Healing on Route 66

It had been a very long September, and we finally found ourselves heading east and back to Chicago in early October. The one week trip to California for my wifes mothers funeral had turned into three, and left us drained both physically and mentally. So with no rush to return home and needing time to switch gears in between, we decided to try to follow Route 66 home where we could.

The second day out we left Needles, CA and made our way into Arizona. We slowly lost the morning clouds and fall haze, as the sky opened up and gave us beautiful light blue skies with little puffy white clouds. In a way such skies seem to be natures definition of the happiness one gets when hitting the open road. Even though our hearts where still pretty heavy from what we had gone through in California, and what we were heading back to in Illinois, we felt as if we had some time to smile, laugh, and just enjoy being on the journey itself and being together as a family.

When we got close to Winslow, AZ it was clear that we needed to stop somewhere for lunch and it was at that point I made the suggestion we stop off at the La Posada Hotel's, Turquoise Room. Even though we had stayed at the La Posada before, we had yet to eat at the Turquoise Room and not having done so had always haunted my wife and I. We pulled off I-40 and stopped to fill our tank up at a local gas station, and as I climbed out of the car my legs felt as they usually do after hours behind the wheel, stiff, shaky and needing a good stretch, and that meant it was definitely a good time for lunch. So with my duty to my Jeep fulfilled it was time for my family and I to do our duty to ourselves and get a bite to eat, so off to the La Posada and the Turquoise Room we went. At that point it had been over five years since we had been to the La Posada last, and we were stunned by the changes we saw. True to their word the hotels owners had restored Mary Jane Colters crown jewel to its Harvey House days glory, and even improved upon it. The dirt parking lot was now paved in the section closest to eastbound Route 66, while the section closest to the hotel itself was now the home to one of the most beautiful examples of a Southwestern garden we had ever seen.

In many ways the restorations and improvements seemed to fulfill Colters original vision of the hotel, and the fictionalized history she assigned to it, to assist her in its architecture and design. In Arnold Berke's Mary Colter: Architect of the Southwest the author gets in depth with Colters original concept of the hotel, and its fictional mythos. For her backstory for the La Posada, Colter envisioned the hotel as a sprawling hacienda estate started by 17th century Spanish settlers, who in future generations would rise to prominence by raising cattle on the Northern Arizona plains. Each generation and century would add to the grand hacienda, turning it from a simple ranch home into and impressive mansion estate fit for the families lavish lifestyle, and many visitors. This fictional backstory gave Colter the guidance she needed in planning everything from the general layout of the hotel, to the fine details within it's decor, furnishings, landscaping, and even down to the Turquoise Rooms china patterns.

As we got into the Turquoise Room, it all came back to us from our prior visit how grand this grand dinning room really was. The Spanish Revival decor, rich with its Talavera, tapestries, bright colors, and red Spanish tile truly evoked the Southwestern spirit of design, that gives one a sense of grandeur, and openness. In many ways it also evoked feelings of warmth and welcoming, that made it clear the Turquoise Room would be more like an experience than just a meal. Despite hosting a larger event the staff still welcomed us in, sitting us in back near a window overlooking the active BNSF tracks, and panoramic plains beyond. Sitting there at that particular moment and time we got the feeling of being where we were suppose to be, and a sense of being home while away came over us.

It wasn't to much longer before we had food in front of us, starting with the Turquoise Rooms unforgettable corn bread. My wife dug into the scrumptious agave, honey, and butter topped corn bread and began to tear up a little. Not only was it a wonderful tasty delight, but it had reminded her of something her mother would have loved, and something of she had shared with her once before. As lunch carried on my wife's sadness began to fade and a smile came over her face, as she realized the meal reminded her of so many good times the two of them had together. In a way it was far more than just corn bread, ice tea, braised beef, and a Ceasar salad, but a healing experience. The warm sunshine, good food, the Turquoise Room, and the La Posada itself helped to remind my wife that even in mourning, the right circumstances, and environments could heal.

