Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Williams is a launching pad for the Grand Canyon. It is a very picturesque little town filled with Route 66 memorabilia shops and restaurants. We are drawn in to the Java Cycle by the “Free WIFI” sign in the window. As we are standing at the counter about to order, a guy to whom the barista girl was trying to brush off hands her his card; then a group of kids walk in and hand her a flyer; and finally the postman hands her the mail. All within a ten second period! Unprepared, Thomas grabs a flyer off the counter, hands it to the overloaded barista and orders a raspberry latte.
After wandering around the Grand Canyon Railroad Station, we begin the one hour or so drive to the national park. En route, we stop at the Planes of Fame Air Museum for some snaps of some classic flying machines. Arriving at the Grand Canyon, we set up camp in a flash; we are getting pretty fast at this already. The family to our right is French (of course they are) and the family across the way is Canadian (say no more).
We walked to the rim of the canyon to enjoy a peaceful view of the sunset. Apparently, that was everyone else’s intent as well. We were stampeded by groups of people pushing and shoving to have their special moment and photo of the sunset. Despite the crowd, it was absolutely stunning.
Seligman to Ash Fork, AZ
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
We wake up this morning to the sounds of trains rolling by. The sound of the train is actually not as annoying as you would think, well maybe that's just us. After we break camp, it’s in to the town of Seligman for breakfast at the Copper Cart, a Route 66 diner. Our waitress, who was not all that happy, took our order and brought us plates of food that would have fed a Somalian family of four. No one in the diner besides us spoke English. French couple over here, Spanish group there and 2 tables of Italians! Once completely gorged, we were miraculously able to roll our bodies out of the restaurant; we headed down 66 on foot to check out a few shops. For about a half-mile stretch there is nothing but gitchy-gatchy shops catering to tourists. It is very strange being on Route 66 in America; it seems that the only people that are out here are the French, Germany and Italians. It almost feels like being in a foreign country, we hear so little English spoken. We stopped at the Snow Cap Drive-In which presented multiple fun photo ops.
Out of Seligman on Route 66 is probably one of the more beautiful drives of the trip. Tall Black-eyed Susans line both sides of this road of rolling hills as we move up and towards Williams. We make a stop in Ash Fork, the flagstone capitol of the world; and you were wondering where that might be, well now you know. As we climb higher, the desert begins to fade away and make room for a more alpine look. Just outside of Williams it seemed we were back in the Pacific NW.
We wake up this morning to the sounds of trains rolling by. The sound of the train is actually not as annoying as you would think, well maybe that's just us. After we break camp, it’s in to the town of Seligman for breakfast at the Copper Cart, a Route 66 diner. Our waitress, who was not all that happy, took our order and brought us plates of food that would have fed a Somalian family of four. No one in the diner besides us spoke English. French couple over here, Spanish group there and 2 tables of Italians! Once completely gorged, we were miraculously able to roll our bodies out of the restaurant; we headed down 66 on foot to check out a few shops. For about a half-mile stretch there is nothing but gitchy-gatchy shops catering to tourists. It is very strange being on Route 66 in America; it seems that the only people that are out here are the French, Germany and Italians. It almost feels like being in a foreign country, we hear so little English spoken. We stopped at the Snow Cap Drive-In which presented multiple fun photo ops.
Out of Seligman on Route 66 is probably one of the more beautiful drives of the trip. Tall Black-eyed Susans line both sides of this road of rolling hills as we move up and towards Williams. We make a stop in Ash Fork, the flagstone capitol of the world; and you were wondering where that might be, well now you know. As we climb higher, the desert begins to fade away and make room for a more alpine look. Just outside of Williams it seemed we were back in the Pacific NW.
Lake Havasu to Seligman AZ
Monday, August 11, 2008We woke up this morning at the non-deadly Motel 6 in Lake Havasu. Thomas gets his early morning walk on and then we get the hell out of Dodge. Our final destination for this evening is Seligman about a two hour drive along I-40. However, today we are actually traveling on Route 66 so we circle back from Lake Havasu City on the I-40 headed east to Exit 1, Topock. Here, Route 66 begins a five-hour drive through towns long forgotten by the masses traveling the interstate. If you’ve seen the movie Cars you know what we mean. The drive begins through some shady green trees giving way to the town of Golden Shores which provides some good photo ops if nothing else. Continuing along, Thomas notes that now he knows what being in the middle of nowhere really means. There aren’t many cars on the road, make that barely any, and the few we do see are traveling the opposite direction! Judging from the out of state license plates, they are probably Route 66’ers coming from Chicago heading to Santa Monica.
