510 Route 66

2011-10-12T08:22:00.000-07:00

Day 4 Holbrook, AZ to Santa Fe NM
Friday September 23, 2011
I was asked where were you on day 4? Apparently this day got deleted, so I am reposting it.

Watch out the dinsauros are watching you. They are used at a lot of the gift shops along the route in the Holbrook area as advertizing. The Pertrafied Forest is also near Holbrook. There is a lot of rock trees laying around on the ground.

Also outside of Holbrook AZ is the Painted Desert. We didn't stop because we had been there in the past. But if you have the time and get to you should. The canyons (not like the Grand Canyon) are hues of reds and creams quite impressive.

This horse had some buddies and they were in the middle of the road just moseing along when we thought we were going to hit them, but they moved.

The cliffs were pretty cool but with the sun in a bad spot you can't see the color as well as if you were there.

Geodesic dome-native American gift shop at one time.

Yes those are tee-pees on top- another advertizing gimic for a gift shop.

A friend we found while stopping to take the next picture.

Apparently quite a few people like to drive this road on their morotcycles. We saw several groups. I have too much stuff to take with me to do that. Just ask David.

Giant! Native American Chief. Gallup NM

Giant pot to go with the chief. There were several of these in the city.

One of the famous hotels.

Rocks and trains.

Prewitt NM the name says it all.

This is typical look of the old part of the towns that we drove through in NM.

The road NM

David liked this section of road lots of curves and up and downs. Dead mans curve is ahead- a hair pin turn, around the point of the cliff. Its a good thing there was a car in front of us because he would have been driving this a lot faster than I would have liked!

Casino outside of Albuquerque NM

1933 Rio Puerco Bridge now only a walking bridge but once carried many a car.

Albuquerque NM

Crossing the Rio Grande River

Downtown Albuquerque

An old thearter

We followed the pre 1937 route of 66 which goes thorugh Sante Fe NM. The road followed along the Rio Grande River into Snata Fe. On the way we found a monument to the Mormon Battalion. David had two great great uncles who were in that march. This battalion walked 2,000 miles from Council Bluffs Iowa to San Diego California. The government hired them to help fight in the war with Mexico but they never found anyone to battle.

Santa Fe NM

Yes these are drawer knobs. His bumper sticker says 'ART has no bounderies'

Old Town Santa Fe there must have been and event going on because the traffic was awful. The plaza, a city block park in the center of old town was packed full of people (no picture too many cars no clear shot).

Santa Fe braggs that they have the oldest church, bell and house. The church. We couldn't find a place to park so we went looking for a motel to spend the night:)

2011-09-30T21:19:00.000-07:00

Day 10 Thursday September 29, 2011
Carlinville, Ill to Chicago, Ill
This day turned out to be a lot longer than planned so I am posting it a day late.

Out of all the miles of concrete poured it is amazing that these are the only animal tracks.

This section of 66 was brick. It is 1.4 miles long.

Lauderbach Giant at Lauderbach's tire and auto service.

Cozy Dogs (the original corn dog) at 10am yummy.

Route 66 goes by the capitol of Ill

Famous old gas station with lots of old stuff

Giant Abe Lincoln

Route 66 runs through farm country so there are a lot of silos to see

They are trying to restore this famous old restruant.

The country side

Atlanta, Ill has a lot of murals we liked this one

They also have a smiley face water tower

Bunyon gaint and his hot dog.

At one time this was a very busy truck stop, not so much now

but they still serve lunch.

I wanted to get some sirup (yes they spell it this way on purpose) but it was sold out

The leaves are turning, fall is coming.

We are in farm country can you tell?

A fixed up Standard Oil station

I don't think thesse will give you gas anymore.

David and the Blues Brothers dancing at the Poke a Dot drive in

Gemini Giant at

the Launching Pad - fast food place.

The Joliet Museum

This is an operating tow service.

There it is Chicago

One block in the city has homes that look like the street on the Cosby Show.

The River

Downtown

We made it!!!!!!!!

This is the begining sign around the block

Lake Michigan

A storm is coming in. The windy city is just that!

Looking at Chicago from the pier

We left the windy city to find a motel as it started to rain.

