DAY 10-- TOO HOT TO BE COOL!! 110 DEGREES in the shade
Started off in Williams, AZ from the Route 66 INN.  Do not stay there.  Good location downtown but not American owned and that is the lesson we've learned.  If it is owned by Indians, walk away.  I don't mean to sound prejudiced but it's a fact.  They have no sense of history, it's just a place for people to sleep.

We went to the train station to watch the Wild West show and watch the train go out to the Grand Canyon then hit the road towards Seliegman which  is the beginning of the longest stretch of route 66 you get to drive.  It's 160 miles of original road through varied terrain with a 3 major tourist towns from the heyday of 66.  It was 80 degrees at 9 AM so we put the top down and took off.

Angel was a barber in Seliegman and started the Route 66 Historical Highway Preservation in 1986 to bring life back to the town the interstate had deserted in 1978.  More people joined in and now you can see the result along the whole trip.  His store and his brother's ICE CAP next door are major attractions . The Ice Cap is an ice cream place that serves comedy along with your order.  It was fun!!

 

We left there to go to the Grand Canyon Caverns. This is a cave 210 ft (21 stories) below ground that you access by elevator. It really was worth the time and $15.00. It's a 45 minute tour.

A MUMMIFIED BOBCAT FROM 1850, fell into the cave and couldn't get out. 

What he would have looked like

For $700 a night, you can rent this suite in the bottom of the cave and spend the night in the cave.  It sleeps 6 and you have to be out by 11 so tours come see you starting at 9.

ancient sloth thing, found the bones when developing the cave

We left there to head for Kingman.  There is museum that has a Dust Bowl, Grapes of Wrath museum and Mr D'z across the street was a 50's diner that makes their own fabulous root beer.  They sell it by the 6 pack for $14.95!  When we got back to the car, which was parked under a tree, our thermometer said 110 degrees!! It was TOO HOT TO BE COOL in our convertible so we left the top UP.  We had made it through desert and climbing temps for about 5 hours but wimped out or got smart at this point.

From Kingman we headed out on the Oatman Highway.  This is a beautiful stretch with huge rock formations, twisty turny roads up the side of the mountain with 10mph speeds and NO GUARDRAILS.  Their were views of mountains in the distance and honestly, I took a hundred pictures and none of them do it justice.  Unless you are there in the middle of it all you can't really appreciate it fully.

We got to Oatman at 5 when everthing was closing up but walked around a bit.  There are burros wandering the streets that are descendants of those that lived and worked in this old mining town . 

Shortly after leaving Oatman we crossed the Colorado River into California!  We stopped at the first town, Needles. It is 104 degrees at 6:15 PM.  After the bad motel last night decided to stay in a more modern with good WiFi so I could catch up my blog.  I could not stay connected because my room was too far away from the source.  REALLY PEOPLE!!!!  So now I am two days behind, typing this up on Monday morning at a breakfast cafe where although I have a good connection, my pictures won't upload.

this says CALIFORNIA STATE LINE

the Colorado River at state line

our first palm trees