Part 1

Route 66 - Our trip in 2015

Day 1. Home to Chicago and  Route 66

Picked up at home by Rachel and Adam at 6:30 am and dropped to Bristol Airport

Did the check in after working out the self service machines. There before the KLM staff. When they arrived booked the luggage in and went for Breakfast.

Flight to Amsterdam fine and comfortable. Transfer in airport fine with helpful staff. Boarded flight with a little wait. 

Flight over ok, 4240 miles, lots of leg room although seats rather narrow to fit in! 

Arrived in Chicago on time – maybe a little early! Hotel rung by Airport staff. Collected and taken to Best Western Hotel…. Very large 3 storey  building.

Had our evening meal in Shoeless Joe’s diner. 32 TV screens on the walls, some very large, showing different American sports. Railings made from baseball bats and balls (picture) ! Good food and drink

Back to hotel and fell asleep!

Day 2. Chicago - Route 66 start and onto Springfield IL.

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We headed into downtown Chicago on a bright sunny morning using the hotel shuttle.

We get off at Palmer House, aka The Hilton Hotel, and find the Route 66 Start sign, as well as an informative homeless guy who is keen to show us other Route 66 signs in the nearby vicinity!

Having looked at, and photographed the signs, being very grateful we made the decision NOT to drive to them

So back to the hotel and a lift to O’Hare airport and got on the Dollar Chevrolet Shuttle to collect the car, a Cadillac, a large automatic car. Drove it around the car park a couple of times, stopped and worked out how things worked and off we went. The busy Chicago interstate roads were interesting to say the least with the amount of massive trucks on it, giving you no room for error or much thinking time, they clearly knew where they were going and that was it! Anyway we did not get lost and made our way onto Route 66 and into Joliet.

Joliet has a massive river running through it Des Plaines river. We saw one boat push three massive barges  side by side, up the river and under the two rising bridges.

In the town we found the local Route 66 museum and info centre, met really helpful people and obtained useful leaflets. Off we went onto smaller historic Route 66 roads (highway 53).

We next drove through the two very traditional towns of Elwood and Wilmington, loads of wood buildings etc…..as we would get to see more during the day. In Wilmington we met up with the huge Gemini Giant at the now closed Launching Pad drive in, a place where time has stood still. After the obligatory photos we then move onto Braidwood and the Polka Dot drive in where we met life size models  of Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, Betty Boop and some others. Had a late lunch and off again.

Then onto history with a two cell jail and restored street car, in Gardner. The Jail was popular in controlling the local folk travelling and looking for work at the turn of the 20^th century. The town also had a memorial to Christian Christiansen who helped stop the Nazis exploiting heavy water and make the atomic bomb in WW2.

Onward now to Dwight and a brief stop to see the restored Ambler’s Texaco Garage as it was in the 1940s. Saw a big group of Harley Davidson riders also on Route 66 going the other way. Next village, O'Dell also had a restored Garage, 1932 standard station.

Back on Route 66 following the Railroad and Interstate 55, we were in the middle..next stop an interesting little town of Pontiac. Route 66 hall of fame museum in the old fire station, wall murals and two vehicles, bus and van  belonging to a real eccentric, Bob Waldmire.  

Driving through the village and a few others we arrive into Bloomington Illinois, famed as the home of the mythical Lt Colonel Henry Blake, in MASH. We saw the old Court house a large impressive building and a huge church. We moved onto Funks Grove, which makes Maple Sirup, however it was closed when we arrived.

Route 66 then took us onto Atlanta, a very pretty place where we met another Giant, the Bunyan giant and hot dog. The area had a number of murals, octagonal library and 40 foot clock tower and yellow water tower with a smiley face! Clean town, nicest we visited that day.

Getting near the end so we called into Lincoln and met Abraham as a giant set on a giant wagon. That was enough so off to Springfield, good hotel and a really good evening meal in the Brick House, only 21 TV screens tonight! We had ‘shoes’ to eat, wow were they filling!

The countryside was very flat, Arable farm land, for wheat growing with massive elevators new and old, very old sometime to store the oats

Really interesting day, about 160 miles and lovely sunny weather, with a cold breeze.

Tomorrow is explore Springfield and make our way to St Louis

We woke up to a beautiful sunny morning, down to Breakfast, again the throw away style, Kath made waffles for her breakfast, getting into the American habit. There were people dressed in 1850’s style American clothes, strange we thought! Then remembered it’s the 150^th celebration of Abraham Lincoln’s funeral. Perhaps even stranger, however there clearly was a massive dedicated re-enactment group and we were told around 12000 people in the celebrations.

