The Grand Canyon was spectacular, as always. This was the first time that we’ve been there that the wind hasn’t been blowing. The temperature was about 72 degrees and it was a beautiful day. We like the west rim the best and it wasn’t that crowded. I think folks don’t like to ride the shuttle bus and so they go to the east rim, it was really crowded over there. There was not much haze today either and the views were just wonderful. We spent the day and then went back to Williams where we met up with our friends, Paul and Sandi Taylor, and went to dinner with them at the Outback Steak House in Flagstaff. This is the first time we’ve ever been to one of these and it was really good. Paul told us he had just done an interview for the History Channel that will air during the summer. The show will be about America’s love affair with the automobile, should be a good show. We had a great time with them. We also got to discussing the popularity of Route 66 and how it was only going to get stronger. We tried to figure out why other roads had not gotten as popular, roads such as the Lincoln Highway, Route 99 and Route 80, to name a few. Needless to say, we came to many conclusions. After a nice time with friends we realized how fortunate we are to have friends in most all of the major Route 66 cities we stay in, it really does make the road seem like home to us. Now if we could only get some in CA, guess people are just too busy there. I have no doubt that it will happen though.

Today it was time for some more exploring. After a nice lunch with the Taylors we headed towards Ash Fork. It has been a really long time since we did the sections of road in between Williams and Ash Fork and we forgot that they were all dirt so we didn’t get to travel them this time. We will definitely have to bring the Blazer back next time; we’ve not traveled some of the sections we’d really like to this time around. We did get off the freeway at the Monte Carlo exit and walked the old section west of the truck stop. We then went to the County Line Road exit and checked out the old gas station and motel on the south side of the freeway. Then we headed into Ash Fork and cruised around looking at the old motels, stores and cafes. Not a bad day. Tomorrow we’re going to take the postcards into Flagstaff. Only a week til the Fun Run!

Route 66- 1932 Alignment between Ashfork and Williams, Arizona

Sunday we headed east on the superslab and got off at the Winona exit. We cruised through town and checked out the great steel truss bridge here. We then followed the old road on into Flagstaff. It’s a nice, leisurely drive. Once we got into Flag we got on the later alignment of the road near the Mall and followed this section all the way to the freeway, turned around and went back into town. I had all my postcards and we were on a mission to find them all. There are so many motels along Route 66 here and traffic is a bit congested. I got most of them photographed but will save some of them for the next time we are in town. We reached the historic section of town and looked for a place to park, no luck. We ended up in the parking lot of the Sun Sausage Company. We went in for a beer and it smelled so good in there that we ended up eating there. Really good. The historic district is a really cool place to be. All of the buildings have been saved and restored. There were lots of neat little sidewalk cafes and we had wished that we hadn’t eaten yet. Lots of nice, quaint little shops here too. After exploring this area we headed west again. We exited at Parks Road and followed this wonderful stretch until we got to Deer Farm Road and then got back on the interstate and headed for home.

Circa 1963	2001
“Then and Now” Whiting Bros. Motel - Flagstaff, Arizona
Circa 1950s	2001
“Then and Now” 66 Motel - Flagstaff Arizona

Wednesday we will move our camp to the Seligman KOA for the AZ Fun Run. Can’t wait! Will be celebrating Cinco de Mayo on the Mother Road.

This is a special screen saver that Cheryl did for the Route 66 Arizona Fun Run. Sandi Taylor (Route 66 Magazine) gave Cheryl this Route 66 bear for her 46th birthday.

Here we are in Seligman and the town has already started filling with old classic cars. You can just feel the excitement in the air as the town readies for the BIG event of the year, the official start of the season for most businesses here. We started our day off by cruising through town a couple of times. Then we headed over to the Snow Cap, where we had lunch after many minutes of Juan’s wonderful tactics. Can’t believe he got me twice with that mustard bottle. ;) We then went over to Angel’s shop. Unfortunately, he was out running errands. That’s okay; we purchased a video “The Angel of Route 66” and went next door. There is a new little shop, Ola’s, she has a fair amount of different kinds of stuff. A really nice gal that is determined to fight to stay open even though she watches all the tourists go from the Snow Cap to Angel’s. We tried to encourage her to hang in there; this weekend will change all that frustration.

Decided we needed to do something besides sit around so we hit the old road heading east and cruised what we could into Williams. Coming back into town the realization hit us, this was home. Even though we’d only been gone a couple of days we missed being there already. Guess we’re just going to have to get serious about moving here. We cruised Route 66 and Railroad Ave a few times. There were a lot more old cars here than in Seligman. We were looking for a few friends that were staying there for the Fun Run. Couldn’t find them and decided to go park the car at Route 66 Magazine Gift Shop and let them find us. It didn’t work, but a few other folks that were looking for our friends also came in and we got to meet some very interesting guys.