{"id":2738,"date":"2018-11-16T10:06:04","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T18:06:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/?p=2738"},"modified":"2019-03-02T12:40:11","modified_gmt":"2019-03-02T20:40:11","slug":"route-66-day-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/?p=2738","title":{"rendered":"Route 66 Day 1 Barstow – Kingman"},"content":{"rendered":"

October 1st<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Armed with Rt 66 maps & guide books by Jim Ross and Jerry McClanahan, Garmin GPS, tools, parts and a lot of other stuff we roared out of San Luis Obispo to begin our grand tour of Rt 66 from Barstow to Chicago in Maryjane our restored 1950 Chevy Fleetline<\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n

We’re both suffering a bit of the jitters not knowing what lies ahead and how the two of us will deal with it over the next 14 days. Adventure, Mayhem, Weather, Mechanical Failures, Excitement, Wacko’s, Mysteries, Challenges and more await us.<\/p>\n

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Day 1 Barstow to Kingman <\/strong>
\nWe picked up Rt 66 in Barstow after electing to skip the start\/end of the mother road at Santa Monica Pier in LA for a couple of reasons. One of which was to avoid the traffic and chaos and second was that much of Route 66 in the LA basin has been altered enough over time to not give us big alligator tears over having missed that section.<\/p>\n

\"Barstow\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Barstow<\/strong>
\n
\n\"1950<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Barstow\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Leaving Barstow on rt 66 we drove thru Daggett, Newberry Springs and Ludlow<\/p>\n

\"rt<\/a><\/p>\n

\"rt<\/a><\/p>\n

\"rt<\/a><\/p>\n

Rarely photographed Red Shirted Vagabond at rest
\n<\/p>\n

Stopped at the Bagdad Caf\u00e9 <\/a> in Newberry which was featured in the 1987 film of the same name.<\/p>\n

\"1950<\/a><\/p>\n

It was here that we met 2 young guys from Venice, Italy that came to cruise Rt. 66 on Harley’s.<\/p>\n

\"1950<\/a><\/p>\n

\"1950<\/a><\/p>\n

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Amboy<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"1950<\/p>\n

Recycle Totem Pole
\n<\/p>\n

Alien Listening Device
\n<\/p>\n

We kept waiting for Clint Eastwood to step out the door of the church for a shootout
\n<\/p>\n


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\nStopped in Fenner for gas on our way to Needles and met a young couple from Hungary that were touring the Southwest deserts on a Harley. Adventurers and vagabonds abound!<\/p>\n

Needles<\/strong>
\n\"1950<\/p>\n

Continued east where we crossed the Colorado River into Arizona. Passed thru Topock and started the 25 mile journey to Oatman. The road isn\u2019t great, the views are spectacular and Maryjane was up to the challenge. It\u2019s a bit of climb and presented us with some spectacular vistas of the desert below. Rain had passed thru earlier and the sky was broken clouds and brilliant blue. The shadows from the clouds accented the rock formations.<\/p>\n

Road to Oatman<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

OATMAN<\/strong> <\/a>
\nOatman is an old mining town that was founded during the gold rush in 1901 and has wild burros wandering the streets just to add a little more flavor to this throwback town. Made friends with the burros, had lunch, trolled the shops.<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

It’s Woody the Burro!<\/b>
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Come on Poquito that looks like Kathy<\/strong>
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It is her!!!<\/strong>
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How about a big kiss<\/strong>
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The road down to the Cool Springs station from Oatman is steep, winding and breathtaking. Along the way we found a spectacular view point where memorial crosses had been placed overlooking the desert.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Road to Cool Springs<\/strong>
\n
\n\"1950<\/strong>
\nLooking back at the road from Oatman to Cool Springs<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

The view point<\/strong>
\n\"rt<\/a>
\n<\/p>\n

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Cool Springs Cabins<\/strong> <\/a> is a classic and well worth a stop. the truck that was the inspiration for Tow Mater in the Cars movie was found here. To our dismay we discovered that Tow Mater had been stolen and is now believed to be in Canada. (Sounds like the basis for a sequel).<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"1950<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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KINGMAN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cruised on down to Kingman to the famous El Trovatore Motel<\/strong><\/a> and got room 108 where Marilyn Monroe once stayed. The El Trovatore motel, which opened in 1937, hosted Hollywood film stars Clark Gable, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean when they were in the area filming.<\/p>\n


\n<\/p>\n

It was more than a pleasant surprise to find Marilyn waiting for me in our celebrity room. How lucky can one man be?
\n<\/p>\n

Mural of a gas station at the back of the El Trovatore property<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"1950<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Mr. Magoo takes Kathy for a wild ride<\/strong>
\n<\/p>\n

El Trovatore Mural of THE King<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October 1st. Armed with Rt 66 maps & guide books by Jim Ross and Jerry McClanahan, Garmin GPS, tools, parts and a lot of other stuff we roared out of San Luis Obispo to begin our grand tour of Rt 66 from Barstow to Chicago in Maryjane our restored 1950 Chevy Fleetline We’re both suffering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-route-66"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2738"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3002,"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2738\/revisions\/3002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/exocet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}