Route 66 - Kingman to Homolovi - podcast 348
Route 66 - Kingman to Homolovi plus Seligman - podcast 348
Our Route 66 centennial trip takes us from Kingman to Homolovi with stops in Seligman to visit Angel Delgadillo's barber shop. Find out what's still here, what's new and what's just a memory as we celebrate 100 years of the Mother Road.
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Our guide to traveling Route 66 in your RV
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Automated transcript of StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 348
Peggy
Welcome to the third week of Getting our Kicks,
Tony
Celebrating the centennial of Route 66.
Peggy
This week we had a whole lot of new adventures, including driving on the longest remaining unbroken stretch of original Route 66.
Tony
We traveled the mother road from the Kingman area to Homolovi State Park and enjoyed several day trips, exploring the towns and attractions in between.
Peggy
We hope you enjoy our photos, videos, and memories as we get our Kicks celebrating 100 years of Route 66. We
Tony
Have this week's podcast along with the notes and all the stories that go with this episode, along with discounts, deals, helpful tips, and more at our home on the web at Stresslesscamping.com.
Peggy
We really appreciate your likes and shares. Thank you for joining us for podcast episode 3 48, Stressless Camping.
Tony
I'm Tony.
Peggy
I'm Peggy.
Tony
And we're two RV industry veterans who travel part-time
Peggy
In a Rockwood Minilite,
Tony
Looking to share big adventures and help you with great tips,
Peggy
Tricks,
Tony
And discounts.
Peggy
Well, here we go. We're gonna be back on Route 66. There was a big storm in Eastern Arizona, so we spent one more day than we planned in Kingman and we got a chance to go to the Mojave Museum.
Tony
Yeah. Which was pretty cool.
Peggy
Yeah. One of the coolest things I thought was they have this ice box cooler ice chest.
Tony
Well, what it is is it's a kerosene fire device and you put the like fire outside and the ice ball inside and it uses zero electricity, but it's like a, a cooler. It was, I love these old contraptions. Yeah.
Peggy
It was really, really cool. And you know, it's a, a great museum. It has a lot of stuff about the indigenous people and so we really enjoyed our final daytime in Kingman. And of course we enjoyed our favorite nighttime in Kingman because we found another brewery.
Tony
Yeah. Finally we found Grand Canyon Brewing and we did a sample, you just can't lick their beers.
Peggy
We had a beer flight, bought a bourbon flight.
Tony
Yeah. And
Peggy
Shared it with us.
Tony
And funny, the next day I had a headache flight.
Peggy
I don't know why. Of course we had to do the group selfie for every meal.
Tony
The food there and the, the beer was, were both just really top,
Peggy
Really fantastic. So the next day we finally headed out, I saw this road cut that I mostly, I leave it in here because I wanna remember to look at what's going on with the geology there leaving eastern side of Kingman.
Tony
It's like a taco in the road. Yeah.
Peggy
So the first stop we made was in Antares, Arizona at Giganticus Heticus. This is an old gas station, as you know, a lot of Route-Sixty-Six has.
Tony
Yeah. And it's got this giant like tiki head on the outside.
Peggy
Which one is the, oh, the one on the left. And of course we had to put a new sticker sticker. There's a bunch of stickers there and there's Ency six shield, which is cool. So I'm gonna put it up here out of the sun
Speaker 3
On the u.
Peggy
In the U.
Tony
By the way, that sound is the man lift in the background.
Peggy
Oh, right. They were doing a lot of renovation and painting the roof. So yeah, the next old gas station Cafe was the Hackberry store. It's now just a gift shop store, but there's a lot of stuff to wander around and see, including this little garage full of stuff.
Tony
They had a stage in the back and some really interesting cars.
Peggy
<affirmative>,
Tony
Pretty rare cars actually sitting around the property.
Peggy
But our real destination that day was Grand Canyon Caverns Campground.
Tony
Yeah. And we've stayed there before. It's the first time I really got to ride around on a e-bike.
Peggy
Yeah. It wasn't so snowy back then. It was in June. It was very, very snowy. Unfortunately, we were also busy trying to level and everything in the mud and the snow. None of us thought to take pictures of what it looked like, but it was very covered in snow. Now Grand Canyon Canyons used to be called Dinosaur Caverns.
Tony
The local tribe has taken it over and really is putting a lot of effort into making it a nicer place. Yes,
Peggy
Absolutely. So the first thing we did, of course when we got there, we had skipped lunch again. So we had Liner and late lunch, early dinner in their restaurant, which was really good. I really enjoy eating there.
