3000+ miles in 3 weeks, Route 66 & all that. Episode 15

[Sue]

Sunday 4th April

Well here we are 66'ers - today we head back to Williams and the Mother Road. We knew we had some mileage to get in today as we had rooms booked in Las Vegas for tonight and tomorrow. Rachel being an engineering student, was looking forward to spending time at the Hoover Dam and perhaps doing the tour, so we needed to be there in good time.
Well breakfasted - we were on the road for 8.30am and in Williams by 10am. This looked like a great Route 66 town, but we had no time to wander round it - we stopped at the Safeway for water and more supplies, plus a Starbucks from the instore concession.
We needed fuel, so whilst J filled up - I got some snaps of this cute little retro place









This is the train station from where you can travel in style to the Grand Canyon:



Opposite here is the famous Red Garter Inn - you can still stay here and there is a "working girl" waving at out of the window at you



Another store front and a gas station from Williams:





We would have liked more time to spend here - maybe it is somewhere we will go back to at some point?
The road stretched ahead of us for miles:



[

And we ran parallel to the railway for long stretches as ever:



This is one of the guide maps that we used - it's part of a set. We used these to cross reference the route we needed and it also contained snippets of information about places of interest:

[Sue]

Continued:

Then we were into Seligman - this place is very well known on Route 66 and one of the most famous places is the Snowcap:





This is an over the top, almost caricature diner that has been there for a long time and just got more and more 'wacky':



There are several, over the top places here:







Not to mention this place:



And one of the best church signs we saw:



To be honest though - we all felt that there was something tacky about Seligman - most of the stuff we had seen so far had been sort of 'noble', old, run-down in some places, but sort of dignified. Seligman seems to be the Blackpool of Route 66 and we did not want to hang around long. To reinforce this - a bus load of Japanese tourists pulled up and all of them headed into a souvenir shop and came out with Route 66 'stuff'. They were on their way to the Grand Canyon Skywalk - where you can stand on the perspex floor over the Grand Canyon - sort of the whistle stop tour of this part of the USA thing?

Anyhoo - back on the road, we passed through a couple of very small towns (if you could call them that?) Valentine and Hackberry are two that I recall. Before we knew it, we were in Kingman and about to leave Route 66 again. We took US 93 and for a while entered a traffic jam - shock, horror - after all those miles done so far, this was almost unheard of! They are building a new bridge and road to bypass the dam itself and to solve the congestion problem. For now though, the roadworks and diversion add to the problem.

We crossed the dam at a slow crawl and parked up in the multi-storey car park. It was Easter Sunday today and of course a weekend, it seemed to be very busy, with loads of people around. I am not a fan of man-made structures and was underwhelmed to say the least. It was just concrete and machinery to me. I was not interested in any tour and Sally dropped out too (having done it before anyway) - we chose to wander around, take some pics and then whiled away the time people watching, which was fun.

Here is the view towards the new road bridge:



And the river the other side - nice to see the Colorado blue and not the muddy brown it was at the Grand Canyon!:



The water appeared to be at a low level, J said that it was much lower than the last time they were here. I am no expert, but I can't help but think that damming a huge river is not a good thing and that ultimately, the environment will suffer? I'm no green warrior, just don't like to see nature messed with - maybe that's why I'm no fan of the place?

I did like the art deco stuff and this has to be the best ladies restroom entrance that I've ever seen!



I was touched by the memorial to the people who died building the dam. Sad to say that they are buried under it somewhere and nobody knows how many, much less their names!



We gathered together around 5pm as the visitors part of the dam was closing and set off for Vegas which is around 20-25 miles from here.

[Sue]

Continued:

We arrived in the vicinity of Las Vegas quite quickly but then had to really slowly crawl along the strip towards our hotels. It was painful after all the freedom of the road we had experienced until now.
I managed to get some shots as we crawled along:











My first impression of Las Vegas was not great to be honest. I had no prior expectations and was looking forward to seeing for myself what I had only seen on TV and in films before. I have to say though that my overwhelming feeling was that I HATED the place!
I get the brashness and the over the topness of it - what I was unprepared for was the pervasive sense of sleaze. I actually felt grubby all the time I was there. It did not help when I saw men wearing t-shirts saying "I can have a woman in your room in 30 minutes, ask me now" - lovely, not!

Anyway we slowly progressed. Rach and Phil had decided to stay on the Strip and so we dropped them off at Treasure Island, agreeing to meet for dinner at 7.30pm at Bahama Breeze:



J had chosen the Stratosphere for us - this was because Sally wanted to do the coasters on the top of it and it is free to get up there if you are staying at the hotel (you still have to pay for the ride though). It was also an amazing Ł29 per room per night! It is not on the Strip, but for that I was quite relieved!



