Day #10

This was a particularly special day in that we started our day along the longest and most beautiful untouched stretch of Route 66. We started our day with all of us getting up pretty early EXCEPT for Pete! (I was so grateful he slept in a bit). As we were beginning to pack, a mussed-haired little boy sat up, looked outside, looked at us and said “The sun is on!” Is he always going to be this cute?? Anyway, we all went outside to start our day with a small continental breakfast in the little gazebo in the middle of the motel. It is an outside gazebo, and the morning was gorgeous. After packing up, having breakfast, getting ice and gas, we were off.

We initially had to get on I-40, but not for long. At the Crookton Road exit, we began our long journey down Route 66. If you have ever done any research on 66, you would know of a man named Angel Delgadillo. He is credited with being the person who saved 66 from complete demise. You can see him in the Pixar extra “The inspiration behind Cars” as well as any number of DVDs. When someone wants to research 66 or make a movie, they go to Angel. (Pixar credited him as “The Angel of Route 66”). Anyway, our first stop was in his hometown of Seligman at his gift shop/barber shop. He and his father, by trade, were barbers. He still has his chair and cuts only occasionally. He is 83 and mostly retired. Well, we weren’t in the gift shop portion for more than a few minutes when he walked in! We visited with him for a few minutes, shopped for a few minutes, and then he asked if we had seen his chair. We went into his little barber shop and as we were talking about shaving in the old days, I said “Come on Steve, get a shave!” Angel was happy to oblige.

Steve had the nicest shave EVER. The kids were fascinated seeing someone get shaved in a barber’s chair like that (even Pete wondered what that man was doing to Dad!) He told us every stop of the way what he was doing. And, fortunately, the God’s of Video Tape were with us today…Andy got the whole thing on tape!! It was SO much fun. Angel is VERY funny. When Steve went to pay he asked Angel if he should pay out in the gift shop or pay Angel directly. Angel whispered “If you pay them, they’ll go get drunk.” And then he looked at me and whispered “If you pay me, then I’LL go get drunk!” He was truly a wonderful man and I just LOVED spending time with him.

Right about the time the shave was over, two big tour busses were coming in and the little gift shop was getting crowded, so we headed on our way. I was so grateful we got there when we did. Steve said he had seen a tour bus leaving as we pulled up, so we really did have nice ‘one on one’ time with him.

When we were done making several purchases in his gift shop, we walked next door to his brother’s store. His brother, Juan, died in 2004, but the family is keeping the Snow Cap Drive-In going. Juan had a great sense of humor too, as can be seen in his store. He was famous for selling “Dead Chicken”, “Hamburgers without the Ham”, etc. It was quite a store. Unfortunately, it was closed, so we could only walk around outside and look in. (it is quite small inside, most of the seating was outside). We saw signs on the window which said things like “Helen Waite is our credit manager. If you want credit, go to Helen Waite.” The two ‘out houses’, I am told, have TVs in them. On the front of them it says “me casa es tu casa” among other things. You’ll have to see the photos. This place was a riot!

Anyway, back in the car, we headed out of Seligman. The route curves way away from I-40 for awhile. We saw an old boarded up Indian School in Valentine, AZ as well as the western edge of the Grand Canyon in the distance near Peach Springs. We stopped at the Hackberry General Store in Hackberry, AZ. This place was credited in the Cars movie, and it looks like Lizzie’s Curio Shop. I wanted to buy a bumper sticker there (because Lizzie was so good and putting bumper stickers on everyone’s cars in the movie), but they didn’t sell any!! So, we got everyone drinks instead. It was a cute place. We also donated to the preservation of the beautiful Corvette out front.

We hit Kingman around noon, and decided to go ahead and check into our hotel now before heading on. (we are doubling back to Kingman for the night because I don’t want to stay in Needles!) The hotel is very old, right in downtown Kingman (which is a decent sized town, but it’s downtown is very sleepy). I went in and the couple who is refurbishing the place were there. She said it was great that we were checking in now, because they didn’t want to have to man the desk tonight and we were the only ones checking in. I thought that was strange, but ok. They gave us two keys. Andy gets his own room tonight! They have these “cowboy rooms” which are basically a bed in a room, no bathroom. He threw it on for an extra $1 so that Andy could have his own bed. Andy was ecstatic. She also told me that they had hosted a wedding over the weekend, so it may be a bit messy.

So, I checked in, got my two keys, and we were off for Oatman. Oatman is this small mountain town up in the Black Mountains of Arizona. They call it “The ghost town that wouldn’t die.” It is quite interesting taking 66 up there. My book tells of people who would pay others in Kingman to drive their car over the mountains for them back in the 30s and 40s because it was so hairy on the road. We didn’t feel it was THAT bad, but there were a lot of hairpin turns, and you do have to take it slow.

