Route 66: Day 7: The Grand Canyon to Barstow CA

 And on the seventh day... we drove more. Well, actually it was a day that started late (.. forgot to turn my alarm back on after resetting it) and consisted of our shortest driving day yet. Arizona Route 66 is full of dirt roads, blocked roads and advice to stay away. Our guide book suggested taking the highway most of the time, exiting for certain towns. We followed this advice, although didn't stop in as many towns as we had in previous states.

 In Hackberry we stopped by the general store, a treasure trove of great photo ops and a "tastefully" decorated mens room. One great thing about Route 66 is that it's a haven for great cars, both in good shape and bad. Along the way we also saw a giant Tiki head:

and a worn out sign pointing the way to a lot of the towns on Route 66. This was a great 66 detour and I'm really glad we took it, though the open desert scares me so I was cautious at first. But once we saw the Tiki I was excited again and anxious for the next awesome thing.

Around this time we realized that Toy Story 3 was out in theaters and I started researching drive in movie theaters theorizing that if there was anywhere they could thrive it would be California. I was right and we discovered that there would be one in the very town that we were staying in that night!

Crossing the border into California we entered an alien planet. The landscape was so different from what we had been seeing that I just couldn't stop staring. These bizarre hills that looked dark purple or black dotted the landscape and I truly think that there must have been some outer space film shot here that I was remembering because I felt like we were on Mars. It was really hard to photograph though.

 We arrived in Barstow with time to spare. We got a room at the local Days Inn, stopped at a taco place for Matt and went right over to the drive in. We chose our spot, close to the screen, and I went to the snack shop. It was near perfect sitting in the car eating corn dogs and watching the sunset over the desert mountains as we waited for the movie to start. And start it did - with a Bugs Bunny cartoon - "That's Opera Doc" and a slew of trailers for movies we didn't know about but are excited to see.

The short before the movie featured both traditional animation and CG and was very unique and stunning. I loved it but can't really describe it. Toy Story 3 itself was awesome, a great conclusion to the story and a bit of a tear jerker. We both loved every minute and were so glad to be seeing it in a drive in.

All in all it was a wonderful day with a perfect conclusion.

Route 66: Day 4 Illinois - Kansas - Oklahoma Part 1

 I actually jumped ahead a little when I blogged last, the Jesse James museum was on Day 4, not Day 3. But it all starts to run together after a while :)

Day 4 was a huge huge day for us. We stopped at a lot of places and had a lot of fun. We made some tough decisions and we met some more great people. Because I'm feeling a bit sleepy I'm only going to post a few photos for now. I'll show you more later when I have more time to choose and edit.

 Anyway, as I said I jumped ahead last time and day four actually started with the Jesse James Wax Museum. After that we drove through the Ozarks some and came across The World's Largest Rocking Chair, which excited me because I'm all about anything "World's Largest". Also exciting was the penny crushing machine inside; I made three in case I don't see another one along this Route 66 journey.

 We hopped on the highway for a bit after this, to save some time, and then went back to Route 66 to see a half replica of Stone Henge that was actually pretty disappointing. I guess after seeing CarHenge and Foam Henge who wants to see a silly half replica? Anyway, it was interesting but didn't stop us for too long.

Next we found a small Route 66 Museum inside a public library. There were three room set ups - a hotel room, a diner and a gas station all via the 1950's. It was pretty cool and a nice little break from driving.

 I was both excited and saddened to find our next stop - a drive-inn movie theater. Excited because I love them, but saddened because it was daytime and we couldn't attend that nights showing. At the drive inn, though, we came across two Route 66-ers named Lulu and Barb.We had a lot of fun chatting with them about Route 66 and were sad when we realized that we just couldn't attend the Meet Up that was happening in Joplin that weekend. They gave us the flyer for it, and we did seriously think about it, but in the end we were already 5 hours off schedule and it would have been too much. Perhaps we'll arrange a trip around the next meetup.

As we crossed into Kansas, we encountered the tow truck on which Mater from Cars is based. At the little restored gas station (which was unfortunately closed) we also saw the fire truck from the movie, complete with plants growing in tires.

Whew! Like I said, day four was a HUGE day for us. This is only half of that day! Today (day 7) was wonderful, but long and I'm getting a bit sleepy. I hope to be able to catch you all up in the next couple days, but for now I hope you are enjoying following along.