This place is very nearby and epitomises what I was saying about the sleaze, the yellow boxes that in most places would have newspapers in, contained porn mags:



Anyway - J dropped us off at the entrance and then went to park Louis. You have to walk across the casino floor of course to get to the check in:



Whilst waiting for J - who had all the details with him, I decided that the place was loathsome and loud and I could not leave quick enough! Have I mentioned that I don't like the place lol. Seriously though, I was amazed at my response as I don't often react so strongly to places - weird?
The check in seemed to take forever and there were families with small children there - hellooooo are you mad? J said that he had to leave a $100 deposit on each room for "incidentals" - what's that all about. Honestly - after days of value for money motels - the money grabbing big hotels were a bit of a culture shock. Pay extra for Wifi, deposit for extras etc
I was also quite surprised to see people smoking on the casino floor?

The room, when we finally got there was fine:



And the view,to me, was better than the Strip



We had a quick spruce up and then got a taxi to Bahama Breeze.
I had never been to one before, the others had and wanted to go back so here we were. Really good meal - J and I shared some amazing coconut shrimp and then we both had mahi-mahi, but with different sauces. We also had some cocktails - hooray
We started off with long ones - Mai Tai and a Rum Runner for me, J had a gin martini and then a Hurricane. We quickly realised that the long cocktails were heavy on the ice so I switched to an Appletini and J had an Alabama Slammer. Cannot remember the cost but it was reasonable allowing for the alcohol extras
Here we are as we left, kindly photographed by our server:



Back at hotel for 10.30 and bed

Mileage today = 291

Total so far = 3087

Tomorrow - Death Valley and back for another evening in Sleazeville

[Nicksgirl]

Good one Sue.

I love Vegas though, not too keen on the Strat end but still love the place.

x

[Sue]

Originally Posted by Nicksgirl

Good one Sue.

I love Vegas though, not too keen on the Strat end but still love the place.

x

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Fair enough - loads of peeps love the place, it's just not for me

[Guest]

I think I've read the Stratosphere end of The Strip is the tackiest end...though I am quite expecting tacky for when we go. I'm imagining Blackpool but bigger and better, lol!

[Sue]

Originally Posted by chocaholic110

I think I've read the Stratosphere end of The Strip is the tackiest end...though I am quite expecting tacky for when we go. I'm imagining Blackpool but bigger and better, lol!

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It's ALL tacky as far as I'm concerned lol

I've heard fabulous things about San Diego though - you are going to love it

Ooops - forgot to say that we did not all hate LV

J and I do - we will only go back as we want to see a couple of the Cirque shows that are unique to Vegas.

Phil was indifferent - never been before and not bothered if he goes back or not

Rach, Sally and Charli all love the place.

[purple myra]

Woohooo! I'm quite sure I recommended you try "the road kill cafe"... shame you didn't!
I'm another Las Vegas lover, can't wait to go back. The Stratosphere end wasn't my favourite bit to be honest, much preferred the South End.
I was surprised the first time we saw the "slappers" and actually took a card from one, oops! after that I just walked on past and never felt bothered by them.

[Guest]

I'm finally going to comment! I LOVE your trippie Sue, it's amazing. Way back `in the day` (1991) my now ex husband who was my boyfriend then drove from where I was living in Boulder, Colorado, to San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Tijuana (just to say we'd done Mexico!) and then back through Las Vegas. We did 3000 miles in 2 weeks

Anyhoo, I HATED Vegas too... it reminded me at the time of Southend, although now I live in Blackpool (for my sins) I can honestly see where you're coming from!

Can't wait to read the rest, and oh yes, San Diego is sooooooooo beautiful, can't wait to see your pics

Thanks for the trip down memory lane

[Sue]

Originally Posted by Sarah71

I'm finally going to comment! I LOVE your trippie Sue, it's amazing. Way back `in the day` (1991) my now ex husband who was my boyfriend then drove from where I was living in Boulder, Colorado, to San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Tijuana (just to say we'd done Mexico!) and then back through Las Vegas. We did 3000 miles in 2 weeks

Anyhoo, I HATED Vegas too... it reminded me at the time of Southend, although now I live in Blackpool (for my sins) I can honestly see where you're coming from!

Can't wait to read the rest, and oh yes, San Diego is sooooooooo beautiful, can't wait to see your pics

Thanks for the trip down memory lane

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Aww thanks for commenting Sarah - I love to hear other people's stories.

We did not actually make San Diego this time - a friend of mine has been 3 times and loves it. We are similar in taste so I know that I would like it too.

We are planning a West coast road trip and so far - my work in progress is that we can do a mini-California road trip in October - we are off to San Francisco and surrounds