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June 18, 2011

Kingman to Oatman to Williams

We hit Route 66 early in the morning and headed for Oatman, riding up the twisties to see the cowboy/tourist mecca. Franz really just wanted to do the twisties. The famous burros which roam the street(s) of Oatman, picked this day not to turn up, but the group still enjoyed shopping for t-shirts and souvenirs. Franz met a guy from Germany, who was leading motorcycle tours in the US, and they talked long enough that he approached Franz about leading some tours for him in the future and also was interested in the idea of dirt bike tours in the Philippines, which Franz has been exploring himself, when they are there to visit his in-laws. After another shot at the twisties on the way down from Oatman, we started following Route 66 through Arizona. It had originally been Franz' thought to got to West Grand Canyon, but both the German tour guy and the Motel 6 staff in Kingman said that it was not worth it – 10 miles of dirt roads to the glass viewing deck, $60+ to go on the deck, no shoes allowed on the glass, and no photos allowed. So we changed the itinerary to follow Route 66 to Williams and then go to the South Rim of the Canyon from there the next day.

Our first stop was in Hackberry, which is just a little tourist stop of a general store. It's big claim to fame for Franz was that one of his Austrian license plates was nailed up on the ceiling with 100s of other plates and was the only Austrian plate there. We located his plate, but somebody else had provided another Austrian plate so now he is one of two. After Hackberry we headed for Seligman via Peach Springs and had lunch at another major Route 66 landmark, the Sno-Cap, where many of us indulged in the 6 taco special and everyone enjoyed to stand-up comedians behind the counter. The jokes are the same every time you go there, but you still get a laugh. It was a long and leisurely lunch and rest stop before heading on to Williams.