With our bellies full, we bid the Turquoise Room farewell and walked around the La Posada for a bit. The mixture of southwestern decor and creative fine art details helped to temporarily remove us from everything, and we lost ourselves for a bit. Mentally we all became a little more relaxed, and accepting of our situation, yet also optimistic. Now, I'm not going to claim the La Posada is a place for healing or closure, but for us on that trip two days out from a dark event in our lives the La Posada, and Turquoise Room helped bring us closer to healing.

As we set out on the road again we continued to travel Router 66 where we could. As we visited some of our old haunts along the way we continued to come together as a family remembering better times when we traveled the route together, and healing through that. The day after the La Posada and Turquoise Room, we would reach Amarillo, TX  by mid to late-afternoon. For my wife, one site she always loved along Route 66 was Cadillac Ranch, a place she had photographed extensively on our first trip and a place she could recollect her mother always wanted to visit upon seeing those photos. Wishing to leave her mark in memory of her mother my wife decided that she too would like to add some graffiti of her own to the site.  So we dropped into a Home Depot a few miles up the road to buy bright red spray paint, something the staff there seemed accustomed to seeing by the smile on their faces when we told them. We must have spent a good hour and a half walking around the six derelict and half buried road yachts as my wife photographed them again, and left graffiti in memorial to her mother on a few of them. Again the healing process kicked in and although my wife did cry a little while there and after, the ability to bring some part of her mother to Cadillac Ranch did seem to help.

The day after that we would see the Blue Whale of Catoosa, a place my son had always loved along the route. After fighting traffic through Oklahoma City, and Tulsa we hit the giant blue whale and former waterpark around late morning/earlier afternoon, or to put it another way in time for an impromptu picnic which had to take place in the car do to early fall winds. For some strange reason every time we visit the iconic Route 66 landmark we tend to be there by ourselves, or maybe briefly with one other group of people. After geocaching the site, we took our pictures of ourselves in the whale recreating our stances and poses from previous visits and than took a few moments to sit and talk at the whale themed tables placed around the site. It's a quiet spot actually despite the noise from the road, a former stretch of Route 66 and now busy county road, nearby. The sun, fresh air and sound of wind blowing through the trees was a much needed respite and gave us the energy to push forward on our attempt to make it home that day, but also made us smile and laugh a bit as we revisited old memories from previous visits there. Again a healing moment bought on by the uniqueness of a site on Route 66.

The reminder of our trip would be uneventful at best, and hours after leaving the Blue Whale of Catoosa we would make it home in the early AM hours. Being home again would be surreal for the first few days, especially as we made very little contact with anybody, and mainly rested up from the long trip, and before catching up with the real world. As the next few months would roll out things would be hard for us in many different ways, but the healing and memories we had on our trip back would often carry us through.



 
     

Experiencing the Dining Car as It Use To Be

Train travel in the United States today is a far cry from what it once was. Only the long distance passenger trains have dining cars, and although the food is good and passengers are presented with a menu to choose from breakfast, lunch, and dinner much of the food comes semi-prepared. Dining on Amtrak is still a treat, and well worth experiencing both for its coolness factor and historical connection. Dining by rail though was once something completely different from what it is now. 

Back before the disintegration of the great passenger trains, dining by rail was something that helped distinguish one railway from another. Some railways even became famous for particular items on their dining car menus. Food on the dining car wasn't just sustenance to eat while the train sped along for many miles but instead it had become a gourmet dining experience that was on par with some of the larger cities finest gourmet eating establishments.

It wasn't always this way though dining cars really didn't come into fully functional service until around the time of World War I. Before then various food service  cars had been experimented with, railways tried everything from lunch cars to buffet cars to café cars, all of which came with varying results. Most of these experiments started back around the time of the transcontinental railway and lasted all the way through the late 19th century into the very early 20th century. For the most part though if passengers wanted to eat along the way in this time period it required passengers to deboard trains at towns where the locomotive was forced to stop to take on coal and water. One can only imagine the inconvenience of having to do such a thing especially with having to worry about weather or the possibility of missing ones train and/or meal. 

