The Great September Road Trip – Day 1 Route 66 Mesa AZ to Needles, CA

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.

Prickly Pear Cactus

Prickly Pear Cactus

Prickly Pear Cactus

Route 66 outside of Flagstaff, to Williams, AZ

Route 66 outside of Flagstaff, to Williams, AZ

Route 66 outside of Flagstaff, to Williams, AZ

Route 66 outside of Flagstaff, to Williams, AZ

So much blue sky and clouds!

Miles and miles of clouds

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.

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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.

On the road to Ash Fork, AZ

On the road to Ash Fork, AZ

Ash Fork, AZ

Ash Fork, AZ

Ash Fork, AZ

Ash Fork, AZ

Ash Fork, AZ

Ash Fork, AZ

Burma Shave Signs outside of Seligman, AZ

Seligman, AZ

Seligman, AZ

Seligman, AZ

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’.

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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!
You can continue to follow our adventures on Facebook at Normads (Norman Adventures), or here on the blog.

The Great September Road Trip – Mileage, Fuel, Engines, and Motors

We just completed a month-long road trip covering 26 days, 7 states, 4457 miles, and several bucket list items checked off. Months of planning were involved, and after the fact, there is always laundry and catching up on other things. Not to mention the roughly 3,500 photos I need to edit.

I’ve kept mileage records for my cars since August 2014, first as a business log; more recently as a record for curiosity. I paid as little as $1.979/gal at Costco in February 2015, and as high as $5.559/gal in July of 2022 (excluding road trips and reward points). The highest I’ve ever paid for gas is $6.09/gal as we moved from Washington to Arizona at a station in Wikieup, AZ.

For this trip, I kept a trip log not only with gas prices but with mileage between some of the stops. I didn’t log every stop we made or the time we landed there, but some of the major stops were:

Mesa to Flagstaff, AZ – 176 miles
Flagstaff to Seligman, AZ – 75 miles
Seligman to Kingman, AZ – 85 miles
Kingman AZ to Needles, CA – 62 miles
Day 1 – 398 miles, 10 hours

Needles to Marina Del Ray, CA – 353 miles
Santa Monica to Monterey, CA – 216 miles
Monterey, CA to Grants Pass, OR – 552 miles
Grants Pass, OR to Redmond, WA – 465 miles
Redmond, WA to Boise, ID – 503 miles
Boise, ID to West Valley City, UT – 456 miles
West Valley City, UT to Flagstaff, AZ – 539 miles        

Driving time was between 6 and 9 hours a day because it’s a road trip and there were numerous camera, bathroom, tourist, and food stops!

I expected we would see some fairly high gas prices as we hit California, but for the most part, prices stayed below $6 even in Monterey and Santa Monica, CA. We planned on buying at Costco when we could to save a few pennies, but in most cases we purchased at regular gas stations with no rewards or discounts.

Date                  MPG            Miles/Tank          Gallons       Price       Notes
9/3/2023         20.66078        227                        10.987        4.369     Costco Mesa AZ
9/4/2023         24.8282          336                        13.533        4.899     Kingman AZ
9/6/2023         25.4596          421                        16.536        5.199     Santa Monica CA
9/7/2023         26.60092        410                        15.413        5.499     Monterey CA
9/7/2023         34.79304        348                        10.002        4.999     Redding CA
9/8/2023         27.687            305                        11.016        4.539     Oakland OR (Rice Hill)
9/9/2023         19.73982        349                        17.68          4.759     Costco Redmond WA
9/15/2023       23.95137        394                        16.45          4.799     Marathon Lacey WA
9/26/2023       17.61252        225                        12.775        4.799     Costco Redmond
9/26/2023       25.81806        445                        17.236        4.499     Loves Ontario OR
9/28/2023       25.54095        373                        14.604        4.599     Arimo ID
9/29/2023       25.39208        340                        13.39          4.699     Beaver UT
9/30/2023       24.75775        511                        20.64          4.599     Costco Mesa AZ