It was a very fun trip. We met some very nice people and saw a lot of neat things!

The following link will lead you to the info about route 66 and the characters in the movie cars

http://route66news.com/2006/06/09/a-route-66-guide-to-the-cars-movie/

2011-09-28T21:34:00.000-07:00

Day 9 Rolla MO to Carlinville Ill
September 28, 2011

They still fix cars here.

Worlds largest rocking chair

Mural on US 66 Outpost "Dannys gas hole"

Found our new lawn mower for our grandson to mow our lawn

Restored Phillips gas station in Cuba MO the city of murals

The murals are painted on the walls of the towns buildings

The Wagon Wheel Motel is an icon and restored Cuba, MO

We saw a lot of this make of car displayed along the route

Bourbon anyone - says it is in the water tower. Not - there are water towers in every town. They have the towns name on them and this towns name is Bourbon.

This is the scenery on our route and the leaves are turning

We stopped at Meramec Caverns. The original owner promoted the cave along 66 by painting the caves name on sides of barns. The cabin was brought in just for fun.

This is one of the sights we saw. The cave is huge the tour lasted an hour and half.

A restored Mack truck

These odd buildings are what road maintance keeps what they spread on iced roads in winter. You find them through out the mid west.

This 66 bridge that spans the Meramec River has been condemed and is scheduled to be torn down:(

This key shaped neon was on display at the visitor center at the above bridge.

These signs lined route 66 as advertisements for Burma-Shave. There would be like five of them about 500 feet apart with sayings like: Thirty days.... Hath september.... April, June....and the speed offender....Burma-Shave.

Giant Farmer and son

This place is famous for their custard ice cream

Of course we stopped and had some. YUM!

St Louis MO

I thought these brick houses were cute. St Louis MO

Couldn't afford a whole car so he just got a trailer shaped one for the bike -not. It is fun:)

Steam boat on the Mississippi

The St Louis Arch

We went to the top of the inside of the arch what a hoot!

And quite the view

See the dark rectangles those are the windows to look out at the top of the arch.

Fire on a stick-steel mill

All that is left is the marque

It's a restruant

The ever changing country side

The sun is setting

A nice place to stay the night the Carlin Villa in Carlinville, Ill

We couldn't make the distance to Springfield, Ill as planed. We had too much fun and spent too much time at the caverns and the arch.

This is the gazebo in Carlinville's city square. This downtown is like in the movie Pollyanna and Back to the Future. It is late and it has been antoher fun day:)

2011-09-27T23:10:00.000-07:00

Day 8 Miami, OK to Rolla (raw-la), MO
September 27, 2011

We almost needed Mater this morning.

The car wouldn't start. Apparently it does not like cold.

We had to push start it.

The Ku Ku a Hamburger place in Miami, OK

Cool display in Commerce, Ok

We're in Kansas

Orignal 66 loop in Kansas

Rainbow Bridge is the last of three "Marsh Arch" bridges that were in Kansas.

Galena is where the inspirition for

"Tow Mater" came from "Tow Tater"

found at "4 Women on The Route"

Melba is the owner(left white t-shirt) and the Mustangs belong to the these gentlemen from Austrlia touring Route 66

Joplin, MO

Carthage, MO operating drive in theater.

A classic motel "Boots Motel" in Carthage, MO

Route 66 by Spring River

Paris Springs, MO This fun stop is owned by Gary Turner. He wasn't there today but his daughter was.

We would love to own a model A like this.

With the exception of Springfield, MO the road has been open straight twisty and hilly. Some of it original cement with the small curbs and some of it asphalted over. David has loved it- going 65 mph.

Car on a twisty stick-the oval shape the car is on is turning.

A giant Solo cup for the giants we will be seeing.

Claim to be the worlds largest candy factory, We did not stop the sun was headed down and we needed to see Devils Elbow before dark.

Another famous motel in Lebanon, MO

Sitting on the hill watching over I-44 and Route 66

Went over this bridge

looked at the river

at the other side there was this sign. In case you can't read it the water level was up to the red line on the sign. Now that is a lot of water.

