When we woke up on our last morning in Moab we had a surprise. Heavy snow was forecast and had just started as we ate breakfast. We packed as quick as we could to try to beat it but it was coming down steady now and with 300 miles to travel in one day we feared the worst. On went the 4WD button as we crawled out of town where the snow got deeper and deeper and visibility got less and less. 20 miles out of Moab and we could not even see the road markings, it was completely covered and coming down in blankets with the thermometer reading -12c on the dash. We pushed on as there was nowhere to stop or take shelter so did not want the risk of becoming stranded. Slowly we picked our way along the white sheet noticing the lack of any oncoming traffic. Progress was slow, edging along at 30mph. We passed straight through Monticello and onto Blanding where we decided to pull over for a hot drink refill and toilet break. The snow continued on and off for the next 100 miles but as we hit the painted desert the snow stopped and the clouds parted and after another 50 miles were blessed with clear skies and sunshine. This weather is so crazy.
We took a lunch time stop at an old Indian trading post called J.L.Hubbell's which has been lovingly restored and turned into a present day trading post. Inside it was just like the Olsen's shop in Little House On The Prairie with anything you could possibly wish for in the wild west. They had food, drinks as you would expect but also saddles, blankets, Indian jewellery, guns, ammo, billy cans, boots, stetsons, chewing tobacco and even John Wayne movie posters. The floor even creaked loudly as you walked across the shop floor. In its heyday, the local Indians used to walk for days to bring stuff to trade for whatever the white man could supply.
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| Our hang out for the night in redneck town. |
After we left there we got back onto route 66 again and headed into Holbrook, our next Route 66 stopover. We had a typical vintage route 66 motel with tacky motifs all over the walls and even a stars and stripes bedspread. Unfortunately it was a typical route 66 motel being next to the tracks on the pan-American railway with its long, never ending carriage trains that thundered past blasting their horns all night to keep us company. It was a bit of a redneck town as well and we had a few of them as our co-guests which was amusing when one of them tried to ram the back of our car in the car park. When we glared at them after , the man just got out, grinned with his toothless mouth and said it's not his fault as his dopey wife was driving.
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| Wigwam Motel. |
That night it snowed heavily and we woke to a few inches but the sun was up and by the time we hit the road it was melting rapidly. Again our rear tyre was low on pressure, so we pumped it up and filled up on gas and coffee and went to see the Wigwam Hotel. Here the rooms are all built in the shape of wigwams on route 66 and each 'room' has a vintage big American car parked outside it. Sooo cool!
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| Kathy decided she would make a good squaw so claimed squatters rights. |
On our way we stopped off at a Indian trading depot called Geronimo where they boasted as having the largest petrified tree in America. What's a Petrified tree I hear you say? Well, it not that it was scared! No, it was buried a long time ago and over time the wood has been replaced by minerals under pressure and when it surfaced again recently the minerals have turned to rock in the texture of wood blessed with multi colours. It is quite a spectacle to look at. Also at the depot they had wigwams for natty photos and inside they had a cornucopia of anything you could imagine related to the wild west, route 66 or Indians.
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| Petrified wood. |
Our next stop was a place called Winslow. You might recognise the name if you ever listened to the Eagles song 'Take It Easy' where the lyrics describe standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona just a loosening my load etc. Well this town has somehow managed to get itself on the tourist map as being on route 66 and reconstructing the 'standing on the corner' park. There is a statue of Glenn Frey and a red flat bed Ford and a few signs with a false backdrop. Over the road they pump out Eagles songs and videos and will sell you anything you could imagine related to either route 66 or 'Take It Easy'.
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| Standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona............ |
We stopped off for a coffee at K Mart and then went to see the best preserved meteor crater in the world just off route 66. The crater is all fenced off so you have to pay to get in. There is a slick visitor centre trying to 'jazz' up what basically is a big hole in the ground. The hole was about a mile wide and was impressive mainly because of its location in the middle of the Arizona flat desert.
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| It's a very big hole in the desert. |
We then pushed onto our next stop for the day which was Flagstaff and the weather remained glorious, the radio pumped out those good old rock driving tunes from the 80's rock heyday that Jeremy Clarkson is so fond of. This was route 66 at its finest. If only we could afford a vintage Mustang to top it off. Arriving early evening we unpacked and headed out to Walmart as Kathy had a sudden urge to see what the American giant could tempt her with which ended up being a new mini speaker. Rock on!
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