Road Trip Days 11 and 12: The City of Angels

No one ever needs to worry that I might consider moving to Los Angeles. Driving here is the worst thing I've ever made myself do. They should seriously consider using driving withing 100 miles of LA as a form of torture. And I didn't even hit it at bad times, or so I'm told.

My first stop was the Hollywood Forever Cemetery, the burial place of a number of random celebrities. My purpose in going was to visit the graves of Johnny and Dee Dee Ramone, which I really enjoyed.

My reward for making it LA in one piece was to meet an old friend for a California rite of passage, In-N-Out Burger. I left the ordering to him, and the results were maybe not worth the traffic, but pretty darn great.

It was also nice to catch up after many years, not to mention to speak to someone who wasn't a stranger for the first time in a week.

I proceeded on to Santa Monica, my home for the next two nights and the official end point of Route 66. I wandered Santa Monica Pier before calling it a night to sleep off the stress of LA driving.

The next day I did some sightseeing, once again battling LA traffic.

LA is fine to visit, but the driving just kind of ruins it. Obviously I like driving, I'm driving around the country for a whole month. But the driving there is different. It's aggressive and constantly stressful, and you feel like you're seconds away from an accident at any given time. At least they have seriously fantastic Mexican food to make up for it. And I'm told the weather is great, although 1 of my 2 days there was cloudy and the one other time I've been there it rained. Long story short, I'm not a big fan of LA. Time to start heading back east.

Road Trip Day 10: Joshua Tree National Park

Having had my fill of Route 66 kitsch, I headed toward California to Joshua Tree National Park. Joshua Tree was never originally on my theoretical agenda, mostly because I incorrectly thought that it was much further south in California than it actually is. Once I figured out it was doable, I decided I had to go because I’d heard so many awesome things about it.

Before crossing over into California I made one last stop in Arizona at the London Bridge in Lake Havasu. This is the actual original London Bridge that someone bought and transported piece by piece to Arizona for some crazy reason.

After my brief visit to fake London, I proceeded on to Joshua Tree. The eastern parts of California are an odd mix of desert and mountains, and you can go an hour without seeing a single building, let alone a town or even a gas station. Thankfully I’ve taken to filling up my tank every morning even if I’m not close to empty. The idea was just to do it so I didn’t have to worry about it later, but my first few hours in California would have been the first time it would have been an actual concern had I not. And of course these are the places I have no cell reception. You know this is where they go to bury the bodies.

Joshua Tree is officially the best unplanned detour I’ve ever taken. There are no words for how awesome this place is. I got a campsite for the night and it was jut an unreal experience. The stars were incredible and I saw hands down the greatest moonrise I’ve ever seen in my life. This was possibly the only night I’ll end up camping, but bringing along the tent and sleeping bag for even just that night was 100% worth it. There’s not even cell service here, so I got myself a nice little camp fire going and just completely disconnected from the world for a night. The next day I drove through the park and was amazed by it's beauty. My words can't do it justice, so I will just let the pictures speak for themselves.

 

Road Trip Days 7 To 9: Gettin’ My Kicks On Route 66

I spent three days exploring the true old Route 66 through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. Essentially I felt like I was starring in a live action version of the movie Cars. I’ve always been a big fan of Pixar, but I really have to say that they were spot on with that one. I also made up for my rainy start by having three days of impossibly gorgeous weather. I don’t think I even saw a single cloud for two and a half days.

On day 7 I gave myself a shorter driving day to break up the long days of driving that I’d been doing up to that point. I slept in a little later than my usual crack of dawn waking hour and let myself spend the rest of the morning exploring the antique stores that line the historical Route 66 strip through north Amarillo.

Heading west from Amarillo, the original Route 66 mostly exists as a frontage road running parallel to and about 200 feet away from the Interstate. The major roadside attraction in this part of Texas is Cadillac Ranch, a set of 10 Cadillacs ranging from the years 1949 to 1964, buried nose first into the ground.

 Graffiti is openly welcomed, and conveniently one of the many discarded spray paint cans on the ground still had some paint in it, so I was able to leave my mark.

Just before leaving Texas and entering New Mexico, you pass through Adrian, Texas, the official midpoint of Route 66. Adrian is 1139 miles from both Chicago and Santa Monica, the two ends of the route. There is an adorable café built on the midpoint line, where they are known for their pie. I of course made an obligatory pie and souvenir stop, and at the shop next door I met a lady who originally opened the Midpoint Café and claimed to be the inspiration for Flo in Cars. She asked me to add my signature to an old truck she had parked out front, and I happily obliged.

Not long after crossing into New Mexico is one of the more classic Route 66 towns, Tucumcari. I stayed at the Blue Swallow Inn, a historical Route 66 landmark. It was wonderfully preserved and completely delightful.

