My 2015 and 2016 Encounters With U.S. Hwy. 66 - Part 1

 

An interesting take on Route 66.

Spending most of my life either in Georgia or in El Paso, in neither place was I anywhere close to U.S. Hwy. 66 (aka Route 66).  And I was a bit young for the TV series.  Though Albuquerque was a "scant" 266 miles north ("scant" in terms of "Texas distances"), I regretfully did not visit there enough times during my 14 years in El Paso (1977-1991).  Oddly enough, for a while, there was a Route 66-themed restaurant on the west side of El Paso.  [I am not sure if it was to cater to Albuquerque and Flagstaff expatriates or not.]

I suppose my failure to visit Albuquerque was because when I decided to venture 200+ miles from El Paso if I was by myself I headed west to see family members in Phoenix, and when I was with a friend, we went southeast towards Big Bend.

These things being so, during my 1973 family vacation, 1974 road trip, and subsequent visits to Flagstaff, Albuquerque, and Oklahoma City, my contacts with Route 66 were incidental and sporadic.  As recounted below, it was the time spent in Flagstaff in Flagstaff in 2015 that began my interest in Route 66, perhaps as a separate future "Bucket List" project.

The first half of 2015 had more than its share of tumult, as recounted in other posts.  After my first wife passed away from a suspected stroke on May 1st, my daughter's family completed a planned move to Phoenix for my son-in-law's job at the end of May.

After my first wife's passing, when the time came to plan for the arrival of the moving van, plans were also being made to ship their dog and their SUV to Phoenix, while they flew.  With my son working, and my wife gone, I wasn't looking forward to the sudden silence when they left.

I inquired if it would save them some money if I drove the SUV and ferried the dog.  It was decided to be a workable plan, so I asked a long-time friend, Neal, (a fellow beer can collector) if he wanted to go.  He agreed, thus began the "2015 Arizona Trip #1".  

As my daughter needed her SUV, we (including the dog) had to get to Phoenix, by way of I-20 and I-10, ASAP.  We made it in just over 2 and 1/2 days.  Once in Phoenix, we stayed for about a week.  As I hadn't been out west in a few years, Neal and I visited a number of local breweries in Phoenix and Flagstaff (and others on the way back to Georgia).  We made a one-day foray into Flagstaff for a "beer run" of sorts as we planned to cruise through Flagstaff a few days later, before the beer stores opened. 

We visited Lumberyard Brewing Company first, though I don't recall any Route 66 references within the crowded, popular brewery.  The ambiance of the patio on a cool Flagstaff day was quite enjoyable.  (A couple of days earlier, when Phoenix was 105 degrees, Flagstaff was 69 degrees.) 

Figure 1.

Appropriate to this post, we visited Mother Road Brewing Company next (see below).  ("Mother Road" is a nickname for U.S. Hwy 66.)  I guess this is when my interest in Route 66 was kindled.  

Back in 1979, I had spent one or two nights at a cousin's place in Flagstaff, and previously in 1973 and later in 2005 (?), I had stayed the night in local motels during family vacations, but the visits of Neal and I represented the most "intense" daytime exposure to Flagstaff, its history, and its culture (as a college town and a tourist mecca).

Figure 2.

Figure 3.

Figure 4. (I think they had 5 kinds of Kolsch.)

Figure 5.  Field Research at Mother Road.

Prior to visiting Mother Road Brewing Company in Flagstaff that day, we detoured north for a short visit to Sunset Crater, a youthful 900-year-old shield volcano (a Bucket List item).  (I did a little Geology on the trip, a few days earlier, we had briefly stopped at the Monahans Sandhills on I-20.)

Figure 6.  Sunset Crater from Cinder Hills Overlook.

Figure 7.  Sunset Crater, view from the West.

After Mother Road, we visited Historic Brewing Company's Barrel & Bottle House, my first experience with an actual "gastropub".

Upon leaving Flagstaff that day, we decided to return to Phoenix by way of Sedona, scenic Oak Creek Canyon, and Oak Creek Brewing Company and have an early dinner.  We spent a few more days in Phoenix, then picked up a rental car for the return trip, opting for the expected cooler temperatures of the higher latitude of I-40 and a couple of side visits. 

[As bad luck would have it, I left my small laptop at home and as the Nikon D50 would only "hold" 1 GB or 2 GB cards, I had to download photos each day to my daughter's Apple laptop.  Perhaps it was my inexperience with the Apple system, but some of the photo files "disappeared" into her computer and we couldn't find them.  That included the Sunset Crater and Sedona photos.  The Sunset Crater photos above are from 2015 Arizona Trip #2.] 

From Flagstaff, we detoured off the Route 66 corridor to visit Monument Valley and the Four Corners Monument, then spent the night in Farmington, NM.  A couple of early stops on U.S. Hwy 89 included seeing Dinosaur tracks at Moenave, AZ and the Elephants Feet a few miles further east. 

Figure 8.  Dinosaur Track near Moenave, AZ

Figure 9.  Elephant Feet, East of Moenave.

After that "Four Corners" excursion, we headed back to Albuquerque, I-40, and the Route 66 "corridor".  That night we stayed in Santa Rosa, NM at the La Quinta and had a satisfying Mexican dinner at the nearby Silver Moon Cafe.  Following any of Route 66 was not on our "radar", but after seeing the numerous references in Flagstaff and Santa Rosa, the "seed was planted" in my mind to be more vigilant and observant.

 Figure 10.

Figure 11.

Our next stop was planned for Marla's hometown in NW Oklahoma, to spread some of her ashes at an old family farm and visit some of her relatives.  To reach Oklahoma City (and Marla's parents' home by dark), we had to "buzz on by" The Big Texan, again.  (We didn't know that The Big Texan had added a brewpub by then.)

As we left Oklahoma City the next day (being on the road was wearing us down), as we were planning the final days of our trip along I-40, while driving, we were leaving U.S. 66 behind.  (As recounted, U.S. Hwy. 66 had not been a major side interest.)

After we returned to our respective homes in the Metro Atlanta area, I was glad to be home, but still struck by the sudden, awesome (overwhelming) silence.  I decided that I had to get out again.  I needed to get out and go west again.  This time to visit some long-bypassed Geology stops, to stop and take photos any time I pleased, and to engage in much needed "driving and crying".

Amidst the hurried planning for the "2015 Arizona Trip #2", I hadn't immediately thought of The Big Texan.  That turned out to be a "spur of the moment" decision when I reached Amarillo on the 3rd Day of Trip #2.  [To be continued ...]

 Figure 12.

 

 Figure 13.

Figure 14.