Log 12: Route 66 in '06

Log of Albion (and other travels)

These are e-mails and letters sent back to family and friends from our trip on Route 66 from Chicago, IL to Santa Monica, CA with friends in two RV's. So it was on to Chicago first!

7/17/06: Our Great American Road Trip

We are embarking on “our great American road trip” heading back to Minnesota before returning west on historic Route 66. We will be keeping our family and friends informed of our whereabouts by sending periodic updates of our travels. We recognize that some of you may not be interested in our journey so if you would prefer not to receive these e-mails, just drop us a reply to this one, and let us know….we won’t bore you with our further updates. It’s now day three of our travels and we have made it all the way to Fort Bridger, Wyoming….having gotten on our way a day ahead of our scheduled departure on Tuesday, 7/10. Rain was predicted for the Portland area later that day and who wants to start an adventure in the rain. A quick stop for breakfast in Cascade Locks served to remind us to check out the parking lot before pulling in. We had to unhook the car to turn around in the limited space! How soon we forget about that tow behind us! Today was what our friends, John and Janet Neal, refer to as a 2 x 2 day---no more than 200 miles and off the road by 2 p.m. We stopped for the day at the casino in Pendleton. Wednesday was an uneventful, but certainly not a 2 x 2 day. Six hours on the road got us to the Wal-Mart in Jerome, Idaho. But today there’s something to write home about! We did leave earlier than Molly usually prefers. Brent has promised me an easy trip and he knows I get cranky when he has the motor running before I have my teeth brushed. But today, we were up and on the road by 7 am. After a fuel stop a few miles down the road in Twin Falls, we continued on and stopped for breakfast just across the Utah border in Snowville. Saw Mollie’s Café and knew we had to try it. It’s quite a colorful spot and so is Mollie herself! It appears Mollie may be spending a good deal of dollars on products to keep her looking as young as she once was, and that may be money spent in vain, but she’s a friendly old gal and serves up pretty good home cooked type meals. Our destination for the day was Fort Bridger, Wyoming. We have no cell phone or internet service at our park here, but needed to make some phone calls for reservations for the next few days, so drove into the next little community of Mt. View. While Brent handled the reservation calls, I browsed the local quilt shop and found some nice projects for Christmas for our girls. Back in Fort Bridger, we toured the historic fort site, well worth the $2/person price of admission. It is well preserved or restored in some cases. It was a major stopping and supply station for most of the covered wagon trails west. We really enjoyed it. In the next week we will be heading towards Mt. Rushmore and the Badlands of South Dakota. We will get this sent once we are in an internet service area sometime tomorrow. Along the way we will send more updates now and then, not every day and hopefully much shorter than this one, but often enough to let you know where we are and how we are doing. Once again, if you aren’t interested, just let us know.

7/18/06: Road Trip part two

There’s just not a lot to write home about crossing Wyoming and the western part of Nebraska. Along the way, we have shared the road with hundreds (maybe thousands) of bikers, many of whom are no doubt en route to the huge annual biker gathering in Sturgis, SD in early August. We’ve gained a lot of respect for our pioneer forefathers who kept going once they got this far. There must have been some really good promises of the green fertile valleys awaiting them across the mountains and plains. In Wyoming we saw lots of antelope, one even right outside our RV in the park in Rawlins. Nebraska’s claim to fame apparently is Chimney Rock and Scott's Bluff, two national monuments memorializing the landmarks the pioneers recognized as signposts marking 1/3 of their journey completed and a reminder of the treacherous mountains that lie ahead of them. Since we’ve crossed the Oregon Trail several times now, we purchased a DVD on the historic trail.We camped in a nice economical RV park down by the river in Scottsbluff. We actually met another couple from Oregon in the Wal-mart parking lot and they were heading for this park down by the river. It turned out to be a great alternative to our planned night in the Wal-mart parking lot and allowed us to have air conditioning for some relief from the 100+ degree heat wave sweeping across the mid-west. During the night, we had a terrific windstorm that kept us awake for several hours. We were quite pleased to be in the RV and not at anchor somewhere in our boat!We are now in the Black Hills area of South Dakota near Mt. Rushmore. The area has changed dramatically from what we remember, having been here years ago. At that time, we had made a whirlwind trip here and back to Oregon in a week and didn’t have nearly enough time to see much besides the Presidential Monument. Neither of us remembers there being nearly so much commercial development in the area, but as with everything, things change. There are many caves in the area. Our priority has been to tour the two that are managed by the national park systems Wind Cave and Jewel Cave) rather than the more commercially developed private ones. These are two of the longest and most complex caves in the world. Other than Mt. Rushmore itself, probably the highlight so far has been touring the actual paleontological dig of the recently discovered (1974) Mammoth Site near Hot Springs. Work continues on the carving of the Crazy Horse Monument and perhaps someday it will be completed. There are so many things to see here, we decided to stay in our Coast to Coast membership RV park for 5 nights. Tomorrow we will probably do Deadwood, another site that we visited several years ago and may again be surprised by the changes. We are still on schedule to meet up with cruising/RV friends in upper Minnesota on or about July 26th.More later as we move forward on our road trip.

