There is no Road in the world that does weird and quirky quite as well as Route
66, America's Mother Road. I'm going to travel today westwards from Holbrook to
Twin Arrows across the high desert of northern Arizona in search of the weird
the wonderful and a few ghosts!
This is the little city of Holbrook Northeast Arizona, a long long way from
anywhere. First there was the railroad, then Route 66 came through and this
little town had its heyday with motels galore and restaurants all taking the
passing trade from motorists doing the long journey from Chicago to LA. Then the
Interstate 40 came, by-passed the town, as it did for so many places, and after that
it's been a bit of a struggle. Before all that though there were dinosaurs here!
What I need now is a traditional Route 66 cafe with a breakfast burrito, red chili
sauce and strong coffee.
I feel like I've stepped into a 1950's time warp here.
This is Holbrook's legendary Wigmam Motel. Despite appearances you can still
stay here but what I hadn't realised is that as well as your own concrete tepee
you get a classic car to go with it. where else in the world can you get that!
For the last seven miles I've seen billboards saying "Come and see the
Jackrabbit "so I've turned off onto a little bit of Route 66 that still exists.
So where's the Jackrabbit?
Tourists have been riding the Jackrabbit since 1948. The Jackrabbit has been
pulling them in for 70 years - this one is actually the 4th and I bet in all those
years nearly every motorist has said "I thought it was going to be much bigger than that!"
A few miles further west and historic Route 66 pops up again near Winslow and
let's face it you have to get off because this is the most colourful
Trading Post in the southwest
As you enter the little city of Winslow -
thank you- on historic Route 66 you first hit the memorial garden. This is a
memorial to 9/11 and these are original steel girders...and that's the Santa
Fe Railroad. Like Holbrook Winslow is still a functioning town but it's real
heyday was back when that road there was the main highway to Los Angeles
It's quite bizarre... after walking through what appears to
be a ghost town you suddenly arrive at a little tourist Mecca, so what on earth
is going on here? Well there are two Eagles songs that I know Hotel California
and Take it Easy and there's a lyric in Take it Easy that says "Standing on the corner
in Winslow Arizona". Thank goodness say the tourist authorities of Winslow
Arizona! As you can probably tell it's really hot
and it's really dry. I think I need a retro soda. Hello my name is Laurie,
welcome to Winslow Arizona and the Motor Palace Mercantile Winslow is a really
interesting little community of about 9,000 people and really it's been
revived because of a song - the Eagles Take it Easy. If you've heard the line
Standing on a Corner in Winslow Arizona. Well here we are standing on a corner
in Winslow Arizona, so if you like railroad history if you like route 66
history this is a really interesting place to come and stand on a corner, eat
a nice meal, come to a nice shop, say hi there you have it, Winslow Arizona, over
and out! It's great to hear that things are really looking up for Winslow. Do
make sure to pop by Lori's shop Motor Palace Mercantile
and do look at the ceiling it's amazing.I
I love it when you're travelling and you have a huge surprise and I've had a big
one here in Winslow. Like most people I thought that the best places to stay
would probably be a motel on Route 66 or a motel on the Interstate but boy was I
wrong. This is La Posada one of the last great American railroad hotels. It even
has its own platform and the Amtrak train stops here to this day.
This is a place that didn't survive the coming of the Interstate - the settlement
and trading post of Two Guns. It''s a bit creepy around here!
A few miles west of Two Guns you'll find the old Route 66 Trading Post of Twin
Arrow. Sadly this didn't make it either - killed by the Interstate.
But for every Two Guns or Twin Arrows there's a wigwam motel or a Jackrabbit
Trading Post still flourishing to this day... and Winslow, well that's a place
that's really reviving. The Mother Road, she's not going away yet!
The iconic Route 66 - what's it all about? What's the story? Well in a nutshell in
the late 19th century early 20th century east-west travel across America was by
railroad then the motorcar came along and a jumble of individual roads became
designated into one highway in 1926 that ran from Chicago to LA for about 2,500
miles. It was called Route 66 all the way along it towns
sprung up for the passing trade motels restaurants attractions shops you name
it everything flourished and it was the icon of 1960s and 50s
popular culture. Then just as video killed the radio star in the 70s and 80s
Interstate 40 replaced Route 66. In many places it swallowed it up completely, in
other places it simply bypassed it either way.
Suddenly all of that trade stopped and many of those towns just simply fell
away and disappeared. In 1985 Route 66 was officially Declassifie. It doesn't
actually exist as an official Road but through the actions of many many groups
Historic Route 66, a tourist route, has come into being and the rest is history!