Springfield in the strong morning sunlight was beautiful, the old station building, old government offices, park and general area stunning. Loads of signs, black cloth and Lincoln pictures for the celebration day. We then went and saw the current senate building from a distance to appreciate it fully, again a significant building and impressive. Next was a walk to Lincoln’s home, on the way having my picture taken with 2 ladies in traditional costume. We walked down the old street, saw Lincoln’s house and many more from this period. Loads of people in costume, school children in modern tee shirts for the day and friendly cops. An enjoyable couple of hours in Illinois capital city.

Now time to drive across Springfield and visit Lincoln’s tomb, made it there reasonably easily and got to the cemetery, drive in. Lincoln’s tomb is huge, with a great obelisk, statues around it and you can go inside, we did not! Lincoln, his wife and 3 of his 4 sons are buried here. Lincoln after he was assassinated was buried here first along with 2 of his sons. The cemetery was a huge place, lots of open grass space, no graves and many mature trees, again the lovely morning made it very impressive. At the tomb there was a bust of Abraham Lincoln with a shiny nose, due to the tradition of rubbing it for good luck, we both followed the tradition!

Leaving Springfield we headed for Chatham and back on Route 66, drove through this and a couple other places. Just before Auburn we went on a bit of the original Route 66 brick road, interesting and needed photographing. Continuing on we stopped at Girard, and had lunch at Doc’s Soda Fountain, nice Chicken wraps and I had a Root Beer and Mum a Green River. Place was full of old chemist packets etc which were originals from the time it was the local Drug store 1884 onto 2001 with three generations of the same family running it. Girard is a small town, with a square with flat roof houses, felt a bit like the scene from a Western, all we needed was Clint Eastwood riding in on his horse!!!

We continued down Route 66 stopping at Carlinville, which had this massive courthouse, impressive, stopped and photographed it. A local drove up to speak to us and tell us the history and offered a tour, we had to politely decline, no time!!!

Enjoying the countryside, which today was very wide open and flat in places, however we had a few hills (gentle slopes) and some parts were also quite wooded we made our way to Livingston, saw the giant pink elephant and many more, see the photos. We also had a huge ice cream in a large paper cup, filling but nice!

Time was getting on so we got onto the Interstate 55 to St Louis. On the edge of St Louis we found the worlds largest Catsup bottle, at Collinsville, see photo. We then made our way in St Louis, queued along highway and went on raised highways which gave a good view over this large city, the skyscrapers and of course over the River Mississippi.

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We woke up to another sunny day in St Louis this time, down for breakfast early to make sure we didn't miss out! Off then to see the Gateway Arch, it certainly lives up to its name. After negotiating the roads of St Louis we park, only to find we were also close the the St Louis  Cardinals baseball ground and the whole area and people were dressed in Red. We resisted the temptation to go for a 6 hours baseball game, something for another trip! We collected our tickets from the old Court House building, quite magnificent in structure and architecture inside, oozing history, including the slavery trials which were the main cause of the AmericanCivil War. However we got our tickets and off to the the giant arch… The pictures say most of it. To get up to the top, we had to go into a very small lift, 5 of us, inc 3 young ladies from Las  Vegas had to climb through the door that was only four foot high, to the inside area which was no more than 5 ft high by 6 ft wide…. So up we go. Worth it as the views across St Louis, the Mississippi and beyond are spectacular which we have tried to capture in the photos. There were 16 glass windows about 1 ft by 2 feet to look through and take the photos. Coming down was quicker than going up!

We get going then leaving St Louis behind. Our next stop was at the Route 66 State Park where we looked around the displays of memorabilia and explanations of how that area – known as Times Beach was totally evacuated and destroyed due to toxic contamination. Over the next 29 years it was cleaned and is now the Route 66 State Park. Then we set off aiming for Pacific. Well we never made this, got totally lost, although scenery wooded and pleasant. Never mind found Interstate 44 and took this to Cuba, our planned next stop. On the way into Cuba we had “tea” at The Missouri Hickory Bar BQ. Quite a place, great food and cooked over Hickory wood fires for a day or two for the flavour. Then into Cuba, to see more murals than you can imagine in one place. They were superb, again Mums photography shows them off. We left Cuba behind and 4 miles outside was a rocking chair, made of metal girders and wood, the worlds largest in fact, quite a sight.