7/23/06: Mitchell South Dakota

We finally finished touring the Black Hills and have moved on to the Badlands National Park. In addition to the points of interest mentioned in our last update, we toured Deadwood and then spent a day driving through the lower section of the Badlands N.P. to Wounded Knee. We did some study on the internet before our trip because we were aware that not much development has taken place to identify the site. A hand painted sign at the site of the Black Foot massacre and a mass grave at the top of the hill are the only evidence of the American tragedy in December of 1890. It was the last soldier/Indian conflict and ended the traditional Indian lifestyle.Deadwood, as expected, has become a Disneyland of commercialism. Most of the old rebuilt buildings are still there after several fires in the early years, but most are gift shops and casinos. The saloon where Wild Bill Hickock was shot (holding a poker hand of aces and eights) is still there, and has now turned back into a bar. When we were there many years ago it was a studio for old-time dress-up photos.On our way to our park near the Badlands N.P., we were told we HAD to stop at the Wall Drug Store in Wall, S.D. And yes, it was worth the stop. It is an attraction in itself. If you can't find something, you can always find it at the Wall Drug. We spent a couple hours there exploring and had some home-made pie ala mode…..and yes, bought a few gifts. Yesterday, we drove the loop road through the Badlands after watching the obligatory video at the visitor center. This country is a must see for the beautiful sandstone sculptures. Today, we broke camp again and headed East to Mitchell, S.D. After dinner, we went by the Corn Palace and took some more pictures. Now a few more stops and we will be in Winton, MN at our friends Will and Joann’s for a nice visit and the annual Blueberry Festival.

8/2/06: Adult Summer Camp

After the Badlands, we were happy to see the green trees of Minnesota. It started to look a lot more like Oregon, especially when it rained! A terrific thunder and lightning storm moved right over the top of us….we think we know rain in Oregon, but this was something else. It was like adult summer camp once we all got together in Minnesota. Our friends, Dan and Cathy and Horst and Bea were traveling from Wisconsin as we were heading up through Minnesota and we managed to be at our planned meeting place within fifteen minutes of each other. Will and Joann were there to lead us all back into the woods to their summer home on the lake. It was like adult summer camp and I am sure the neighbors thought Will had gone into the RV park business with us all camped in his front yard. The girls did their best to keep the local economy booming with several shopping forays. The big event was the Blueberry Festival and while it was unseasonably hot and crowded, they managed to see it all, twice! The days were filled with lots to eat and drink and great times with good friends. On Sunday, we, along with Dan and Cathy bid the others farewell and headed off towards the Chicago area to start our Route 66 trip. In Wisconsin, we stopped for a night to visit with cruising friends of Dan and Cathy’s. Their air-conditioned home was a welcomed respite from the unseasonably high temperatures we are finding everywhere. We are now in the Chicago area having a chance to meet Cathy’s family and having a guided tour of the windy city. Route 66 starts here. So the adventure begins!

8/8/06: Chicago and beyond......

