Sunday, May 9th - Holbrook AZ to Williams AZ
First, a very happy Mothers Day to all you mothers out there. Hope your children have been properly appreciative of all you do for them!
Arizona took a leaf from the New Mexico Weather Book. Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!
Our first stop this morning was the Navajo County Museum:
A few blocks from the Wigwam Motel, the museum is in the preserved courthouse. Our docent, Patty Koury, was the perfect hostess. She said we were free to roam and to just holler if we had questions. Much preferred to someone who insists on showing you things their way:
This place is crammed with interesting and authentic items from the 19th century Old West and the early 20th Century:
(Gael really liked this bench but it just wouldn't fit into the Corvette; we tried..)
Of particular interest were two things; the first is the "left as it was" courtroom with nine bullet holes in the walls and ceilings:
(Note that the flag pre-dates Arizona statehood)
(Buzz looks pretty natural as Da Judge)
(Gael took the opportunity to call our daughter and wish her a Happy Mothers Day)
.. and the second was the iron sixteen-cell prison block installed in the basement. Believe me, you did NOT want to be imprisoned in Holbrook, AZ:
(Some prisoners were also very talented artists..)
From Holbrook we headed west toward our eventual stopover in Williams, AZ. On the way we stopped for several photo opportunities:
(This section of Arizona Route 66 is being slowly reclaimed by grass growing up through the asphalt)
For years, Route 66 was littered with signs advertising the Jack Rabbit Trading Post. The signs all had a black silhouette rabbit and teased about how close you were to "it" (the trading post). This is the final sign (and one of only one or two still present):
There used to be a realistic giant jack rabbit here but it was replaced years ago by this big plastic one:
Naturally, we:
..made complete tourist fools of ourselves!
Some distance down the road we found this old store; the front wall is comprised entirely of petrified wood)
Next stop, Winslow, Arizona:
Who doesn't remember the 70s Eagles hit "Takin' It Easy"? One line, from one song, thirty years ago, has transformed this little town. We parked across from the Old Trails Museum which was closed (it IS Mother's Day):
The line from the song? "Standin' on the corner in Winslow, Arizona.."
There were two gift/curio shops on diagonally opposite corners. Roadworks:
.. was being staffed today by Bruce Lazzamini:
(Bruce with his dash plaque)
The other store is Dominique's Hallmark Shop. It's operated by John & Karen Harvey:
(Notice the Route 66 jigsaw puzzle made by friend Paul Adams of Vettequest)
It was getting on to lunchtime so we walked a couple of blocks to the famous La Posada Hotel. If we hadn't wanted to stay in the Wigwam Motel we might have booked here last night.
Being Mother's Day (duh!) we couldn't get seated so we took some pix and left.
We left Winslow and a few miles along Route 66 we encountered the "Forrest Gump" bridge, so called because it was featured in the movie:
As we motored west, did we have any scenery? Well, I guess:
Entering Flagstaff we stopped at The Museum Club but since they don't serve food and we won't drink and drive, we moved on:
.. to a Jack-in-the-box for lunch. The Lowell Observatory is in Flagstaff so we drove up hoping to hook onto a tour. Timing was bad so we motored on:
(Observatories are better at night, anyway)
We sidetracked a bit to get to a pair of big buildings on the south side of Route 66. The buildings housed the local Harley dealership and the Route 66 Roadhouse -- both biker hangouts as you might guess. They have a stage where riders can pose with their bikes. We posed in front of it:
Considering the cars have four wheels each instead of two, they got a lot of attention. Here's a shot from inside the Roadhouse:
About a mile down a portion of Route 66 labeled "Dead End" is the old Pine Breeze Inn which was in the movie "Easy Rider":
Here's what Route 66 looked like from here on:
We opted to jump onto I-40 and boogie on in to Williams, AZ and our hotel The Grand Canyon Railroad & Resort:
We relaxed for a few hours and then went to dinner in the hotel (still smiling!):
Then it was off to bed; tomorrow we leave the cars parked and take the train to the Grand Canyon!
If you find typos or other errors on these pages, please click to
. I can't always respond to the emails promptly (being on the road all day) but I do receive, read and act on them.
Another great day -- and much, much more to come...
Watch for more tomorrow, Day #14 on the Mother Road!
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