Tucumcari is a sleepy town with not a lot going on, but they do have a dinosaur museum, which is very well done. I also could not have been happier that they chose to play the Jurassic Park score on a loop throughout the museum.

The next day I set out for Holbrook, Arizona, another historic Route 66 town and home of the Wigwam Motel. When I first started reading up about this trip, I couldn’t wait to sleep in a fake teepee. But before getting to Holbrook, I stopped for lunch in Albuquerque and briefly roamed their old town section, which is mostly just a series of shops set up to take tourists’ money. I did find a great used record store in Albuquerque though, which made me very happy.

After entering Arizona but shortly before hitting Holbrook, you pass by Petrified Forest National Park, which also gives access to the Painted Desert. The Painted Desert is absolutely gorgeous.

Eventually I made it to Holbrook, where I did indeed get to spend the night in a fake teepee. And while that was entertaining, sadly the Wigwam Motel is not as charming as the Blue Swallow Inn was. The owners of the Blue Swallow have a huge enthusiasm for Route 66 and are clearly devoted to their business. The Wigwam Motel, on the other hand, gives off the impression that they just keep doing it out of habit more than anything. Still, I got to sleep in a fake teepee.

I decided to spend my third and final old school Route 66 night in the town of Seligman, Arizona. I initially had no intention of staying in Seligman, but it was highly recommended to me by an older couple in an RV that I had spoken to in Amarillo, and they seemed to know what they were talking about.

Route 66 through Arizona is largely subsumed by the I-40 Interstate, with marked exits here and there where you can choose to detour to see the remaining stretches of the classic route. Shortly after crossing into Arizona, there are some amazing abandoned remnants of Route 66’s former glory. The most interesting is the former Twin Arrows gas station. I could not stop taking pictures here.

 Before getting to Seligman I took a break from the Route 66 kitsch and made a detour to the Grand Canyon. I originally didn’t plan to spend much time there since I’d been there before, but I’m so glad I did. I approached the park from the East Rim entrance, and the landscape on the ascent to the park was unlike anything I’d ever seen. I was actually speechless (not that I have anyone to talk to on this trip) on the drive up. The East Rim is technically the far end of the South Rim, but hardly anyone approaches the park this way, which is really a shame for them but great for anyone who does, because the viewpoints are relatively uncrowded. And the views are incredible.

When I visited the Grand Canyon before, I was at the North Rim, which is more forested than the South Rim, but gorgeous in its own right. Even though I enjoyed my visit last time, I don’t remember being utterly blown away like I was this time. The views from the East Rim left me in complete awe.

The drive through the park eventually led me to the popular South Rim entrance, which is pretty awful when you’ve seen the North and East Rims. Approximately 90% of tourists go through the main South Rim entrance, which was a nightmare even in the off season. I can’t imagine what it’s like in the summer. There are multiple color-coded parking lots and I could only find a spot in the fourth overflow lot. And then there are all the parking lots dedicated to the countless tour buses bringing people in from Las Vegas for a brief peek at the Canyon through the concrete village built on the spot. Of course the Canyon is still gorgeous from here, you just have to fight through the hordes of foreign tourists to see it. Thankfully I had already had my experience and spent little time there.

After the Grand Canyon I finally made it to Seligman. This was the first day since leaving Nashville that I’d spent an entire day in one state. Up to this point I’d enjoyed my Route 66 adventure, but there was always a touch of sadness because there was a sense of what used to be that just didn’t exist anymore. This is where Cars gets it totally right.

Seligman was the exception, and it’s no coincidence that it’s almost universally accepted that this town served as the basis for Radiator Springs in the movie. Seligman has embraced both its history and the exposure that the movie has brought it and the town is just completely delightful.

I spent some time talking to the locals, and you really could not find a friendlier group of folks. I’m so glad I got the recommendation to stop there from the couple in Amarillo, and I’m equally glad that it was my final stopover on the classic Route 66 part of my trip.

The interesting thing that I’ve figured out on my drive is that almost no one who runs the businesses on Route 66 is from anywhere near here. In my stops at all the classic places, I’ve met people from Detroit, Rochester, Boston and Alberta, Canada. Apparently there is something about Route 66 that gets under people’s skin and they just can’t leave. I can’t say that has happened to me, but I’m really happy I’ve done this trip.

Road Trip Days 5-6: St. Louis to Tulsa to Amarillo

The Route 66 portion of my road trip got off to a soggy start. It rained for much of my way through Missouri, and finally let up shortly before I entered Kansas.

Perhaps it was the weather, but the portions of Route 66 through Missouri were not all that exciting. It was an interesting learning process to try to figure out how to actually find the road. It also became clear very quickly that my guide book makes a lot of things sound more interesting than they actually are in person.

As opposed to Missouri, the short 13-mile stretch of Route 66 through the corner of Kansas was extremely well marked, although it was over before I knew it.