It was during this same period time that the Santa Fe Railway entered into an agreement with the Fred Harvey Company. The Fred Harvey Company would provide eating establishments at larger whistle stops for the Santa Fe and the Santa Fe would agree to extend the time it took take on coal and water for their trains so that customers could have a leisurely meal at one of Harvey's restaurants. These restaurants became known as Harvey Houses, and I will take a deeper look at some Harvey Houses in postings to come. But Harvey Houses did something else they gave passengers a quality meal that was stress-free since Harvey Houses were located close to the Santa Fe tracks, the food was prepared in conjunction with trains that where stopped over, and managers would often wonder the Harvey House dining rooms notifying passengers of departing trains.

As a decades wore on locomotive's became more technically advanced which required them to stop less for coal and water. Eventually locomotives only had to make longer stops at larger cities meaning many of the whistle stops where they had previously allowed passengers to the leave the train in order get a meal where now totally bypassed as the train passed through them at high speed. For the railways it was time to finally have onboard dining facilities. By the 1910's advancements in onboard cooking, and refrigeration finally gave the railways the chance to produce effective dining cars. By the 1930s dining cars were at their peak, and so to was each railways need to brag that it had the best food. To say the least the battle between the railways for the best dining car would carry-on for 30 more years finally culminating in the 1960s with the Santa Fe Super Chiefs Turquoise Room, a special five-star dining room located in the Super Chiefs dining car and known for attracting the glitz and glamour of movie stars and other famous people of the era. 

By the 1970s the railways, specifically the passenger lines would go into to decline and many of them would disappear from memory. However memories of the wonderful food on their dining cars still remain and some have dedicated themselves to maintaining the memory of this food.

The books above James D Porterfield's Dining By Rail, and George H Foster and Peter C Weiglen's The Harvey House Cookbook are two great books commemorating the railway dining experience.

Dining By Rail functions as both a great history book and cookbook. Porterfield gets in-depth with the evolution of dining cars on various railways and then also manages to get in depth with how the various railways came about designing some other most famous menu options. Porterfield carefully brings together some brief histories and recipes from over 40 different railways. One of my favorite parts of this book is when Porterfield mentions the great French Toast Battle in which the Northern Pacific, Soo Line, Union Pacific, Santa Fe, and Pennsylvania railways try to compete for the best French Toast recipe, and you can find the French Toast recipe for each of these railways right here in this book.  There are hundreds of other excellent recipes from the railway dining cars listed in this book as well as a lot of great insight into life in the dining car. It's well worth the read in these recipes are definitely worth trying at home if you want to get a taste of how high-quality the food was I many of these dining cars.

The Harvey House Cookbook is another fantastic book to add to the overall experience of dining by rail. The book is dedicated to Harvey Houses, but is intermixed with recipes from various Santa Fe passenger trains. This is another fantastic book for gaining both historical insight into the operations of Harvey Houses and Santa Fe passenger trains and for just getting overall taste of what it must been like to actually have eaten at these places during their heyday. The book covers some of Fred Harvey's most notable resorts like the La Posada in Winslow, AZ, and the La Fonda in Santa Fe, NM, as well as some of it's other operations like Los Angeles, and Chicago Union Stations, and Chicago's Midway Airport. This book has a fantastic layout in which the historical text is in between the recipe sections which are themselves laid out by meal segments. All though this book isn't as in depth with Harvey House history as some other books it is a fantastic and should I say hands on or taste buds on introduction to Harvey House's which is extremely unique for any book on this subject. The book also allows us to see how dining cars where developed by giving us a peek into the period in which rail travel dining transferred from Harvey Houses to actual dining cars since some recipes in this book come from the California Limited, Santa Fe's precursor to the Chief and Super Chief, and the first of their trains to present onboard dining in a first class manor.