What the area looks like when on a high spot of the road

Train bridges over Big Piney River

Devils Elbow - Big Piney River It got its name from the loss of many loggers lives. The loggers would have to walk out onto the jammed up logs and the strong current and logs would be unpredictable when they pushed the logs around to unjam them.

Some locals told us this was a good place to eat-yes a biker bar. BBQ sandwich yummy! The owner signed my picture book too!

Can you imagine blasting this in the 1930s without todays technology?

The sun was setting and we headed into Rolla for the night, Another fun day:)

2011-09-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

Day 7 Oklahoma City OK to Miami OK
September 26, 2011

Mural in Edmund OK

Old school building in Edmund

Twin giant cross to the one in Groom TX but it is a little smaller

Pops is a popular diner and convenience store with over 400 kinds of soft drinks. The giant bottle with straw is a neon lighting up at night.

Arcadia has a 66 attraction 1898 restored Round Barn. It houses a 66 gift shop, closed we were to early and upstairs is rented for events.

David is in front of an old road scraping machine used to build the original road.

Pristine '66

This was a small mile loop of the original road.

Mural in Wellston where we stopped to mail letters at the post office.

We stopped at Bev's 66 convience store and looked across the street and saw this house with church pews all lined up. Odd

A rare Meramec Caverns barn sign.

An old RR underpass. See the old brick building in the distance.

This is a 1930 Phillips 66 sign

Vintage Valentine Diner, needs to be restored.

Stopping by the authors shop because the book says come by and say hi. He wasn't in.

Linclon Motel still open.

I thought these were all over OK but this is the first one I've seen.

This is where the inspiration for Sally in Cars came from.

An oringinal loop of route 66 still exists in Depew.

What the terrain looks like

Sapulpa, OK

Tulsa-Sapulpa Union Railway Co restored this Trolley Car.

Their offices are right there and they opened up the trolley for us to go in.

I'm waving, can you see me.

David pretending to be a passenger on the trolley.

Another old gas station.

One of many concret culvert/bridges.

Tulsa, OK

Standing on the blue whale. Hey look at all the fish.

Three different pony bridges in one picture! I like these bridges. They are kind of cool and look like big erector sets.

The rivers are starting to be bigger. Most of the cities have a river or creek by them.

A sign of Oklahoma pride

The train industry is very busy in this part of the country. They are also very close at the crossings which there are a lot of these too. Oh and the trains are really long kind of fun to see.

An original loop through the town of Foyil. There is also a statue of Andy Payne who won the Bunion Derby.

This home is in Chelsea. It was mail-ordered from the Sears catalog in 1913. I didn't even know Sears ever sold houses.

Pryor bridge carried route 66 traffic 1926-1932. It was bypassed and is now a historical landmark that you can still drive on.

Route 66 is still a major road and maintained through the northern part of OK. 66 is not just for tourist it is used by the people that live here. The highways/interstates are toll roads and I think that if people can get where they need to on free 66 then they would chose that.

So I read in our book that this place is a classic owned by the same family since 1927. I tried to take a picture and the camera battery is dead. Very sad, but David is a genius. He takes us to McDonalds and I plug in the battery into charge it and while it is charging we eat hot fudge sundaes! It worked.

We didn't eat at this McDonalds because we didn't know where this one was yet. This McDonalds is the largest in the world. It straddles I-44 a toll highway between exits 289 and 283, just a mile away from 66.

Afton Station/Route 66 Packards a route 66 attraction. restored to house Laurel & David Kane's collections. We arrived an half hour to late-they were closed. But peeking through the window we saw some neat cars.

Down the road we saw some old cars that were sad and needed some loving care.

Not Miami Florida, Miami (My-AM-uh) Oklahoma where we will spend the night. We ate at the 50's Pizza Hut with all the memorabilia.

Stop signs here are fun and different.

Coleman Theater is a marvelous 1929 Spanish Mission style show piece. Infact almost all the cities have had beautiful old buildings not as ornate as the Coleman but classic from their time period.

Isn't neon fun. My camera actually took the picture tonight. The other night at Big Texan it wouldn't.
Hpoe you enjoyed today!

2011-09-25T20:54:00.000-07:00

Day 6 Amarillo, TX to Oklahoma, TX
Sunday September 25, 2011
Took pictures around the hotel in the am when so many people weren't around.