As you can see, our mileage averaged right around 24/25 mpg, although the trip meter in the car averaged 26.5 mpg. With a 22-gallon tank, we tried to fill up when the tank hit 1/4, to avoid paying emergency prices at some station in the middle of nowhere. Even though we were fortunate (due to planning) not to pay high prices, there were several stations along the trip where we saw as high as $7.99/gal! Sinclair and Maverick had the most consistent pricing; surprisingly Shell, Chevron, and Union76 weren’t always the most expensive on the road. Love’s Truck Stops were either painfully high or right in line with Sinclair and Maverick.

Road trips are fantastic for conversations to while away the miles, and this trip was filled with several doozies. We commented several times about Diesel pricing, and I learned there are two grades of Diesel in the US. Diesel was consistently 30-50 cents or more pricier than gasoline.

We also had a spirited discussion about the difference between “motor” and “engine”, which is a concept I’d never considered. If it pleases the court, I maintain that if an “outboard motor” is really an engine, then that’s what it should be called. The words are used interchangeably, but by definition, it’s an engine, and I’d probably be laughed out of the rental place if I asked for an Outboard Engine for my (hypothetical) boat.

Calling out license plates on the trip was fun; the furthest being Florida and Maine. We did try to read or guess the state by the license plate.

Ellensburg, WA

Maine License Plate in Page, AZ

Roys in Amboy, CA

Route 66, Ash Fork, AZ (I don’t think these work)

Goffs, CA

Hesperia, CA

San Francisco, CA

Alaska License Plate

Alaska License Plate

Safe Travels and God’s blessings! You can continue to follow our adventures on Facebook at Normads (Norman Adventures), or here on the blog.

Level Up! – Arizona Residency Task complete

It’s been 4 decades since I moved to another state. I’ve moved addresses, zip codes, and counties, but not states, so when we moved to Arizona – even for just a year – I had to consider if I wanted to go through all the legalities of becoming an actual resident or not. Our mailing address is in Washington State, so technically we could say we’re still residents, but…

Arizona considers you a resident if you live in the state 7 months in a year; we will only be here 6 in 2023 and 6 in 2024. I wanted to register to vote, and our insurance requires us to be residents in order to have our cars insured, so I gathered my documents and found a local licensing facility on the AZDOT website. I expected to have a long wait as I didn’t make an appointment.

The building is well marked on the cross streets and from the street, there is plenty of parking (although not a lot of shade). Entering the spacious building, there is a ticket kiosk and three well-marked lanes: “Walk-In,” “Appointment” and “ADA.” You pull a ticket (even though there are no lit ticket counter machines). THERE ARE 26 WINDOWS and all but 6 of them have staff. The lines move quickly, and there are SMILING and pleasant people behind the desks. They have several desks with Spanish-speaking signs; in addition to the tickets they have a color-coded system and call the next in line with a card for the line you’re standing in.

You’ll need two pieces of photo ID and your social security number; I used my Washington State Driver’s License and Passport (They took my Washington State license, so if you are sentimental, take a photo of it before you hand it over for the last time.) You’ll also need two documents with proof of address. You can use a utility bill or anything else with your local address on it. I took in my lease documents but didn’t have additional proof with me so I signed a form that promised I wasn’t lying about my address.

He entered the information and asked if I wanted to register to vote (uh, YES!) You have the option to register a party affiliation (or not), and the option to have a mail-in ballot sent to you. Receiving a mail-in ballot DOES NOT require you to vote by mail, you can go to your voting precinct and vote in person (but obviously no double voting).

After my photo and the $25 fee for EIGHT YEARS, I walked out the door in 40 minutes with a temporary license.

You can also register your vehicle in the same location; cars 5 years and older need an emission test. He handed me a map with several locations and sent me on my way WITH A SMILE.