I must own 2 dozen books on the Santa Fe, but of all of them these two are the only ones that give me a real feel for what it must have been like to have been there, and put this piece of history in such human terms through a connection to food.

A Year in Review

Believe it or not I started this blog nearly three years ago in 2011. I was only able to write four posts that first year, and could just never find the time to sit down and get more post out even though I was unemployed at the time. What's ironic about this is that since June of this year I have written nearly 63 posts, and on top of that I have a very demanding full time job. But, I digress I know I should be talking about this year.

What I have enjoyed the most about writing this blog, is watching the way it has evolved this year, and also the way in which my own thought processes have evolved too, as I learn more about Route 66 and its history. It has always been my goal to see Route 66 in a different light then what is traditionally been put out there, and that for me has been something I have been able to see and do with far greater clarity then ever before this year.

One thing I've come to realize this year is that perhaps my point of view's and need to connect events historically are a bit swayed by my identity as a Chicagian. I don't mean to say that I scoff at the myriad of small towns on Route 66 regarding them as podunks filled with hicks, but rather I see it as part of the many rail, highway, water, and air routes that sprung forth from the crossroads that make Chicago what it is. In a way the Sears (Willis) Tower seems to stand as a symbol of Chicago the symbol of the western most of the great eastern cities, a bastion district set out on the prairie representing the old and new United States. But what I find interesting is the location of the Willis sits between Adams and Jackson, west and eastbound 66 respectively. In a way the westward looking face of the Willis looks almost like a person, it's shoulders erect, it's left arm resting, and high up accentuated by "The Ledge" one can't help but detect and almost stoic looking face that gazes westward as the tower and city itself look out if the lands it's railroads, roads, and catalog houses created in 19th and 20th century's. Most importantly it's looking west down Route 66. 

I've also come to realize this year that there are places that just get burned into your memory on Route 66. For me Winslow, AZ and its La Posade Hotel and Turquoise Room drift into my memories a lot. As does the Mesalands Dinosuar Museum and Wigwan Curios in Tucumcari, NM. I also think a lot about the friendly folks out in Needles, CA. But there are a lot of great places out there and by no means am I intentionally leaving those folks out. 

This year has also made me realize that if Route 66 is to survive, a new generation must take the wheel even if the previous one isn't willing to give it up. Don't get me wrong the previous generation of baby-boomers who traveled the Route as kids and as young adults have left us a legacy, and have been careful to document the Route as they remember it. Times are changing though, and years are passing and the Gen Xer's and older Gen Y's are ready to take on that legacy. Perhaps we don't remember it as it was, perhaps our first trip out west was on an inter-state, and perhaps we never saw Bob's dinner on Route 66 in Hometown USA when it was open, but none the less history cannot stay alive unless the culture that bares it, keeps it alive and hands it on to the next generation. Yes, some of the sentimentality will be lost, but for the most part it will be the unimportant parts that really serve no one but those exact few remembering. 

For Route 66 to stay alive as the older generation wishes they need to realize the uniquely American nature of Route 66. That Route 66 is America, it's our point if view, our culture, and our society on a 2500 mile stretch of highway. When visitors from foreign countries come to visit Route 66 they come to visit it becuase of how American it is, not becuase if it's international appeal. International visitors are welcome to visit as much as they like, but if the routes appeal and history is to survive then its time for the next generation of Americans to take over and keep it that way. 

Last but not least, and not to blow my own horn, I've realized how important a blog like this is. Having been exploring and researching Route 66 for years, I know how much information is it there. I also no how much of it is junk, and how very little help there is out there for someone looking to travel Route 66 as a family. 

So I would like to thank all of you who follow me directly or on Google Plus, and for reading my articles when you can. For now I wish you a Happy New Year, and I look forward to writing more in 2014.