Tony
The people were so nice.
Peggy
Yeah. And then we did a cave tour and one of the first displays I saw was all the stuff that gets, that they've picked up out of the caverns from after people go on tours. All the stuff that got left behind the formations kind of in the cave are look like grape clusters. Those are the ones that there are very popular there. And also Snowballs. It's a pretty dry cavern, so there isn't a lot of s stalactite and s stalagmite activity, but there are some. So I got little bit of pictures of some s stalactites
Tony
And it's, you take an elevator to get down in it.
Peggy
Yeah. And it's like 15 floors or something like that.
Tony
Something like that. It's way down,
Peggy
Way down there
Tony
In the ground.
Peggy
Well, they're currently not offering overnight stays, but they used to, so they've got this bedroom set up and it's got a full like bathroom and a shower and everything. They're not doing that right now. I think they're gonna turn that into a, a native gift shop down there. But also in their, during the Cold War, a shelter was designed to, let's see, to support like 2000 people to live in relative comfort for at least a month.
Tony
Yeah, you're underground. So radiation is not a problem. And there's all these, these caverns or this space, so why not use that? And all those Cold War supplies are still there.
Peggy
One of the things I look forward to in this ca in this tour is the Caves loft that fell through the, you know, from above ground and fell into this hole and perished there. So they have this tribute to that.
Tony
So one of the things that has just been consistent throughout this adventure is we have had a number of nights where we're just completely off the grid, even as it's been some colder nights and, and all of that. And something we just haven't had to worry about is will we have enough power to last the night? Because ABC Upfitters helped us configure a system that fits our camping style. And that could be anywhere from a couple of nights off grid to we've stayed over a week off grid.
Peggy
That's right.
Tony
It's a really reliable system. It's, it's been working great. And if you're looking for a system that's tailored to your needs and performs the way you want it to, ABC Upfitters are the people to call.
Peggy
So give them a call at (574) 333-3225.
Tony
That's 5 7 4 3, 3 3, 3, 2, 2 5. And we appreciate them helping us to enable our adventure on Route 66.
Peggy
They really do make this possible.
Tony
Yeah.
Peggy
So the next day we kind of did a little something funny. We went east to west from our campground at the Caverns. We drove to Williams and we toured Williams. It's a fun little town. They have a lot of Route 66 FA lot of stores that celebrate Route 66. It was still very, very snowy there. So if we walked on the shady side of the street, we were crunching through the snow, which was kind of fun. But they have a lot of fun stuff. They have the, the largest route, 66 shield inside one of the stores.
Peggy
And Bill is not very short. And that thing must be at least seven feet tall, I guess.
Speaker 3
Oh, easily.
Peggy
And then there's this cafe. We did not go in there, but I just thought it was interesting to look at lots of interesting things to see and just wander around at the visitor center. They gave me this magnet. And what's weird about this magnet is that Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, California, New Mexico, Arizona. Who the heck designed <laugh> that pen. It's the strangest order. Bailey got to walk a bear or vice versa, whatever you, and there was one store that's so covered in weird stuff.
Peggy
Like you see Bob's big boy, but really what we're showing is this bird statue holding a fish. You almost can't see it. And then this, I don't know what would happen if Mater and Lightning McQueen had a baby. I guess it's like part Mater and Part Lightning. It's very, very strange. But just an example of all the really wacky things that you could see it buy in this store.
Peggy
From there we went a little farther back to the west and went to Ash Fork. Ash Fork has a really awesome museum and fortunately it was open, even though the app said it wasn't, but it was really cool. So we got to wander around in there. They have, you know, normal museum stuff, like models of what towns used to look like in the old days. And you can even take a picture of yourself with a bunch of shady looking poker players. They have a 1926 Model T, which of course is the same age as Route 66.
Peggy
And then they have this cool fire truck. So it's just a fun museum to walk around. Doesn't take terribly long, but it's got a lot of fun stuff in it. And then we went a little farther west and ended up in Seligman, Arizona. Unfortunately, Delgadio Snowcap is opening in a week, so we missed that. But we got to go shopping at Angel and Vilna's gift shop.
Tony
Angel Delgadio was a barber and when Route 66 got bypassed, this is a man who's just got a passion and he ultimately was the reason for the founding of the Historic Route 66 Association. Got got it recognized as a historic route. He is an incredible storyteller and wrote a book about Route 66 and has a gift shop. He was a barber.
