Day 7 - Holbrook, AZ to Kingman, AZ - June 27, 2010

Hello again!!

Today was the seventh day of our adventure and we are still motivated to get to Santa Monica in a couple of days.  We jumped in the Vette at 8:40 am and started down the road toward Winslow, AZ.  Route 66 through Arizona is very nice and much of the time you are driving on US 40, flying low under the radar!  While we were still leaving Holbrook we passed the Wigwam Motel, a group of wigwams that are used as a motel, this is a very famous tourist attraction on Route 66 and no we didn't stay there, never!!!  On the way to Joseph City we passed many businesses that had been abandoned; this is the sad part of the trip.  In Joseph City we passed by the Jackrabbit Trading Post complete with a jackrabbit big enough to ride.  After Joseph City we drove on down the road to Winslow, AZ, remember the Eagles, well this is the town they sang about in record "Take it Easy."  Dave and I are big Eagles fans so we had to stop for photos and of course we had to make a few purchases. 

Our next stop was Meteor Crater between Winslow and Winona.  A 150 pound meteor hit this spot on earth 50,000 years ago and was discovered in the early 1900s.  The crater is something to behold, the hole is 4000 feet across and 250 feet deep; the astronauts trained in this crater in the early 60s for their flight to the moon.  The museum on the site is very well done and contains many interesting facts and photos along with the largest fragment from the meteor strike, most of the meteor disintegrated at impact because of the great pressure and temperature created.

We continued our trip west onto Flagstaff where we had lunch at Granny's Closet, another famous Route 66 attraction.  As we continued west the temperature continued to climb until we saw 104F on the Vette readout, the highest temp. for the trip so far.  We continue to see the old Burma Shave signs along the route, boy does that bring back memories.

We had  planned to go to Grand Canyon Caverns today, visit the caverns and then call it a day, but it was early so we decided not to stay there.  We did visit the caverns, they are 220 feet below ground and are the best caverns that I have see.  The caverns are huge and have concrete walkways with railings along with great decorative accent lighting, a must see if you are traveling west on Route 66.

Our final stop for the day was Kingman, AZ where we gassed up the Vette for tomorrow and went off to eat Chinese.  We drove 275 miles today and plan to drive about 250 miles tomorrow, that should put us in Santa Monica early Tuesday.

             Regards from the Mother Road,  Mike

    The Wigwam Motel in Holbrook.

     The sad parts of Route 66.

     Another abandoned businesses.

     Neither one of us wanted to pose for a picture because we are afraid of heights.

     Remember "the girl in the flat bed Ford" ?

     A fine example of the real thing?

     The Meteor Crater, quite a hole!

                              Dave standing at the bottom of the crater.

    Lunch time in Flagstaff.

                       Another "Giant Alert", this Bunyon is a cousin to the one in Illinois.