Oatman is an authentic western “ghost town” although there are plenty of merchants hocking their wares to eager tourists, hey that’s us. The town is famous for two things: one, the Oatman Hotel where Clark Gable and Carol Lombard spent their honeymoon; and two, believe it or not, burros. Said burros walk the streets, okay street of Oatman and tourists delight in feeding them carrots. We definitely saw remnants of the burros, minding our step so as not to take home any unwanted souvenirs on our shoes. However we saw no actual burros. They must sleep in on Monday or have some union agreement with the tourist board but no matter, they were nowhere in sight. The proud heritage of the burros has inspired such business names as Jackass Junction, The Classy Ass and Fast Fannie’s; the latter referring to a different kind of western heritage. Our favorite was the Glory Hole. Not sure if Oatman knows that title has a totally different meaning to gay men then we are sure the town intends. Of course that is only an ASSumption; it, like the burros was not available to tourists that morning.
You can tour the Oatman Hotel and even see the room where the famous Hollywood couple stayed. It is no longer a functioning hotel however the restaurant is still open. It has some weird tradition of people hanging dollar bills on the wall; we put ours in the donation box instead. Twice daily, Oatman pulls out all the stops and puts on an authentic, fake gun fight. It’s all very Frontier Village and if you grew up in the Bay Area, you know what we mean.We head up to Sitgreaves Pass and down a series of switchbacks to Cool Springs. Our research warned of the dangers of driving this road as it has very sharp turns with no guard rails. One site even had a picture of a car that had gone over the side. Well it turned out to be a big fanfare for nothing. Definitely kid’s stuff compared to the hair-raising Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride that is the bus from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu. Okay we heard the “thunk” as we just dropped a country name to which we have travelled but we just had to do it. The summit provides a good opportunity for some great snaps of the area. There is also a series of crosses and memorials. From here we finally got to see some burros but these were wild burros, the ones without their Equity Cards.
Cool Springs was an historic Route 66 respite comprised of a gas station and cabins. It had withered away from neglect but was rebuilt for the movie “Universal Soldier” and then supposedly was torn down again; never saw the movie so judging by the title and genre, it was probably blown up. It has recently been rebuilt using old photos as its inspiration. It now has a very cool stone exterior with some classic gas pumps and signs. Inside there is a small room of memorabilia including signed Rolling Stones albums. There is also a gift shop where we bought a bag of ice and a Route 66 – Cool Springs pin for Frank’s manbag, murse or camera bag, whatever you want to call it.
Back to the route and into Kingman. Kingman is a snapshot of another time (especially on Route 66) diners, quaint houses, little parks. We drive down Andy Devine Blvd to Mr. D’z Diner for lunch then check out the train in the park across the street. Of course no trip to Kingman is complete without a stop at the Hilltop Motel, where Timothy McVeigh spent his last week before adding his name to a long line of people most people despise. Obviously the hotel would rather proclaim that it has the “Best View in Kingman”. Apparently that wasn’t enough to dissuade him.Out of Kingman we can’t resist a stop to see Giganticus Headicus, a Moai-inspired statue. Continuing thru Peach Springs with a stop at the Grand Canyon Caverns and on to Seligman where we are camping at the KOA for the night. The gal running the KOA is a hoot and gives us a keychain reading “I survived the night of 1000 trains”. It seems the KOA is DIRECTLY next to the train tracks. We can tune almost anything out having lived for so long in cities, but there were a lot of trains, really long trains like 100 plus cars each. It was actually kind of soothing after a while. The main area of the grounds had been recently remodeled and was very …elegant. Having worked for Pottery Barn, the fixtures and accessories were very familiar. Something tells us that KOA isn't The Barn’s target customer but it was nice.
California to Lake Havasu, AZ
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Today’s the big day so we got up at seven to get an early start. We had forgone the Eddie Izzard show the night before, Thomas was feeling sick and we had too much to do. We finally hit the road at 8 30 and stated heading down towards Ventura. As soon as we hit Casitas Springs Thomas blurts out “we forgot to stop at Mom’s house on the way out” So we turn around back up to Oak View to say goodbye to Mom. Then back on the road and back down towards Ventura. The plan was to travel through Cali with a minimum of stops and make it all the way to Arizona.
Along the 126 to Valencia, we pass five restored Model T Fords cruising down the highway. After driving along a series of highways (the same route we usually take to Vegas) we get to Victorville, stop long enough to get a picture of the Route 66 sign and a youth theater called Shenanigans. At the Chevron a girl on a motorcycle had a helmet with a pink Mohawk.