Christmas Life Along the Route

It was early December of 2004 and I had just gotten my son to bed. I decided to sit down at my desk and read the December issue of Arizona Highways. I had a few hours to kill till my wife got home from class, so I was able to get lost in that issue. It wasn't the usual Arizona Highways fair of stunning photos and little story's and history's from Arizona's many wonders but a collection of Christmas memory's about life in Arizona. Their where wonderful stories from all over the state, from Bisbee, Tucson, Yuma, and of course stories from along Route 66. 

There was a story from about life before Christmas vacation at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, another story about a Navajo women making her way from Gallup to fight deep snow on the Navajo reservation to be with her family over the holiday break, and another about a women remembering a bitter-sweet bus trip from Kingman during World War 2. It was a fantastic read that put me in a Christmas state of mind, and really made me think about life elsewhere over Christmas. 

Chicago sky scrapers adorned with red and green lights for the holiday. 

At the same time though I have to believe that there are folks dreaming about life on my end of the route too. Dreaming about the glitz and glamour of Chicago during Christmas. Suddenly understanding the full meaning of the lyrics to Silver Bells. Growing up in someplace like Elk City, Oklahoma, or Needles, California the lights of State Street, the rush of the shoppers, and the dressed up windows of Marshell Fields (yes I know its Macys), and other stores would seem almost intoxicating and fill one with Christmas joy especially when you never even imagined anything like it before. 

You see as I always say that's the thing about Route 66, there is so much territory and so many different ways of life, yet one road links everyone. For Christmas unlike Thanksgiving though each region, and it's cultures and beliefs have their own traditions and takes, on the holiday. 

Throughout the Southwest for instance the the festival of the La Posada takes place, a nine day festival celebrating the coming of Christmas, and culminating on Christmas Eve with the La Posada reinactment in which a young couple wonders from house to house looking for shelter the same way Mary and Joseph did before Christ birth. This is followed by midnight Mass and then Tamales and Posola into the wee small hours of Christmas. 

In the Midwest on the other hand we jump into Christmas on Black Friday. From there on in the small towns along the route have weekends filled with parades, craft shows, Christmas pageants, breakfasts with Santa, and cookie exchanges. In suburbia houses are decorated to the hilt with lights to help break the darkness of Decembers long cold nights. Midwesterners also turn the oven up to give the house a little extra heat, and to bake batch after batch of cookies shaped like Christmas icons. While midnight masses here are only followed by coffee or hot chocolate and folks get it bed right after so Santa can deliver his goods in the wee small hours. 

Town squares across country combine small town life and down home Christmas spirit. 

In the miles of desert that Route 66 covers through California,  Christmas is often marked by folks making special trips to towns far away to do the Christmas shopping since there own towns are too small for much of anything. This gives shopping day a special feel of  excitement as one must manage to hide gifts, while trying to peak at what was just bought for them all when traveling in the same vehicle. But although snow is an uncommon visitor to these areas the nights do get cold, and the winds get bad. While on the coast Christmas and beach life mingle to create the odd images of Santa on a surf board. Considering that many of the areas in California along 66 have been settled by Midwestern transplants it's not uncommon to see the same traditions of baking and Christmas light insanity pop up in the usually snowless warmer terrain. 

The terrain, the cultures, the history, and the miles all play a role in how Christmas is celebrated on Route 66. There are many traditions and many other celebrations I missed here. But I have no doubt one could fill a book with such Christmas time legacys, by just traveling from town to town. 

So no matter where you are take a few minutes to lose yourself along Route 66, and imagine how Christmas in celebrated from Chicago to LA, and all points in between. 

I hope you have a Merry Christmas, and in case I don't get another article out between one and then I wish you a Happy New Year too! 

Great Stays: #2 La Posada - Winslow, AZ

If you follow this blog you know I talk about Winslow, AZ a lot. I'm not from there, and I don't even know anybody from there either. But, Winslow makes an impression on you especially as a Route 66 traveler. There is a lot going on

in this little town that not only touches on Route 66 but a lot of other areas in history. See my previous article "Winslow, Arizona - Transportation Hub of the Western U.S." about some of that history. 

