California or Bust

 

Well, after leaving some money in Las Vegas ( and some good friends as well) we’re back on the road.  We drove the hour and a half from Vegas back to Kingman where we left off and wen to the Kingman Visitor’s center and Arizona RT66 museum.  We forwent the museum (I’m assuming that’s a word) but didn’t forgo the gift shop.  Then we headed out for California.

At the Kingman Visitor Center

The only stop we had planned was Oatman AZ, a town the guidebook describes as “they used to mine for gold and now they mine for tourist dollars.”. It’s mostly abandoned except for a few gift shops and restaurants, but they’re known for the wild burros, which can be both friendly and aggressive.  But to get there we had to take old Rt66 up and over a small mountain range.  The road is very steep, narrow, and without guardrails.  Let’s say Sue was definitely not a fan. 

The Arizona and California desert is really beautiful

After going over the Sitgreaves Pass, we came down the hairpin turns on other side and into Oatman, and discovered this was Oatman Bike Weekend.  The town was lined both sides with hundreds of bikes and the road filled with pedestrians. We inched our way through trying to avoid hitting any bikes thus saving our necks, and high-tailed it out of town without stopping.  We did manage to find some burros on the way out, also obviously taking refuge from the town.

The view from atop Sitgreaves Pass

There were dozens of memorials at the top of Sitgreaves Pass.  No graves, as far as I know.  There were a mother and her young boy putting flowers and pretty rocks on one of the memorials and the little boy was talking to his "Aunt Betty". Very touching.

Our car, with the top of Sitgreaves Pass behind it

Oatman Bike Weekend

Beautiful Oatman burros

A few more miles and we were in California and a few miles after that and we were in Needles, where we had a room booked at the very nice Rio Del Sol Inn (really a motel).  We had a great early dinner at the Wagn Wheel across the street (10% off if you’re staying at the Rio Del Sol) and went back to the Motel to rest and watch the movie Cars.  I had never seen it before, and it has a lot to do with Rt66, so I really enjoyed it in a way I would not have before. 2 more days!

One of Needles claims to fame is it's the home of Snoopy's brother Spike.  Charles Schultz actually lived in Needles for 2 years back in the 50's, so I guess that explains the choice

The Wagon Wheel restraunt