The Meteor Crater, and The Grand Canyon

 The next attraction we stopped at was 154 miles down Route 66. The Meteor Crater  is in Winslow, Arizona and I would definitely recommend stopping for this one. Go to google earth and search The Meteor Crater, you will be amazed to find that this huge hole exists in our country. I'm not being sarcastic. It is freaking huge and amazing! I think it was one of the highlights of the trip, although this was before we got sick of driving and had the choice of staying where we were or sucking it up and finishing the trip. It is about 4,000 ft in diameter, 570 ft deep, and is surrounded by a rim that rises 150 ft above the surrounding plains. That means if you were standing on the rim of the crater and the St. Louis Arch was at the bottom, you would almost be looking straight into the windows. Pretty cool, especially if you've been to the Arch. If you haven't been, GO! It's the tallest monument in the country (630 ft)!! Sorry, I have to stick up for STL since to everyone else in the country thinks we only grow corn and noodle for fish (look it up). Anyway, The Meteor Crater is cool.

 From here it was a short drive to Flagstaff. I think we stayed in a free camp ground that night, I remember there was a sign warning of mountain lions and Chris slept in the van instead of the tent. He turned out to be the smarter man, I froze my butt off! This was when I learned it's true that it gets cold at night in the desert. Thankfully no mountain lions though.
 After thawing out, we set off for the Grand Canyon. This turned out to be a little farther out of the way than we thought, about 100 miles one way! After seeing a huge hole in the ground the day before, and driving for three hours, the Grand Canyon was a little anticlimactic. The best part about this leg of the journey was watching a Chinese lady be amazed while she took pictures of a crow picking through a trash can. I wanted to take a picture of her doing this but I didn't want to get beat up by a bus full of 70 year old Chinese tourists. So, after about an hour we hit the road again.
 Check back next week to find out how much trouble two 18 year olds can get into in Las Vegas!

Gallup, NM - our next stop on Historic Route 66

 The next stop on Route 66 was Gallup, New Mexico. The only thing I remember is that we stayed at a KOA campground for one night. Little did we know that at the same time there was also a serial killer visiting KOA's around the country. We didn't meet him, and it wasn't us. I think this is where we cooked spegetti-o's over a piece of charcoal. Not too exciting. On the road again, next stop Flagstaff, Arizona!

The next stretch of Route 66

That's right, it's a stuffed horse. Trigger, to be exact. He was Roy Rodgers famous horse that he had stuffed and put into his museum. It used to be located in Oklahoma then was moved to Branson, Missouri. The museum closed down in 2009. Sadly, while on my trip down Route 66, we didn't stop here and see the awesome stuffed horse. All I have to remember this place by is a picture of the sign taken out the passenger side window while traveling at 70 mph.

 The next state we hit was Texas. The only major place to stop was Amarillo, though if we were thinking ahead we would have stopped in the town of Panhandle. Yes, it's a real town. Really the only thing I remember about Amarillo is the GIANT ROACH in the motel. After recovering from a heart attack, we trapped this quarter pounder with legs and tried to flush it down the toilet. Notice I said "tried". This thing literally swam against the current and did not go down. I almost felt sorry for this roach version of Michael Phelps, then we just threw some toilet paper on top of him and flushed again. Needless to say, I had a little trouble sleeping that night.
 Our time spent in Texas was short and I guess you could say, eventful. I was looking forward to New Mexico and views of beautiful mountains and high plains deserts. Check back next week to see if what really happened.

Route 66, The Beginning

It was midnight on my 18th birthday when me and my buddy Chris set off on our epic journey on historic Route 66. We made it maybe four hundred miles to a truck stop just outside of Joplin Missouri. We were so tired, we couldn't even make it to the Oklahoma border on our first leg of the trip. At this point I have to admit this was completely my idea, I had this romantic idea of "The Mother Road". Route 66 has, for some reason, has always been a symbol of freedom to me. I had always wanted to point my car west and go, that's pretty much what we did. The original idea was to drive my 1974 Dodge Dart, affectionately referred to as "The Chick Magnet". Luckily, my parents saved me from making a HUGE mistake, and let us use there van. They also used there AAA insurance and got us route planners for the entire trip.

Back to the adventure. After a night of sleeping with one eye open in a shady truck stop, we hit the road once again. Our next stop was for breakfast at the world's largest McDonald's in Vinita, Oklahoma (pictured above). This thing is built across the highway, and is actually a site to see if going down I-44. I had pancakes and sausage, I think. Back on the road, next stop was Oklahoma City. This was really just a drive by to see the 1995 bombing site. You really get no idea of the damage on TV, there were still windows boarded up in the YMCA a couple blocks away. The building was gone, but the fence was still there with all the flowers and makeshift memorials around the perimeter. They have a beautiful permanent memorial there now, take a look at it some time New York, I think it is very appropriate and tasteful.

That's all for now. Next time, the Roy Rodgers museum and horse taxidermy.

The Mother Road

When I was 18 my friend Chris and I went on a road trip from St. Louis to California following historic Route 66 as much as we could. There is no way that 18 year old young men can appreciate a trip like this. Now that I'm 31 I look back and smile at all the expierences we had and regret the great things we missed. This blog will be a walk through my memories of that trip. I will try to post pictures, this was before digital cameras, so I doubt it. So, follow along and add your memories of the places on the way if you've been there too.