Oklahoma was when things really started to get interesting. Oklahoma has some very drivable stretches of Route 66, and for the most part they are fairly well marked. Before reaching Tulsa, where I stopped for the night, I got my first true Route 66 roadside attraction - the Blue Whale in Catoosa, Oklahoma.

Tulsa was an odd city. I wandered around in the evening through the area where all of the recommended restaurants were. One restaurant had a 25+ minute wait, but every other restaurant had at most 2 customers in it. On principle I refuse to wait 25 minutes to eat Mexican food in Tulsa and I didn't feel like an awkward solo dining experience, so I headed back to the hotel restaurant and then called it a night.

The next morning I got an early start and was treated to a great roadside gas station and store called Pop's, which specializes in crazy sodas from all over the country. They came in every flavor imaginable, most of which you probably would never want to try. I bought a six pack of samples anyway just for the fun of it, although I'm sure they will mostly be terrible. Given that the root beer that I actually intended to enjoy was not very good, I have low expectations.

Next I headed to Oklahoma City to visit the National Memorial dedicated to the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. It was incredibly moving and well done. It might be the nicest memorial I've ever seen.

After leaving Oklahoma City, I meandered my way through the rest of Oklahoma into Texas, alternately driving the old Route 66 for stretches and bypassing less accessible or interesting stretches on the Interstate. The ghost town of Texola, just on the Oklahoma side of the Oklahoma/Texas border was particularly interesting.

There were also several scenic stops on the Texas side before I reached Amarillo.

My destination for the night was the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo. It was gloriously touristy. The food was delicious, although my "sampler" was so huge I still have half of it in the cooler in my trunk. The Big Texan is known for its 72 oz. steak challenge - you get a 72 oz. steak for free if you can finish it (plus multiple sides) in an hour. Two brave souls tried while I was there, but neither succeeded.

As it turns out, full days of driving are exhausting. And now I'm off to bed.

Road Trip Days 2-4: Nashville and St. Louis

After switching out the cursed car, my road trip was back on track. My friends and I had a great time exploring the honky tonks of downtown Nashville.

We got to try some delicious famous Nashville hot chicken at Hattie B's, one of the most famous hot chicken joints in town (conveniently right near our hotel).

We also attended a beautiful wedding of a friend of ours, which was the impetus of this entire trip and what made me get the idea to do the road trip in the first place.

After I left Nashville, I headed to St. Louis to visit a friend from college. When I saw the Arch as I approached the city, it truly dawned on me for the first time that I was really doing this road trip and seeing all new parts of America. The drive into St. Louis got me really excited. My friend kindly obliged my desire to be a tourist and visit the Arch. It's an amazing structure up close, and the ride to the top in the tiny elevator pods was a completely unique experience.

From the top of the Arch it seems like America stretches on forever in each direction. I got a good view looking west, where I'll be headed in the days to come.

Road Trip Day One: Virginia to Lexington, Kentucky. And I'm possibly cursed.

Well, my road trip is not off to the smoothest start. It's day two, and I'm already onto my second rental car. But more on that in a bit. First, the good stuff.

For this first leg of the trip, I had a traveling companion to help ease my way in. We headed out from my parents' house outside Washington, D.C. toward Lexington, Kentucky.

Our first stop, apropos of Halloween, was Lake Shawnee abandoned amusement park near Princeton, West Virginia. The park was built in 1926 on land that was the site of a Native American burial ground and multiple child murders. After the park opened, strange events started occurring, resulting in several mysterious deaths of children until the park eventually closed. Today it remains as a tourist attraction, and the friendly owners were kind enough to let us in even though we were there outside of typical business hours. Whether or not the place is actually haunted is open to debate, although after the rest of our day, I might be more open to arguments on the subject now.

After leaving Lake Shawnee, we continued on our route, stopping at another Halloween attraction in West Virginia, a house with 3,000 carved jack o' lanterns.

Having gotten our fill of Halloween goodness, we continued on toward our final destination of Lexington. It was largely uneventful until we were about 15 miles outside the city, when the sunroof in our car spontaneously exploded and shards of glass rained down on our heads. After recovering from the initial shock and terror, I found my way to a gas station to investigate the damage. There was glass everywhere in car, but no sign of anything that caused the explosion. Having no other choice, I continued on to our hotel - in the rain, of course - while my friend called the rental car company to figure out how to go about getting a new car. We also did some Googling, and apparently exploding sunroofs are a thing that actually happens. I still think it might have had something to do with driving on the Native American burial ground. I grew up watching Poltergeist, I know how it works.

Long story short, we eventually got a new car in Lexington this morning (where there were snow flurries!), after much confusion and my having to  explain why I was "returning" my car without a full tank of gas, which naturally was the rental car agent's greatest concern.

Here's hoping that this was the one and only truly crazy moment of my trip and it's all uphill from here.