Do these remind you of a character in a movie? And check out the giant behind them.

Lots of windmills in TX

Bug Ranch

Remind you of the the flies in the movie "Cars"?

Thinking about bugs look at all of them on our car and just on the lower part.

Giant cross in the middle of fields.

Everything is big in Texas including the bales of hay. Pic is a little fuzzy we were going fast.

Look they found a use for the old gas stations. A justice of the peace office in the city of Groom.

High plains of Texas you have to dodge maore than tumble weeds.

Water towers are all over Texas. This one was built leaning on purpose for advertising.

Rest stops are big in Texas too, but we only saw two.

This is the terrain around the interstate, but around 66 it looks

like this.

McLean TX turned out to be fun. It felt like the town in the movie "Cars". The street was brick and

the flashing light.

These are balls of barbed wire. This Route 66 attraction was closed.

Shamrock, TX

Erick, OK the redneck capitol of the world. Harley and Annebell were not to be seen.

This is a very clean dressed up Miata. Saw at Elk City, OK museum parking lot

At mini pony bridge on display at the museum. The museum was closed. Hint don't travel on Sunday, Monday if you want to go into some museums.

a real pony bridge.

oops big rigg going west on I-40 had a problem. We are on original portland cement road. Yes a lot of 66 is now frontage road.

Clinton, OK Museum. This one was open.

All the state road signs.

Just trying a different car. Think we'll keep the one we have.

The road compare to the interstate. 66 follows the ground the curves dipps and bumps while the other leveled wide and flat. Not as relaxing the interstate is a get to place and 66 is a visit along the way.

Heard it was opperational up until 1999.

This bridge is very impressive. 38 ponies and think they were all made in the 1930's.

the dirt is red

This is suppose to be a lake outside of Yukon, OK. There is a drought.

Oklahoma City, OK

Found that Oklahoma doesnn't have much of the old 66 left.

2011-09-25T18:15:00.000-07:00

Day 5 Santa Fe, NM to Amarillo, TX
Saturday September 24, 2011

The gas station we stopped at on our way out of Santa Fe was also a tire place. See all their floor jacks waiting for customers.

Santa Fe is covered in this style of architure. It was like a rule to build all new building in this style because it was everywhere.

Old pre 1937 route 66 came up from Albuquerque following the desert valley between mountains and the route east went down the side of the eastern ridge.

This whole part of Route 66 follows the Santa Fe Trail. Side note Route 66 connected and incorperated many trails along the way.

The Road notice the change in terrain.

Coming into Santa Rosa NM

An old T-Bird at a restruant

An old truck stop in Santa Rosa

Old car on a stick. No advertizing for the local museum.

Wait is that-Mator? no just a look a like.

One of the still operating restruants that we have eaten at

An old building with a with other people that are doing route 66

This was stenciled on the underpass tunnel so you would know you were taking the right tunnel.

The tunnels

It looks like this rather large rock was going to come down at any minute.

Tucumcari NM was a kick!

There were lots of old motel signs

murals

and gas stations

have some mexican food?

Decided time to check the oil. Needs a quart. The car guys came out to see the car of course. They gave us a lot of info like check out all the murals on all the buildings. The one across the street was of eyes of local people.

The eyes have it.

After checking out several murals we headed out of town and found

The Blue Swallow a big name motel on Route 66. Its picture and name is on a lot of 66 info. The sign said inspection invited so we invited ourselves. How fun we met the brand new owner Kevin Mueller. He told us about restoring the motel and where a good place was to eat. After taking pictures of the garages because they were painted pretty cool murals

He told us to try Watson's BBQ its a local favorite. YES it was yummy!

My new look - bought the do rag/skull cap at the Blue Swallow. It really helps keeping my hair from being blown all crazy when the windows are open, and of course they are open because it is hot.

We made it to the half way point!

This place is fun too. The ugly crust pie is great. You have to have it. Of course what I chose was the best. Their signiture pie, it is chocolate chip cookie topped with ice cream whip cream and a cherry. The people here are fantastic. Fran the owner was the inspiration for Flo in the movie cars and Christina and her sister the waitress' were the inspiration for Tia and Mia the Miatas. Oh and it is also a good gift shop.

