American V Magazine
The full write-up of our trip has just been published in “American-V” Magazine! Editor Andy split the article over two issues and the final chapter is in the April issue. looking at it brought it all back to us. Route 66 was our dream trip, and the thing is – it still is!
Afterwards…
Our Route 66 bike trip might be over, but we had a few more days before we head home. We flew back to Chicago and picked up a hire car just to break up the return journey. We took the opportunity to head up to Milwaukee to look at the excellent Harley-Davidson museum, but you might be interested to hear about some of the other things we’ve done.
Following Milwaukee we headed into Iowa to see the National Motorcycle Museum at Anamosa. This museum had its origins in Sturgis, then was moved to downtown Anamosa, but moved to its present location last year. It is definitely worth the trip as it has an excellent collection of bikes and associated ephemera. It has some remarkable, unique exhibits including a lot of old, rare bikes but the best ones for me included an ORIGINAL “Captain America” chopper from the Easy Rider movie – it’s the one that was used in the crash sequence, and rebuilt. There is also Steve McQueen’s Indian Chopper, just as he rode it, complete with sleeping bag on the forks. There is one of Ed Roth’s trikes, and a Triumph chop painted by Von Dutch, plus a lot of art work by Roth and Dutch. Fantastic.
As we were in Iowa we also visited Antique Archeology – the Le Claire location of the company featured in the History Channel’s “American Pickers” series, about two guys who roam the country buying and selling antiques. That was a pretty interesting visit; the guys from the program weren’t there (they have work to do) but we got to see lots of the stuff they have bought in the series.
After that we headed back into Illinois and picked up some of the early parts of Route 66 that we missed, including a visit to the Route 66 Museum at Pontiac. that proved to be quite a find, as they had Bob Waldmire’s VW Camper and a lot of his original artwork. Bob Waldmire was pretty much Mr Route 66 to a lot of people. The Character “Filmore” in the Cars movie was based on him (and his Camper). The museum volunteer, who got to know him pretty well when he painted a mural there, said he turned down a million dollar fee to do the voice of Filmore. the reason is: Bob was a vegan hippy, and couldn’t bear the thought of his character decorating a McDonalds burger box. I admire people with principles like that…
Today we also got to visit Joliet Correctional Facility – now closed – that was used in the Blues Brothers movie. It has been closed for a few years now and is still used as a movie set.
Back to Blighty tomorrow, so it’s time to sort our luggage out. I’m looking forward to going back over the hundreds of photos we took. It’s been a great trip and I can’t recommend it enough. I hope to put a few tips up on this blog if you are contemplating taking that California Trip – so watch this place!
Get Hip to this Kindly Tip
Well, that’s it. Sadly, all over. The bikes delivered back to Eaglerider, our onward flight behind us. time to reflect on a trip of a lifetime. Yes, that’s what it was. We could rent the bikes again, and ride the route one more time, but it would not be the same. It was a trip of discovery – we found the heart of the mother road, and the first time you do that is special, we could repeat the route but maybe not the emotion. So what makes it special – it’s just a road isn’t it?
The flight back to Chicago took four hours. You could probably do the interstate from Chicago to LA in four or five days, but our 16 days along these roads have been a real roadtrip. It’s not the distance, it’s the places we’ve seen and the people we’ve met. We’ve eaten at the Cosy Dog roadside Cafe; watched 50-year old neon signs flicker in the night, ridden concrete roads first laid in the 1930′s, stayed in the Wigwam motel still owned by the elderly daughter of the man who built it, stayed in the refurbished Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari. We’ve spray painted our names on a 1950′s Cadillac at Cadillac Ranch, walked out on the tongue of the Blue Whale, eaten a snack at the Rock Cafe. We’ve ridden the Sitgreaves Pass in 100 degrees heat, through St Louis in heavy rain and finally ridden onto Santa Monica Pier.
