The Best Things in Life are Free…

In yesterdays mail—which, being the procrastinator that I am I didn’t open until today—came the 2020 [!] Guide to Arizona’s ROUTE 66 with a ton of suggestions for what to drive by, do, see, eat, drink, or sleep in. It was free, I guess, since I didn't order it (although I have ordered several other books about Route 66).

Unlike every other guide to Route 66 this goes from the west to east. It’s a little disorienting going that direction but then, Arizona is not known for following the rules.

This little guide has inspired me (and thus, Randy) to read The Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck (you didn’t really need to be told that, did you). I am, by the way, flabbergasted that I will have to wait at least a month to get it from the library! Also wanted to watch Cars which is apparently peripherally about Route 66 but we probably won’t do that.

There are some really fascinating (to me, anyway) places/things at least near if not actually ON Route 66. Like the Dambar & Restaurant (Damn Bar, get it? Ha ha.) in Kingman. Or the giant (you can sit on it) jackrabbit in Joseph City. I never even heard of Joseph City and I’ve lived in Arizona for 24 years! There are wild burros roaming the streets of Oatman; the Gigantic Headicus (a VERY large, very green, tiki head), GH for short, in Antares (another town I’ve never heard of); and the not-to-be-missed Road Kill Café in Seligman (I have heard of that one although I do not know how to pronounce it) whose motto is, “You kill it, We grill it.”

However, Randy has dashed my heart’s desire to stay in the Wigwam Motel. Well, not really.

There are towns we do have to stay in if for no other reason than being able to walk back to our motel after imbibing at various breweries: the Mother Road Brewing Company and the Lumberyard Brewing Company in Flagstaff (hereafter to be called Flag because that’s what everybody in Arizona calls it, only tourists call it Flagstaff); and the Rickety Cricket Brewing and the House of Hops in Kingman.