Route 66 & Beyond

Day 15: 887 Miles Total: 7,453 Miles I'm home in Brevard, North Carolina. As I alluded in an earlier blog, my plans changed again. And again. With some things going on at home I decided to cut my trip short. Instead of going on to Boston and New Hampshire, I was going to go to Auburn for a few days, then head home for a Sunday night arrival. Then I got the email from Sue that I was dreading. An announcement in the paper said that The Essence of Thyme, my favorite hangout in Brevard since we moved here six years ago, was closing. The announcement said that Saturday was going to be the last hurrah, and that a final group picture for all of the Thyme faithful was going to happen at 10:00am. The annual group picture is always important to me, and none would be more important than the last one - the end of Thyme. So I spent Thursday night in Auburn, New York, did what I had to do there on Friday, then left on my final 800 mile drive Friday afternoon. I spent a few hours in a rest area i

Day 14: 709 Miles Total: 6,566 Miles Well, actually it's Auburn, New York. Upstate. Finger Lakes country. One of the most beautiful areas in the country (Brevard, NC excepted). I'll be spending the night here. I would have liked to stay longer, but that won't be possible this time. I manage to come here almost every year. I was born here, and my grandparents lived here, so there are lots of memories to go with the beautiful scenery. It was a long drive to get here though, so I took all interstate. I spent the night in St. Joseph, Michigan, about an hour from Chicago. Then I took a detour to Detroit to have lunch with a good friend. Two hours later I was on the road to Auburn. Since it was all interstate driving and just one pit stop in Ohio, there are no pictures today. I'll make up for it tomorrow. Not much else to report. Hopefully some more interesting things will happen to report on tomorrow. Ciao!

Day 13: 603 Miles Total: 5,857 Miles I made it! All the way from Chicago to Santa Monica and back again. The last two days were pretty brutal, but I still had a chance to see and experience some things I missed on the trip to California, so it was worth it. I left Lebanon, Missouri at about 7:00am today and made good time throughout Missouri and into Illinois. I wound up stopping for breakfast in Rolla, Missouri at a Huddle House. The main reason was because it was completely redesigned and didn't look anything like any Huddle Houses I have seen before. These are mostly in the south, so some of you may not be familiar with them. They are typically 24-hour diners. This one had all fifties-retro decorations and looked really nice. I liked the atmosphere, but they should have spent some of the money used in the redesign to hire a new cook. Enough said. I drove through one of my favorite places in Missouri today - Devil's Elbow near Fort Leonard Wood. The road loops off of the main

Day 12: 556 Miles Total: 5,254 Miles Greetings from Lebanon, Missouri. I drove 13+ hours and was exhausted when I got in last night. Then I had problems uploading pictures. So I'm a day late, but here are the details of my Tuesday. I started out at about 8:00am from the Irish Inn in Shamrock, Texas. The room was fine and the meals in the attached restaurant were so-so. I wound up eating dinner there, and then got a free breakfast. It was worth every penny. I quickly crossed the Oklahoma border, but it seemed to take forever to get everywhere I was going. Early on I stopped to take a lot of pictures, then got backed up in Oklahoma City and Tulsa. It was fairly late by the time I hit Kansas. Still, the drive was pleasant through Oklahoma. There are lots of miles of pristine original Route 66 roadway to drive on, and I really enjoyed it. I had run into a bit of rain but quickly drove through it. Kansas and Missouri look like they were totally drenched. By the time I reached Kansas it

Day 11: 474 Miles Total: 4,698 Miles I wound up getting a good night's sleep at the Monterey Non-Smokers Motel, making it a very good value indeed. I would highly recommend the place. I was on the road before 8:00am without having had any breakfast. My route was going to take me through Santa Fe, and I thought I would have breakfast there, particularly if traffic was bad. It was worse than bad; it was a nightmare. Even after having breakfast and waiting until nearly 10:00am to resume my trip, traffic was still extremely heavy. And I hadn't even arrived at the bad part of town yet. The historic section, with its narrow, broken roads, would be miserable to navigate through under the best of conditions. These were far from the best of conditions. Major traffic jams, road construction, new one-way streets and temporary no left turn signs made following Route 66 impossible. I got confused. My GPS unit got confused. And even the Route 66 guide that worked flawlessly everywhere else g

Day 10: 404 Miles Total: 4,224 Miles I had a nice chat with the owner of the Grand Canyon Hotel this morning. When she and her husband purchased the hotel, it had been closed for 35 years. Needless to say it required some serious renovation, which they are still in the process of doing. Still, it's a very nice hotel and I enjoyed the ambiance greatly. She also told me that this hotel is the oldest in the entire state of Arizona. I wound up leaving at about 8:00am, but took my time through several cities. I stopped off in Flagstaff to wander around a bit, and I really liked the place. It seems like it attracts a wide range of people, with Route 66ers being just a small part. I saw lots of boats, bikes and just people in general. The city is very historic and there are lots of shops, restaurants and just a lot of energy in general. I took a few shots including the converted train station and the historic hotel below. The scenery gets to be really amazing as you approach New Mexico.