2002-05-22 - 11:41 p.m.
Route 66. First stop Needles, California. Let me tell you...if you ever happen to be driving from Los Angeles to The Grand Canyon....don't stop in Needles. (Sorry if anyone reading this is from Needles....was there something I missed in Needles??...no.) Just keep driving till you get to Kingman, Arizona. That's a town that celebrates Route 66 to the fullest....and has many charming places to stay. But I don't meant to complain...Needles was fun in some ways, and it's actually been a great trip so far.
For the most part, we have tried to stay off the main freeways and have driven along on the actual Route 66. It's quite interesting because you drive for miles and miles through desert nothingness.
....then you come to these little towns that no longer exist. The buildings are still there, but every business is out of business. And they are sooo picturesque! Sometimes there is something still going, but for the most part everything on old Route 66 eventually closed due to the freeway being put in sometime during the 1960's. And time has stood still there ever since.
This morning we left Needles, and we hadn't gone too far, when we saw a sign for The London Bridge. This is one of the fabulous things about driving out in the middle of nowhere...in the middle of the desert....all of a sudden you run across some amazingly incongruous tourist attraction....like, The London Bridge(Gert...this one's for you!)
And, yes! It really is The London Bridge! Some years back, some wealthy fellow decided to buy it and have it shipped to Arizona and reconstructed. Amazing, but true...we actually drove across London Bridge today.
Anyway....the rest of the day we kept motoring along the 66. The most remarkable thing though, to me, was the severe lack of cocktail lounges! I had assumed that Route 66 would have been littered with divey bars and taverns....but no! It wasn't until nearly the end of out drive that we stumbled upon The Road Kill Cafe. I slammed on the breaks!! Now this was my kind of place!......No...no it wasn't! They really had never made a martini.....the locals, who were all rehydrating at the bar, had quite a discussion over what goes into a martini...then finally I got a glass with an olive that was dipping it's toe in a drop of gin. Oh well, we provided them with plenty of entertainment, I'm sure. It was like, "look! city folk!"
So now we have finally arrived at The Grand Canyon.....well I guess I should say, at the Best Western Grand Canyon Squire Inn. We've still got 2 miles to go to actually see the canyon. But that's for tomorrow. Now it's time to go to bed.
Wait, I almost forgot....tonight at dinner we had Rattlesnake!!! I'm not kidding. Well, I didn't actually eat any, but my Love did. And he said it tastes just like chicken....only chewier!!!!!
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