Chicago….not nearly enough time to do and see everything, even though we tried….guess we will have to come back another time. We toured Chicago via the free trolley that runs during the summer months and spent extra hours visiting the tall ships, Millennium Park, Navy Pier, and the Art Institute. Thanks to my sister JoAnn, I had an idea of some of the highlights in the Institute that we shouldn’t miss in our limited time there. We also had a chance to see parts of Indiana and Michigan for a few days while visiting with some of Cathy’s and Dan’s family.Fortunately, the hot weather has moved on and we have been quite comfortable lately. Not only were we dealing with record high temps in the area, but here in the mid-west, they have this stuff called humidity. Back in the northwest we call that much moisture rain, but umbrellas don't help much here!We drove the first 50 or so miles of Route 66 out of Chicago to our camping spot in Joliet, but today our tour started officially traveling down to Bloomington, IL. We confess to a few wrong turns along the way, but all in all, we are having a great time seeing the old icons of the “Mother Road”. To be continued……………

8/14/06: Branson, Missouri

After traveling across Illinois and most of Missouri, we are taking a few days off with a side trip to Branson, MO. In Bloomington, Illinois, we sampled Beer Nuts at the only place in the world they are made; in Funk's Grove, Gladis Funk saw us coming and opened early so we could try her wonderful maple “sirup” (syrup); and no route 66 trip would be complete in Springfield without Cozy Dog (aka corn dogs) where they were invented. In Springfield, one is hard pressed to find anything not related to Abraham Lincoln. We toured his home and visited the cemetery where he and most of his family is buried. But the real highlight in Springfield was the opportunity to tour a Frank Lloyd Wright house; the unique Dana-Thomas House. Later that day we also toured the now closed Route 66 Chain of Rocks Bridge across the Mississippi River with the distinctive curve halfway across.In St. Louis, it was mandatory that we tour the Anheuser Busch Brewery. Have to say, those Clydesdales have pretty fancy digs and hospitality room is pretty nice too! Later that day we made connections with cruiser/RV friends, Tom and Kathy Edwards, who joined us for a memorable evening at the Luna Cafe, an apparent route 66 icon, once reported to be a hangout for Al Capone and fellow gangsters. Today it is a favorite watering hole of the locals. What they lacked in teeth, they made up for in hospitality. It was “free hot wings” night and then we were foolish enough to take the owners advice and order tacos, which were gigantic. We will never forget our time at the Luna!Coincidentally, the next day we all managed to meet up in town to tour the St. Louis Arch. Tom and Kathy were traveling from the west and we came from the east and we entered the parking garage at exactly the same time! It was a gray morning, so we put off our trip to the top of the arch until after the sun broke through for better viewing. The park has some excellent displays as well as movies on the construction of the arch and Lewis and Clarks’ journey west. It was great to see Tom and Kathy again as we had not seen them since we were in Mazatlan earlier this spring. After lunch, we said goodbye as they were headed to the old courthouse and we were looking for Ulysses S. Grant's home. We were misled to Grant’s Farm which was a rip-off, but we did finally find his hard-to-see home across the street. One more “must do” stop on route 66 was Ted Drew's Frozen Custard. I counted it as dinner and a fine dinner it was--hot fudge raspberry sundae!On our way south and west of St. Louis, we stopped at the Meremec Caverns. They have some of the most impressive formations we have seen in any caves here. At the winery in St. James, we encountered a first. The wine bottles were all lined up and we were told to taste as many as we wanted and pour our own! In Branson, we are taking some time to relax and catch our breath while we take in some shows and exhibits.