We’ve spoken to people in all these places, people who live on the route and visitors who’ve ridden or driven the same places we’ve been to. we’ve spoken to Americans, Italians, Spaniards, Norwegians, Swedes, Brits, Germans, French and Dutch, and all of them caught up in the magic of the Mother Road.
We’ve seen the landscape change from industrial Illinois to the farmlands of Missouri, the open range of Texas, the mountains of New Mexico and the deserts of Arizona and finally to the sprawl of Los Angeles. We’ve seen weather from rain to merciless sunshine, temperatures from the 50′s to the 100′s, and ridden on surfaces from new tarmac to decaying concrete to soft sand. Our Harley’s haven’t missed a beat, and because we were riding them and not in a car we have been part of the trip, not just an observer. It’s been incredible. We’ve been to all the places in the song, and more. Just a road, I don’t think so. It’s a history lesson, and a great meeting place.
Trip of a lifetime? you betcha!
A big thanks to all who helped us on this trip; from the guys at Eaglerider in Chicago and Hadrian V-Twin (who we booked the trip through); Marjorie Rae of HOG UK for her interest, advice and encouragement, to everyone we met along the way, to Gudrun and her Iceriders, to Aude and Vincente (still out on the road), and of course to all of you who read this blog. All I can say now, is: Take that California Trip; get your Kicks on Route 66!
Oceanside it ends the ride.
For the first time for a week or so we wake to cloudy skies,or maybe it’s just a sea mist drifting in from the Pacific. And for the first time I’m feeling uneasy about today’s ride. Is it because it’s the last day? or is it because today is the first since we set off where we actually have to get somewhere before an actual time (to drop off the bikes)… As we’ve travelled, apart from Chicago, we’ve not booked anywhere ahead, so had no timetable to stick to other than we had to get to LAX today before 6. So off we set, after packing the bikes one last time.
The first section is along Colorado Boulevard in Pasadena; still recognisable as old Route 66 in places, with many old signs and neon. Soon we were turning south on the frankly terrifying Arroyo Seco Parkway, California’s first freeway. It was built when road speeds were lower, and it shows. Three narrow lanes of concrete twist and turn along the valley, ramps are short and tight, but the traffic is still doing 60 – 70 so you’ve got to watch for fast lane changes. The concrete is old and has rain grooves cut in it. In a sane city it would have a 40 mph speed limit, but this is LA, baby, you’ve just got to keep your nerve. Soon we are back onto city roads, and Sunset and Santa Monica boulevard take us through Beverley Hills and the edge of Hollywood. We try to get a glimpse of the Hollywood sign, but the traffic is too busy. Soon we spot the Santa Monica pier, and all too soon the trip is over. Route 66, Chicago to LA. we made it.
We park up on the pier (the attendant lets us put both bikes in one slot to save $8) and take some photos of the little booth that signifies the (unofficial) end of the route – the actual end is at Olympic Blvd – and spend some time talking to the guy who mans it, something of a Route 66 fanatic, who was pleased to hear we’d made a lot of effort to follow the route as closely as we could. We were just about to go in search of something to eat when who should come up to us but Gudrun and some of her Iceriders from Iceland! I just knew we’d meet again. She recommends a hotel near the airport, so that is where we head later in the afternoon.
After dumping all our luggage in the hotel, we get back on the bikes and ride the two miles to Eaglerider HQ where we are to leave them. It’s sad to think we’ll never see them again; of course we had got quite attached to them over the last 16 days. I liked the comfort and sharp handling of the Road King, and Barbara had got real fond of Bob the Badass Fatboy. I had got used to hearing the deep roar of its Vance and Hines pipe behind me. We feel a keen sense of loss when we leave Eaglerider and return to the hotel to get ready for tomorrow’s flight.
