Wednesday we had a surprise visitor, Peter Harpin and his sister, Nancy. We visited a bit and they headed for Oatman. We visited more later that night. Even got to talk to Cheryl Nowka on the phone when she called Peter. Nice visits.

Thursday was a great day. We bid Peter and Nancy good-bye and then hit the road going east. Our first stop was Peach Springs. We checked out the new lodge there (forget the name right now) and looked in the gift shop. It’s really a beautiful building. Food from the restaurant smelled good. We then explored the old buildings around town. Had thought that we had found the old Osterman Courts, but it was an old Shell station. The owner told us the lodge was on the site of the Courts. Heading back west we were surprised to see the new Junior/Senior High School. They are also building a new city park across from the Lodge.

Next stop was Truxton where we were very happy to find that the Frontier Cafe was open. We had heard that it was closed. We had a very nice visit with Mildred Barker who owns and runs the cafe and motel. She’s had the place up for sale the last two years. She’s ready to retire. She told us several interesting stories. We ate lunch there also and it was very good. We even had pie made by Mildred that was really good. After we said good-bye to Mildred we checked out town and took some photos.

Cheryl with Mildred Barker, owner of the Frontier Motel and Restaurant

Truxton, Arizona

We then followed the road on down into Crozier Ranch. This is the site of the old 7-V Tourist Court. We talked with a woman that has lived in one of the cabins for four years. She told us that Route 66 was actually across the creek on the other side. She pointed out an old building that used to be a gas station and is now a house. She enjoys living there. It was nice near the creek, lots of colorful birds.

Next stop was Valentine where we checked out the old Truxton Indian School and also the old two room schoolhouse where Mildred used to attend dances. The town of Truxton would like to move the small school into Truxton but the BLM won’t let them. After a bit of exploring we were off to Hackberry. There is some controversy over the rock mining in this area. It is pretty evident that it is going on. You can see dust clouds off in the distance where they are doing the actual work. There are more roads seen on the hillsides. And they have cut down a complete hill where the quarry now sits. Not a pretty picture in such a beautiful canyon. We next stopped at the Hackberry General Store. What a difference a few years makes. The Pritchards have really done a lot of work to the place. After visiting with them, there’s a lot more to do. They’re really happy out here. It seems to have been a good move for them. They’ve done a great job. We headed on home.

Just got back from a little exploring in Yucca. Route 66 ran through this town from 1951 until Interstate 40 was completed. We stopped and checked out the burned out remains of the old Whiting Bros. Motel, pretty sad. We then went south to another old motel and cafe along here. We then went down and checked out the sphere. Pretty cool. There are all kinds of neat looking contraptions sitting about on the property. We then went across the Interstate to see what else we could find. There are several remains of old motels along here. We looked at the Honolulu Club also. We were going to get a beer but it wasn’t open yet. Sherlock Jerry told us that this used to be in Oatman. We stopped at the Micro Mart for a soda. There were a couple of old timers in there and we asked if there was any of the old road left around to drive. One guy pointed us in the direction of the dirt Old Trails Rd. A few of the others said we had to go to either Oatman or Topock. We explained that we knew that much but were looking for the sections that used to run through Yucca. By now a few folks are in on the conversation and we were amazed to find that most of them didn’t even know that Route 66 used to be right here in their town. We had been told by both Bob and Jerry that there was nothing left to follow, guess we have to concede that they are right. It was fun to try and find some pieces, other than the obvious stretch, anyway.

Honolulu Club - Yucca, Arizona

We headed back to Kingman and went over to the Powerhouse Visitors Center. We wanted to see if anything had changed upstairs in the art gallery. It hadn’t. We had lunch in the Memory Lane Diner. A “James Dean” for Earl and a “Marilyn Monroe” for me. Very good. We then went over to the Mohave County Museum to see what was new there. All in all, it was a good day. Tomorrow we are going to do some exploring of downtown Kingman. Monday we will move our camp to the Seligman KOA for a couple of days.

Sunday was a great day, except for the wind, for checking out things in Kingman. I pulled out all my old postcards of the area and we hit the road hunting for old ruins. Found quite a few of the old motels that I have cards of, some were still in business and others were closed and sitting there decaying. Some we never even found, probably bulldozed over in the name of progress.

Hotel Brunswick - Kingman, Arizona

Santa Fe Station - Kingman, Arizona

Monday we took the old road to our new camp, the Seligman KOA. Noticed a few changes in town and will explore them more tomorrow. The KOA sits right in between two alignments of Route 66. Cool.

What a difference a day makes. Yesterday we were in shorts and tee shirts; today we’re in sweat shirts and jeans. The wind is still blowing and it’s overcast. They’re calling for snow on Thursday. : ( We got a really late start today. We went over to the Copper Cart for lunch. They’ve had a change in cooks since we were last there and the food was really good. They’ve reupholstered the booths and it looks nice. We cruised through town and made note of a few little changes. On the west end of town is a new Chevron station with an A&W in it. The Back to the 50s store has closed. There is now a guy from Las Vegas with a shop next to where it was with mannequins hanging out all over the building. Have to check this place out. We took the old alignment east out of town and went over to Ash Fork.