8/21/06: Oklahoma City....where the wind comes sweeping down the plain

Branson, Mo afforded lots to do and see, and although we tried, we couldn't do it all. At the new Titanic Museum everyone is given a passport with the name of an actual passenger and you get to find out if you survived or not. Brent, Cathy and I did, but Dan didn't make it. We enjoyed the museum but there is never enough time to read and take in everything. The only show we saw was Jim Stafford who we remember from the old Smothers Brothers Show. Had never heard of most of the others, but then it is the off season, so there aren't too many big names here right now. We tried to see the American Presidents Museum but it has moved several times and didn't seem quite ready for visitors when we finally did find it. Cathy and I did our best to shop ‘til we dropped at all the outlet malls and quilt shops. Five days in Branson was a nice respite with a view from our RV park and not being on the road every day, but finally it was time to move on and get going. Kansas has just a short section of Route 66 crossing the southeast corner of the state. In Baxter Springs, Kansas, we happened upon a nice County Park next to the river to camp in, but nobody ever showed up to collect the night fee so it was quite a bargain. Few of us think of Kansas for its Civil War sites, but apparently there are about 13 sites in this little corner of the state. Or so they say; the locals don't seem to know anything about it. Brent and Dan went looking for a map they had read was available and nobody seemed to know anything about it, not the Chamber of Commerce, not City Hall, and not the local Route 66 icon cafe. Finally someone suggested they check with the police department who also were in the dark about it all, but summoned a lady to come open up the museum and there they finally got the map. Of course, much of it seemed to be in error and they found only some of the sites!Entering Oklahoma, we parked the RVs and drove the car over some of the "ribbon roads” some very narrow original sections (8 feet wide) of the Route 66. We’re glad to have some very good guides advising us not to take the RVs over these sections. The Will Rogers Museum in Claremore was a very impressive display, but again, not nearly enough time to see it all. We would have liked to spend the whole afternoon there.We stopped for the night at the Tulsa Elks Club and were welcomed by a very friendly group preparing a Hawaiian luau for the membership that night. They asked us back later after the sold out event for a free dinner of all the leftovers. Later that night a tremendous thunder and lightning storm roared through the area. Several strikes were very close and must have hit the parking lot we were in because it set off all the car alarms and knocked out one of our air conditioning units. In this 100+ heat, that’s serious. We were lucky to get an appointment at Camping World the next day here in Oklahoma City. There are several things we want to see here so don't mind stopping for a couple days. Again, we're staying at a very friendly Elks club with hookups, right near town....and more thunder & lightning!!!

8/30/06: Half-way and more!

We spent a couple nights at the Oklahoma City Elks to get the RV into Camping world for the A/C repair. The stop allowed for a visit to the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial and Museum, very impressive. The next day was a mostly freeway day as the actual route 66 is a very narrow frontage road right along side the freeway. We stopped at the General Thomas P. Stafford Air and Space Museum. It is on his old property in Weatherford, OK and we thought it would be a quick look, but it turned out to be a real find. The museum houses much of the memorabilia of his life as a fighter pilot and astronaut as well as lots from the NASA space program. General Stafford’s mother came to Oklahoma in a covered wagon and lived to see her son fly to the moon. The three-time astronaut still lives nearby and frequents the museum often. He had been there only days earlier along with some Russian Cosmonauts he had once flown with.
We were a little disappointed with the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, OK as there wasn’t much actual Route 66 stuff, but the entire Elk City Museum campus was well laid out. We finished the day on the Oklahoma/Texas border in Texola. As we continued on into Texas, it was again mostly a freeway drive as the route follows along on the very narrow frontage roads alongside or is actually Rt 66. Dan and Cathy’s new refrigerator was giving them problems so we stopped in Amarillo at the Elks for two nights for repairs again. We took some time to see the infamous Cadillac Ranch they do strange things here in Texas. Several models of Cadillac buried nose down out in a field become the object of extensive graffiti painting. Finally we reached the halfway point with a lunch stop at the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, TX. This quaint little spot was the inspiration for the café depicted in the recent Disney film Cars. Several of the employees were invited to attend and given the royal red carpet treatment at the premier of the film. We enjoyed hearing all about it from the very informative owner, Fran. We ended the day with a stop at the Tumcumcari Elks enjoying the evening meal there. Our next stop was in Santa Fe, NM. on the old pre-1932 Rt 66 alignment, once again at the Elks. It seems we are making our way across country via the Elks. Many of the clubs have RV facilities for members and we are taking advantage of them whenever possible. Santa Fe is a beautiful town where among the many upscale shopping areas, one can also find the oldest church, oldest Government building, and highest State Capitol in the nation. Leaving there the next day, we encountered problems with our starting batteries. High fuel prices have not been our only major expense of the trip, but we felt fortunate to find a Freightliner shop just down the road from our next stop in Albuquerque. Early the next morning, we got brand new power and were on the road once again. We left Route 66 for a side trip along a scenic route past The Ice Cave and Bandera Volcano, and stopping at El Morro National Monument. Here Inscription Rock is the site of many early travelers leaving their names carved into the sandstone rock monolith. Many dates are from the early 1600’s when the Spaniards occupied the area. After an overnight stop in Gallup, NM we traveled off Route 66 again to the Canyon De Chelly National Monument in Northern Arizona. While the canyons here are not as massive as the Copper Canyon in Mexico, or our own Grand Canyon, the scenery certainly rivals both. There are far fewer tourists here and it makes exploring and seeing the numerous ancient Indian ruins a rewarding experience. Since there was so much to see, we spent another two nights here, and Brent got to hike the 2.5 miles to the bottom of the canyon and back, at one point, to view some of the ruins up close.

