Event Coverage Road Trip! D/FW - VLV via Route 66!

What a great trip. Thanks for the photo log and commentary. Old buildings and business are why I take the old roads around here whenever I can. The history and stories are you have added are really interesting.

At Viva, try and see "the Jackpot Club" a good little band from CA. And of course The Blasters.

 

Hey thanks for the trip. Its been GREAT.

 

Great job with the photos and articles, we go to Flagg every Sept for the Rt 66 car show and travel the same route you took and you hit all the cool places we like to go. I really like Williams. Talked to a store owner who said that they get a ton of German Tourist through there and it's amazing what they know about the history of Rt 66. KInda makes you wonder what they teach our kids in school. Well,Welcome to Vegas and I hope you enjoy the show. I think you could turn this trip into a 6 month road trip with all the neat things you have found. Thanks YRUHOT

 

what a fantastic thread. i want to personally thank you for sharing all the photos from your trip. they are inspiring for sure. thanks again

 

Oh man this is great, I remember taking this trip from Los Angeles to Datil New Mexico and stopping at a lot of these places when my kids were little about 15 years ago, we did it in a 1973 Scout II while pulling a 1973 tear drop style Cardinal trailer

 

Great thread. I've been down all of 66 from Joplin the Santa Monica, (the Albuqerque to Cali leg in a 59 El Camino) seeing these pics makes me want to do it again.
You must of drove right past my shop on the way to see the Chevy on a stick in Albuquerque, too bad I didn't know you were coming thru, could of stopped in for a cup of Coffee!

 

Awesome! Thanks!

(and thanks to 48 steel for pointing this out)

 

It must have been another late night.... That Steven guy can be a bad influence... LOL
Happy Easter, looking forward to another amazing update.

 

GREAT road trip thread... Thanks a ton for taking the time to post all of this!



Malcolm

 

Fantastic thread! After VLV don't go home. Just keep traveling around on 2 lane highways and posting pic's on the H.A.M.B.

 

Thanks for sharing your adventure, great thread!

 

Worked in pampa back in late 80's / early 90's and had a co worker eat that roast with all the fixin's. That boy didn't have to eat for 4 days...

 

What a ride back in time!

Got love going back with some of those pics!

 

Thanks for sharing the trip with us. Reminds me of my childhood, we made the trip from California to Alabama via Route 66 in a 60 Ford Country Squire 9 passenger.

 

Not sure what else to say other then, Thank you very much.

 

The pictures and documentation of your trip are a treasure!! Thanks so much for posting.

 

What a great thread! Roadtrips are awesome. I just made the LA to Austin round trip and now I kinda wish I had further to drive then from Vegas to LA to go home!

 

Great pictures. Time for a road trip.
Thank you.

 

Great pics

 

Awesome pictures. I saw a lot of things I missed the first time about 10 years ago. Now I need to do the trip again. VERY COOL to do this in your wagon.

 

the theater pics are awesome, thanks for taking the time to stop...

 

Like everybody else, thanks for posting your adventure for us, I really dig the pics of the '59 Mercury wagon, my folks had a 2 door hardtop when I was a kid.... man i wish I had that car now, I still have the emblems off the front fenders, thought they were cool because the said "comuter".

 

I'm telling you that this had been one of the greatest of trips! We've had an awsome four days since my last update. We made it to Viva, which was an absolutely outstanding event, and now are headed back home. But, rather than skip ahead to Viva, we've seen too much on this trip to leave anything out. So, let's go back to where we were during our last update and started back up from there.

I'd mentioned in my last update that we chose the Hilltop Motel in Kingman to spend Wednesday in because of their cool vintage neon sign. Because I hadn't yet uploaded a shot of their sign, I wanted to show it to you now.



The wagon had a good night's rest just outside our door.



The next morning, while loading up the car for another day's travel, we saw that our guardian dove was still perched above the fire extinguisher just outside our door.





Being the rock stars that we are, this is how we thrash a room!



We though that the glass blocks in the bathroom window made for a cool photo op.



Our plans for Thursday were to head on up to Las Vegas that morning but while eating a hearty breakfast at the Roadrunner Cafe in Kingman (which we just picked by chance but saw that they were recommended by Route 66 Magazine), we said, "Screw this! Let's play on Route 66 some more! We got time!" So, we fired up the wagon with the idea of making a trip to the old mning town of Oatman, AZ. before turning back around to Kingman and then on to Vegas.

But, before leaving town, we couldn't pass up this mural on the side of the Mohave Museum for a photo op. (If you ever get the chance, visit this museum when in Kingman!)

 

Very cool post!

 

One of the cool things about Route 66, especially this section, is that when you travel the Route, you are making history in the same way, on the same road, that history was made.



While riding in the wagon, we realized that we were seeing the same view through our windshield that someone traveling the same path would have seen some fifty, sixty, even seventy or eighty years ago. The land hasn't been molested by high power lines or cell towers through the years. What the early visitors saw, we saw.

 

After leaving Kingman and before reaching Oatman, early travelers in this area came upon Cool Springs, AZ. Pictures on the wall at Cool Springs now show how it looked back when travelers in the twenties would stop in here for gas or to spend a night in one of the cabins.



Cool Springs was restored back to it's original glory just a few years ago. When I first visited the place in '95, all that remained was a concrete slab and two rock retaining posts for the gas station overhang. A few years before that, the site was rebuilt as a prop in an action movie and was blown up in one scene.



Now restored, it curently has a store and a museum. It's worth a visit just to see autographed copies of every Rolling Stone vinyl album produced! Oh, and those two rock posts that you see here are the originals.





Besides flowers . . . . . . . . .



You could find this piece of yard art in the yard.





You gotta love 'em old pumps!



This is how it might have looked to our parents when they visited back in the day! (Was playing around with an app on my phone!)

 

The next thing that you encounter on Oatman Hwy. is Shaffer Fish Bowl Spring. While it's not that old, having been built way after Route 66 was built, the view from atop Shaffer Fish Bowl is breathtaking.









The stairs leading up to Shaffer Fish Bowl Spring.



On a dare! (Don't worry, he really didn't!)



Another of the curves that make up Route 66 to Oatman.



Ansel Adams he's not!



The station wagon with the stairs to Shaffer Fish Bowl Spring in the background.



Early Route 66 travelers knew that when they reached Seagraves Pass that the climb was over.



A look down of Route 66 to Oatman from Seagraves Pass. It's this winding road that caused early travelers heading to Oatman to hire locals to drive their cars around the winding turns and up the steep grades, often times backwards because of the gravity fed carbs, into Oatman.



The wagon resting after the long, steep climb up Seagraves Pass.

 

Ah! Oatman, AZ!



Oatman is known for the wild burros that roam the streets. When the miners no longer needed the donkeys when the mines played out, the just let them run wild. When Stevan and I were at Cool Springs, we heard one of the wild burros baying in the mountains.



The donkeys roam Oatman looking for handouts today. They are pretty tame but the locals warn that they can still kick and bite. You can buy a bag of carrots to feed to them.



I'm thinking that these two weren't hungry!

 

Awesome thread. makes me want to do a roadtrip soon. Butiful wagon!

 

Great thread !! Thank you very much for taking the time to post all the fantastic pics, sure looks like a fun road trip!!