Joe, Debbie and Cassie at the Painted Desert

August 27, 2015

I am not going to write much today—it has been a long day and it’s late. But more important, a picture is worth 1,000 words! And the views we saw today are worth 10,000 words, for sure.

We began our morning before eating breakfast, leaving our Cracker Barrel overnight spot and heading west over the Arizona state line to finally get our Arizona sticker onto our states visited map. We stopped at the visitor center at the border for breakfast. I was dismayed when I went inside, however—the lady there told me that the visitor center would be closing next week! Apparently state budget cuts are responsible. I think this is terribly short-sighted of the legislature; we have stopped at every visitor center as we cross state lines, and it has encouraged us to visit more places (and spend more money!) The one time we entered a state with no visitor center, we felt unwelcome and were not inclined to stay very long. In any case, she encouraged me to “take as many brochures as you want”, so I took a number of things which I hope will be informative in the future, if not on this trip.

After breakfast, we sped off down I-40 again until we came to the exit for the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park. We followed the single road from the north end of the park to the south end—it took us the entire day. The park is dog-friendly, so Cassie joined us on a number of walks and overlooks. We spent much more time than we expected—the park was just so beautiful! Here are some photos of the Painted Desert:

The Painted Desert is the only national park through which the original Route 66 passed. This 1932 Studebaker and the sign by it are on the site of Route 66.

The southern part of the park (south of I-40) is the part with the petrified trees. I was not expecting to be blown away by rocks that looked like trees, but I was wrong. The longer I looked at them, the more fascinating they got. As Joe put it, they really “mess with your head.” They look JUST like trees on the outside, yet the insides are so colorful and clearly a mineral, not a vegetable substance like a tree should be.  Here are some photos:

It's almost impossible to believe this is a rock!

At one point, we were entirely alone on an outlook, except for this raven (we think), who kept cawing and cawing at us. Finally as we stood watching him, he deliberately walked closer to us and I took these photos. He opened his mouth VERY wide—we could see his dark pink throat as he cawed LOUDLY at us. He finally made us a little bit nervous, because he was clearly totally unafraid of us, and he seemed to be quite determined to communicate something. Being merely stupid human beings, we were unable to understand the details of the message.

 

When we left the park, it was about 4:30ish, and we were tired. We decided to spend the night at a “real” campground, as there was a KOA in Holbrook, the next town to the west of the national park. So we drove there from the southern park entrance. This turned out to be a serendipitous decision for us, because I checked with my Route 66 guide, and discovered that old Route 66 runs right through the town.  The centerpiece for us was the Wigwam Motel—it is just the iconic Route 66 landmark! But we also took photos of several other vintage signs and businesses on the main street. We just loved the place!

Tomorrow morning we will be going back into the center of Holbrook—we have decided to deal with the tire which keeps losing air. Joe says it’s been a problem since he bought it. The Route 66 Tire company is just opposite the Wigwam Motel, so I suspect I’ll end up taking even more photos before we change direction toward Colorado and have to leave Route 66.

Following the Mother Road

August 24, 2015

The Parking Meter was invented in Oklahoma

We had another VERY long day of driving today, but it was more fun than yesterday. We have been following Route 66, "the Mother Road", all day, and really enjoying it.

We left the Lucky Star Casino at about 8:30 or so, and stopped to buy gas at the casino's gas station. It was priced higher than we think the surrounding area might suggest, but it was the only way to repay the hospitality of the Arapahoe and Cheyenne tribes who own the casino and allowed us to stay for free last night. We didn't go lose any money in the casino, so we figured the price differential for the gas was only fair.

This is the interior of the little red diner below

After that, we jumped onto I-40 for an hour until we came to Clinton, OK. This was a planned stop for the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum. We really loved the museum--its rooms were divided into decades, with each one focusing on the history of Route 66 in that decade. The very friendly lady who took our (nominal) $5 fee to enter mentioned that we should be sure to push the blue button on the wall in each room--this would play a contemporary song of that decade while we were browsing.

In the 1930's room, we heard Nobody's Business But My Own while we read about the building of Route 66, the first road to be linked continuously between eight states, and paved throughout its length. The "mother road" allowed people to travel more easily for commerce and pleasure, and gave rise to uncountable small business--gas stations, lodging, restaurants, and souvenir shops--in towns which are only a memory today.

Somewhere in time, our lives became history!

Prefab Diner, delivered ready to set up within one day!

In the 1940's room, the story continued to the sounds of Woody Guthrie's anthem to Route 66. The 1950s started to look familiar to us (Elvis), and in the 1960s we listened to the Beatles while we read about our OWN history of hippie vans and long haired travelers seeing the country. The last rooms of the museum were dedicated to the demise of Route 66 as the Interstate Highway System was built to bypass the small towns with limited access highway, increasing speed but, most likely, not increasing the pleasure of the trip. In fact, Beth reminded me of a line from the movie "Cars": "People used to travel to have a good time, not to make good time."  I felt quite sad at the end, despite the fact that I have been taking full advantage of the opportunity to "make good time" as we try to get to Santa Fe.

We helped the cause of Route 66 preservation, however, by purchasing several books and a Route 66 sticker for the back of our RV. The books included a VERY detailed traveler's guide to Route 66 (many people come and drive the original roads wherever possible, stopping at the vintage businesses which still survive). From our vantage on the Interstate, we read about the towns we were passing, noted the landmarks still extant, and wished we had months rather than days to explore all the small towns we passed.