The La Posada Hotel is a former Harvey House in Winslow that has had several different lives in the past. It's current life is as a resort and luxury hotel, that also functions as a meeting place for many Winslow events. But the hotel was originally built as a Harvey House under the design and direction of famed architect Mary Colter.

Mary Colter was a legend in Southwestern architecture, and a favorite architect of the Fred Harvey Company. Colter was in tune with the Southwestern  landscape and culture and was able to design hotels that captured that spirit. Stucco, bare timbers, Navajo rugs, as well as Hopi and Mexican decor all tastefully placed where the signatures of her hotels. The La Posada was a true showpiece of her telents when it was competed in 1929. 

The La Posada was open as a hotel and dining room to accommodate cross country Santa Fe Railway travelers. These travelers would either stay for meal service while the train underwent watering and/or refueling, or would choose to stay at the La Posada as a resort with The Painted Desert, Petrified Forrest, and Navajo and Hopi lands nearby. 

The La Posada would remain a jewel in the crown of the Fred Harvey Company, and Santa Fe's crown. The Hotel would attract a wide range of travelers including a huge list of celebrity's, many of which also have rooms named after them in the hotel, some of the rooms are those they actually stayed in.

The hotel would see hard times as the Stock Market Crash of 1929, and Great Depression would start after its opening. The Hotel would stay open until 1957, when it was fully purchased by Santa Fe to become the headquarters of there sub district. Santa Fe needing the space for offices would sell most of the La Posada's art and furniture, keeping only a few of the old hotel rooms in place to serve as VIP quarters, and a dormitory for on call train crew. With its merger with Burlington Northern imminent Santa Fe would move their HQ elsewhere in Winslow in 1994. The building would sit vacant until 1997 when its was finally taken over by its new owners and sent on the path to restoration. 

Today the La Posada is fully restored and worth a visit, and if you can a stay. The dinning room called the "Turquoise Room" serves phonominal food, and is named after the top notch dining service that Santa Fe use to offer in special dining cars. With a gourmet menu that serves a lot of unique options, that are based on gourmet Southwestern, original faire served by the Harvey House, and other original options. All served with fresh ingredients from many local growers. 

The hotel itself is fully restored with beautiful grounds, lobby, artistically decorated corridors, and meeting rooms in essence the hotel is a beautiful Southwestern resort, as Mary Colter originally designed it. The hotel rooms are beautifully decorated, and immerse you in both the Southwest, and the mind of Mary Colter. The La Posada prides itself on the fact that no two rooms are alike. 

The rooms are as romantic as they are breathtaking, and come in standard, deluxe, whirlpool, and balcony room. You can look the photos up online at La Posada's website. Like most really great stays, accommodations will cost you a little more then usual ranging from $119 to $169 a night depending on the type of room.

http://laposada.org/hotel_rooms.html

For families there are rooms with two beds available, and Winslow is a family friendly town. A stay here would be great for kids, especially those who like trains since many BNSF trains travel through here. The Painted Desert and Petrified Forrest National Parks are also nearby, as is the very cool Old Trails Museum. 

Overall the La Posada is a great stay and worth a visit to. If you can't stay the night try to stop by the Turquoise Room for a meal and to stroll around the hotel and its  grounds.  

Winslow, Arizona - Transportation Hub of the Western U.S.?

When you hear Winslow, Arizona it is very hard to not hear the song "Take it Easy" by the Eagles running through your head. If your anything like me you imagine them referring to some tiny desert town, with a few houses and stores, and tumbleweed blowing down the street. When you actually see Winslow though you find it's a lot different then you had expected. 

Winslow has the honor of not only being a Route 66 town, but also the district headquarters of the Santa Fe, now BNSF. This meant that Winslow was not only visited by Route 66 travelers, but had such iconic Santa Fe trains as The Super Chief, and El Capitan pass through daily. One could only imagine that in the 1940's through early 60's between Route 66 and the daily precession of Santa Fe passenger trains, Winslow was a busseling travel mecca. 

