One of hubby’s bucket list items was to drive on Route 66. At first, he only wanted to do the Arizona to California portion, but I think I’ve convinced him to do it all; just in smaller bits and pieces. I would say this was our FIRST time on Route 66, but I think we’ve been on it unknowingly a few other times before I even registered it was a thing. Anyone who’s seen the movie “Cars” knows of the road, but at the time I hadn’t even looked into all the different cities along the way. And yes, the song has run through my head more than once during our trip.
As mentioned in an earlier post, we purchased the “Route 66” app for my phone. The download is free, but to use it you have to pay; you can choose a week ($19.99) or year ($39.99). The app works with CarPlay and you can select cities and towns along Route 66 that you want to visit. I would recommend that you select Points of Interest and not cities; we missed a number of things that would have been fun to see by only choosing the place we wanted to visit. The voice was odd, it didn’t always take us where we selected, and it didn’t alert us to current closures.
We also purchased two books EZ66 Guide and Route 66 Road Trips. Neither book were user friendly for us, although we did tab a couple of pages for reference during the trip. The best website I found was Route 66 Travel Guide. State-by-state, city-by-city links and information on the POIs. There’s also a pretty great Facebook page with photos and a community that will offer suggestions on their favorite places. In researching Route 66, I’ve decided there is NO WAY to see everything in one, two, or even several trips. There are just too many things to see!
Road Trips are supposed to be an adventure, and in that spirit, the best method for us was researching the POIs we wanted most, mapping them (printed and/or GPS/App), and getting on the road! I would recommend allotting more time than you think you need if you want to get the full experience. We started later than planned and unfortunately rushed through some of the towns in a hurry to get to our destination for the night.
We made our way from Mesa to Flagstaff via I17. It’s roughly a 2-and-a-half-hour drive, mostly scenic, as you climb from 1100 to almost 7000 feet of elevation. One of the rest areas had the most beautiful prickly pear cactus in bloom! We had lunch in Flagstaff and headed out on our the next leg of our Route 66 journey; Williams, AZ.
Williams is the “Gateway to the Grand Canyon”, offering train trip packages to the Canyon and back. There are a number of interesting things in Williams, including the train depot park, visitor’s center, and a wall mural denoting it as “The Last Town Bypassed by I-40”. There was also a “Zip Line” attraction, and a new roller coaster park.
Next up was Ash Fork. We did not stop at the museum but found a Route 66 marker, and a monument/park commemorating the history of Ash Fork. It was amazing to see the slices of Americana on the backroads. Spaghetti Dinner fundraisers, water towers, American Flags flying, and all the small businesses continuing to make their living on the lore of “The Mother Road” and its travelers.
We stopped in Seligman (pronounced ‘Sligman’) only long enough for a photo of ‘Mater, Lightning McQueen, and a bathroom stop. The thrill of finding “Burma Shave” signs between Seligman and Kingman added more history to the trip. We refueled in Kingman (which is where we think the fraud on our credit card happened), then stopped at the Ramada Inn, known for its murals and artwork depicting Hollywood stars from earlier days. I fan-girled and had my photo taken with ‘James Dean’.
We missed the Oatman burros, the Topok Bridge, and water tower; making it to Needles as the sun was setting just after 7 p.m.
Safe Travels and God’s blessings!
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