We had a light day today. We left Williams and our first stop was in Seligman for lunch. I would say of all of the small towns we've driven through, Seligman businesses have made the most of their place along the Mother Road. There are a lot of eclectic Mom & Pop storefronts with a Route 66 theme there, as a percentage of businesses.
We ate at one of the most unique drive-ins I've ever visited - The Snow Cap. It is a very small building that is covered inside and out with "Stuff" - the signs outside proclaiming the offerings there "Tacos Burritos Burgers Dead Chicken", to this bit of advice "The credit manager here is Helen Waite. If you need credit, go to Helen Waite" -or "Sorry, We're Open!" The inside is just big enough for about 5 people to stand in while placing their orders, and instead of getting a number, you are christened with a nickname by Juan the Order Taker. We were "U.S. Open", derived from the shirt Mark was wearing. The restrooms are wooden outhouses, though they are nice inside. They have 6 or 8 old cars in various states of disrepair along the side (see Trajan next to one in the photo), including one dressed out to look like Sheriff from our favorite flick. We just beat the lunch crowd, too - as we finished placing our order, we turned around and there was a line stretching out the door.
Our next stop was the Hackberry Visitors Center - another curio shop. They have a big collection of Route 66 memorabilia, as well as a nice selection of souvenirs. In the front is a beautifully restored 1957 Corvette, along with a very cool (and eerie) sign warning of the 300 miles of desert stretching before you with no water (see photo, lower left corner).
Our final stop was Kingman, where we hunted in vain for the rumored Starbucks location. (Mark got the inside track from some people in Flagstaff, but it was not to be.) We had dinner at the Cracker Barrel, where Trajan was enamored of a "Talking Toucan", which was a mechanical toy that recorded bits of conversation nearby and repeated it back a few seconds later. We discovered this because I happened to be standing next to it when I said something to T, and a few seconds later the toucan was squalking "Don't run around in the store! Don't run around in the store!". He thought that endlessly amusing. Of course he wanted to get it, and we said that was definitely out of the question. So we struck a bargain later at the table - we would buy it for him when he moved out of our house. :-)
Today and tomorrow we will be traveling the longest section of Route 66 in Arizona - from Seligman today until Topock tomorrow, appx 160 miles. We have completed 82% of our journey.
Note to the Helaview Crew: We've had zero waffles so far on this trip. There are still two more breakfasts to go, however...
2 comments:
dear uncle mark, aunt lisa, and cousins trajan and macey,
I like your silly pictures, thats not really your car, is it? what does your real van look like?
love, remy
Uncle Plaid says...Lisa! Because you make the best waffles in the world (I know first hand), I think you should open your own chain of waffle houses (in your retirement of course), along Route 66. Then, because they're sooo good, I'd take a trip along Rte 66 just to eat at them!
That toucan sounds really cool Trajan.
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