The more interesting end of the line

Around the corner from the boring end of Route 66 is the Santa Monica Pier, where the celebration really takes place. We parked and wandered around the pier for a couple of hours. The weather couldn't have been better for an end-of-the-road celebration!

Terry Prince

We had lunch on the patio at a Mexican restaurant on the pier, where Terry Prince serenaded us. I can't find much of a web presence for him, but his songs and musicianship are amazing, and he apparently plays the pier on a regular basis. When he hits it big, remember you heard it here first!

Trapeze school on the pier

Ian Bowen with Kelly

We stopped (of course!) at the Route 66 kiosk at the pier, where we met Ian Bowen. In addition to manning the kiosk, he's the VP of the California Route 66 Association, so we learned a lot from him. Including the fact that Jerry McClanahan, whose EZ66 Guide we'd been following for 1,500 miles, lives just up the road in Chandler!


From the pier, we walked up to and through Palisades Park to see the Will Rogers Highway marker. Yet another beautiful place we saw on our travels.

Looking back at Santa Monica from the end of the pier

The Georgian Hotel, across the street from Palisades Park

This is just what it looks like: a street performer standing on a ladder, balancing a long stick on his head, wearing a loincloth and two live snakes, playing a flute.

The End of the Line

As day 5 dawned, we only had 70 miles to go to get to the end of Route 66. Knowing it was going to take us through some pretty heavy traffic we got an early start. Sure enough, the main thing we got to see on our final morning of the Route 66 drive was this:

 

Lots of beautiful (and very expensive) real estate, and we got to drive on both Sunset and Santa Monica Boulevards.

Finally, after 5 days and 1,500 miles of driving we arrived at our destination. The thing we had come all this way to see. The climax of the trip. The End of Route 66:

That's it. No confetti, no band, no balloons. Just the intersection of Olympic and Lincoln Boulevards in Santa Monica, California. That's the end of Route 66, without so much as a sign to mark it. Fortunately, the guide had prepared us for the anticlimactic nature of the end of the road, and directed us to where the celebration really takes place....

Farrell's

After we got a room for the night in Rancho Cucamonga, we decided to grab a quick bite to eat. Neither of us was very hungry, so we thought maybe some ice cream would be in order. One of our goals on the trip was to avoid chains we can eat at in Oklahoma, so we fired up Joan (the name we'd given to the GPS) to find us a place for ice cream we don't have at home. Dairy Queen was about a mile away, so off we went for a blizzard.

On the way to DQ, we passed a Farrell's. I remembered it from the 70's, at Crossroads Mall in Oklahoma City. I thought they were all gone, and Kelly had never heard of it, so I made us stop there.

It's still the blast it was back then. Mostly a kids' place, to be sure, but we had a great time, and some good food. Lots of birthdays, lots of servers in straw hats and armbands singing and clapping, and some pretty impressive balloon creations.

In addition to the birthday songs, there's a special ceremony when you order the Triple Chocolate Brownie, which we did:

Farrell's isn't completely gone, and it's as much fun as it ever was. If you get to Rancho Cucamonga (or one of their other remaining locations), don't miss it!

Wigwam Motel

There are two Wigwam Motels left out of the original seven. We missed pictures of the one in Holbrook, Arizona during the snowstorm of '12, so the one in Rialto was a must-see.

We thought about spending our last night on Route 66 here, but the neighborhood was a little shady, and we had enough daylight left to press on a bit further, so we moved on to Rancho Cucamonga (which is a much cooler name than "Rialto") for the night.

McDonald's Museum

 The McDonald's Museum (at the site of the original McDonald's restaurant) is a perfect example of the kind of place you don't see except on Route 66. I wouldn't want to spend a lot of time there (and we didn't), but I'm glad to say I've been there.

The Mojave Desert

We crossed into California about 10 AM on day 4. After passing through the agricultural inspection station on I-40 (they allowed us to keep our oranges), we moved back to old 66 for a long drive through the desert. Sparse country, but relaxing to drive through. And lots of dips, which Kelly had a good time driving over.

Between Essex and Amboy is an area Jerry McClanahan calls the "Route 66 Public Art Corridor". For miles, there is a dirt berm along the road. Travelers for years have filled it with messages spelled out with rocks, bottles, or whathaveyou. Somewhere just below a cairn built as a marker, our children are immortalized.

We saw several places selling gas for over $5 a gallon, but never had to fill up at that price

Oatman Road

Of all the roads we got to travel, the Oatman Road we took out of Kingman is my favorite. The pictures don't do justice to the beauty of the land, or to the guardrail-free, butt-clenching steepness of the curves!

Wild burros, posing for us

Scenes from Western Arizona

The drive from Seligman to Kingman was uneventful compared to the drive from Winslow to Seligman. We missed getting a picture of Peach Springs (a major "Cars" Radiator Springs inspiration) in the weather, but got to see lots of gorgeous contryside to make up for it. Another great stretch of classic Route 66 without an interstate in sight.

Palm trees and snow - not a combination you often see

Stranded on a corner in Winslow, Arizona

We left Standing on the Corner Park in Winslow, headed for another long stretch of I-40 through central Arizona. When we got to the on ramp, though, we found a highway patrol car blocking it. A large snowstorm with high winds had closed 200 miles of I-40, between Winslow to Kingman.

Noting all the cars parked on the side of the road, we decided to get a motel room - even though it was 10 AM - thinking they might start going fast. We snagged one at the Winslow Inn (not recommended, by the way), then went to find a place to eat and gather more information.

No one we talked to had any idea how long the closing would last, or what sort of weather was headed for Winslow. The forecast called for more snow in Flagstaff through midnight. After we ate, we headed back to the Winslow Inn to fire up the computer and use their WiFi to make another plan.

The Plan B we came up with was to head back east on I-40, then south and around the storm on I-10 through Phoenix, headed for Twentynine Palms and Nick. After we spent a day or so with him, we could start Route 66 at the western end, then follow it back to Winslow, assuming the weather cleared up in the intervening days. We checked out of the motel (after being in it less than an hour), and headed back to the interstate.

Westbound traffic as far as the eye can see

When we got there, we saw a steady stream of traffic headed down the westbound ramp. They had reopened I-40, and Plan A was back on the table! We joined everyone else, and headed for Flagstaff.

Six hours of closed interstate made for a lot of congestion, mostly 18 wheelers trying to make up lost time. We soon longed for the sparsely populated Route 66 we'd come to know and love. But it got even worse as we approached Flagstaff and the storm that had closed the road in the first place. Heavy snow and heavier traffic made for a killer combination. At one point we took over two hours to cover less than twelve miles.

With the traffic on I-40, Route 66 was a Winter wonderland

We eventually made it to the Seligman turnoff, where we got to leave the traffic behind. From there to Kingman (where we spent the night) it was off and on weather, but reasonable and pretty driving. Not an experience we want to repeat, but the high point of adventure on the  trip.

Winslow

"I'm a standing on a corner
in Winslow, Arizona
and such a fine sight to see
It's a girl, my Lord,
in a flatbed Ford
slowin' down to take a look at me." 
- The Eagles, Take It Easy




When a group that big has a hit that big, a town's got to take advantage of it, right? When you go to Winslow, it's not just any corner, but the Standing on the Corner Park at 2nd and Kinsley you need to see. It's complete with a flatbed Ford, and an oh-so-convenient gift shop right across the street. By this time, the cold rain had turned to spitting snow, but there was no way were missing out on these pictures. But there was worse weather right around the corner from the one we were standing on....