I will be posting photos of our drive from Scottsdale to Flagstaff later, but wanted to make this entry while today is still fresh in my mind. After a great dinner in Sedona at The Hudson (another of Michaels bistro favorites) with stunning views of the surrounding mountains, we drove onto Flagstaff, arrived late, and turned in as soon as we got to the hotel.
This morning after some blog entries we made our way to Babbitt Ford in Flagstaff. Mike is friends with Elaine Chan in Scottsdale and she is Aunt to Ryan Chan the general manager of Babbitt Ford. After speaking with his aunt about our trip Ryan expressed interest in our charity drive and thought it would be nice of us to stop in. So glad we did. Ryan was very gracious and took the time to meet us and learn more of our charity drive. We learned a good deal about Babbitt Ford also. Babbitt was the first Ford dealership in all of Arizona established in 1912. On the floor in the Service Center and administrative building there was a pristinely restored 1913 Ford Model T Touring car, a vehicle manufactured one year after the establishment of the dealership. We were able to take some great photos of the car and Ryan with us.
After visiting Babbitt Ford we walked a couple blocks to a Mexican restaurant Mike has frequented several times, MartAnne’s Burrito Palace. Both the food and service were great and the bonus was the consignment art on display. The art is of the Calaca genre, which is often used in Mexican “Celebration of the Dead” festivals, and as you can see from the photos is quite bold and colorful.
At the suggestion of Ryan Chan, we then proceeded a short distance to the Amtrak station where there is a large Route 66 emblem in the parking lot. We were able to get a great shot of the cars surrounding the emblem.
Leaving Flagstaff we encountered a brief period of rain but pressed on toward Kingman with a planned stop in Seligman. The scenery as usual was pretty spectacular even with the overcast condition we experienced for the first hour or so. We were dropping elevation as we drove west, and the air temperature became very comfortable by the time we got to Seligman.
We stopped at the western edge of Seligman and parked our cars under the portico of an old abandoned Exxon station next door to Westside Lilo’s, a great little family owned restaurant that had a sign advertising their “world famous carrot cake”. Of course we had to explore and verify this claim so we got a table and ordered chili with onions and cheese, Root Beer flavor Route 66 Soda, and of course a sharable portion of the world famous carrot cake. The cake lived up to their claim but the most delightful part of this stop was our server Ashley. A wonderfully cheery young woman who expressed great interest in our trip and causes. She excitedly stated she would post our information and donation links on her social media pages and told us that she thought what we were doing was just wonderful. After our lunch we strolled through the restaurant and gift shop to look the many interesting items on display which included everything from many Deutschland license plates (the owner is from Germany) to some expert taxidermy. As we left, Ashley came out and gave each us hugs and wished us good luck and safety for the rest of our trip. What a wonderful young lady!
Before leaving, I took the opportunity to look a bit more closely at some items that had caught my eye on the way in that were located behind the restaurant toward the railroad tracks. It was a very eclectic collection of old vehicles and abandoned equipment of another era. It was just one more example of how time has truly stopped on some stretches of old Route 66.
Proceeding on to Kingman brought us even warmer temperatures as we continued dropping elevation. We passed through three Indian reservations along the way with beautiful landscapes and while driving paced several very long trains on tracks that parallel that portion of historic Route 66.
More to come tomorrow!
