Lee Hart's Web Site

Well Kingman, AZ was fairly full last night. I had to check 3 hotels before I found any room (the first had no unreserved rooms, the second only had smoking rooms left. The third had no heat (only cooling, it used a chill plant) and a train running close by every few hours but I rarely use heat in the rooms and I was able to get a room that faced away from the trains. I only heard the trains twice, once before I fell asleep and once after I woke up.

Evidently there was some sort of Route 66 fun run in Kingman the 27th and 28th. There was a shop (Dream Motors) that had 3 Corvettes (all reasonably stock) and a gorgeous 1965 Corvair Monza Convertible. It was well loaded with options and has a fantastic paint job. I happened to catch an employee on his way in as I left town in the morning (most of my pictures were taken through the window the night before). A friend (Kent, corvairkid.com) has a growing collection of Corvairs.

The ride in today on Route 66 was very nice. I saw less kitschy buildings (teepees, etc.) than I'd seen in New Mexico and western Arizona but the road is reasonably complete. For the most part I followed the "Route 66 Traveler's Guide and Roadside Companion" by Tom Snyder (founder, US Route 66 Association). It's a reasonably compact book (perhaps 4"x10") with a series of strip maps (the size of one page) to make it easy to see individual segments of Route 66. On most of the road I rode today the "original" route 66 could be seen off to one side, fairly narrow and not very landscaped. It was no longer a road I'd drive in a car I took care of, maybe a Jeep or other vehicle able to handle the very rough road/trail. It was often on property behind a fence so even an appropriate vehicle wouldn't always help.

In many ways the segment of Route 66 from Kingman to the Arizona/California border (Southeast of Needles) is one of the best segments I drove on. It doesn't have much of the 50+ year old buildings that can be so attractive to the eye but that road gave me a good feel for what it was like to drive the original. It generally follows the surface of the earth, dipping through normally dry washes and steams in the desert, closely hugging the curves of the earth in the mountains. The road into and out of Oatman is fantastic. I wish the weather was more typical for this area at this time of year (80 degrees and clear) and not like Seattle (gray, light rain). I would have enjoyed it more with the top down in some good dry heat. Alas, all too soon it was over. If I didn't have places to go I would have turned around to run it again.

Much like the road around Oatman, I soon ran out of Route 66. I stopped riding it in Barstow. It was no longer very distinct as I neared the southern California metro region. I hopped on I15 and was quickly at my sister's house in Corona. Thus far it's been a good ride. I have more than 3,000 miles on the odometer. It will have over 4,000 miles when I finally get home. Not bad for a first trip and more than the ~2,400 miles a direct trip would have taken. I would have missed a lot though, and I still have the trip up the coast to go.

Friday night/Saturday

Visited w/ Alicia & family. Saturday afternoon visited w/ Eric, Susan & <>. Had a good time. Installed Win98 on nephews' computer. Cursed at it for FAT16->FAT32 converter (can't convert if any blocks are marked as bad) and MB or BIOS limitations (~2 GB IDE max size). Bryan got sick.