We depart from Hwy 40 to drive along Route 66 and get to a town called Daggett, pretty much a ghost town, but some cool things for photo ops. Newberry Springs and the Bagdad Café is our next stop. We haven’t seen the movie in 15-20 years, luckily they play it on a loop above the register. Thomas takes the owner’s advice and tries a buffalo burger; it turns out to be quite good. We watch the people come in and take pictures. One of the employees tells us about 70% of their business is tourists from FRANCE. I guess the movie Bagdad café has a major following there. We meet a gentleman from Paris with his family that have gone all around the pacific Southwest and are headed towards LA and then Las Vegas. He says he is staying in Santa Monica, but fears it is a bad area. I assure him it is a very nice area, right on the water. He wanted to stay in Santa Barbara but said everything was booked up. We advised him to at least do a day trip there as it is the French Riviera of the West Coast. We leave the cafe just as a tour bus has arrived, we ask one lady where they are from and she says France, go figure.
Driving from Mojave to Arizona is a trip. Once you pass over the Colorado River into Arizona the terrain gets rockier and less sandy. We pull into Lake Havasu about 4 and head towards the Motel 6; cheap accommodations for our first night. Our friend Angelica said it was against the Gay Code of Conduct for us to stay at a Motel 6. We tell her not to let the word get out; oh wait…
It is never a good sign when you show up at your hotel to find the Lake Havasu Crime scene investigation van, four police cars in the front and parking lot closed off. As we head into the hotel Thomas takes a picture with his phone of the CSI van and is asked by a Motel 6 employee to erase the picture. He says OK yet does not.
We are told a “water main has broken" and we have been moved to the sister hotel across town. Guess water mains require assistance by CSI here in Lake Havasu. Read story here We take in a quick swim and decide to head to London Bridge. Despite what Fergie says it is not falling down (maybe she meant her pants) So in the sweltering heat of 113 we walk two and a half miles down to the lake. It’s weird to be in a small London village complete with red phone boxes, Tudor buildings and London Bridge in 113 degrees! Thomas spies a booth selling gondola rides on the lake and is even more confused.
Today’s the big day so we got up at seven to get an early start. We had forgone the Eddie Izzard show the night before, Thomas was feeling sick and we had too much to do. We finally hit the road at 8 30 and stated heading down towards Ventura. As soon as we hit Casitas Springs Thomas blurts out “we forgot to stop at Mom’s house on the way out” So we turn around back up to Oak View to say goodbye to Mom. Then back on the road and back down towards Ventura. The plan was to travel through Cali with a minimum of stops and make it all the way to Arizona.
Along the 126 to Valencia, we pass five restored Model T Fords cruising down the highway. After driving along a series of highways (the same route we usually take to Vegas) we get to Victorville, stop long enough to get a picture of the Route 66 sign and a youth theater called Shenanigans. At the Chevron a girl on a motorcycle had a helmet with a pink Mohawk.
We depart from Hwy 40 to drive along Route 66 and get to a town called Daggett, pretty much a ghost town, but some cool things for photo ops. Newberry Springs and the Bagdad Café is our next stop. We haven’t seen the movie in 15-20 years, luckily they play it on a loop above the register. Thomas takes the owner’s advice and tries a buffalo burger; it turns out to be quite good. We watch the people come in and take pictures. One of the employees tells us about 70% of their business is tourists from FRANCE. I guess the movie Bagdad café has a major following there. We meet a gentleman from Paris with his family that have gone all around the pacific Southwest and are headed towards LA and then Las Vegas. He says he is staying in Santa Monica, but fears it is a bad area. I assure him it is a very nice area, right on the water. He wanted to stay in Santa Barbara but said everything was booked up. We advised him to at least do a day trip there as it is the French Riviera of the West Coast. We leave the cafe just as a tour bus has arrived, we ask one lady where they are from and she says France, go figure.
Driving from Mojave to Arizona is a trip. Once you pass over the Colorado River into Arizona the terrain gets rockier and less sandy. We pull into Lake Havasu about 4 and head towards the Motel 6; cheap accommodations for our first night. Our friend Angelica said it was against the Gay Code of Conduct for us to stay at a Motel 6. We tell her not to let the word get out; oh wait…
It is never a good sign when you show up at your hotel to find the Lake Havasu Crime scene investigation van, four police cars in the front and parking lot closed off. As we head into the hotel Thomas takes a picture with his phone of the CSI van and is asked by a Motel 6 employee to erase the picture. He says OK yet does not.
We are told a “water main has broken" and we have been moved to the sister hotel across town. Guess water mains require assistance by CSI here in Lake Havasu. Read story here We take in a quick swim and decide to head to London Bridge. Despite what Fergie says it is not falling down (maybe she meant her pants) So in the sweltering heat of 113 we walk two and a half miles down to the lake. It’s weird to be in a small London village complete with red phone boxes, Tudor buildings and London Bridge in 113 degrees! Thomas spies a booth selling gondola rides on the lake and is even more confused.
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