Tony
Yeah.
Speaker 4
And
Tony
You used to be able to get your hair cut, but now he makes birdhouses, but he's 98. He's almost as old as the mother wrote.
Peggy
Right.
Tony
And we actually had planned to interview him, but he was a bit under the weather. So Angel, we just admire the heck outta you and hope you are feeling better.
Peggy
100%.
Tony
Right.
Peggy
Yeah. There's other things to see. You just walk around Seligman and do all the gift shops and the murals and the old cars and everything. And then there's this old van, this seems to be like our favorite old van. Every time we go there, which is like third time now, we put a new sticker on the van. Yeah. I just took this sticker off the van that's been there for a year or two.
Speaker 3
Yeah. Now we're re-stickering it
Peggy
And we put a new sticker on
Speaker 3
Fresh new stress, fresh less camping.
Peggy
And so that we don't forget where it is. It's right below the Lofts of love next to the left bumper. Okay. And then we were hungry for, well dinner again. So we went to the Roadkill Cafe
Tony
And the Roadkill Cafe. It serves normal stuff, but everything is named after a roadkill thing.
Peggy
Yeah.
Tony
I also got a really big glass of soda with a really, really tiny straw.
Peggy
Other thing that is super great in Seligman or outside of Seligman is they have recreated the Burma Shave ads. And so our, this is not what this one says, but our favorite Burma Shave ad is slow down Paw
Tony
Sakes alive.
Peggy
Ma Mist signs
Tony
Four and five Burma Shave. And these Burma Shave signs were all over the place before the sixties and really did help sell Burma Shave. But they were iconic. None of them are around anymore. However, there are recreations like the one in outside of Seligman. Yeah.
Peggy
Okay. So the next day we did something we didn't know was a bucket list item, but hoo boy we started out in Peach Springs at the Wallopi game and fish and had to get permits so that we could drive down Diamond Canyon Road to the Colorado River, which is the Grand Canyon.
Tony
Yeah. So basically, if you've been to the touristy part of the Grand Canyon, you know it's one of those places you can only see to believe, no matter how good the pictures or videos are describing it, they don't do it justice.
Peggy
There was so much Acatio in one segment of it. I, I've never seen so much, I cannot wait. I wish I would be there when it is all bright and lit up. You know, with their super bright orange flowers. They're so beautiful. But there you just, we can't, but I just don't think we can describe how fantastic the views and the drive were. Again, what you're seeing in the background was long video that Tony took with the GoPro camera just stuck to the top of, of Bill's truck.
Peggy
The part that we're seeing now was a little segment kind of close to the bottom. So it was getting wetter and wetter. We had to forward through a couple little creeks, but so, so beautiful and amazing.
Tony
And basically what you're doing is you're driving to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. So you know, it's basically a giant hole in the ground cut by a river.
Peggy
So we ended up at 1,340 feet elevation of
Tony
Elevation.
Peggy
And when we bought our permits, we were at 4,800. So we dropped 3,460 feet in about 20 some odd miles.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Peggy
When you get to the bottom, they have nice picnic areas and a pretty good size parking area. You can swim. But we didn't swim. The dogs did go swimming. There
Tony
Was a whole group of kayakers and this was the end of their journey. And to show you how smooth this road was, there's a box truck full of supplies down there.
Peggy
We, we were smart enough to pack a picnic lunch so that we weren't starving at the end of this trip. And then right below that area was a portion of rapids. So I'm surprised they stopped their rides there and not take that one last rapid. But there's probably nowhere else to let out after that. So the dogs just really, really had a good time playing in the water. We had a really, really good time watching them play in the water. It is just so, so beautiful.
Tony
Yep.
Peggy
Then we drove back up and we went to one of our favorite places, which
Tony
Is a Harvest host.
Peggy
It is a Harvest host called Keepers of the Wild. They normally do tours on like one of those kind of trolley
Tony
Things. Yeah. Like a, yeah.
Peggy
That's broken down right now. So we got to go in Pinsgowers, which was cool and fun, but a little bit hard to turn around and take videos from there. 'cause your back is basically to the side.
Tony
Something about Keepers of the wild. It's a sanctuary. So animals come from some sort of distress and they live out their days here and it's, they're treated very, very well. They get fed regularly, obviously the big cats. So there's, oh now here we're looking at a big old lion
Speaker 4
And he stills there, a big dog, as you can see that different colors on that mane. He's only about 11 years old. So as he gets older, that mane looks like darker in color and it still hits the turns. So their life expectancy is, I'm sorry, 20 years old. And basically the next 2018 we have our oldest <inaudible>.
