Route Recap

It has been two days since we returned the car and said goodbye.  Of course the memories are going to last a lifetime.  But I’m going to journal my feelings here today.

First: I want to thank all of you who followed this trip across this great land of ours.  I know many of you work with my wife at World Wide Technologies or are my friends from our local Financial Peace University class at Harvester Christian Church.  You kept me writing, even when we stayed in that worn out old Route 66 Inn with no Wi-fi.  Yes, we made it out of there OK.

Second: A thought.  Where was everyone?  It still summer break for many and we were the only ones around for 80% of the trip.  Timm is a self-employed mural artist (www.TimmEtters.com) who is having the most profitable year of his life.  Dark Knight pulled in $155 million it’s opening weekend and GTA4 sold over $500 million it’s first week so I don’t subscribe to the “recession” agenda the media has been pushing on us.  Alright, I will stop here and put it in another post.  Sorry, it was just so surprising that we only met a handful of people touring any of the old road.  I guess the interstates really did kill Route 66.

Third: A true friend is someone you can get stuck in a car with for days and not kill each other but end up laughing about getting a straw stuck on your lip (ask Timm, it just can not be described in print).  Laughter is the best medicine and I feel great!

Last: Thanks to our wives who made us take this trip when we weren’t convinced it was the time to go.  You gave us a wonderful gift.  Love you BUNCHES!

Day 08: Bonus Day

The pinnacle moment of our trip came in Funk’s Grove, IL. The attraction that brought our attention to this little town was nothing more than a sign on the interstate: Funk’s Grove Pure Maple Sirup. (You will just have to visit them yourself to find out why syrup is spelled with an “I”, or see the short version on their website: www.funkspuremaplesirup.com).

We had passed this sign off I-55 a hundred times, and if you know anything about us then you already know why we HAD to stop in “Funk’s Grove”. A wonderful lady greeted us and told us some history, then she gave us a sample of the sirup. WOW! I couldn’t resist buying a bottle. **Stupid Impulse Purchase Alert! Don’t buy a bottle of sirup before having to go through airport security unless checking luggage.**

During that 15 minute visit we met a couple who had been traveling Route 66 from L.A. to Chicago, but they started 5 weeks ago. That’s more like it! Another person came in and told us some history of R. Waldmire, the guy that designed the souvenir I was buying. On of the things he told us was that this guy loved stickers and put them all over his van (also the inspiration for the “Fillmore” character in the Pixar movie Cars). Timm and I saw a van in Joplin, MO with a bunch of stickers all over it. I mean it was COVERED except for the front windows and windshield. We quickly realized that this was probably the same guy. Small world!

We also found another deserted piece of the old road. One of Timm’s books showed this section as “Obliterated”. What a word! A few low hanging branches and spider webs weren’t going to keep us from discovering some old, shall we say “collectables”, before the road truly ended.

There were a few more sites to visit before rushing me to the airport, but Funk’s Grove tied the bow on a full week of driving. I’ll summarize the week in another post. Right now I want to enjoy time with my family, whom I missed terribly. Oh, and I need to mow the yard.

Day 07: Bridges

It seemed like all we did today was drive through Missouri and pass over really cool bridges. Rainbow Bridge (see below), Devil’s Elbow, and a few others that I can’t remember.

Timm was walking the Devil’s Elbow Bridge when a delivery truck came barreling down the path. You knew it was coming, you couldn’t help but hear his diesel engine out there in the woods, so I knew Timm would be ready for him to pass. What he didn’t know was how much “give” the bridge had and how fast it would pass by him. Timm said his feet didn’t fall with the large up and down vibrations as the truck passed him, the movement made his stomach sick.

We have a few more miles to go, one day longer than we had originally planned. No way this road could be traveled in seven days…

Day 06: My Mechanical Problems (sort of)

This was probably the toughest day of the whole week. It wasn’t rain, heat, or even a mechanical problem, it was ME! I had drafted the plan on when and where we would go based upon the things we had heard or read about and the distance between points. Everything worked great on paper, but I didn’t account for the most important variable of all – my travel partner! You see, I was under the impression that this was a road trip and we were going to “Drive Route 66”. What didn’t fit the agenda was my free-spirited artistic best friend who thought we were going to “Experience Route 66”. Timm can talk to complete strangers and find something in common with them, which turns into 20 minute discussion on life, love, and how they are somehow connected through someone else Timm had met in a rest stop two years ago named Tina. It happens ALL THE TIME! Yes, I am totally envious of his ability to talk to EVERYONE.

