September 9 – 20, 2023: From the Mojave Desert to Oklahoma City!
Info:
Route 66 begins in Santa Monica in California and ends in Chicago. As this is a historic road, it is not passable everywhere and in some places it no longer exists. Interstate 40 runs along the route all the way to Oklahoma City, making it easy to get out of the way if you get stuck. Route 66 is often the service road of I-40, so you drive right next to the highway. It was originally 2451 miles / 3945 km long.
My opinion:
I only drove Route 66 in sections. Especially where it runs parallel to I-40, I often took the interstate. But I couldn’t resist the “Sidewinder” to Oatman in Arizona. All in all, a great experience, but more for nostalgic reasons.
Diary:
In the Mojave Desert, I experienced the hottest day of the entire trip at 40°C. Apart from Tehachapi, the places there are somewhat desolate. They differ in that in one the “Gun Shop” comes before the “Liqueur Shop”, in the next it is the other way round. Maybe. Nobody could answer the question of what makes people settle there.
Which is not to say that the desert isn’t beautiful. On the contrary! But living there …?
From Barstow I drove on Route 66.
There are still many old cafés, restaurants and stores that thrive on tourists seeking a sense of freedom. Motorcyclists in the old style, without helmets and in short sleeves, convertibles with open tops, … the glorious past of the Mother Road is celebrated.
There are also “sidewinders”, i.e. side roads of Route 66, and one of them leads from Mojave Valley via Oatman to Kingsman. It was quite tranquil until Oatman.
Oatman itself is a former gold mining town in the Black Mountains in Arizona, named after Olive Oatman, who was abducted by a local tribe in 1851, although it was later unclear which tribe it was. The Mohave people freed and adopted her, giving her the tattoos on her face that are common among them. She returned to the whites in 1856.
The first mines were closed in 1924, and during the Second World War it was forbidden to search for gold at all because other metals were needed more.
At some point, Oatman was abandoned and the donkeys, which nobody took with them, were able to live undisturbed and take possession of the area. As they were willing to be fed whenever anyone came by, the donkey herd soon became an attraction and people from all over the world turned up to see the famous burros of Oatman. The people in the area did not miss out on this, and the abandoned houses mainly became stores, but also mini-museums and cafés. Today, around one hundred people live in Oatman again.
If anyone wants to draw conclusions about the political views of some business people from the photos … yes, that’s exactly how it is. There are even signs that say “Save us!”. In Texas and Oklahoma, the messages can be read in large format along the interstate. Alternating with “advertising” for Jesus (“Jesus or hell!”).
Back to Oatman. If you continue from there to Kingman, you drive on a very, very narrow and very, very winding road through the mountains. Annie Way purred with pleasure as we completed the 191 bends over eight miles / thirteen kilometers. The route is described as one of the most beautiful sections of the Mother Road. And rightly so!
After that, the route was very flat again.
I made a detour to the Grand Canyon followed by a pit stop in Flagstaff for Annie Way’s right rear tire. This meant we didn’t make it to the Petrified Forest, but I just couldn’t miss the Meteor Crater!
About 50,000 years ago, a meteor with a diameter of 45 m / 150 ft fell at a speed of 40,000 miles/hour (64,000 km/h) where Arizona is located today. Millions of tons of rock were hurled through the area, leaving a crater 1.2 km / a ¾ mile in diameter and 210 m / 700 feet deep. The meteor itself shattered into tiny pieces that rained down on the surrounding area. The largest piece found was the Holsinger meteorite, which broke off in the atmosphere and landed separately on Earth. Its length was not written on it, I would estimate it at 80 cm.
The crater was used by the astronauts on the Apollo missions as a training ground for the moon. In fact, a tear occurred in a spacesuit during the exercises, which made the designers realize that they had to change something if the astronauts were to survive a walk on Earth’s satellite.
The Boiler Plate 29A test capsule never flew to the moon, but was used to test the landing on Earth – after all, it was supposed to float upright and stable in water. It is a model of a command module, the only part of the spaceship that returned to Earth.
The journey continued via Albuquerque in New Mexico to Santa Fe, where I spent four days with Paul and Donna.
The next stop on Route 66 was Amarillo in Texas.
As soon as I had left New Mexico behind me, the driving style on the freeway changed. I don’t want to comment on it, but somehow I felt like I was on another planet in Texas. But the aliens are actually at home in Nevada.
Well.
Amarillo at least was really nice. 200,000 people at 1000 m above sea level. Unfortunately, it was 34°C on September 19 and the campsite had a swimming pool … So my tour of the city was cut short.
I found the Cadillac Ranch very funny. Visitors were supposed to decorate the cars with the spray cans available so that they would look different every day, but it had rained heavily and the Cadillacs were stuck in water. That’s why they had to do without my artwork. I guess they can take it.
In McLean there is the Barbed Wire and Route 66 Museum with the Route 66 Hall of Fame, where many people are pictured who had restaurants, motels or gas stations etc. on Route 66.
The thing with the barbed wire has to do with the cattle herds. At some point the pastures were fenced in … It’s unbelievable how many types of barbed wire there are!
In Oklahoma City, Route 66 branches off to the northeast towards Chicago, but I wanted to continue on to Memphis and Nashville.
Even if it only exists in parts, Route 66 is still an experience!