Once we got there, we realized how HOT Oatman was (100+). Now Kingman had been hot (92), but we were going UP in the mountains, and I just figured it wouldn’t be so bad! But I guess it is in a valley up in the mountains, and so it gets pretty hot there. This place does look like something out of the old west. We walked around and saw that there were a ton of shops you could go into and buy stuff. We really felt ‘bought out’ after all of our other curio stops. To make matters worse, I had started notfeeling quite right, and so going into one of their restaurants didn’t sound too good, either. We went into the museum and looked at all of their old stuff, and then started to head back down the street (Route 66 is basically the only street that runs through town). We did stop for ice cream because everyone was getting SO hot.

Oatman has staged gunfights every few hours, and they were starting another one. They kicked it off by firing off a shotgun. Well, you can imagine how well that went over with Pete! He just wanted to “GET INSIDE, PLEASE!!!” So, Emily and Steve took him into a shop while Andy and I watched the show. It was cute. Andy got some nice video.

The other thing Oatman is known for are the wild burros that come into town. They are descendants of the burros who used to help the miners in the area. Every shop in town sells carrots that you can feed them. We hadn’t seen any burros until we were about to leave (figures) and by that time, everyone was so hot that no one cared! I said “Does anyone want Dad to stop the car and we’ll buy some carrots and feed the Burros?” And there was a resounding “NO” from the back. Okay, then.

We took 66 all the rest of the way to the border of California through barren hills which Dad says are a taste of what is to come tomorrow in the dessert. Great. 66 doesn’t actually cross the Colorado at the line, so you have to get on I-40, which we did. We went through a state inspection site where they stopped our car and asked where we had come from. We looked about as mid-west as we could look, and Steve said “Chicago” while I said “Arizona”. Duh, Jen. He said to have a nice day, and we moved on. Of course, the kids wanted to know what they wanted with us. We told them they were looking for adorable children to sell, and so they should cover up Pete (who was sound asleep) so that they didn’t take him! We are awful, sometimes.

Anyway, we were in California only briefly before heading back across and up to Bullhead City (the original Las Vegas). Oh, and by the way, Steve had been watching the temperature outside. We thought Oatman was bad! We were now in Needles and watching the numbers climb…103…105…110…111! We started to think about the propane stored on the rooftop carrier. We were hoping that the nice hot breeze going over the carrier was helping a bit (ha!). We are planning on putting the propane tanks in our car tomorrow for our trip across the desert, but didn’t realize we might have had to do it today! No worries, the cartop carrier never exploded.

After we got through Bullhead City, we headed back through the mountains towards Kingman on a bigger, much straighter highway than 66 had been! We got to the hotel by about 5 and went in. We were the only ones there. I’ve got to say, it really creeped me out. I still wasn’t feeling all that great, and this place, being the only ones (not even anyone at the front desk) was REALLY creepy. I didn’t say anything to the kids because I didn’t want them weirded-out, and they seemed fine. We brought out stuff up to our room and then headed back out for dinner.

We went to an old 50’s place called “Mr D’z.” It was awful (what did I expect?) and the airbrushed photos of Elvis and Marilyn Monroe right by our table looked REALLY SPOOKY. This artist was not good, and these pictures looked almost skeletal. Perhaps it was because I was already weirded out, but I really started feeling icky inside. I went to the car and closed my eyes.

When we got back to the hotel, I went straight to bed. I told Steve this morning that I was creeped out, but feeling so icky that I couldn’t even think about it. He wondered if I just shut down BECAUSE I was feeling so creepy. Could be. He mentioned that once he got everyone to sleep, he felt a bit creepy, too. I guess when you are the only ones in a big old hotel, it can get a bit weird. I kept thinking about how nice it would have been to be here during the weekend with the wedding party here. It probably would have felt a LOT different.

And don’t get me wrong; the rooms were very lovely. We had a suite with a bedroom, a large ¾ bathroom and then a living room where Emily slept. Everything was clean and updated, so it wasn’t like it was all run-down or anything. Just weird feeling all alone in a big old hotel. Oh, and I forgot to mention the trains. The Santa Fe Railroad is right outside the front of the building, and they run ALL NIGHT LONG. So they give complimentary ear plugs to all of their guests. How nice. I’m guessing the plugs shut out the sounds of the ghosts, too. (cue Twilight Zone music…)

Ah well, we survived. And now…CALIFORNIA OR BUST!