Time was against us again, so onto Interstate 44 and travelled the 112 miles to Springfield in good time, overtaking so many trucks you would not want to count! Speed limit 70, so cruise control on at that speed, making an easy journey, just had to steer!!

Our first quick stop was to look and photo the outside of a renovated 1930 gas station at Gay Parita – Paris Springs. Onward then through Missouri enjoying the wooded scenery, stopping off at Kellogg Lake Park and seeing a not so spectacular Giant Coke bottle in Joplin. 

Kansas then was our next stage, so different as we drove into this dilapidated  and seemingly deserted area, with railroad through the former mining areas, all relics of times past. Then just around the corner we met up with Mator from Cars and friends at Galena. We took a number of pictures of the Mator  replica and the original inspiration for the Disney / Pixar character. The village however was very run down, clearly suffering from no funding, apart from a new road surface in part of the Main Street 

Day 6. Oklahoma City to Amarillo, Texas

We woke to a lovely sunny and windy morning. With a long trip we did not look around Oklahoma City, another day perhaps. Just outside the city we stopped at The historic Lake Overholser Bridge to look at, and go over, a structurally repaired, if not painted traditional US road bridge, over a river leading into a pretty and large lake area.

On we go into Yukon and spotted then photograph, very large Grain storage buildings once claiming to be best! We go onto a lovely little city of El Reno, with a couple of interesting murals and easy roads to navigate. 

We then follow Route 66 across the Oklahoma plains, which were very green and planted, no signs of the historic dust bowls. We reach this very long (3/4 mile) using 38 ‘pony’ trusses bridge crossing the South Canadian River -  quite a construction. The river itself didn't seem very wide but it probably floods a lot! We continue along the highway, interesting although similar, Lucilles restored garage and other ranch and grain buildings break up the scenery a little.

We next visit Elk City and the National Route 66 museum, which had some great Route 66 memorabilia in it, and much, much more. There were many buildings, including a School House, Doctors, Bank, Opera House etc….all well done and easy to look at. A good hour or so look around, lots of pics taken.

Texas was like going into a different country with the change of scenery, massive wide open plains, not cultivated at all, like our moorlands but 100 times bigger, the expanse was huge.

We stop off in McLean, a very run down place, which has a museum dedicated to barbed wire! Plus lots of other interesting things around Route 66 and the dust bowl and depression in the 30s. Again easy to look around and a good ¾ hour spent.

So continuing along the Interstate, the scenery remains the same, we divert off into Conwy a derelict town, although has a small plantation of VW Beetle cars and a massive amount of windmills being built for wind power  energy …. Rather ironic in the oil state!

We then make our way into Amarillo. Made it to our hotel just before the rain! The heavens really opened. Being in Texas its steak for Dinner, and very nice to.

Day 7. Amarillo Texas to Tucumcari, New Mexico 

We awaken to the Texas rain, not so nice today. After a later breakfast we make a move. The rain had stopped so we went into Amarillo and saw the sights of old Route 66 down south west 6^th avenue, some in good order and some dilapidated. We now head further West out of Amarillo, with our first stop being Cadillac Ranch, cars planted in the ground a strange but somewhat mesmeric sight. As it rained the night before, some 1.6 inches, it was mega muddy and slippery walking out and back, neither of us fell over, but our trainers were plastered. Good job we changed out of our sandals! I ended up pulling a fellow out of the mud and then pulling out his slip on shoes. The Cadillacs are well graffitied, part of the attraction and now have P&K UK neatly sprayed on them. Having spent an age trying to clean as much mud off our trainers as we could , with only a small muddy puddle and a couple of tissues,  we move on.

We take the Old Route 66 to Vega. A city of 166 people. We photo’d a refurbished 1920s  Magnolia Gas Station. We then went to have a quick look in the local museum, which was being refurbished. However the chap doing the work, invited us in, explained their plans and showed us around. The star being the early 1920’s model T ford, painted “any color you like so long as it's black” good old Henry Ford. The car was in remarkable condition and we were allowed in it, photo’d of course!

In the city we had a good look around,  photograph the murals, which were spectacular, if only 3 years old, however the detail was incredible. 

A city in US terms seems to be our village / small town.