I drove to the testing facility and for $17 and 15 minutes, received my emission paperwork which I brought with me to register the car. You’ll also need your Title (if you own the vehicle) or registration with the lienholder (if you don’t), your driver’s license (the temporary one is fine), and the driver’s license of any registered owners of the vehicle.

You can choose a one or 2-year registration; the cost to register for one year was roughly $80 less expensive than Washington State, so not a huge savings, but I will be asking for a refund from Washington as I renewed my registration there in March.

You are required to have your license and registration for vehicles within 30 days of residency and I was reminded to notify my insurance agent to send insurance verification to AZDOT within 30 days.

Our auto insurance did go up about $90/month; our renter’s insurance is half of what it was for Washington State.

My temporary rear plate is installed; it’s weatherproof material, so you can install it in the frame while you wait for your actual plate. There is no requirement for front plates in Arizona. I’ll keep one of my Washington plates, putting it in storage with all the other plates we’ve had over the years.

Washington Driver’s License $56 – 4 years
Arizona Driver’s License $25 – 8 years
Washington Registration $372.25 – 1 year (refund to be determined)
Arizona Registration $293.63 – 1 year

You can follow us on Facebook at Normads (Norman Adventures), or here on the blog.

Edmonds to Boise to Mesa

We were “homeless” for a few days, sort of, as the lease in Edmonds was up June 16^th, we stayed in hotels until June 26^th (except for 3 nights in Boise), and although the lease in Mesa, AZ began on June 8^th, we didn’t physically move in until June 26^th.

So our adventure continued the morning of June 19^th. With the loaded U-Haul truck and Kobe in the car, we said ‘See you later’ with a last coffee (for a while) from our favorite coffee shop in Redmond and made our way to Boise. Our youngest daughter and family live there, so it made a nice stopping place along the way. It also gave Kobe a chance to get his land legs, and for us to see more of Boise.

We stopped every couple of hours for bathroom and dog-walking breaks. Gas in Cle Elum was the highest we saw in Washington (we didn’t need to refuel, but needed to stretch our legs). After lunch in Yakima and a bathroom break in Prosser, we refueled in Pendleton, OR. $4.29/gallon, didn’t have to pump our own gas, and got to see a dinosaur! Fun fact: Pixar movies “Dinoco” (found in several films) is based on the Sinclair dinosaur logo. Plus my youngest grandson LOVES dinosaurs, so I had to take a picture.

The weather stayed in the 50s and 60s for the drive; we arrived in Boise at about 10:30 pm. Along the way, we saw a lot of endless plains and several replacement windmill turbine blades. I had NO IDEA HOW HUGE they were!

While in Boise we revisited the Basque District and had afternoon tea at a winery. We got to take the middle grandson to his diving classes and had some relaxing time before the next leg of our trip. Kobe chilled too, enjoying the fact he wasn’t in the car.

The drive from Boise, ID to Mesa is a lot of nothing punctuated by more nothing and miles and miles and miles of, you guessed it, nothing. Okay, there was blue sky, rising temperatures, a lizard, a Pony Express Rest Stop, dinner at a jailhouse, and the greenery changing from scrub brush to cacti until we pulled in to Mesa, AZ about 7:30 pm Friday night. Unloaded the truck on Saturday and returned it to Phoenix, then got down to unpacking.

Poor Kobe is tired of car rides. He never really settled down even with A/C and frequent stops. After all that mileage and hotels, he’s done traveling for a long while.

Total mileage Edmonds to Phoenix, via Boise, ID and Ely, NV 1523
Total spent on Gas (U-Haul)         $677              (Traverse)     $372
Car Transport Service (Edmonds, WA to Gilbert, AZ)                       $945
U-Haul Rental including extra days, hand truck & blankets            $2,029
Hotels including pet fees  $1,627

Redmond Hotel Avg/night $205 – Extended Stay America
Mesa Hotel Avg/night $97
Used my points for the stay in Ely and paid $64 for the night
Most expensive gas – Wikieup, AZ $6.099/gallon Chevron
Least expensive gas – Boise, ID $3.799 Costco