doing what was probably too much for one day.  We did make a quick stop here, for him to take the wheel for a bit, and allow me to see the Trading Post, and snap a photo.  Unfortunately, it also proved to be the beginning of a a section of construction, marked by barrels, and shoulder drop off, and I soon resumed my time at the wheel!  I was pretty beat when we finally arrived in Williams, Az,  and now I have noticed that we passed up seeing a few things of interest! The prime, being Winslow, Arizona.....where I could have been "standin' on the corner......"  

From the highway you could see a tremendous collection of kitsch at Holbrook, including giant dinosaur statues and the famous Wigwam Village with its concrete teepees in which you can spend the night.  Past the ghost town of Two Guns is the town of Twin Arrows, marked by.....twin arrows!  Giant red arrows stuck in the ground which marked a roadside attraction.  All worth at least a photo op!  Route 66 borders Highway 40 in this part of the country, so it is possible to take in quite a bit from the highway, but we are slated to make a couple of stops on the old road ahead.  

Tucumcari, NM

I got in bed last night to find the mattress hard as a rock!  We are at 4000 ft, and the sleep number had moved itself to 100!!   Yikes!  Need to remember to deflate it going into elevation!  The same condition has given us a morning in the low 60's, though it is slated to hit 97 degrees today.  The wonders of elevation.  The terrain changed dramatically about an hour from the Texas border yesterday, the first sign being a gash in the flatness, which soon gave way to gullies, then upheavals and tumble weeds.  Clem hooked us up last night, then went and inspected a few of those to see if they might be something of use for trees for his trains!

Tucumcari is a fun stop on the old road, and we made a quick one just for photos on a previous trip.  Home to the wonderful old Blue Swallow Motel, which even gets a 5 star rating on trip advisor, as much for its nostalgia, and the charm of its new owners.  A young couple has lovingly restored it, kept its original flair, right down to the chenille bedspreads, and are apparently wonderful hosts.  A huge Mexican hat, and the Teepee Curio shop, in addition to some great murals, the likes of James Dean and Marilyn, are also attractions to this city that says it is 2 blocks wide, and 2 miles long.  

The blog RV Ramblings has photos of the best museum, and Heading East has photos of Tucumcari.  

We need to get out of here early, not only to get some miles in, but to get out before the heat sets in!

I went back and pulled a couple of these from
fall 2011.  We had planned a different route, but
there was snow in the passes in Colorado already that year, so we detoured onto 40, which is old 66, and hit a few places we had missed on our very first trip.  

Lunch at Pops

Under the soda bottles! My salad fed me for three days, but I helped Clem finish that peanut butter cup milkshake!

Hot, VERY windy travel day!

Those winds are still sweeping down the plains, but harder than ever today, as the weather patterns continue to push into the area.  The new coach is so much more stable, but it was still challenging with cross winds gusting across the roadway.  We stopped for gas, and opening the door nearly pulled Clem right out!  As we headed into Texas, the winds became more head on, which proved a bit easier going. We passed up the Roger Miller Museum, King of the Road that he is, but did take a small detour onto the old route to visit McLean and the Devil's Rope Museum, as we had bypassed it before and it was time for lunch and a break anyway.  Who knew there were so many kinds of barbed wire, or

 things one could make from it!  That, and farm equipment made up a good deal of the surprisingly large building, but a Route 66 Museum was also part of the display.  The best museum has to be the one we saw in Clinton, but they are always fun.  A sweet lady welcomed us, and when I asked if she was from the area, she said no, she was from quite a bit south, but married a cowboy in 1949 and he moved her.  1949!  Spry little thing, who took me into a room to see a 45 star flag, when I asked if I could take photos, saying she sure had never seen one!  The town is full of the deserted and dilapidated buildings that mark the old route, and I wondered at how they could just bypass these businesses and let them die, rather than give them exits.  Clem wondered how people could stay in these half deserted towns! 

At the end of town was a beautifully restored gas station.  Maybe they will do more!  

So we are making time, and trying to get out of tornado country, as they are predicting more bad weather by mid week.  We crossed over into New Mexico to stay for the night, and will need at least another full day to reach our next big destination.  92 degrees and hot and windy when we arrived, and the evening news reported that there is three feet of snow in Vermont and northern NY tonight!  

Oklahoma City

This stop proved very satisfying, as we spent a full day checking off not only things from 1000 Places to See Before You Die, but also my list of  Roadside Attractions along Route 66!  We set out for the longest stretch of the existing Mother Road, and saw first a huge cross, maybe a foil for the broadcast antennae for the Televised Church.  It can't compare to the multi ton monstrosity in Groom, Texas that we had seen in the past, but still pretty impressive!

Next stop, a newer addition to the road, was Pops, with a giant Pop bottle out front, thousands of bottles and flavors of Pop, as well as a filling station and cafe, which turned out to be very good for lunch!

A bit further up the road you encounter the Round Barn.  Now apparently there are many of these in different parts of the world, but I have certainly never seen one, and it is an icon along the route, and built in 1800's.  

 There was a yard where someone had replicated many of the icons from the Mother Road, but it was closed for the day, and looked rather run down, but had probably been pretty neat at one point.  It is said the builder, a retired engineer, had never even seen many of the things, but had recreated from photos.  Some people have their golf and trains......................

Then we headed to the city, passing  the fabulous Cowboy and Western Museum we had visited several years ago, and headed for Bricktown.  Like many of these downtown revitalization areas, I felt it had a way to go, but was attractive with all the red brick buildings, and it did have a lot of restaurants and music venues, so probably a great place for nightlife.  Adjacent to this area , a huge collection of bronze sculptures is still in the works, depicting the great Land Rush of 1889.  Larger than life, they were amazing to see!  

Also in Bricktown was the Banjo Museum, which is listed as a must see, and did not disappoint. 

Even if you are not an aficionado, the instruments are works of art, and the history and film was extremely interesting.  

The  Oklahoma City National Monument and Museum was erected  where the Federal Building was bombed  in 1995.  It was moving beyond my expectations to see the chairs representing those who died, to realize the extent of the damage, and to see the remembrances left.  

Walls on either side of the memorial read 901 and 903, the bomb having exploded at 902.  The reflecting pool fills the area where the road was that carried the truck to the building. 

9 rows of chairs for the 9 floors of the buildings

Small chairs for children, large for adults who perished.



I have to admit it took a few minutes to collect myself before heading to our next stop, the Art Museum.
Said to have the most extensive collection of Dale Chihuly glass on its third floor, apparently because he married a girl from Oklahoma City.  That alone was worth the visit, but a wonderful exhibit of photographer Britt was an added bonus.  Otherwise, a small but pleasant collection, with  one Georgia Okeefe.   Surprisingly, they allowed photos of the glass!

Final stop, and one that left us underwhelmed, was Stockyards City.  Clem really was not interested, but I insisted, since we were there, and also dangled the thought of Cattleman's Steak House, a legendary restaurant still in existence since 1910.  In addition to the stock yards, there were western wear stores with more denim than I have ever seen in my life, and plaid shirts and hats to match, but no interpretive information at all, rather than "world's largest."  And the restaurant was more than tired......not so "cute", as it might have been.....and the meal mediocre at best!  Fair steak, iceberg lettuce salad, plastic basket of rolls.....right out of 1950.  But check it off the list!