We move on, as time flies and make our way to the Route 66 mid point café in Adrian. Good lunch enjoyed, including ugly pie, and lots photo’d. Friendly proprietor who warned us about the oncoming storms. One passed over when we were having lunch, didn't last long, but really heavy. 

We now head for the New Mexico border, on the way calling into Glenrio,  a Route 66 ghost town, due to the building of the Interstate road. It's like as if people have just gone and left things as they were, including their cars behind. A strange and eerie sight.

As we drive along the Interstate we get a storm blow over, and the wipers certainly needed to be on full speed. The skies around were black as the ace of spades and clearly full of water. The locals loved the rain, as it was only the second time this year they have had it wet!

We cross into New Mexico, and gained an hour, always valuable and visited the New Mexico information centre, where I was given lots of good info, leaflets, from the lady running the centre. So back on the Interstate, to San Jon (pronounced Hone) and then on Route 66 to Tucumcari for some 25 miles. Found our hotel and then drove up and down the Main Street lots of interesting buildings, signs, and of course good quality murals. Steak again for dinner, this one put the Texas steak, which was very good, to shame, well cooked, soft and melted in your mouth……

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The countryside was much rougher than previously experienced, very rugged and a number of hills / mounds, difficult to tell how big they were due to the vastness of the countryside. We follow the railroad track again and see one train stopped, and counted 193 large containers, 40ft ones, about 100 doubled up on each other, rest singles on trucks and half a dozen empty  ones, plus 3 large engines. Our first stop was at Santa Rosa to look at the Blue Hole and other lakes.

Off we went again on the road to Santa Fe. The countryside is as described, although increasingly spectacular as the hills are getting much bigger and turn into mountains known as Mesas, high with a flat top. We called into the New Mexico version of Las Vegas, a quaint little town, which clearly had been fought over in the Civil War and between the U.S. and Mexico, see the photo of the “new” governors proclamation!

Having enjoyed our walk around, we drove along a mixture of the Santa Fe trail and Interstate 25, enjoying the ever more dramatic scenery, true spaghetti  western scenes. On route we saw Starvation Peak, Indians chased settlers up there and starved them out, so legend says! We climbed to 7500 feet at Glorieta Mesa and then descended to Santa Fe, which is at a mere 7000 feet! Looks an interesting place which we will explore tomorrow.

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Today after a later start we make our way into Santa Fe plaza, via the Railroad station and area. We walk up the streets to the centre, with a range of shops on either side, mainly traditional items, none seem busy. We make it to the plaza. The centre piece is a monument to those locals and Unionists who fought in the 19^thcentury, the Indians, Mexicans, and Confederates. The sign is an interesting read…. 

We walk around the square and make our way towards the Cathedral. We go into an Indian museum for modern impressionist art. Kath liked the dark light pottery. For the paintings and sculptures I can say I am not a devotee of Indian modern art, an experience. We then head for St Francis of Assisi cathedral and basilica. Inside this is ornate especially with the actual structure although the paintings on the walls are much simpler.

Leaving the cathedral we go for what looks to be a fairly straight forward walk on the map… Oh how naïve! After many twists and turns we see all that is intended, and a lot more. The Capitol building is modern with many trees planted around it, quite striking. Out side the building is a sculpture / memorial to all the Indian tribes that no longer survive. We then find the San Miguel Mission, the oldest church in the U.S. Kath gets nabbed by the priest as he has Cornish relatives, I sat in the sunshine and popped my head in quickly when Kath makes her escape, with photos of course. We move onto the Loretta Chapel with the miraculous stair way which was built after a novena (prayer) by the nuns, with no physical means of support except the structure of the stairs, no uprights. The myth is the builder was St Joseph. More info at http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loretto_Chapel as it's more than I can explain. So back into the plaza for lunch and then we catch the open Trolley bus, for a really good tour of Santa Fe and outskirts, including all mentioned so far, Canyon Road which is full of art galleries, Museums Hill, university and the wagon sculpture and back into the plaza. Lots of good tales told by the driver as you would expect!

So that was about it for Santa Fe, a very interesting and enjoyable day. The different cultures of the Indians, Mexicans and Americans all coming together was fascinating especially when you consider the historical clashes and hatred. And a very liberal sprinkling of Catholicism in as well it certainly was different and made for an interesting day. More relaxing and no driving made a change

Day 10. Santa Fe to Albuquerque New Mexico

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We leave Santa Fe on a bright, sunny and windy morning and head down the Turquoise Trail on Highway 14. The landscape is incredibly barren and we head for the Rio Grande rift. Our first stop is at a seemingly  deserted town of Cerrillos. Really Wild West stuff this as we drive up the Main St, which is a dirt road with shacks either side. We stop to enjoy and photograph the scene and make our way out calling in at the local Post Office, yes you will be getting a postcard sometime! What seemed to be a deserted area suddenly 15 or so people turn up in the 10 mins we were there, to collect their post or join the PO queue.