So anyway, this created a problem in my “plan” because in order for us to stick to my well conceived agenda we would have to travel exactly the speed limit on the main roads, take no more than 10 minutes per meal, and don’t get me started with the souvenirs! And to follow my plan would mean I would have to miss the most important part of this trip, hanging out with my best friend and EXPERIENCING LIFE. I’m the mechanical type – the planner and go-getter and he is the creative-emotional-charismatic person.  And we both need each-other in order to have a great time.

Now, should I talk about the trip? Ok, we started off with the Cadillac Ranch. People are still allowed to spray-paint on these cars that are half-buried in the dirt on a farm. Of course we had to go one step further than “tagging” the cars (writing your initials or name), we’re B-boys and Timm is an artist. See pictures below:

The rest of the day was spent driving, touring, driving, site-seeing, driving, souvenir-shopping, and driving some more. There was no way I could keep him to the “plan”, because in doing so I would have missed this (see picture below): a section of Route 66 that has eroded and washed away.  A 30 foot drop!

Moral of the story: mix two things (personalities) together and you will get something different. Without the mix, things would be stale and boring. Life is to short for dry toast, give me some JAM!

Day 05: Detours

Today was supposed to be about getting back on track. However, a couple detours kept us from getting completely caught up:

The first detour was the Pre-1937 alignment of Route 66 that takes a trip up to Santa Fe before returning back to the current route that goes straight through the middle of Arizona. Many think of this town as the turquoise capitol of North America but it is also a huge and unique artist community. There was no lack of stores where you would find unique jewelry, sculptures, even meteorite rocks or pre-historic fossils. But I do have to confess that the most memorable experience is the sidewalk shopping in the square where merchants display their turquoise creations on blankets in the town square.

The second detour lives between Montoya and Palomas where the road turns under the interstate into a one-lane tunnel. Watch those rear-view mirrors and flash your lights as you go through!

The third detour wasn’t really a detour but a historic stretch of road that is shown in books and on GPS, but is also considered dangerous for large vehicles. It is a portion of road that starts out paved, but then turns to gravel in the farmlands. It pulls away from the interstate until you are out there in the middle of the country with no lights or houses to be seen. The road was surprisingly smooth and we even shot video of the journey. At the end of this stretch the road becomes paved again, but becomes a 4-lane road with lane dividers. We came upon the deserted “Last Motel in Texas” located at the AZ/TX state line. What character and history!

Detours can be fun!

Day 04: Air, Water, and Dirt

Air: The first museum of our trip, and it wasn’t for Route 66 memorabilia. It was at the PIMA Air Museum in Tucson, AZ. Over 200 static displays of planes and helicopters on the tram tour, some that I had never seen before. And for the grand finale: a drive around the “bone yard” where unused and unwanted planes go to die. It saddens me to think that these planes serve us well, but ultimately end up retiring out in the hot Arizona desert. And don’t get me started on the rows and rows of B-52s out there, some with tail fins or stabilizer flaps missing.

Water: The drive back to Route 66 was beautiful in a whole different way. We came back through the same mountain pass, but through a couple rain storms. God washed his plants and we kept the top up. It made for some great pictures.

Dirt: Finally back on the Mother Road, we continued our trek East to Albuquerque, NM. A few miles past Gallup, Timm found an older stretch of the road that was no longer connected to Route 66. We were still able to drive the quarter mile stretch until the road fell into a “wash” (a manmade aqueduct that collects rain to help prevent flash flooding). We reveled in his discovery for a while, and then returned to our plotted course. A few more miles down the road we discovered another stretch of the road that was no longer shown on the maps. Another neat discovery, we found it ran parallel to the interstate most of the way with one portion turning north, then turning south around very large boulders. Another mile further and the road became dirt, no longer carrying the lane markings or characteristics of a paved road. Another great discovery that went on for about 10 miles.

