I woke up at 630 – well before my alarm went off. I could have gone back to sleep… but just decided to get moving.
Nothing was open yet. I was hoping the breakfast burrito place down the road from my hotel would be… no dice. I think someone was inside, but I didn’t want to wait. A quick /\/\ sandwich and two cups of coffee, and I was on the move.
I got to Lupton, AZ, which was my first real stop – the Tee Pee trading post. I was in search of penny squishing machines. And they had one. And I was there at 835… they didn’t open til 9. So I waited. Got my pennies, some photos, and a couple magnets, and I was headed down the road again.
I took an original alignment – this one was fun, and I’m glad I had the Jeep… it wasn’t 4WD, but it did have some higher ground clearance. As I went down the frontage road that was clearly Route 66 pavement (eventually the yellow line ended, and more and more weeds were growing in the pavement), it say “road ends”, and my map told me to take a right turn. At the end of the fence was a cattle guard opening into a field with three dire tracks headed across it. I took the middle one, and noted that I was diverging from the blue line. Oops. Turned around and went for the left one. Not sure if I was in someone’s field or what… I went probably about a mile down dirt tracks through the wilderness. This would NOT have been passible if it was wet! To put it in some perspective, I was driving along the fence line behind the billboards on the side of the interstate. Eventually, I came to some OLD pavement – mostly overtaken by weeds, rutted out, falling apart… this was ORIGINAL alignment road. As I went a couple more miles down this rough road, it started to become more solid, and eventually rejoined the outer road.
I took a couple more “dead end” trips, hoping for a similar experience, but they all just ENDED with no alternative route. I eventually got to the Petrified Forest National Park – the ONLY national park with Route 66 in it. Paid my entrance fee, squished a couple more pennies, and proceeded down to the 1937 Studebaker sitting in the sun. Got some neat photos of the canyon, as well as the location where Route 66 was/is in the park. Aerial photos really show the road, but if you look, you can see where the roadbed is higher than the surrounding desert. Kindof neat.
I went back up to the park entrance, and continued down the road. I went on to Holbrook, AZ. The home of the Tee Pee motel. Got a few photos – this was the last remaining “90 degree” turn on the road.
Time to hit Winslow, so I can stand on the corner. I followed more old alignments – this time sand/gravel roads through several miles of Arizona… and stumbled on the Roadrunner store… HERE IT IS!. magnet. back on the road. I eventually got to Winslow – which was a BUSY town! I stood on the corner, checked out the town a bit, squished MORE pennies, got magnets, and scooted on – I still had to get to Flagstaff!
A little past Winslow, I stopped at the Twin Arrows exit. I figured this would be interesting, since it was on the maps… the original store is now… Twin ARROW? one of the original arrows has gone missing. But it made for some unique photos. Stopped at the new Twin Arrows gas station for a snack, and hit the road.
While I was on the way to Flagstaff, I couldn’t forget Winona! I stopped at the gas station that marks the original store that was Winona. Then continued to Flagstaff. It was a long day, but after squishing still MORE pennies at the visitor center, I checked in to my hotel, and then found the Galaxy Diner for dinner… but only after finding another Fiberglass Paul Bunyan – this one with an Axe!
That was enough for the day. I probably COULD have made Williams, but I’m sticking with my original plan of heading to Kingman tomorrow. While that’s only a couple hours – I’m going to make a detour out of Williams and go the extra 100 mile round trip to see the Grand Canyon. More to come!