It’s been a fantastic trip, and we both felt quite emotional on Santa Monica Pier where the Road King’s odometer read 2661 miles since Chicago. It’s now time to look back at what we’ve seen and try and assemble our thoughts as to why it has been so good. I hope to do that in tomorrow’s blog. Thanks for following this; I hope you can make the trip yourself one day then you can get your kicks on Route 66 too…
Last Stretch of Rural Route 66
As we were packing up to leave the Route 66 Motel in Barstow, several visitors dropped in to the motel groounds to look at the old cars and stuff that decorated the forecourt. It’s that kind of motel, and it’s good that people are making a business out of the old route. Commercialising some important American social history, yes, but that’s what kept a lot of the old communities on the mother road afloat, and it’s good to see places like this, and Roy’s at Amboy, the Blue Swallow and many others being refurbished and opened up, especially when so many have closed and gone forever. Route 66 businesses were always there to make money off the passing trade, so it seems only right they should do so again.
The road out of Barstow climbs into some high desert area. The TomTom seems determined to get us back on the freeway but we ignore it and enjoy open roads with just a little traffic. We pass a massive tarmac plant at one point; they could do with getting some of their product on the road between Ludlow and Amboy, we think. We pass Elmer Long’s Bottle Tree Ranch, which though eccentric,
looks pretty good and blends in quite well with the barren scenery. At Victorville we stop at the California Route 66 Museum, but read that it is closed on tuesdays. Fortunately, one of the volunteer staff had to open up to do some work, so she let us in, along with a few other travellers who’d stopped for a look. It’s a neat museum, with some good Route 66 stuff in it, plus a lot about Victorville. It’s a great place to poke about in, much recommended.
Old Route 66 has been mostly eaten up by the Interstate from here to the Cajon Pass, but there is a nice old section of old 4-lane (now 2-lane with abandoned road alongside) along Cajon Blvd. A short stretch of interstate then you’re off into the conglomeration of towns that make up the greater Los Angeles area, starting with San Bernadino. The temperature has climbed up to the hundreds again and it’s hot work driving from stoplight to stoplight with the heat from the ’96 cu in engines toasting your legs. We stop a couple of times for a cool down and a cold drink. We pass the refurbished wigwam hotel at Rialto, but it isn’t as atmospheric as the one at Holbrook; a seedy looking area, too. Along the route there are a few old route 66 relics dotted about; old motel signs, an orange stand shaped like a giant orange, the Sycamore Inn (dating back to 1848), the Aztec Hotel and loads of businesses with “Route 66″ in their name. The street lamps in Rancho Cucamonga have a neat Route 66 motif, but most of the area is modern American’ lots of malls, car dealerships, etc, some of it quite upmarket.
We call it a day in Pasadena, staying in possibly the last old Route 66 motel we’d use on this trip. It’s OK, has some neat neon and is only $55. The only restaurants nearby at japanese and a mongolian barbecue. I guess that’s California for you…
Million Dollar giveaway
Breakfast at Denny’s started the day, and even at 8 in the morning the sun was hot. Back on Route 66 through Needles there were some nice old motels that we hadn’t noticed last night (might have stayed there if we’d known) and a cantilevered canopy on a garage that reminded us of the gas station in “Cars”. The road climbed steadily to Goff’s Corner and the temperature cooled to just about perfect riding weather. This stretch of Rt 66 is a long way from the Interstate and you get a real lonely feeling to it. It runs alongside the railway for a while, and we had to wait for a freight train at a crossing; fortunately not a very long one. The desert scenery is spectacular, and we kept looking for cactus, but saw only creosote bushes and little clumps of a white lily-like flower that grew alongside the road. Eventually the road drops down to Amboy, where Roy’s Motel has been restored and the gas station and cafe are open again. Sadly, not the motel as it would cost a lot to bring the sewerage up to code. We buy a couple of pins and the old guy running the cafe gives us a million dollar note. It has his face on it, so I guess it’s not legal tender….