We buy the stamps, post the cards and off we go and drive through the ‘arty’ town of Madrid and follow the road through this spectacular countryside, which although so dry now has an amazing amount of trees growing in it. We make our way to Tinkertown Museum at Sandia Park. This certainly was different. The exhibits were mainly carved by one chap throughout his life time, and the amount of stuff is colossal.

We then make our way towards Albuquerque, and Sandia Peak. We go in, buy our tickets and all seems well… However the afternoon winds have got up, and having just missed the previous cable car  (tram way in U.S.) ours is cancelled. No action likely, so we get a refund, and take the alternative, back the way we came. Up past Tinkertown and we drive the 14 miles to the Sandia Peak, some 10600 feet above sea level. A new record for height driven by us in a car. Whilst it was hazy at the top the views across the plains were magnificent.

Day 11 - Albuquerque New Mexico to Flagstaff Arizona.

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We now make a sizable detour from Route 66 & area to go to Chinle, Monument Valley and Grand Canyon. These places I will cover off in our 2016 adventure around the National Parks.

In 2016 we also travelled from Gallop, Flagstaff and Williams to complete the part of Route 66 the detour above missed. It is from this trip most of the next pages refer to.  

2015 - We leave a sunny and warm 68 degrees F along Central Avenue Road which seems to continue for eternity, about another 6 miles until we reach Interstate 40, on route to the Continental divide on old Route 66. During this part of the journey, we went over hills and the scenery just opened up in front of us, spectacular to say the least, with the scrub land, trees, barren plains and mountains. We also saw more trains in a couple of hours than we have seen over the past 9 days. These trains were incredibly long, one Kath counted to be 97 coaches and 3 engines. 

The Continental Divide is the high point where one way the water table goes to the Pacific and the other way Gulf of Mexico. This point is 7275 feet high, incredibly snow on the ground and a temperature at 36 degrees F.

We move onto Gallup, drive through the town and make our way to Window Rock, on the Navaho Indian Reservation. The Navaho Indians run their own laws / way of life, so in this area, which is huge the Navaho Indians law is what all obey.

We find our way through the town and get to the Window in the Rock, a massive round hole in the rock. We get out to see this, and the local deputy Sheriff calls us over, so we felt it best to obey! We were invited to their fundraising event that was taking place for the Sheriffs posse who are volunteers and can be called upon as necessary, I really did not think posses still existed… We were made very welcome and given cooked local Navaho fried bread (size of a dinner plate) with two beef burgers. They were very nice and extremely filling. We had a long chat with the local Navaho Sheriff, Joseph Dedman Jr. The sherriff was a real friendly fellow, so welcoming and gave Kath a unique pin badge. This fellow was also pictured. We bid farewell, and walk around this area, hole in the rock and the dedication area to Navaho war dead and the work they did around using an un breakable code in WW2. https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/2008-featured-story-archive/navajo-code-talkers/

2016 - We left Gallup, on old Route 66' and started making our way towards the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park. We soon passed from New Mexico into Arizona, seeing a tepee trading post on the other side of the Interstate. It was not long after this that it started to rain. We soon had to get onto Interstate 40, as the old road disappeared, and we were soon reminded of what it was like passing large trucks in the rain!

On reaching the Visitor centre at the Park, we decided that sandals were not the best footwear to be wearing, and changed into our trainers. Luckily we had our waterproofs handy on the back seat of the car. At the visitor centre we watched the informative film about the how the Petrified forest had evolved. These fossilised tree trunks date back to the Late Triassic Period about 225 million years ago, when this area was a tropical landscape with abundant vegetation. Over the past 200 million years continents moved, regions uplifted, climate changed and the river system, along with its plants and animals, was buried by layers of sediment. Wind and water have continually moulded, sculpted and peeled back these layers, giving us a glimpse of the once tropical land we know today as Arizona.