Our only subsequent stop, however, was in Amarillo, Texas. This was at a Route 66 classic stop, The Big Texan Steak Ranch. We'd been here in 2007, and I remembered the steaks as being excellent. So we enjoyed our steak lunch before getting  back on the highway. We were heading for our friend Alan's house in Santa Fe (ironically, his wife Susan is back east with her new granddaughter!) We reached our destination just after dark, and managed to get mostly level in the parking lot behind his apartment (the complex is built on a hillside.) We walked Cassie and then went to downtown Santa Fe for margaritas and a light dinner. Afterwards, Alan took us for a walk around the center of town. OOOOOOOHHHH, it is a GOOD thing the stores were all closed!  I fell in love with so many things I would love to be taking home with me. This is a dangerous shopping area, for sure!

We came home after that, tired and ready to get a good night's sleep. More Santa Fe adventures will come tomorrow.

Driving Until We Find Our Lucky Star

August 23, 2015

Route 66 diner, St. Robert, MO

Today’s blog will be short, because we drove all day with minimal entertainment during the drive. We left St. Louis at about 9:30 in the morning, and headed southwest on I-44 toward our ultimate stop for the night, planned as Oklahoma City. We were traveling along the old Route 66 road for much of the time, and saw a number of references to stops along the route whose nickname is “the mother road.” I was perusing our tour guides and maps for much of the day, at first looking for “something interesting” to stop and see, because the drive was not supposed to be terribly long. I didn’t find much in Missouri, however, and we soon started looking for a town along the way which might have some good barbeque. We were hoping to make up for missing Pappy’s last night.

The AAA books gave me a couple of options, but one came along at 11:30, which was too early. So we stopped for lunch in St. Robert, at a recommended roadside bbq place. Joe said his pulled pork was yummy, although “nothing extraordinary”, but I was pretty unimpressed with my brisket.  We also found a Missouri tourist office, so I was able to collect a bunch of literature for our return trip, and we drove past the Route 66 diner, which looked suitably retro. I jumped out of the RV and took a photo before we got back on the highway.

That was it for our stops for the day—for some reason, that morning segment seemed to drag, and it was already after 1:30 when we finished lunch. (We were delayed an extra 5 minutes by Cassie’s ecstatic rolling in the grass.) We drove all afternoon through Missouri, and into Oklahoma. We stopped and picked up a bunch of literature at the welcome center 10 miles past the state line, but neglected to ask about the toll roads coming up. Oklahoma has a bizarre set of toll roads which are all short segments of longer roads, and we never did figure out how they decided what to charge. The first time we left the road was the honor system: “Did you come from Missouruh?” “Yes.” “$1.25”. After that we paid $4, $1.75, and later, at two exact change coin toll booths, $1.15 and $.60.  I’m still wondering if we should have bought a “Pike Pass.”

All afternoon, I was trying to find a place to stay for the night. Oklahoma City had four Good Sam rated campgrounds, but they would all run us about $45, and all we really wanted was to stop and sleep and hit the road again in the morning. There were no state parks anywhere near our route. There were NO highway rest stops anywhere in the vicinity (we were switching between I-44 and I-40) and when I checked the internet, the reports were that the Walmarts did not allow overnight parking. I didn’t want to stay at a Cracker Barrel, and didn’t see any Flying J’s coming up—both places which are RV friendly. I did notice a mention of the Oklahoma County Fairgrounds, which gave me the idea to see if they allowed RV parking when there are no events at the fairgrounds. I couldn’t find a website to tell me that, but I ended up on a website listing free rv parking places, and while looking for a county park or info on the fairgrounds, I found a list which included a casino in El Reno, about 10 miles or so west of OK City. I found some reviews of it, one from just a month ago, which indicated it was 1) free, 2) had hookups, and 3) was safe.  I’ve always wanted to try casino camping—this is something I know a lot of RVers take advantage of, and it is usually free or extremely low cost. So I put the address of the casino into my Google Maps.

Well, in this case, Google Maps had its head up you know where (if it would have had one.) It led us off the free interstate onto another toll road, and then onto 15 miles on a very badly paved road in a quite rural area.  When it finally brought us out on the main highway the casino is on, it told us to turn the wrong way and then took us down a dead-end road. It was deep dusk by then, and our rear view camera has lost its antenna and isn’t working. I had to get out to help Joe make a k-turn (luckily it was a dead end, so no traffic.) We went back to the main road and stopped at a gas station/convenience store to ask, where was the casino. The lovely young man directed us back the way we had come, telling us we couldn’t miss it. He was right—if Google Maps hadn’t taken us on such a stupid way, we’d have been there probably 30 minutes earlier, too. 

But—indeed, here we are, at the Lucky Star Casino in El Reno, Oklahoma. There are 10 RV spaces here with FULL hookups (electric and sewer!), for free, and the casino security guy could not have been nicer when I went in to register with him. He told me he’d always wanted to see Atlantic City. He says they are open 24/7, and if we need anything to come and let them know. I believe the casino is owned by the 500 Nations, and if it weren’t so smoky, I’d go inside and support the tribes. But I’m very tired and I really DO want to get going early tomorrow—we are planning to stop at the Oklahoma Route 66 museum about an hour from here.