Outside, we spent some time talking to a French couple on rented bikes (she had an oven mitt taped to her leg to combat the heat from the exhaust) and a couple of guys from So Cal, one riding a shovelhead. Just as we were about to leave a car pulled up and the occupants turned out to be British ex pats from Yorkshire. We spend some more time talking about our trip, the weather, Leeds, etc. It’s a wonder we get anywhere on this trip…
Beyond Amboy the road is a bit bumpy over the many small bridges, but after Ludlow the road surface is terrible and we have to slow to under 30 mph to avoid being jolted to pieces. Eventually it smooths out near Newberry Springs where the Bagdad Cafe is situated. Formerly the Sidewinder Cafe, it was renamed for the eponymous movie which we haven’t seen – must put it on the list.
Judging by the t-shirts and flags on the walls, it’s very popular in Europe, and just as we are leaving, after a pie stop (Barbara had a plate of tinned peaches!) a coach load of French tourists arrived. Of course they had to be photographed with Barbara’s bike…
Today’s ride, not as hot as yesterdays, was one of the more spectacular stretches of the route. Riding side by side along the dead straight desert roads, with the route 66 Shield painted at intervals on the tarmac was something we’ll never forget. It’s not the sort of place you’d want to run out of gas or break down, though these days it is being used more and more as a tourist route, just as it was in the ’50′s.
We join the interstate for two junctions to avoid the military base that blocks Route 66 near Daggett, but dive off again into Barstow. We cross the old railroad bridge to look at the Route 66 Museum, but it is closed on Mondays, so we return to the town to find a motel. Following the recommendations in the EZ-66 book, we try the Route 66 Motel, which has old cars and stuff decorating the forecourt. We get a nice little room with a round bed in it. Cool.
The next few days will be a lttle strange as we don’t want to be kicking our heals before the bikes have to go back, nor do we want to be late. We decide that heading for Pasadena seems a good plan. We’ll see.
Just as we come out of the restaurant where we ate, the Icelanders ride past. Knew we’d see them again…
California or bust!
Sadly, the end of our trip is only a few days away. We have moved from Arizona to California, from pine forests to desert, with the great increase in heat coming with the 6,000 ft difference in altitude. We started off in pleasant sunshine and cool breezes, and ended in 103 degree heat in Needles, CA This is where the mesh jackets we are wearing are showing their worth.
Today’s drive started out with a bit of interstate. One of the first things we came across was the remains of a moose spread across the road, mixed with bits of glass and plastic. Just a little further along, a full sized semi was being attached to a tow truck. Glad it wasn’t us that hit it; grasshoppers are bad enough…
Soon, Route 66 diverted from the interstate and we weren’t to see it again for a good 90 miles or so. The first stretch took us to Seligman. we’ve been here before, and if you saw the movie “Cars”, you’ll be reminded of it in this old town. It was one of the first towns to capitalise on its Route 66 history, and is probably the number one tourist destination on the whole route. It has a lot of souvenir shops, most better than you’d expect them to be, and lots of old cars, vintage signs, crumbling buildings, etc. Angel Delgadillo still runs his barber shop on Main Street (recently visited by Billy Connolly for his TV series), and there are still plenty of old motels with great neon to light up the sky at night. During the daytime it is often busy with tour buses as it is only a short link from the interstate, but to see it at it’s best you need to stay in one of the motels and walk around when the buses have left. It was packed with visitors when we were there, and we spent some time taking to Swedish, Australian and English tour-bus passengers, some of whom insisted on being photographed with Barbara and her Bad-Ass Fatboy. We eventually managed to get away from the tourists (who often seem amazed by our adventure) and spent some time talking to the owners of the Seligman Sundries store, a lovely couple who serve the best damn coffee in town. We left them a “Wake the Lakes” rally pin as a memento, and they stuck it on their fridge. We bumped into Gudrun and her Iceriders, who later got to parade through the town on their bikes behind the Seligman Sundries tow truck, with it’s siren howling.
Tearing our way from Radiator Springs, I mean Seligman, the route took in some of the finest riding of the week. A long, straight road across grassland, framed by redstone cliffs gave way to more rugged countryside as the route took us past Hackberry (compulsory photo stop) to Kingman. Here, the temperature had climbed into the nineties, so we stopped at Mr D’s Diner for a ‘shake and a cool down before tackling the formidable Sitgreaves Pass road to Oatman. We didn’t spend a lot of time in Kingman as we’d been here a couple of other times. it has a great Route 66 Museum.