Speaker 4
But yeah, this is like our,
Peggy
We love the feeding time tour because we get to see
Speaker 4
Frozen
Peggy
Turkeys go through the shoot
Speaker 4
Noise. Ooh.
Tony
If you're listening, that's a lion roaring. The keeper is sort of playing with him.
Speaker 4
Thank you Chris. They're really good about
Peggy
Getting him to kind of shuffle and have a good time before he eats.
Speaker 4
Yep.
Peggy
So there was the lions and then there were tigers. I think this was the tiger that has a growth defect that will never stop growing until he dies, which is odd. He's a, I think she said liger. He's said actually a cross between a lion and a tiger or a tiger and a lion. I forget which I really love this beautiful kind of light yellow colored tiger.
Tony
A lot of these animals come from that tiger king.
Peggy
So that was a tiger getting vocal.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Peggy
Wanting its food. Sometimes they don't feed 'em through tubes, they feed 'em through this low part in the cage. And I don't know if that, those are the ones that are a little safer. Might, maybe they were the ones that have been declawed. Unfortunately a lot of them have been declawed
Tony
And keepers of the wild would never think of doing that. No, no. People like some people think these things are pets. Right. And then have 'em declawed. It's not good for them. And so that's another reason that one might end up here. And it's a good place for them to live out their life and actually get treated well.
Peggy
Yes. Right. We saw a lion, we saw some tigers. It's time for the bears. Oh my. They were a little bit hard to see. What you can see in this picture is there's like three fences between us and that bear. When we were there in June of 2021, I got some better pictures. So, so that you don't have to look at quite so much. Three layers of fencing between, here's a couple of photographs that I took in 2021. I'm not sure if they're the same bears.
Tony
We didn't get to check their license,
Peggy
We didn't check their licenses. But these are a little bit better pictures. Anyway,
Tony
This is actually a harvest host. So the first time we stayed, we actually slept on the property.
Peggy
Yes. They also have lemurs. They're a lot of fun to watch actually. Those lemurs. Oh this is funny here.
Speaker 5
He messed it up. Does anybody know sign language?
Tony
I know one word. I lose it on the freeway.
Speaker 5
I bet you he knows it too. Yeah. His language isn't generally appropriate. <affirmative>. Excellent word that I know that he knows as a mother, father, the B word. Oh, beautiful. And his favorite is
Speaker 4
Lousa.
Speaker 5
And I always demonstrate when I'm not looking at him. Right. Because I don't ever want him to feel like I'm calling him names.
Tony
Yeah. So you know, as she said that this lemur knows sign language. Now I'll recognize.
Peggy
So I did one more time of looking at our elevation, which was 500, 5 50. Five 50. So we drove 4,210 feet down and back up that day.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Peggy
Then we had dinner and had another kind of a planning meeting.
Tony
And we visited this little gas station at the end of a dead end road that was on 66. And it is actually a movie used gas station from the film. Easy Rider.
Peggy
Yeah. I'm not sure if it was a gas station or just the cabins that we have pictured here. But something of Easy Rider was, pic was filmed here. It's been a long, long time since I saw the movie, but it truly is a dead end. So if you are going there in a travel trailer, be ready for a fun turnaround.
Tony
If you're going in multiple travel trailers, it's even more fun.
Peggy
Yeah. Then we went through Flagstaff and Flagstaff really embraces the Route 6600th anniversary. They have these signs all over. We had lunch at the Galaxy Diner. I love the juxtaposition here of the old, old looking diner and the brand new high-rise apartments. Galaxy Diner actually was a diner in the fifties. This is not the original. It's been all renovated and kind of redone retro to make it look really cool. Which it really does. And had good food.
Peggy
So we had a fun lunch there before we got back on the road. And driving through Flagstaff was a little bit of an adventure with three travel trailers, but we had to see the lumberjack.
Tony
Right. Yeah. This is actually only our third muffler man. The trip. Which, which is surprising
Peggy
I think. Yeah. Then we also stopped at the train depot kind of museum gift shop. They have a copy of that sign also in the depot with the hundredth anniversary. Really cool old building. It also is 100 years old this year.