But did you know Winslow also has passenger aviation history as well? This fact was bought to public intetest thanks to a traveling exhibit that the Smithsonian, in conjunction with the Winslow Old Trails Museum, and La Posada Hotel, bought to Winslow last week as part of its "Journey Stories" tour. One of the exhibits and lectures made the world  aware of this forgotten part of Winslow's and avaitions history. The TAT or Transcontinental Air Transport airline came to being in 1928, flying its first flights in 1929 offering a hybrid of air and rail transport to deliver passengers from New York to LA or San Francisco in 48 hours. 

Winslow was a fueling stop on the second air leg of the westbound trip. But by no means was Winslow nothing more then a runway and a fuel tank. The airport itself was state of the art at the time designed by Charles Lindbergh, giving the airport part of its name Winslow-Lindbergh. 

Sadly, the TAT was short lived and after an accident a few months after the first flights TAT was forced to emerge with other airlines that would eventually became TWA. By the mid-1930's non-stop passenger travel also became more prevalent, especially with the development of the sturdy DC-3 by Douglas in the late 1930's. This meant that Winslow not being a major city was bypassed by most major airlines, however the airport lived on serving the military in World War 2 as a USAAF Transport base. The airport still serves general aviation, US Forest Service fire planes, and occasionally some military. 

It's interesting to note that between Route 66, Santa Fe's operations, and the potential of the TAT Winslow was in fact a Western travel hub in 1929. I would have to suggest definitely spending time in Winslow if you can, make sure to stop by and see the Old Trails Museum, and the La Posada which is worth staying and/or eating at. I would have to suggest seeing both since you can learn all about Winslows place in transportation history from both places,since they work hand and hand with each other to present a complete picture. If you in to train watching or your kids are, Winslow has a lot to offer as well. 

 TAT Ford Tri-motor flown by Charles Lindbergh. 

I'll cover the TAT more in future blog postings

Travelers Retrospective #6: Final Take

You know today July 4th reminds me of that first trip down 66. Part of the reason we took a week, 7 days and not longer was that we had to be elsewhere by July 4th. My wife who I previously mentioned is a Californian, wanted to visit one set of grandparents and then spend the 4th with the other. 

Let me tell you there is nothing more American the spending July 4th in a town called Independence, in the shadow of Mount Whitney. 

But that brings me to my reason for this post. I got a recent e-mail (Route66forFamily@gmail.com FYI) from someone reading this series who asked if I skipped Oatman, AZ for any particular reason. Basically my answer was time. Time on the way out to California, but on the way back we cuaght what we missed which is why I'm writing this final entry in the series.

We finally got out of California on July 11, 2005. My wife wanted to do some of the driving back so we stayed on I-40 till Needles and then got back on to 66 to hit what we missed on the way to. I remember hitting a town called Golden Shores for gas, and with how low we where at that point the heavenly reference made by the towns name seemed fitting. After that it was on to Oatman, and Kingman. The ride into Oatman East or Westbound is filled with curves and hills and just about require Dramamine. Having grown up in the deserts and mountains of California my wife handled the road to Outman beautifully, and despite having never driven the road before it almost seemed as if she had ESP driving it with. Her past experiences gave her the ability to anticipate every curve and hill in the road and the ability to understand when to speed up and slow down at particular times.

To be honest Oatman looks about the same in person as it does in the pictures that you will see of it. The day we visited though the town had a great deal of traffic and cars parked everywhere do to some sort of special event. So we didn't get to stay long and also didn't get a chance to see the famous Oatman Hotel. Oatman was cool and I would like to visit it again and perhaps spend a little more time.

The road out of Oatman is as winding twisting  and hilly as the road into Oatman. As you climb one of the final hills leaving Oatman you will find an overlook looking out at Oatman in the valley below. But as you look towards one of the curves below you you'll see something very frightening that is the remains of a school bus and VW bug that at one point in this routes history had gone off that curve and down the cliff below. We tried the best we could to get photos of the vehicles. To say the least this site is frightening yet at the same time kind of cool.

