Day Nine - Victorville, CA - Santa Monica - June 30, 2010

Hey hello again!

We left the hotel at 8:45 am this morning on our way to the end of our adventure.  When we started out  it was top-down weather, 86F, but in fifteen minutes the temp. was down to 62 degrees; we kept the top down and the heater on!!!!  We jumped onto BL15/Route 66 at Victorville at elevation 3500ft and started down the hill to the Pacific Ocean, elevation ZERO.  We drove 35 miles on 66 to the Rialto exit where we got off and started a long drive in traffic through city after city.  We stopped in Upland at a '66 retro-decor gas station and mall for our daily latte, the gas station was really well done, to bad we had a full tank.

The traffic on 66 through the many cities moved well even though it was very heavy by Peoria standards.  Our next stop was Pomona where we planned to visit the NHRA (drag racing) museum, however it was closed on Tuesdays so we will plan to stop on our way back to Las Vegas.  We continued West on Old 66 which turns into Sunset Blvd. and then  after Highland Park, 66 becomes Santa Monica Blvd. in Hollywood.  One of the big attractions in West Hollywood is PINKS famous chili dogs and yes we just had to stop and sample the dogs for lunch.  They actually had a great menu and long lines of customers.  This eatery has been in business since 1939 and is family owned.  Going through Hollywood and Beverly Hills was a treat for me, my first time, and yes we drove by many of the famous sites we have all heard of, Walk of the Stars, Grauman's Chinese Theatre,  Hollywood and Vine, and the Egyptian Theatre.

We kept driving down Route66  (Lincoln Blvd.) getting closer and closer to the end which is at Olympic Blvd.  The official End to Route 66 is a little disappointing, the isn't even posted with a sign!  I guess the City of Santa Monica would like you to visit the "Unofficial" end at the pier which we proceeded to do so that we could get the traditional picture taken and have a drink to celebrate our 2448 mile adventure.

Dave and I had a great time and the Vette performed perfectly along the way, we would encourage you to take the trip; our final drive today was 120 miles.  Dave and I are staying another day in LA  to see the sights and then we will be off to Las Vegas for the annual July 4th pool party at Dave and Pam's.  Today, Kathy and I celebrated our 42nd anniversary apart, but will get back together in a couple of days in Vegas, "Happy Anniversary Honey."

Dave and I enjoyed the trip and writing the blog each night, we hope you enjoyed the adventure along with us.

                    Mike and Dave

     Vons 66 in Upland.

Day 8 - Kingman, AZ - Victorville, CA - June 28, 2010

With the war cry "California or Bust" and the outside temperature of 93 deg. at 8:50 am, we hit the road leaving Kingman AZ and Andy Devine Avenue headed west. The old Route 66 takes a completely different path from Kingman to Needles CA following some very twisting mountain roadway past the Black Mountains.  This was very much like the old Fish Creek Canyon road north of Apache Junction AZ complete with a derelict car that had gone over the side of the mountain road.  We expected to see the old gold mines along the way, but what was most surprising was to see a modern and very active gold mine in this area with a couple of dozen employee cars!  As we passed through Oatman which is an old mining town converted to contemporary tourist zone, we had to avoid the many burros roaming freely down main street!  Ultimately, we made our way down to the Colorado River, crossed over into California at Needles and said adios to Arizona.  The were some very long and mostly unbroken stretches of "66" all of the way to Kingman.  As we made our way there, the temperature steadily rose to 111 deg. as we passed Amboy and the remnants of Roy's Cafe.  Between Amboy and Ludlow we passed  Amboy (volcanic) Crater and the black lava field that surrounded it for many miles.

We stopped for lunch at the Ludlow Cafe which turned out to be pretty decent food but a little slow in coming.  Although Ludlow was our original destination for the day, it was still only mid-afternoon so we pressed on to Victorville.  As we came into the town, we stopped at a pretty good "66" Museum and where they had one of the old-style restrooms.

Anticipating traveling to LA tomorrow and knowing that it is strictly forbidden to drive a dirty car in LA we found a car wash that could deal with the accumulation of bugs and grime from Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and now California.  Amazingly, there was still a good looking 'Vette after we finished at the car wash.  We got lucky with a local recommendation for an "authentic" Mexican restaurant for dinner, it was great!  We logged 275 miles today and we are looking forward to completing the final leg of the journey, onto Santa Monica Pier tomorrow.

         Pants on the ground,  Dave

     Twisty roads and great vistas between Cool Springs and Oatman, AZ.

     Aggressive driving could get you in trouble here, good thing Mike was driving!

    Oatman, AZ. quaint little tourist town/trap?

     Burro-lined street, very docile and quite likable burros.

    Don't kick or lick the car!

     Crossing the Colorado river at Topak, CA.

     Dave has the death grip on the Vette wheel.

    Amboy, CA very hot and lots of bikers.

    Amboy Crater whose lava flow crosses Route 66, strange to see in the middle of the dessert.

    On the outskirts of Amboy the Vette read 111F.

    We wanted to stay here tonight, but they were booked up.

     The old horse has bugs and dirt from eight states, can't wait to get it cleaned.

    Lunch time in Ludlow, CA. our book guide said they had good eats!

    Great museum in Victorville, decided to stay for the night.

                      Pants on the ground "Dave" has no shame!!!!!!

    Remember these campers?  Camping at it's finest.

    Clean once again, they did a great job.

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.