Another 8000km in a week in the Cayenne......
Discussion
Took a redeye out of Vancouver from a business trip, and made a quick prep with my co-driver for our 21st trip on Route 66.
Of course we would not stick strictly to the Route, but would intersect it at various point in tin itinerary, Once there we should pick up the dogs for bring them back to Canada for the wsummer and deadhead the car trailer back to Canada from its winter desert parking. At 5AM we jumped into the Cayenne in Toronto and headed for Arizona.
As usual, our first stop was St Louis, which was undergoing a lot of construction, but we went to our local restaurant ,Charlie Gitto’s. Charlie has had the same chair at the bar for 42 years. the place is straight out of Goodfellas. i asked Charlie why there were so many elderly nuns and police officers usually in the place; he places his hands in a praying position and said. “They pray for me”, and the cops?…"they look after us here..never any trouble”.
Next morning we head for Texas, down through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma into Amarillo. Pass an old Sunbeam Alpine on a transporter…
A decommissioned bridge on the short strip of 66 in Kansas…amazing how narrow early 66 was…
One of the last roadhouses to be in service on 66 in Hydro Oklahoma…Lucille only died in the eighties I believe…
Into Amarillo, where we stay in the motel at the Big Texan Steakhouse to grab a normal size steak and see the usual optimist try ( and fail ) to eat the 72oz steak and all the trimmings in an hour. If he had succeeded it would have been free. He had flown from Liverpool to attempt the feat .
Of course we would not stick strictly to the Route, but would intersect it at various point in tin itinerary, Once there we should pick up the dogs for bring them back to Canada for the wsummer and deadhead the car trailer back to Canada from its winter desert parking. At 5AM we jumped into the Cayenne in Toronto and headed for Arizona.
As usual, our first stop was St Louis, which was undergoing a lot of construction, but we went to our local restaurant ,Charlie Gitto’s. Charlie has had the same chair at the bar for 42 years. the place is straight out of Goodfellas. i asked Charlie why there were so many elderly nuns and police officers usually in the place; he places his hands in a praying position and said. “They pray for me”, and the cops?…"they look after us here..never any trouble”.
Next morning we head for Texas, down through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma into Amarillo. Pass an old Sunbeam Alpine on a transporter…
A decommissioned bridge on the short strip of 66 in Kansas…amazing how narrow early 66 was…
One of the last roadhouses to be in service on 66 in Hydro Oklahoma…Lucille only died in the eighties I believe…
Into Amarillo, where we stay in the motel at the Big Texan Steakhouse to grab a normal size steak and see the usual optimist try ( and fail ) to eat the 72oz steak and all the trimmings in an hour. If he had succeeded it would have been free. He had flown from Liverpool to attempt the feat .
Edited by RDMcG on Monday 17th April 15:48
Next morning we set out across the Panhandle at moonfall to grab breakfast in Santa Fe NM
La Fonda hotel has a good Huevos Rsncheros:
From Santa Fe we plan to hit a very remote and abandoned stretch of 66 in the Painted Desert, about ten miles of crumbling, dangerous asphalt , at the end of which is an abandoned but intact trading post. This is probably the hardest artifact of 66 to find,and we fail- The land has been bought by a cattle rancher and fenced off. We will try to ,make contact for next trip….
Quick stop at the Jackrabbit Trading post when we get into Arizona…typical tat:
Second failure of the day…we had booked into La Posada, in my view the best hotel on 66 , but reservation was screwed up,….
We ended up staying at the Navajo casino in Twin Arrows, which was surprisingly good…and had a not unpleasant view from the window..
Final Westbound morning was an easy trip, dropping from the 7700 ft elevation of Flagstaff down to the 2000 ft elevation of Scottsdale in a a few hours..
It is amazing in Spring how quickly the vegetation changes from conifers to deciduous tress down to cactus..and temperature from below freezing to 33c.
Breakfast in the HP Cafe in Sedona is good:
and on into Scottsdale for a joyous greeting from the dogs…..
It is Spring here..
The Jeep lives in AZ and the colour blends well with the desert vividness in Spring:
As we are under time pressure we take a quick break and then head out on the road again, complete with the empty trailer and the two dogs:
We stop at Two Guns AZ , once a thriving trading post and recreation area..now nothing remains, and the bridge that once took Route 66 traffic leads to nowhere…..
It had been raining in NM the and poodle ends up paws deep in mud:.
There is a strong relationship between Harley-Davidson and Route 66 and dealerships dot the entire route…
..and here and there the odd interesting car appears:.
We arrive in Canada 8,000km later in a filthy vehicle, throat the Cayenne has been incredibly reliable in its 21 trips up and down Route 66> Next trip will be its last, and another Cayenne will begin the tough life of being a jack of all trades, towing, wintering, dog carrying and all the rest
La Fonda hotel has a good Huevos Rsncheros:
From Santa Fe we plan to hit a very remote and abandoned stretch of 66 in the Painted Desert, about ten miles of crumbling, dangerous asphalt , at the end of which is an abandoned but intact trading post. This is probably the hardest artifact of 66 to find,and we fail- The land has been bought by a cattle rancher and fenced off. We will try to ,make contact for next trip….
Quick stop at the Jackrabbit Trading post when we get into Arizona…typical tat:
Second failure of the day…we had booked into La Posada, in my view the best hotel on 66 , but reservation was screwed up,….
We ended up staying at the Navajo casino in Twin Arrows, which was surprisingly good…and had a not unpleasant view from the window..
Final Westbound morning was an easy trip, dropping from the 7700 ft elevation of Flagstaff down to the 2000 ft elevation of Scottsdale in a a few hours..
It is amazing in Spring how quickly the vegetation changes from conifers to deciduous tress down to cactus..and temperature from below freezing to 33c.
Breakfast in the HP Cafe in Sedona is good:
and on into Scottsdale for a joyous greeting from the dogs…..
It is Spring here..
The Jeep lives in AZ and the colour blends well with the desert vividness in Spring:
As we are under time pressure we take a quick break and then head out on the road again, complete with the empty trailer and the two dogs:
We stop at Two Guns AZ , once a thriving trading post and recreation area..now nothing remains, and the bridge that once took Route 66 traffic leads to nowhere…..
It had been raining in NM the and poodle ends up paws deep in mud:.
There is a strong relationship between Harley-Davidson and Route 66 and dealerships dot the entire route…
..and here and there the odd interesting car appears:.
We arrive in Canada 8,000km later in a filthy vehicle, throat the Cayenne has been incredibly reliable in its 21 trips up and down Route 66> Next trip will be its last, and another Cayenne will begin the tough life of being a jack of all trades, towing, wintering, dog carrying and all the rest
woodysnr said:
Great read ..just watched a series on TV with Michael Portillo on railways and some of the places where on your route Santa Fe . Driven part of that route a long while ago and covered 4000 on our month vacation to the west coast .
There are sill quite a few short haul steam railways in the US..some in very spectacular places,,,,RDMcG said:
I am long overdue to update my overall guide to Route 66 but will do so soon and post it...I have just about covered every mile at some stage
..
Please do. I have all your guides bookmarked and they make great reading. At some point I shall make sure I complete all of Route 66 and not just the parts around Arizona...
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