A stop at Cool Springs on the Sitgreaves Pass
As a pass, Sitgreaves is not difficult to drive for those of us used to the Lake District roads, but imagine what it must have been like for the migrants in the 1930′s in their clapped out farm trucks and old cars, when the surface would have been that much rougher. The heat is considerable, and many vehicles must have met their end on this climb. Those that made it to the summit would have their worn-out brakes tested to the limit on the descent, and beyond Oatman, there was another 20 miles of searing hot desert before reaching the cooling waters at Golden Shores. Of course the Harley’s romped through it, but we were mighty hot when we reached the California state line. A short stretch of freeway took us through a vehicle inspection station. In the 1930′s, Okie migrants were being stopped by vigilante groups in the pay of the Corporate farms, and turned away at the border if they had less than $100, and the heavily manned checkpoints were an eerie reminder of those days.
We ended the day in Needles, where our motel office confirmed the temperature of 103 degrees. Never has a Motel 6 shower been so inviting!
No Vacancy at the Pine Breeze
After a night in the Wigwam interrupted only by the thunder of freight trains, we were away early onto some Interstate, as old Route 66 is broken up in this part of Arizona. It’s not so bad as we can make good time. The speed limit is 75 here so it generally means you’re doing 80 to stay ahead of the big trucks. The countryside has turned to open range, but as we approach Flagstaff more trees appear and the horizon is framed by some pointy mountains. There are some nice sections of the old route still driveable, though. We pass Two Guns, now just a wreck, once a tourist stop, and Twin Arrows: basically a souvenir shop with two dirty great arrows sticking in the ground. The road into Flagstaff takes us past malls and chain motels, with some old ones here and there. We stop at the museum club for a photo; it’s now a nightspot that plays both kinds of music; country AND western.
Just the other side of Flagstaff we turn off to reach Bellmont. There is a Harley dealership here, but we pass it first to look for the Pine Breeze motel. This was the place in the movie “Easy Rider” that Wyatt and Billy turn up at only to have the proprietor turn on the “No Vacancy” sign once he’d got a look at them. The motel is now closed and derelict, the No Vacancy sign is now hung in the Route 66 Roadhouse just across from the Harley Dealership. We call in for a sarsaparilla. It’s a pretty neat place, and obviously very popular with the Harley crowd, judging by the fine machinery outside. Leaving there, we explore a short leg of the old road that peters out in a dead end, but it’s a pretty cool bit of decaying tarmac and worth a look.
There’s a better section of old Route 66 approaching Williams, where we book into a motel. It’s a bit pricey, but a really nice place. Williams is at it’s busiest at the weekends (it’s now Saturday) and guess what, Gudrun and the Icelanders are in the next door but one motel. We have a wander round the shops, which are packed with vast quantities of Route 66 tat, though some have some nice western style furnishings and Indian jewellery, then we eat at a little diner before retiring for an early night. Tomorrow is the leg through Seligman;a long ride, but one of the best parts of the trip…
“Ever stayed in a Wigwam?”
It seems to take forever to get out of Gallup; the strip goes for miles alongside the railway line. Trains are running constantly, huge trains with four engines and miles (literally) of flatcars loaded two deep in containers, heading east and heading west. You don’t want to get stuck at a crossing for one of those behemoths.
Quite a lot of Route 66 in East Arizona lies underneath the I-40, but there are some great sections you can still enjoy, including a great loop at Querino that crosses an old girder bridge over the Querino canyon. We stopped for a photo when one of the local Indians pulled up in his pickup truck. “Don’t go near the edge” he cautioned. He was right, it was crumbly and a long way down. This section of road is in bad condition, with a lot of dust and stones washed onto it, but it is driveable on a bike with caution.
