A day on the road

A trip down a section of Route 66 was on the agenda today. Drive to Kingman AZ, take the route 66 section, veer off to Laughlin and then head back to LV and finish the day. That was the plan and we stuck to it. But the planned 6.5 hrs became an eight hour stretch.

The second of the twofers from the coupon book reduced the cost to $3.50 per person and the two coupons used paid for the cost of the book. Hey we're making money everytime we use a coupon. Back to the narrative, today the car was found a lot faster than the fiasco that took place yesterday. In that case the maze of the parking garage swallowed us up and even when using the alert on the key fob only produced a lot of echo and noise. So the car was parked in a more locatable spot the second time around, and it was found much more easily.

On to the plan. Driving south to Kingman Arizona was the first leg. Kingman is the place that local historians and enthusiasts have established as the locus of Route 66 memorabilia. A fabulous museum has been set up and exhibits depict the trials of earlier travellers - a moving place. The pic of the old car doesn't really show the bad condition that most of these vehicles were in. Held together with baling wire and fueled with bad gas, this poorest of the poor have been described as "economic refugees in their own country". Travelling the short stretch from Kingman to Oatman was a trial for the person who sat in the passenger seat of our car, the edge of the precipice was too near for comfort for her! We can only imagine how the "Okies" managed it.

Arriving in Oatman AZ one was struck by the fact we have all seen too many westerns. The place looked like a scene from a Clint Estwood movie. Now a tourist trap since the gold mines have closed the main feature of the place was the burros that look very well fed and continually scrounge food from the tourists. These animals were just turned loose when the mines closed down. They survive, as does the Town, on tourists. The burros modus operandi is to approach the tourists anyway they can, even to put their heads into people's cars.and they will eat anything they find.

Coming back to LV via Laughlin one can quickly forget the fact that in previous years the number of times we have been waiting in traffic because of construction. The finished road is a marvel.

But not quite the marvel that is going to be the new bridge at the Hoover Dam. This bridge just defies description as one watches the build. Take plenty of pics as words will fail.