Tony
Oh. Lots of stuff happening a hundred years ago. Yeah. And now
Peggy
As you leave Flagstaff, we were like really excited to see twin arrows. So we got off the highway where it said Twin Arrows Road and we turned right where it said, go see the twin arrows. We were looking for the twin arrows and we got to where the twin, wait what? Yeah, there's only one arrow.
Tony
The other arrows is gone.
Peggy
You can still see the mount area for you know, when it, where it was supposed to be, but unfortunately it's not there. The mountains and the snowy mountains behind everything though. Made beautiful pictures. So he,
Speaker 4
Yeah, we
Peggy
Rounded up the trailers and And took some pictures. This one is a really favorite. It looks like Bill is taking the arrow home in the back of his truck.
Tony
Maybe that's what happened to the other arrow.
Peggy
Well actually we saw sort of like twin arrows 'cause they were painted on the road for two one looking roads. And our destination that night was Homolovi State Park where we are gonna camp for a few days. That's where our adventure for the week ends. This is a beautiful park. Gosh. And I can't wait to go. Gosh.
Speaker 4
Yeah.
Peggy
See more. There's a lot of ruins and stuff, but Arizona state Parks do a great job. They have these fire pits, they have covered picnic tables, nice picnic tables with the logo etched into those also. And we just had a beautiful, beautiful sunset on our first night. Gorgeous night. And that will be the sunset to our adventure for this week. We hope that you enjoyed this series of photos.
Tony
Now, even though it's the sunset to our adventure, it is the sunrise of a new product from our buddy Matt and Will from Liquify. They have something else. So I got a sneak preview. Let's check that out. Yeah. Dirty, dirty camper. But my buddies Matt and Will gave me something to try. I got a sneak peek of new liquid shine, wash and wax, and it's all-in-one.
Tony
You wash and wax all-in-one. Really easy to use product. But since this is a sneak preview, I'm gonna put it inside an unmarked container. Okay. We've put it in the top-secret unmarked container. So all you're supposed to do is just spray it on.
Tony
I put off with a, oh my gosh, this really is easy. There's, wow, this is easy. That's what I was thinking. Bailey. See even dogs approve.
Speaker 6
Hey. Hey Tony. What are you doing there? Oh, nothing that looks, whoa. I'm glad I got my shades. That's
Tony
Amazing actually. Yeah, it really is. It really smooths it out. Let me dry it off here.
Speaker 6
Feel
Tony
The difference.
Speaker 3
Yeah, you just totally. Wow. Huh?
Speaker 6
But yeah, it's all smooth. It's shiny. What is that top-secret stuff, Tony?
Tony
I can't tell you, but I could lend it to you.
Speaker 6
Oh yes, please.
Tony
Wet. You squirt it. Wet rag, dry rag.
Speaker 6
Okay.
Tony
It's that easy.
Speaker 6
All right. I stole the top-secret stuff from Tony. I'm gonna see if it works on mine. Spray it, wipe it a little bit more down. And this is supposed to clean and shine. All right. Dry rag. Off it off. Oh, those streaks that I just had on there did go away. So did the bugs.
Speaker 6
I can see a difference.
Tony
Hey Kate, what you doing?
Speaker 6
Nothing. Nothing. There's nothing to see here.
Tony
Oh, I can actually see the camper through the club from this side.
Speaker 6
Oh, well you know what? I found this top-secret stuff that Tony's been using. Wash my head. Yeah. Okay. Come top secret
Speaker 4
Three on nice.
Speaker 4
Doggie approved.
Speaker 6
So what do you think, bill?
Tony
I didn't realize my camera was white.
Speaker 6
Can we see? Oh look, we can almost see Bailey in there. Zappa approves.
Tony
Yes he does. I
Speaker 6
Think Tony will notice that we stole it. Stole what? I don't know.
Tony
You can buy LiquiShine, wash & Wax. They have bug remover. There's four different products that they have now. You can buy it right at LiquiShine.com or through the link in the notes below. Liquishine is stress-less camping. Follow our adventure on all of the social media places where we are. We have been posting videos of compilations a wee bit. We've also been writing full stories about our adventure. So another reason to visit us at Stresslesscamping.com.
Peggy
I wonder how we are managing to do all this writing and videoing and still have this much fun.
Tony
Yeah, it's been, well, it's been long days and that's okay with me. So anyway, we really appreciate your being on this adventure with us. Maybe you'll get something that you'll wanna see, or maybe you just enjoy it vicariously through us or whatever it happens to be. But whatever it happens to be, we hope that you're finding Stressless camping.