The Painted Desert is characterised by colourful bands of sedimentary rock, deposited between 227 and 205 million years ago by a northwest flowing river. Then 16 to 4 million years ago lake sediments were deposited on top of the older, eroding formation. Volcanic eruptions placed basalt layers above the lake beds, preserving them. Further erosion has left the basalt as high pints which give the spectacular views today.

Although for our entire visit today it was raining most of the time, and so the colours maybe weren't as spectacular as they might have been, it was still very interesting to see the different layers and colours in the mounds and mesas. The first loop around had many lookouts to view the Painted Desert. There was also the Painted Desert Inn, now a restored building with exhibits.

The Park is proud of the fact it is the only National Park that preserves a section of Route 66, and this was just before we crossed over the Interstate. We had seen a large group of bikers at the Visitor centre earlier, and quite a few arrived at the Route 66 stop when we were there. They were from Ireland and doing a fundraising trip for a children's charity in Dublin. They do it every 2 years, since 2002.

The next stop off was for Newspaper Rock, an area where there are over 650 petroglyphs, some over 2000 years old. Following this is the area they call the tepees - and once we reached it we realised why - from the shape of the rock formations. Then it was on to the Blue Mesa, although I would say the colours were more purple than blue. Following this we got into the area where there were lots of petrified trees - or rather parts of trunk. The Agate Bridge was about the only entire intact trunk we saw, most had broken into sections and were scattered around, or if they were still in place as a complete trunk, looked as though someone had come along with a chainsaw and cut it into short sections and then left it lying there! There are severe penalties for taking any of the petrified wood with you. By this time we not only had torrential rain, but thunder and lightning as well, so we didn't venture as far as would have liked to see all the Park had to offer.

We crossed several "dry wash" river beds, normally as it says, but not today with significant water running down these river beds as nothing soaked into the ground!

Our final stop was at the Rainbow Forest museum, and although we weren't able to see as much as if it had been dry and clear, it was certainly a very interesting place to visit.

We started to make our way to Holbrook, back on Route 66. Miraculously the weather started to improve, and we began to dry out a little. Holbrook was a very typical Route 66 town, lots of signs, murals, motels and diners. We stopped off in Joe and Aggie's, mentioned in our trusty guidebook from last year, for a coffee to warm up. We then found the wigwam motel.

Moving on from Holbrook, we stopped off at Geronimo, which was a traditional trading post beside the Interstate. And then onto Winslow, made famous by one of our favourate groups... the Eagles in Take it Easy. After the obligatory photos of all there was on the corner, we went into a diner for an ice cream - it was sunny by now! 

Day 12. Flagstaff to Williams and onto Lake Havasu

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2016 - So we set off today by heading to Williams. As we had already discovered yesterday, there wasn't a lot of original road left, most having been lost under the Interstate. So we decided to do as much as we could, and came off Interstate 40 at Bellemont to follow a reasonably short section of gravel road our guide book told us about. This took us up to the highest point of the route in Arizona at 7410 feet on Fortynine Hill. On returning to paved road at Parks, there then showed another section of gravel - but we must have got a bit confused, as about 20 miles later, most on gravel through very pretty pine trees, we eventually came out in a paved road near Williams. A somewhat longer detour than planned!

2015 - We arrive in Williams a real old western town. It has the railroad to Grand Canyon, with a large old steam locomotive and coaches on display, see pictures. In this small town virtually every shop was either a Route 66 historical / gift shop or a cafe or something else linked to Route 66. Interesting but overwhelming with the amount of stuff in each shop and yes we went into most!

Having walked the Main Street of Williams we head off West, across the Arizona plateaus, which were desert like and again very repetitive. The further West we went the hotter it got. We are now on Route 66 again and start finding interesting places to stop at. The first town being Seligman, a very deserted town, with the shops that were there all dedicated to Route 66 memorabilia / gifts. This town was the birth place of the historic Route 66 association of Arizona. We buy a poster or two, and meet the man who took the pictures on one of these, who then insisted on signing the poster and recounting some of his 72 trips on Route 66. We make our excuses and move through the town, photographing as we go.

So Route 66 is a good wide and straight road and we make good time, next stopping at Hackberry. This is a shanty shack with many rusting cars outside, plus a Corvette in very good condition, an incredible amount of gifts inside and dubiously decorated loos.

We then drive through Kingman, taking one or two pictures as we go and onto Interstate 40 coming off after 30 or so miles to go to Lake Havasu City. The temperature locally now reaches 92 degrees f, some 36+ degrees C.

