November 23, 2011Route 66

Arizona has one of the longest stretch of Route 66 also called the “Mother Road” remaining in the USA, so we decided to take a small journey and “get our kicks on route 66”. We left here for Topock which is mile 0 for Route 66 in Arizona. This is a two lane highway and along the route we saw several motorbikes that must have been having a ball on the road. Did not realize until we started travelling that we would be going through the Black Mountains at this point. The road had hairpin turns; the speed limit at some of the sections was 10 miles an hour! While going over some of the hills, you can’t even see where the road is on the other side. This whole section was built around the mountain rather than through which is what is normally done.

It was pretty barren then we came into Oatman which is an old mining town and considered a ghost town. One of its claims to fame is supposed to be the burros that wander around town – guess what, we did not see ONE. They had a few shops on the main street where people at least do stop, some souvenir shops. At 12:00 and 2:15 they have a “shoot out” on Main Street. We stayed to see this, with cowboys and real guns, but with blanks. They have the people stand in middle of the road to stop traffic and to better see the show. They are Shriners as well and after they are revived, the cowboys pass the hat, kind of a neat way to keep interest in the town and help out good cause as well. Travelling from here to our next stop, we did pass an open mine that was working, could see the openings in the mountains as well as the mine shafts. All of this is right along the highway. Again, the road was twisty and turny the whole time. We drove on the right hand side hugging the mountains on the way up, the other side of the road had no guard rails anywhere so at Sitgreaves Pass, you are looking down 3556’. I have one picture showing the road that I downloaded from the internet – can’t call it mine- that shows what the roads were like.
The official photographer had a senior’s moment and she forgot to check the camera to make sure there was enough power, so only got some of the pictures. Probably would not have been able to take more anyway as was mesmerized by the road and the drop. When road was originally built, apparently the old model T’s had to go up this same road backward – people hire locals to do it. Gravity fed engine did not get enough gas.

We eventually reached a plateau, just outside of Kingman and were flat from there. This is more of a city, but a lot of places closed up, they only had a museum in town, which we missed. It was not as interesting as Oatman but it is another mining town. We stopped for lunch at MR D’s in Kingman, old time diner, great hamburgers. Coming into the town though, is an Adult correctional institute, bail bondsman and lawyers, on the other side, is a youth detention center, so not sure if I would want to spend much time on here. So I guess between the mines and these places that would be most of the workforce.

It was a neat day trip, even though it was only actually 56 miles along the route, mostly through the mountains. This road was completed from Chicago to Santa Monica, CA in 1937. How they got there and did that road is another feat of engineering.