Eventually the road begins straighten out as you come back down into the next valley as you find yourself approaching Kingman,  Arizona. Kingman is connected to 66 through the famous song. But to be honest there really isn't all that much of Kingman so we found ourselves passing through Kingman rather quickly. Then we returned back to I 40 and later that day finally ended up in Winslow for stay at the La Posada. 

The next day July 12 we would stop by the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest for a visit since we had also missed these two sites on the trip to California it doesn't take very long to actually run through both of these national parks. I would definitely have to say that you would want to check both these parks out if you're passing through the area I only wish that we had more time to spend in the two parks which are basically connected to each other.

After that we where back onto I-40 and I-44 a few more days until we got into Eastern Oklahoma. On July 15 we left Claremore, Oklahoma and proceeded to follow Route 66 through that area of Oklahoma through Kansas and to Joplin Missouri and back to I-44. To be honest there's really not much I'll see in these three areas in route to Joplin from Claremore is mainly through small towns and agricultural areas. Although it is part Route 66 and Route 66 experience if you should happen to miss these areas you really won't be missing much. 

After that there really wasn't anything else that we missed. We decided however to stop in Springfield Illinois to see some of the sites. There is quite a bit of history in Springfield, Illinois both national or state. If you can you might want to work out a day in Springfield Illinois on your route 66 trip. There is both Abraham Lincoln history to be found in Springfield, Illinois. 

Overall if you put all the things we had missed together into one day it probably would've taken us the extent of the whole day or less to cover what we missed on the way too. 

If your trip gives you the ability to return the same way that you had came then you may want to consider breaking route 66 up into different sections and stopping to see some of the major sites on the way to California and the more minor sites on the way back from California. But of course that's all up to you based on the time you have and what your starting point would be.

Remember if you have any questions about planning your trip please email me and let me know also don't hesitate to post something on my blogs for an area.

Travelers Retrospective #4: June 27, 2013 Part 1

We left Holbrook that morning in a mad scramble. For a small town it has a busy rush hour on Monday mornings. It didn't take to long to get on to I-40 and we where on our way. Our first exit was exploring the route at Joseph City, and slowly making our way to the Jackrabbit trading post. "Here it Is" remarks the huge yellow sign with the Jackrabbit on it. If it looks sort of familiar it's because it was the basis for Lizzys Curio Shop in the movie Cars. Coincidentally, this is where we saw or first movie poster for Cars, keep in mind it was 2005 and the movie wasn't due out for another year. As far as I know the poster is still there as are the autographs of John Lassiter, and a few other celebrity's. 

Next up was Winslow, AZ. Feel free to sing the Eagles song Take it Easy since there is a street corner downtown dedicated to it. Winslow has a great visitors center to see, with helpful docents and cool stores nearby. We also saw the La Posada, an old Harvey House restored and making a life of its own. It's probably one of the most beautiful hotels we have ever seen.  

Immediately following Winslow we hit three more Arizona Route 66 attractions. The first attraction that we saw was Meteor City and of course it would be Meteor Crater. Meteor Crater is awesome and has a great visitors center dedicated to space exploration and meteors. Our son and kids in general love it rocks, and astronauts, what can I say.  

Next up are the Route 66 relics of Two Guns and Twin Arrows. Two Guns is now  in ruins (dangerous to explore), but back on the day was an tourist trap based on Old West lore. It had fake shoot outs, pony rides, rattle snake pits, and all the trappings of the late 40's through early 60's Western craze. 

Twin Arrows is a little further up. At that time we could see the two huge arrows sticking out of the ground on and angle,  but in following trips it was one and the remains of another sticking out of the ground. This is a really iconic place on

66 but has had a tragic recent past and fallen on hard times, and sadly is deteriorating quickly. I have heard that there is a restoration effort underway but I haven't seen much on it. 

After getting some photos there it was in to Flagstaff.

Continued in part 2