Category Archives: Nat King Cole

Amarillo, Barstow, Chicago, Flagstaff, Gallup, Historic, Joplin, Missouri, Kingman, Los Angeles, Nat King Cole, New Mexico, Oklahoma City, Old Route 66, Route 66, San Bernadino, San Bernadino, Santa Monica Pier, St. Louis, United States, Zzyzx

We got our kicks on Route 66

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“If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway that is best.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.
It winds from Chicago to LA,
More than two thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.
Now you go through Saint Looey
Joplin, Missouri,
And Oklahoma City is mighty pretty.
You see Amarillo,
Gallup, New Mexico,
Flagstaff, Arizona.
Don’t forget Winona,
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino.”

And, this morning, we motored through San Bernardino to complete our last port of call from the song…except that wasn’t where the road ended!  We could have taken a photo of the sign but, no, it was a proper visit to the City Hall, the County Court and even the Sheriff’s Department Rehabilitation Center!!

Santa Monica Pier is the officially designated end of Route 66, so 5,080 miles after leaving Chicago we proudly posed underneath the sign which declared we had reached the end. We did it!!  We have been everywhere and then some. We have walked miles, as well, around all the places of interest we found along the way and have loved the diverse experiences throughout our journey.

Even today, we were having random conversations with a group of Hillary Clinton supporters and a couple of American ladies who had done part of the 66 but via the direct route, i.e. on the freeway. I met a guy, whilst queuing for iced coffee, who was convinced I was Australian.  He had made a long trip to the coast from south of Las Vegas!!  Whacky folk some of these Americans  spotted on the road today:

i feel so proud and pleased that we have completed this huge adventure but at the same time would love to go on and do more. Not this time. Thanks to both our families for encouraging our dream and thanks, particularly, to Carolyn for making sure we did everything we set out to do and never giving up… even if finding some of the places proved geographically challenging! I’ve said it before but it has been a truly awesome experience.

Carolyn’s Curios

So, for the last time (this trip!), I get to add some outtakes from our travelogue. Would it be about tonight when two staff at the hotel separately responded to my request, “Excuse me but could you tell me where the restaurant is, please?” by providing directions to… the Rest Rooms?!

Or, the discussion with the Hillary Clinton team on Santa Monica Pier where we agreed both on the distaste for Trump and the Brexit decision? Politics often divides but here it brought us together.

Maybe, the girl drummer of a family rock band playing “Twist and Shout” amongst others on the Pier. I mentioned to her that I had been playing drums to that music before her parents had been born! But, they were a good young band – a combination of White Stripes and Hanson, if you can imagine that.

Perhaps, that there were three separate and competing evangelical preaching groups on the Saturday afternoon in the sunshine at the seaside.

This journey has reached its natural geographical conclusion and, like Kath, I must say, again, my thanks to the family, especially Ann, for encouraging me to take up this opportunity and, of course, Kath, herself, for sharing the dream. We doubled the planned mileage; we added on every single day to the activities we had originally envisaged. We laughed consistently, marvelled frequently and enjoyed immensely.

A final couple of curios… why did they name this town as they did?!

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And, as I was driving on the five lane traffic jammed roads in Los Angeles after leaving the deserted, scrub surrounded, traffic-free, seemingly endlessly straight Route 66, it occurred to me that:

“The obese body of L.A. was sprawling across the canapé of the California landscape

with its concrete arteries clogged with car shaped cholesterol.”

And, we had fallen in love with the Original Historic Route 66. Its reputation is justified, its magic is real and its attraction, albeit being slowly submerged, is worth visiting and preserving. Catch it while you can. We did.

Cars, Kansas, Nat King Cole, Politics, Religion, Route 66, Springfield, Missouri, Tulsa, United States

“Just take my way, that’s the highway that is best”

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Any lingering rain clouds melted away as we left Springfield, Missouri this morning. We were still chuckling about the chat we had enjoyed with the lady who had served us freshly made waffles for breakfast. She was a veritable ‘Mrs Overall’, although we concluded she may have been younger than either of us. We did learn that instead of our cinema visit last night, we could have gone to a ‘Bare Back Bull Riding Rodeo’, where the winner lasted just 8 seconds!!  Gutted, not!  Poor bulls.

Our first stop was Joplin, Missouri. We found the town centre but struggled to find the promised Route 66 signs, murals, etc.  We did find a cup of coffee but Carolyn had views on that!  However, we now have photographs to prove we went to Joplin (following the song) and were determined to subsequently go “off piste” and discover the historic highways of the original route. What treasure we found.

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Ignoring the protestations of the sat nav, we followed the historic route to Galena. That took us on Kansas State roads where their signage pays constant homage to the historic route. Such a pity that the route only occupies some 30 miles or so of the state before disappearing off to Oklahoma. We both remembered the Cars movie and there, in Galena, we found ‘Tow Mater’ and friends at an historic filling station (now a memorabilia shop and a cafe).

The real Route 66ers were there on their motorbikes but we were loving the experience too.  The small town is 66 shades of fun, but sadly deserted and we just hope they can keep it all going.

We enjoyed more miles on the original route before resorting to the Tulsa Turnpike in order to build in some of the 250 miles or so.

Before arriving in Tulsa, we did take a diversion to Totem Pole Park at Foyil. More curiosities for the route and the centrepiece of this whimsical collection of concrete sculptures is a 90 ft behemoth that allegedly took 11 years, six tons of steel and 28 tons of cement to finish.  What can I say?  It was big!

So, here we are in Tulsa, a lovely city, but Oklahoma (on our route tomorrow) also looks mighty pretty….!

Carolyn’s Curios

Let’s start when we were 24 hours from Tulsa… One of us (not me!) decided a Jason Statham action film was the best way to spend the evening in Springfield. The film was violent, had a banal script but… the seats were extraordinary!

As Kath mentioned, Joplin deserved a visit and an apology as Mick Jagger missed it out of the Rolling Stones’ version of Route 66  Mick, it is not “down to Missouri”, it’s “Joplin, Missouri”. For the definitive version, listen to Nat King Cole, please

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Having been called ‘Sweetie’ and being told I had ‘super cute’ nails today, I had to get more serious. Are the extremes of weather a contributary factor to the plethora of different church denominations here? If nature is so strong, they need a stronger deity? Is the run down feel to significant areas of mid-America, the reason for Trump’s support. Having done religion and politics, I’ll leave it there, I think.

Less seriously was Galena where Kath finished in the jail!

I’ll post a few photos which I’ve liked from our most Route 66 type day, yet! We finished next door with a steak and, it had to be, a pint of Route 66 Amber.