Route 66
A little more on our Day 9 travels from Mary.
Route 66 (in Arizona, at least) has mostly been replaced by I-40 and exists today almost as a frontage road for the interstate. Many of the businesses that used to rely on cross country travelers have survived clustered around the freeway exits. Williams, where we ate dinner on Day 8 and stayed overnight, has made its center a little tourist town for travelers like us who pass through en route to the Grand Canyon. The loop of Rte 66 that we took from Seligman to Kingsman arcs up away from I-40 and toward the western rim of the Grand Canyon and the Hualuapi Indian Reservation.
Route 66 was a little longer than the section of I-40 we bypassed (about 10 miles) but according to our GPS it only added about 15 minutes to our trip. The speed limit is 55-65 mph for most of this leg of the historic highway and the towns passed through are pretty tiny. There were no traffic delays and we barely even had to slow down for town centers. It was quiet scenic, in the nothing-to-see way we’d become accustomed to since leaving San Antonio. Unlike a lot of that time, however, there were real signs of life - houses, schools, a woman getting her mail. By Kingman there were full factories and other depressing signs of industrialization. (Kingman was kind of awful, really.) There were a lot of signs of abandonment as well - foundations burned to the groud, boarded windows, former restaurants.
For me, the highlight of this road was seeing the legendary Burma Shave ads her grandfather used to tell her about. We passed at least four sets (and had time to read at least one posted for eastbound traffic), mostly near Seligman, and we’ll post the poems later.
Doing a spell check right now (Hualuapi is right, it just doesn’t look right), I came across some beautiful pictures taken by motorcycle of the section of Route 66 we took. My pictures just can’t compare, so I’m not posting them just yet. When I finally get caught up with Flickr (which may be soon, co-workers are suggesting my team all do short vacation presentations) I’ll point out Route 66.
