Get Your Kicks On Route 66

Bobby Troup playing "Get Your Kicks On Route 66", which he wrote, on the Julie London Show in 1964.  Julie and Bobby were married in real life.  You may remember both from their roles on the television show "Emergency".

After leaving Albuquerque Friday night headed west to the Grants-Milan Airport to spend the night.  Coincidentally this was the first stop of the day Saturday.  The Western New Mexico Aviation Heritage Museum has restored a 1929 Airway Beacon here at the airport.  Long before GPS and even before radar and air to ground radio this is how planes navigated across the continent.  This system was designed by Charles Lindbergh for the Transcontinental Air Transport (forerunner of TWA).  This particular airway covered the route between Los Angeles and Amarillo.  These beacons were located every 10-15 miles along the airway route, at night each had a two million candle power rotating beacon and a course light that put the site location out in Morse code.  During the day the site had large concrete arrows along with the route and site numbers painted on the roof.  

Navigating the old fashioned way.

Left the airport and continued west.  I made appoint of getting off I-40 whenever a surviving section of Route 66 was available.  I-40 not only a major truck route but this section parallels the BNSF southern transcontinental railroad.  A freight train and the Cortez kept pace with each other for some distance.  As we entered Arizona we repeated a section of the first major road trip I took with the Cortez just after I bought it.  As we passed Houck, Arizona I could see the roadside attraction called Fort Courage (inspired by the TV show “F-Troup) that we visited in 2006 was now abandoned.  Continued on stopping in Holbrook and visited the Wigwam Motel that was the inspiration For the Cozy Cone Motel in the 2006 Pixar movie “Cars”.  Supposedly they are still renting rooms.  I called a day or two earlier and was told they were booked.  When I arrived Saturday afternoon there were no guests and the office was closed.  Several tour buses stopped and their passengers roamed the site.  I sure they would have purchased some souvenirs if the office was open. What a shame.

Wigwam Motel on Route 66 Holbrook, Arizona
 

The Rainbow Rock Shop on Route 66 in Holbrook, Arizona

After cruising around Holbrook and Joseph City continued west.  Stopped at Jack Rabbit Road and got a 2015 photo of the Cortez with the iconic “here It Is” sign.  Picked up some trinkets at thee Jack Rabbit Trading Post and then continued on to Winslow.  Stopped by the Winslow-Lindbergh Regional Airport and saw the original Transcontinental Air Transport terminal and hangar buildings that I was told about at the Western New Mexico Aviation Heritage Museum.  There is also an unrestored Airway Beacon tower here.  Found an antique car show in progress in downtown Winslow.  Looked at the cars and walked around downtown. Fueled the Cortez up and made my way over to the Walmart to park for the night.

Jack Rabbit Road revisited in 2015

Got an earlier start Sunday morning getting another blog post out and then headed west.  Stopped at Meteor Crater and bought some souvenirs.  Noted as I passed Two Guns and Twin Arrows that both sites had been severely damaged by vandals since my 2006 visit.  Stopped in Flagstaff and spent the afternoon and evening exploring downtown and the Route 66 sites.  Coolest weather of the trip along with some thunder showers. Lots of rail traffic both directions here.  Headed out to Williams where we walked around in the night air.  Found a spot in an empty lot to boondock for the night.