They have big tow trucks in Texas and isn't it interesting how they park on the freeway to fix things. We are on the frontage road Route 66 next to the interstate.

Cadillac Ranch

You can spray paint

Amarillo, TX

We chose The Big Texan to spend the night at.

It is very western and we got a kick out of it too.

2011-09-24T20:26:00.000-07:00

Day 4 Friday September 23, 2011
Leaving Holbrook heading to Santa Fe, New Mexico passing by the painted desert

We found this mural on the side of a building.

You can see the painted desert from the road. We have visited it in the past, but not enough time on this trip. The canyons and cliffs are gorgeous colors if you ever get to go see it.

The terrain is changing slightly. This section of the trip will have more scenery pictures.

This horse and his friends were checking out the vegetation on our road instead of their fence area. When we first spotted them were in the middle of the road luckly they moved.

We are leaving Arizona and going into New Mexico

New Mexico's Route 66 road marker signs.

Met some friends when I made David stop to take the next picture.

I think they want attention.

Gallup, New Mexico had these giant pots on the corners.

This is the giant indian to go with the pots.

This is the famous El Rancho Hotel in Gallup, NM

Gorgeous scenery plus a train!

One of many old gas stations we have seen just a little short on a supply of gas

The Continental Divide this is where all the water changes from flowing toward the Colorado River/Pacific Ocean to the Rio Grand River/Gulf of Mexico

Most of these cities have extremely wide 4 lane main streets and it does'nt matter how big or small the city is.

Going under the freeway. Think we'll fit?

The curve after this one is called Dead Man's Curve. It makes a sharp blind 270 degree turn around the point of the mountain.

Rio Puerco bridge once very busy with route 66 traffic is now for tourists to walk on.

You can see Albuquerque we are coming down a long steep grade.

The Rio Grande River

Downtown Albuquerque

We have ancestors that marched in the Mormon Battalion so when we saw the sign that there was a monument we stopped to check it out. Oh this part of Route 66 is the old pre-1937 section that goes up from Albuquerque into Santa Fe and down to Santa Rosa. It is the Santa Fe Trail. Route 66 tended to include many old trails.

And there is Santa Fe. This city is a huge tourist place. We got stuck in traffic just like LA's. We couldn't believe how many people there were in the old town and plaza area.

New Mexico's version of Amtrak

Santa Fe's artists have a unique way of expressing themselves. Knobs supplied by Lowes/Home Depot. Yes they are drawer knobs.

This is the church that Santa Fe claims is the oldest church in the United States. Here you can see how narrow the streets of old town are, oh and they are one way too.

Theis is the end of our day:)

2011-09-23T21:13:00.000-07:00

Arizona is really big on Route 66. There is so much to see we took longer to get to our ending point than thought. Leaving Kingman we headed to Hackberry. This is avery fun stop. It is formally artist Bob Waldmire place now owned by the Prichards. It is full of old 66 items. T-shirts and normal gift shop stuff too.

In the ladies room with the ladies.

The Pritchards daily driver.

We went to the Grand Canyon Caverns. We took the tour through the cave. It is a dry cave-no water and not in the grand canyon. It has been designated as a fallout shelter for 2,000 people and has a two week supply of water, MRE's just incase. Their newest gimick is you could stay the night in the cave. They built a platform with tv beds 8 track player etc.

Seligman is a way cool Route 66 town. Gift shops and food with old motels (open ?) Our favorite place is Angel and Velma's place. Angel is the head of the Route 66 movement in AZ he is also a barber and at 90? he still cuts hair. From Seligman we saw Williams. This city is the gateway to the Grand Canyon. It is where the Grand Canyon train starts. It is also a huge Route 66 shopping stop. The whole street is full of shops and restruants and people. We only stopped to eat.

We found a giant Lumber Jack in Flagstaff.

Twin Arrows is just twin arrows now you can't even drive up to them.

Standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona.

Wow glad we weren't around when this happened!

Ye Haw!

Holbrook Arizona

Holbrook Arizona is where we stopped for the night. Wigwam Motel is where we stayed-yes in a

tee- pee. They are quite nice but no wifi. This is when where met up with our computer.

