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| A couple of fellow travelers on Route 66 |
Today's Blog comes to you from the Econolodge in lovely Williams Arizona on legendary Route 66. Faithful and Obedient companion and I left Blair and Eric and San Diego to head east on the final leg of our journey. We decided that our trip would take us due east from San Diego with a drive through Joshua Tree National Park. Back in August we had optimistically hoped to make a trip North to Glacier National Park, a lifelong dream for yours truly. However a realistic discussion of timing (Glacier is already starting to close up for winter), coupled with the USMC's delay in getting Eric home eliminated any realistic hope of swinging that far north for any real worthwhile visit. I guess that will be a dream postponed...until another blog!
One thing became clear to us as we headed into the deep Mojave desert, it is desolate and it is dry! Remember my corn blog? Well substitute corn for sagebrush, and Joshua Trees and you get a similar sense of vistas of sameness as far as the eye can see. The only break was in the stretch between Joshua Tree NP and the Arizona border, here there was little but salt flats and barren hills. This was all beautiful but in a very stark way.
As the blog introduction implies we made it (after a 9 hour drive) to lovely Williams Arizona in the "heart" of Route 66 territory. It is an interesting town, with an old west feel. We had a drink at a local saloon and some wings and shrimp for dinner. Faithful and Obedient Companion had to teach the local bartender what a Martini was, as the waitress brought her a Gin and SWEET VERMOUTH (yech) concoction on the first attempt. The bartender explained that since they ran out of dry vermouth she would simply use the sweet....after all it did say MARTINI and Rossi on the label! Of course faithful and Obedient was happy to explain some gin and olives sans the vermouth works best in such circumstances! The night therefore ended on a very happy note! I stuck with a sure winner- a bottle of Dos Equis.
Well I will leave you with a few facts on Joshua Trees (thus fulfilling the educational public service portion of my blog), you can read about them below. Tomorrow we head slightly north ( guess what's there if you cannot wait until the next blog), then west again on I 40 (modern day route 66!). Hopefully we will get a few more "Kicks" on our way down Route 66! Until then:
Adieu
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| Main Street Williams Arizona |
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| Joshua Trees in National Park of same name |
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| These tree grow an inch and a half per year. How old is this baby (not me!)? |
Mormon pioneers are said to have named this species "Joshua" Tree because it mimicked the Old Testament prophet Joshua waving them, with upraised arms, on toward the promised land. This unique species grows abundantly at Joshua Tree National Park
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| Lots of neat rocks, Joshua Tree NP is a huge Rock Climbing Center |
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| On Route 66 between Twenty Nine Palms Marine Training Center and Needles California |
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| Still on Route 66 they made a TV show about this desolation??? TV is a wasteland! |
Have a wonderful, safe trip home! Yeah, the TV show called Route 66 sure didn't look anything like those pictures.
ReplyDeleteBonus points everyone if you can remember the actors names and their characters. Without using the Internet!!!!!
ReplyDeleteLove, Mrs. Murray
Don't you just love Williams. There real claim to fame is the train that runs into the Grand Canyon. Especially during Christmas when it is called the "Polar Express" and includes Santa at the end of the trip. Continue to enjoy, even if that enjoyment does not include a good martini. Have to come south to Scottsdale to enjoy those. :-)
ReplyDeleteEthel And Jay