9/5/06: Ft. Mojave, AZ; one more state to go!

Highlights of the last few days include the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park. Much of the Painted Desert reminded us of areas around the John Day Fossil Beds in Oregon. Then we left Route 66 once again to make a side trip to Show Low AZ, to visit cruising friends we had met in Mazatlan, Lou and Irene (Hi-Fin). They are building a house in the area and joined us for a fish fry at the Show Low Elks. The next day we made the “must do” stop in Winslow, Arizona to “take it easy and stand on the corner” as per the Eagles hit song. It is indeed a tourist stop as Dan and Cathy were barely out of their RV when a local cab driver stopped to ask if they needed directions to “the corner.” We spent that evening at Meteor Crater National Landmark—quite a big hole in the ground and an interesting museum. Route 66 leaves 1-40 at Winona and heads to Flagstaff. Although the song says “don’t forget Winona” apparently somewhere along the way someone did, because there’s nothing there to mark the spot other than an old trailer house, or else we missed it. We had lunch in Flagstaff and dessert at the “must stop and see” Snow Cap Drive In in Seligman. Then we drove the longest unbroken portion of Route 66 (Seligman - Kingman) to Peach Spings to finish the day with a tour of the Grand Canyon Caverns and spent the night all by ourselves in the their campground. Temperatures started to warm up as we headed down the valley into Kingman. Our planned stop at the Hackberry General Store (another Rt 66 icon) was thwarted when we found it inundated by a huge group of bikers (motor kind) leaving no room for a couple of RVs with tows to pull over. By the time we reached Laughlin, NV, our destination for the day, the valley was downright hot (106 degrees). Our plan to dry camp in a casino parking area was quickly abandoned for a RV park to plug in and run the A/C and enjoy some cold refreshments. Today we traveled by car back to Kingman to meet more cruising and RV friends, Wayne and Glenda (KIVA) and see the progress on their new home under construction. The trip by car was less of a challenge for the travel over the Sitgreaves Pass from Kingman to Oatman, a very curvy, hilly section of Rt. 66 not recommended for RV passages. We spent some time shopping the tourist traps in Oatman, and cooled off with a cold drink in what appears to be the last remaining liquor establishment where once there were more than twenty along main street. Other cruising/RV friends, Tom and Sue Stose, had taken us to Oatman a couple years ago and it was that trip that first inspired us to make this whole Route 66 trip. We ended our day with a great prime rib dinner back in Laughlin and tomorrow will head for California and the last few days of our trip along historic route 66!

9/8/06: Route 66 Completed!

It took three days to complete the rest of the trip across California to Santa Monica. We started out in 100+ degree heat so didn’t put in long days. Most of the way was on the old National Trails Highway (Route 66). We ended the first day in Newberry Springs at the Twin Lakes RV park. Kind of ironic since there isn’t any “springs” and only two small man-made lakes (ponds) at the park. We ended the day with another thunder and lightning storm and a bit of rain.The last day of RV-ing started out early to avoid over-heating going over the El Cajon pass. We stopped at the Route 66 museum in Barstow to drop off a note from the gift shop attendant at the Joliet Route 66 museum. But the Barstow museum was closed so we just left it in the door jam. We then stopped at the original, very first, McDonalds restaurant. in San Bernardino that is only a museum now. Oh well, lunch later! We, again, stopped at an Elks in Ontario, CA for our last stay.The last segment of the Mother Road was done in the car to avoid the Los Angeles traffic. There were few points of interest on this last leg, and nothing really to stop and tour. The end of Route 66 was located at the end of Santa Monica Blvd. and Ocean Ave. were a plaque commemorates the “Will Roger’s Highway.” Then we celebrated by walking out the Santa Monica Pier and having lunch and a toast to the end of a fine trip. The other un-offical end of Route 66 was supposed to be located at the Olympic Park a few blocks up from the pier, but we could not find any trace of a marker, an “END” banner, or even the park! So we headed back to the RV’s in Ontario and again celebrated by opening a long-chilled bottle of champagne.The trek is complete! We had a great six weeks with several side trips that added some depth to the trip, visited with friends along the way, and met new friends. Thanks for caring enough to read about our great adventure.

Brent