The Wanderings of busman7

Returned to Route 66 at Clines Corners which consisted of a service center whose humongous store contained the largest collection of kitsch & junk  pertaining to  Route 66, or anything else you could think of, west of the Mississippi.

Did meet a retired Saskatchewan farmer there, by the John Deere stuff, going to Texas for the winter, seems Sask. is about as bad a place for seniors as Ont., only colder.

Pretty much followed the Interstate as it runs parallel to 66 most of the way. Followed the business loop, old 66, into most towns & discovered a to die for wrecking yard & car, truck, tractor & toy collection at Lewis’s in Moriarty NM.

Decided against the alignments to the north or into Santa Fe due to time restraints (2 weeks definitely not enough). Did venture into Albuquerque on the old road where I found a clean but shabby looking Motel, the Desert Sands for $35/night.

Found Citi Bank in the northern part of town but it turned out to be just a call center (at least it’s in the US).

Also discovered where the “Jackalope”, combination Jack Rabbit & Antelope (only Orono residents knowing a contributor to the local paper would understand) has disappeared to. It’s alive & well running a store in Albuquerque!

Entered Arizona & took a drive through the awesome Painted Desert & Petrified Forest. In a tossup between the Grand Canyon (which I had previously visited so bypassed this time) I would have to give the edge to the Painted Desert.

Muffler on the van decided it had done it’s duty, going into Holbrook so had it replaced at Thompsons, who had one in stock & was on my way in just over an hour at a fair price.

Once again took I-40 taking the old road through the towns until getting off at Seligman, a town with the most old alignment tourist places I had seen in one place. As it was lunch time, just couldn’t resist eating at The Roadkill Cafe, however seeing as I had no roadkill for them to cook, settled for a menu item.

Next stop was Kingman & a visit to the Powerhouse tourist info center & the interesting Route 66 museum. Here it was also decision time on whether to follow the old alignment over the pass to Oatman or the last one following I-40 to Topock, the Colarado River & California. As it was 5 pm, raining off & on + time restraints, rather than spend the night in Kingman & carry on to Oatman, which I had visited before, I decided to push on to Needles & spend the night there.

This entry was posted on Friday, October 29th, 2010 at 07:44 and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.