Mile 7530 – Williams, Arizona, gateway to Grand Canyon National Park. We started off in Barstow, a town that has seen better days and even those days were probably not that good. We had one of our worst meals of the trip last night. The hotel was nestled in between I-40 and a very busy train track. The air conditioner was at least as useful overpowering the noise from outside as in cooling our room. But Barstow is mentioned in the song “Get Your Kicks on Route 66”.
Quiz of the Day: Who wrote that song? You can easily look it up on the Internet (I did), but if anyone actually knows that without cheating, put in a comment. Your reward will be that we will approve your comment. If we later find out you cheated, you will get a dishonorable mention in our posts.
We drove through the Mojave desert in the morning. It was not as hot as the day before. By the time we got to Kingman, we discovered from the local visitor center that we had just whizzed by another Aunt Esther postcard scene, so we backtracked on the old Route 66 from Kingman towards Oatman and back. It was well worth it. P.J. will have the pictures to prove it.
Back on I-40 from Kingman, the road went up-and-up-and-up and the temperature went down-and-down from the nineties to the sixties. We had rain and sun with spectacular scenic thunderstorm skies. We are now in Williams on Route 66. Williams is not mentioned in the song, but it is a lot nicer than Barstow.
Vintage Postcard Project: September 10: Route 66, Arizona
[Photographs © 2012 P.J. Gardner. All Rights Reserved.]