Tomorrow we expect to see more of the tourist-type, unique, weird-type sites that we have all come to expect from Route 66. Maybe we’ll be able to put the top down again.

Day 03: Route 77

Only three stops today. Since we stayed the night in Holbrook, AZ our first attraction was the WigWam Motel. Say “Hi” to Mater!

Now, a detour from our regularly scheduled road trip – Petrified Forest. I still don’t get it, but these old trees are just lying around the desert landscape. There used to be a forest here?

Route 77: The rest of the day was spent driving to Tucson, AZ. To get there, we passed through Fort Apache Indian Reservation where the mountains reached close to 7,000 feet. The steep inclines and turns were AWESOME!

We reached our destination in time for dinner with Timm’s sister Debbie. She prepared us a home-cooked meal and birthday cheesecake (if you knew Timm very well, you’d get the joke). She has a beautiful home with unique items from their relatives that decorate the walls and furnishings, including a Butterick Patterns cabinet. I’ve never heard of Butterick Patterns, so there’s history to be learned here too.

Day 02: The Long and Winding Road

Start: What an amazing day. Much of this day was to be spent on the road in solace, untested by traffic congestion and red lights. But the hot sun would be the biggest obstacle of the day, so we stocked the car with a cooler of ice and water.

The “Long” part: The road really started to take shape after that. Very long stretches of road expanded past the horizon under a perfectly blue sky. We passed many abandoned gas stations, motels, and some forgotten towns. At one point, we found one of the original spans of the route that no longer was maintained and was not clearly visible on the maps. Parts of the road had been washed away, and much of it was broken, but those are the little surprises we are hoping to find all along the way!

“And”: After leaving California, the road took us through Oatman, AZ. This old mining town turned Wild West with gunfight reenactments and wild donkeys roaming the streets. It’s a total tourist trap and COMPLETELY worth visiting. But the REAL attraction is what we were about to find a few miles to the east.

Now this is WINDING!

The “Winding” part: To the east of Oatman is Sitgreaves Pass, the longest tangled string of hairpin turns and steep mountains that we have ever seen. Incredibly beautiful mountain faces towered over us for a good hour (we stopped frequently to take pictures, lots of pictures). It’s a drive that can not be described in a few short sentences, so you will just have to save your money and rent your OWN convertible. TOTALLY worth it!

Stop (many, many stops): Once clear of the mountain we continued east through more populated areas. Here we began to see the nostalgic sites of Route 66 with little soda fountains and neon motel signs, just like you would find in a book. My parent’s youth still lives in places like Kingman and the Hackberry General Store.

We made it to Holbrook, AZ and are about to head out to, well, to somewhere. We are close to the Painted Desert and Petrified Forrest, but we might just stick to the road.

DAY 01: I’M ON VACATION!

Day 01: We started by meeting in LAX, then rented a CONVERTIBLE. We drove to the starting point, Santa Monica Pier, and had dinner at the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. We took in a few street performances (we met one street dancer who we considered joining our breakdance crew – see his MySpace page at Flex81@Yahoo) and Timm bought himself two cotton candies (one pink and one blue). Then we spent the next two hours looking for Route 66. I still can’t understand; we have one Route 66 fanatic, two books, and a Garmin GPS unit and could NOT find a Route 66 sign in Santa Monica. We must be confused.

So we proceeded to find a special shop for Timm who wanted to buy something for the trip, it was closed. I then decided to head to the next three known addresses (from one of the books) to get back onto Route 66, and finally found one in Pasadena (we must have taken a bigger detour for the shop. The sun had set but we were ON OUR WAY. A little tired and disappointed, I asked Timm to do the rest of the driving. I told him “the book” said we should get off I-15 just a bit north of Devore, CA.

THERE IT WAS, what we had always imagined the road had become. It was a deserted two lane road with five foot road paintings in the middle of the lanes indicating that this truly was the road of the past.

We passed old forgotten mailboxes and noticed that another road was adjacent to ours, and it was blocked off and neglected. It was sad and cool at the same time. We got out, looked at the stars, and marveled at how much this reminded us of a scene from “Cars”. We were stoked!

That only continued for about 10 miles, but it was worth the wait.