So what is Lake Havasu City's claim to fame and link to the River Thames in London England?

Well it is here that London Bridge has been rebuilt across the Bridgwater Channel. This is an amazing site, historical London in the middle of Arizona, and this new city that has been developed because of the bridge and the gamble of the person who purchased and moved it across from London.

Having seen the bridge, amazed by where it is in the American setting, we set off back to the hotel, calling in on route for our Dinner, both having the rack of ribs special, Kath a half rack and I had the full. Excellent, tasty and different evening meal.

Day 13. Lake Havasu, Arizona to Barstow, California 

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Well today is rather cloudy, although starting off warm. We head north for a place called Oatman, in the foot hills of the Black Mountains. This really is / was a frontier town, and was good fun walking around the town, the shops, wooden verandas, seeing the old age motor cycle gang, "Goathead", their days of striking fear into the local population seem long gone. Oatman also had the delightful aroma of the Burro (Donkey), they were supposed to be wild, however they certainly knew how to beg and some idiots fed them!

We leave Oatman behind and drop down into Mohave Valley on the Fort Mojave Indian Reservation, crossing the Colorado River into California at Needles. We then get on Interstate 40 as Route 66 disappears for 10 miles approximately. We then get back onto Old Route 66 and follow the Railway, and see a number of mega long trains, and go via Goffs and Fenner. Now we have a problem as Route 66 is closed for numerous bridge rebuilds. So the answer is to go back onto Interstate 40 for about 35 miles

Leaving Interstate 40 we head for Amboy, with the Sacramento Mountains  on our left and the Marble Mountains on our right hand side. These mountains were very attractive, with their little peaks and valleys all rock on the way up to their peak. It made the journey more interesting as the rest of the time California desert is just rough dirty sand and scrub land. As we go West it gets cooler and the clouds get darker, so much for the "sunshine state!".

Following the road, Amboy is made up of Roy's cafe and motel. After this we see the volcanic crater and lava field, and as we go along you can see the land change to more volcanic rocks. Leaving this part of the journey we refuel at Ludlow, and look at the old cafe and vehicles.

We then decide to get back on Interstate 60 as it follows Route 66 and is faster into Barstow. At the west side of this town we drive into Route 66 motel, our accommodation for the night. The little area where we check in is solid with Route 66 stickers, posters etc and the owner is very chatty, mainly about the UK and how wonderful our Royal Family is.

After a while we make our way to Idle Spurs for a very tasty burger dinner.

The weather is turning wet it seems, much to the locals delight. I hope it drys up and we get into LA, Santa Monica and back to our hotel in LA in the dry. Another adventure tomorrow, driving in LA!!!

Day 14. Barstow to Santa Monica, LA. California 

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We take our leave of the Route 66 motel and going to the IHOP restaurant for a massive breakfast of pancakes, so much so that that's it until dinner at about 7:30pm!

The scenery is Californian desert on route and our first and really only stop is to the bottle ranch. Why would someone want to do this, trees / metal stakes with hundreds of bottles hanging off them, see Kath's photos. It's really weird, but quite a spectacle.....also saw some humming birds.

We continue to head west to LA. The traffic is building up and both Route 66 and Interstate 15 are very busy. Progress is very slow but steady and reasonably straight forward. We follow Route 66 for the majority of the day and onto Santa Monica Boulevard.

We drive up to and follow Santa Monica Boulevard to the Pacific Ocean, and find somewhere to park by the beach and Santa Monica Pier. 

So up onto the pier and find the official end of Route 66, and take the obligatory pictures and purchase souvenirs. We walk around the pier, enjoy the sights and look down over Manhattan Beach towards Long Beach and north towards Malibu.

So thats it Route 66 - Chicago to LA-Santa Monica...what a trip.....

And finally......

What a fabulous trip, so many wonderful and quirky sites to see… The people were so friendly and interesting and also keen to chat about our trip around the US.

Some stats on Route 66 - https://www.legendsofamerica.com/66-facts/  - thank you to this site for providing the details.

• According to most sources Route 66 is 2448 miles long (about 4000 km). However, this is a rough approximation as the road has had many different alignments through the years.
• Route 66 was commissioned on November 11 1926, picking up as many as possible bits and pieces of existing road.
• Route 66 crosses 8 states and 3 time zones. The states that the Mother Road runs through are: Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
• In 1926 only 800 miles of Route 66 were paved. Only in 1937 did Route 66 get paved end-to-end.