Getting My Kicks on Route 66

I have a few entries to catch up on, but I think I'm just going to go ahead and write about today. Today was the day to leave my brother's house, and I have to say... it was hard to get myself moving. It was absolutely time to go, and I wouldn't even dream of prolonging it (my brother has had visitors for the past 3 weeks and I can tell he needed to get back to normal). Though I wasn't looking forward to traveling alone again just yet, I was ready to move on. I'm going to miss Dave though. I hope I can head back there sometime. I need to get on those job applications.

And here we go...


So, here I am on Route 66. After leaving Dave's house, I bought a Route 66 book at Barnes and Noble at the Grove which I plan on reading over tonight before heading out tomorrow. Before heading to the historic route, I stopped back by Dave's house at the Arpo station to buy the cheapest gas in town ($3.06). Why is it so much cheaper than other gas stations? I've seen them along route 66 also, and they're consistently at least 6 cents per gallon cheaper.

One fun stop that I made was at a seemingly normal looking Trader Joes (I stopped to see if they had salted carmels- unfortunately no, but I did buy freeze-dried Mangos, and Ginger Gummies), and I discovered that it was the original store! Fun. Here's the sign:



This is just one of the many fun, retro-looking hotel signs along Route 66. There were a bunch.

The only problem with Route 66 is the sheer number of stop lights between LA and San Bernadino. It was a fun drive... fun to see some of the old motels, some of the old burger joints, etc, but I should have counted the number of lights just for fun. It took me quite awhile to make the drive and it was almost dark by the time I reached the Wigwam Motel.



That's right... the Wigwam Motel. Apparently, for those of us too young to actually remember these, Motels styled as individual "Wigwams" used to be popular on Route 66. Well, there are supposedly only two left along the road, and this is one of them. It's nice. According to the internet, this one was taken over, remodeled, and maintained by a family. Indeed, the carpet and furnishings do look relatively up-to-date and new. It's nice and clean. The bathroom isn't quite so up-to-date, but it is definitely clean. I like the retro touch of the vintage cars in the back.






This is my room. :-)

On a side note, I just finished watching the Butler/Duke final tourney game... I'm a little sad that Butler lost... They did have a shot to win, but just couldn't pull it off in the end. Oh well... just another title for Duke I guess.

I'm just going to spend the rest of the evening reading up on Route 66. I'll try and catch up on those two other posts about LA and coastal Route 1 if I have a chance. Cheers!