The old Route 66 meets the I-40 at one of those Indian souvenir places. Normally, the more and the bigger the signs the crappier the place is when you get there. This one is shaped like a huge tepee, so my expectations were not high. I was wrong. It was actually very good, with a good selection of stuff including some nice Indian blankets at prices that weren’t too silly. Outside there were chunks of petrified wood. Just a few miles further on the Petrified Forest National Park, with a road that loops into the park North of the I-40, passes through the Painted Desert NP, then crosses the interstate and passes through an area with amazing rock formations and desert, much of it dotted with the stumps of trees that were fossilised millions of years ago, and now exposed by wind erosion. Some of them are huge, just like tree trunks lying around.
Where the NP road ends the ranger station staff quiz everyone to see if they have taken anything from the park area. Of course we hadn’t, but you can buy some nice pieces of legally obtained stuff from the rather excellent Indian owned souvenir shop and museum just by the I-180. The entry to the park only cost us $5 per bike, a bargain. This was a classic stop on Route 66 from the days when it was the holiday route to the west. You can imagine the lack of enthusiasm from the kids…
Entering Holbrook we decided to see if we could get a room at the Wigwam Motel where all the rooms are in concrete “wigwams”. We had to wait till the owner opened the office, but we were lucky. second in the queue, we were disappointed to hear there was only one room left. Our luck was in: it had a double bed and the family ahead of us turned it down, so we got our room, and what a delight it is; comfortable and clean and quite unique (though I was disappointed to find the ceiling didn’t go right to the top of the tepee!). Outside most of the wigwams are parked old cars from the ’50′s and ’60′s. They are basically all the old cars the owners ever had. The lady who checked us in was probably in her ’70′s; the motel was built by her Father in the ’40′s.
I knew I should have turned left in Albuquerque
Today we got an early start from Santa Fe and diverted from Route 66 for a while to visit the small town of Madrid. The reason for this is that it was the location for much of the movie “Wild Hogs”. Most of the action in the town featered Maggies Diner, in fact a building specially constructed for the movie. It is still there, but not as a diner. It is owned by the souvenir emporium next door who open it up for visitors and sell Wild Hog souvenirs and other stuff from the area. The interior is still recogniseable if you know the movie, but now it’s only regulars are the couple who run it (“are you Maggie?” “I could be, if you want”) and Jack, the one-eyed cat that ambushed us from behind the counter. The town is a little artists colony; lots of galleries and small shops, and art; of the folk-art variety mostly, and very good it looked too. I wouldn’t say that the Hollywood Movie experience had much affect on the town.
Not having any trouble with the Del Fuegos’s, we moved on down to Albequerque. Route 14 was as good a road as any we have travelled on so far; it twists and turns over the mountains, with great views of distant hills. It was a cold ride, most likely due to the altitude, so we were glad when we arrived at Thunderbird Harley-Davidson in Albuquerque. I had to get some oil for the Road King, still only 3000 miles old it was using a little. That was my excuse. Lunch stop was at the Route 66 Diner; a busy place in a restored Streamline Modern building. Leaving the city we missed the turning for the lower pre-1937 loop of Rt 66 (I knew I should have turned left in Albuquerque, to quote Bugs Bunny) so instead we did some more frontage road alongside the I-40 which itself was terriific. The road ran right alongside some red sandstone cliffs near Leguna then curved sharply at “Dead Man’s Curve” (one of several with that name). The colour of the cliffs was echoed in the escarpments that framed the landscape – it was stunning.
We arrived in Gallup – a busy road and rail junction – at about 6 and booked into the famous El Rancho Hotel (the cheap end, which is a motel) and dinner was hot tamales and a couple of bottles of Tecate. Just as we left the restaurant a group of 14 bikers from Iceland arrived; they were riding Route 66, but only had 11 days. Sadly, bike problems had delayed them two days already. The only delay we had today was when I had to stop because a 4″ long grasshopper had landed on my knee and wouldn’t get off…
