Prescott, AZ was the goal today and I headed north to I-40
and started heading east. Just before
Kingman, I see a sign for historic Route 66 and mention of a museum. That sounded interesting to me so I took the
exit. About a block down I find a large
building off to my right that’s called the Powerhouse Visitors Center. I walked in, on one side is a souvenir store
and on the other there’s an information both with tons of brochures about the
area and Arizona; its Arizona tourists central!
Upstairs there’s a museum.
I go upstairs and two older ladies are sitting at a desk at
the entrance of the museum door. It’s $4
to get in. I get out my bicyclist wallet
and drop it. It pops open and credit
cards and money go all over the place.
So I’m doing some small talk to the ladies as I’m crawled around on the
floor picking up my stuff. I paid the ladies and walk into the museum. It’s done in a time line fashion and talks
about Route 66 history. Route 66 started
just outside of Chicago area and ended at the Santa Monica Pier.
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| Photo- In the Powerhouse Visitor's Center Museum. |
Route 66 started off as a major footpath that was commonly
used by the Indians. At this point Route
66 was known as the Mother Road. This
Mother Road was used later by pioneers in wagons to head out west. The railroads were built along the same
route. Eventually, as cars came into existence
they traveled along the road. In 1926,
the highway (the Mother Road) was certified as US Highway 66. During the Great Depression millions traveled
along Route 66 in hopes of finding new beginnings. In fact, the mention of Route 66 in John Steinbeck’s
novel The Grapes of Wrath put the road on the map in history.
After World War II, the economy surged and up along the
Route 66 new towns, businesses, and restaurants came into being. In the late 50’s and early 60’s, route 66 was
in the height of its glory. In 1957,
President Eisenhower signed the bill that created the interstate system that we
have today. It ended up being the kiss
of death for Route 66. By the late 1970’s
quite a few of the communities along Route 66 had turned into ghost towns; also
some of the route had been paved over by the new interstates. In the late 1980’s there was a resurgence of
interest to save some of old Route 66.
Now some of the areas of the road are being maintained and have historic
signage. I found the museum very
interesting. I only thought of the 1950’s
and 1960’s part of its history but there was so much more.
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| Photo- A great deal of Route 66 places in Kingman. |
Next, I discovered that I could take another segment that
goes along I-40 and it would get me to the same place. Off I went along Route 66 again; only this
road was quite a bit better maintained and traveled than the section I did
yesterday. I will admit as I went
through the town of Kingman did market everything along the Route 66 and it
kind of soured it for me because it was too much commercialized. But as I went along the road, the scenery
made up for all of the commercialization.
The colored rock formations gave way to sandy colored rocky piled
formations and then to green topped bluffs with small green trees in fields of
wheat colored grass. It was very scenic. I drove through an Indian reservation and I
will say it was nothing compared to some of the reservations I have experienced
so far. This one looked very well kept
up and had very nice community buildings.
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| Photo- Scenery along Route 66. |
As I drove along, I saw old model T cars driving from the
other direction. They seemed to be in
groups of two or three traveling along the road. I counted at least 15 of them that past me
from the other direction. I found it
interesting because they would’ve been the first cars on Route 66. I did see other old classic cars along the route
but most of them were parked and had for sale signs posted on them.
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| Photo- Older classic cars along Route 66. |
I was ready for lunch and decided to take a chance with the
Road Kill Café in Seligman. I ended up
ordering a diet Pepsi which came in a huge mason jar and a sandwich called
Too-Slow-Doe. Sorry to say there was no venison
in this sandwich; it was a barbeque beef on a hoagie bun served up with your
choice of fries, potato salad, or chips.
I sat at the bar and noticed there were tons of dollar bills along the
ceiling of the bar area. The dollar
bills had names, dates, and numbers on them.
I asked the guy behind the bar what it was all about and he said that
people leave a dollar with their name and date in hopes of locating it the next
time they come through the area. Well,
good luck with that I said. The guy
laughed.
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| Photo- Road Kill Cafe where the motto is- You Kill Them and We'll Grill Them! |
I struck up a conversation with the guy and found out he was
originally from LA. He lived in Vegas
for a while and somehow ended up here.
He would specify why he ended up here in a small town along Route 66
working at the Road Kill Café. I asked
him how he managed coming from large cities to a small town. He said he goes to Vegas once a month. I found him rather tight lipped and cagey.
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| Photo- A ceiling of dollar bills in the bar area at Road Kill Cafe. |
Next, I decided to pick up the pace just a bit more and got
back onto I-40. Shortly, after that I
was on Hwy 89 heading south to Prescott.
Oh, and I was told that all the locals pronounce it as PRES-kit. I followed the Google directions again and
took the LONG way to the hotel. Go figure! I got checked in and then drove to the
Prescott’s downtown area. It was
starting to get dark already at 6pm; winter is here that’s for sure. I went into a local gallery and got to
talking with the guy manning the shop.
He was one of the artist in the shop and all of the artist take their
turn manning the shop; it’s an artist’s collective. I knew of several in Salt Lake City too. This shop had quite a bit of variety.
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| Photo- Inside of the Raven. |
Then I asked about where to go eat and what not in the
downtown area and he suggested the Raven.
It is like “Beer Nirvana” he said and none of that mainstream piss water
served there. That peaked my interest
and it was about 3 blocks away. I headed
that direction and looked at menus in several other places along the way. I also looked to see how busy or how much
activity there was in some of these places.
Quite a few didn’t have much going on and then I got to the Raven and it
had a hum of activity.
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| Photo- Artwork inside the Raven that's available for purchase. |
The Raven serves coffee up during the day but serves beer
and wine in the evenings. They also have
an organic menu which I’m sometimes wary of places that do that because then it’s
to veggie for me. But I saw a pita pizza
on the menu and that sounded good. It
had sweet red peppers, onions, and olives with a bit of olive oil. Unfortunately, they were out of the chicken
that they could add on for a bit more but I had already waited in line so I
stuck with just veggies and beer. I
tasted a couple and then decided on a pale ale from a local brewery. They had at least 30 beers on tap and another
variety of 40 bottled beers. All of the
beers were non-mainstream beers. In
other words you guys that drink Bud light were out of luck in this place. I ordered at the counter then found a table
along the wall. They had some
interesting art on the wall. It really
was an interesting atmosphere and there were Halloween decorations up which you
would expect in a placed called the Raven.
Before I know it, I’m talking with a guy that is a disabled retired
vet. He’s planning a driving trip to
Mexico starting in November. We talked
for a while and he bought me another beer.
It was an interesting conversation but what was driving me up the wall
is the whole time he’s talking to me he’s staring at my chest. I’m wearing a form fitting t-shirt and there’s
no cleavage but he’s staring at my chest.
It was very disorientating. He
finally had to leave and I finished the beer he had bought me slowly. Then, I walked back to the Prescott square
which is the center of town where I had parked my car. I found my way back to the hotel using a map
the desk clerk had given me when I checked in.
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