Today wasn’t much on mega-excitement; good thing, as we were still recovering from the intense mountain road-running yesterday getting to Flagstaff. Oh, uh, kids: when you build your car, DO NOT drive it late at night on dark twisty mountain roads unless you have FIRST aligned the headlights! Just a thought, FWIW.
We spent the night in Flagstaff, and visited Flagstaff’s old-line FORD dealership, Babbitt Ford, in the morning. The general manager, Ryan Chan, is the nephew of one of Mike’s Phoenix neighbors, and was a great guy in person, too. We minutely examined the restored 1913 Motel T Ford 4-door on display on the showroom, visited with Ryan, then got hungry for lunch so headed to what ends up being a famous Mexican restaurant in old downtown. Mitch will describe it thoroughly in his blog, but for my purposes, be assured the food, atmosphere, artwork and total vibe was perfect! We walked around town admiring the mural artwork that seems to be everywhere. What a nice environment.
Next stop was the “ROUTE 66” sign on the pavement of the parking lot near the old railroad station. We got some pics of the cars, and us, standing there like tourists, because, well, why not? After that we chased after a railroad museum in the small town of WIlliams, AZ, with little success. Rain was ominously moving in, so we kept moving, always on Route 66.
Then we ran for Seligman, full of kitschy shops and souvenirs that we passed on…until we saw “Westside Lilo’s” cafe. Drawn in like bears to honey, we parked under the canopy of an abandoned Exxon station, then strolled to Lilo’s while reading their “World Famous Carrot Cake” sign. Imagine our surprise when we found they also serve Route 66 Soda Root Beer…one of our sponsors on this C3on66 trip! So, it was Root Beer, Carrot Cake, and some chili for a road snack. Our waitress was Ashley, who advised us to SHARE the carrot cake, adding it would be big. NO KIDDING! It was as big as a brick, and almost that heavy, with about an inch of icing on top. Totally delicious, but NO WAY could the three of us finish it, so we gave about 1/3 of the cake to a near-table new buddy! I got a souvenir Soda glass, and a hug from Ashley on leaving the cafe. Fun stop!
Route 66 continued to be our friend, heading west to our destination: Kingman, AZ. Good pavement, light traffic, and spectacular scenery different than we’re accustomed to in the East. Mitch will have some pics, because he has photographer skills while driving. Some speed was had, but nothing crazy. We made it to our motel in Kingman after a couple of stops for supplies, and found we were awarded the biggest room we’ve encountered on our trip so far, AND they allowed me to park the Aardvark Factory Five Roadster under the portico, out of the weather and available for every client of the motel to see and photograph the QR codes for our charities. Cool surprises abound!
More tomorrow, thanks for following along with this thing!