2011-09-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

I've been told too many pics so i will do my best to not post so many. This is very hard because I average about 300 a day! I like to take pictures.
Day two was from Barstow, CA to Kingman, Az. We started very early because of the heat.

Barstow CA

Bagdad Cafe in Newberry Springs. we turned around to take a picture and the guy came out to talk with us. He had a 510 at one time too. He warned us to not go down the next strech because the road would eat our car. Of course we thought we would try anyway. Well that was not a good thought. As soon as we could we got on the freeway.

David checking to make sure the road didn't do any damage. Yes it was that bad!

This is a major stop in the old days. It had 14 tow trucks operating at one time. It is in the middle of nowhere in the desert.

At one time this was a rest stop. Now it has history plaques and you can see what the area looks like.

It is very hot here. This is the last city in CA. There were a lot of old motel signs that I am not posting, but would really like too
.

This bridge behind the guard rail now holds the PGE natural gas pipe line, but originally it was the bridge for route 66.

We are now going into Arizona.

Arizona signs a little different than California signs. The terrain is still desert but now the road heads up into the mountains to

Oatman. This town has wild (?) mules that wander through it. You have to be careful they will head butt you and try to eat what is in your hand if it smells like food even if it isn't. You can see one in the middle of the street. There are also cowboy guns fights twice a day and shops to buy t-shirts and stuff.

The road twists and turns up and down the mountain. I think David really enjoyed driving it. We saw three antelope on the mountain. You can't really see them in the pictures I took because they blend in really well so I didn't post it but thought you would like to know what you missed.

Kingman AZ. This is the visitor center which is also a route 66 attraction.

We chose this motel for the night. It is one of the originals and you could tell, but it was clean.

We ate at Mr. D's not on the Diners and Dives show. The one we were going to try that was on that show is located outside of Victorville CA but it was closed.

2011-09-23T17:45:00.000-07:00

Oh a fun driving day! Up at 5 at McDonalds at 5:30 for wifi to put previously posted pics up.
Things I've learned so far.
Nostigal is good but if you need a motel that has a pool, breakfast or wifi think again. Probably a newer motel is best.
Your children are wonderful when you need them. Thank you to two of our daughters and the express mail for getting us the computer.
Back to the pictures of the trip...

Neon display on Santa Monica Blvd honoring Route 66

We are on the right road! Interesting things we're seeing.

The Tunnels-there are 4- going into Pasadena.

Saw 3 of these neon signs in LA area

The Road

An old seafood food restruant and sign

This is a Dennys

In the center of the wide streets through cities from Pasadena (which the Rose Prade follows route 66) to Rancho Cucamonga had great Route 66 things like the flags honoring our soliders.

David's hand and an icon of times past the Foothill drive in theater

A zebra micro bus

A Route 66 actraction the Magic Lamp Inn. We ate lunch here. A very fancy nice place.

WigWam in Rialto

Would you like to stay here? It is an old classic 66 Motel

Victorville CA

We sstayed in Barstow. It was very hot-like 105, but the car did fine, oh and we did too. A nice dip in the pool was nice. This ends day one.

2011-09-23T06:32:00.000-07:00

Los Angeles traffic that made us 20 minutes late to start point!

Driving onto the Santa Monica Pier.

And we are off! Route 66 here we go.

This is the plaque in the park by the pier that commemorates route 66 alis Will Rodgers Highway.

The Park

Santa Monica Blvd/route 66

An old Motel

The road goes through Beverly Hills

2011-09-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

Ok we made it to Los Angeles and found that we left the computer at home!!!! real bummer. the hotel computer is not good at down loading pics so they will come later.
Los Angeles is insane the traffic horrible. We stayed at a hotel 10 mintues from our starting point, Sears up the street from the Santa Monic Pier and it took us 55 minutes to get there!
We went from over cast beach 50 degrees to hot desert 95 degrees.
We ate at the Addlin a route 66 attraction and a very nice place. We saw tons of stuff. I'll post pics as soon as we get our computer we are haveing it expressed to AZ to meet us. I know crazy but we are!

2011-09-14T08:16:00.000-07:00

We will be starting this adventure on September 20, 2011