Chloride, AZ, Historic Route 66 & Flagstaff

So we got all packed up and left Las Vegas by 8 am. We started off to Flagstaff with our first stop in Chloride. This is a little town just off the the highway. It used to have a copper mine but it has since closed  but there are still 400 residents. There was a new rv park, a cafe and a general store. There used to be a small rock shop but I couldn’t remember where it was so we stopped to talk to a fellow driving around in his golf cart. He said that the rock shop was not open anymore but that if we wanted to look for some rocks we could come to his house and check out the wash behind his house for our own rocks. Mike took us up the road to his place and was it ever neat. The house is built between three large boulders. 

 This is the rocks at the back. They say that being between the rocks keeps the house much cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter. 

Mike actually took us out on the wash and took Len to pick up a  huge bucket, Brenda and stayed a little closer and picked up some great rocks for tumbling. 

We met Mike’s wife Karen and I got some great advice from her about places to maybe go a stay next winter. She suggested Lake Mohave.  We explained that we had been here before, Chloride actually has a large mural that was painted out in the desert a number of years ago. We didn’t have time to go today but Karen informed us that the same painter had painted a picture on the floor, she invited us in to look at it.

Karen also had some beautiful cactus flowers

After visiting with Mike and Karen we drove around town a bit and found some great yard art.

After Chloride we headed to Kingman and toured the Route 66 museum. The museum tells you how Route 66 was an integral part of the forming the west. During the depression people headed to California with the promise of jobs and a better life. After World War 2 people moved about more freely and Route 66 was there for them from coast to coast. 

They also had a display of electric vehicles.  This is Waylon Jennings Mercedes golf cart

This is the buckeye Bullet 2.5 designed and built by students from the Ohio State university. On Sept 25, 2009 it set and international sped record at Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats of 303.25 mph in the flying Kilometer and 302.877 mph in the flying mile. 

We then drove through the Route 66 sign

After the museum we went to Mr D’s Diner for a burger. I tried a bun less one with a lettuce wrap, it was very good and not as filling.

When the interstate was built there were a number of towns that were bypassed and a number of them became ghost towns.  There was a man named Angel Delgadillo in Seligman, AZ who is the main founder of the Historic Route 66 Assoc in Arizona. When Pixar made the movie Cars it worked with Angel to add a number of stores, motels, cafes, stores and stories into the movie.  

Our first stop was Hackberry and the general store.

The next time stop was Seligman and the Sno Cap Drive in for an ice cream cone and Angel’s store for a souvenir.

We finished our drive to Flagstaff and got checked into our Condo. It is a very nice unit. We got unpacked, did some laundry. Len’s neck is out so he went to bed early and Brenda and I watched the Cars movie and compared our drive to the movie.