Getting our kicks (we hope) on Route 66

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toomanyhatz
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Getting our kicks (we hope) on Route 66

Postby toomanyhatz » 06 Mar 2018, 06:15

So Pillowz and I are planning a Route 66 trip around Memorial Day weekend (as there's no JUotAs this year). The basic sketch is:

Starting in San Bernardino, seeing sights along the way to stay in the California desert somewhere
To the Grand Canyon for 2 nights
To Albuquerque or thereabouts
To Amarillo/Texas panhandle
To Oklahoma City (and a Dodgers AAA game)
Then back (possibly on the interstates for a quicker return)

Suggestions? Any BCBers live (or going to be) 'round those parts?
Footy wrote:
The Who / Jimi Hendrix Experience Saville Theatre, London Jan '67
. Got Jimi's autograph after the show and went on to see him several times that year


1959 1963 1965 1966 1974 1977 1978 1981 1988 2017* 2018 2020!! 2023?

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Quaco
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Re: Getting our kicks (we hope) on Route 66

Postby Quaco » 28 Mar 2018, 00:53

Just that the Grand Canyon will be awesome!!!!!!!
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sloopjohnc
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Re: Getting our kicks (we hope) on Route 66

Postby sloopjohnc » 28 Mar 2018, 22:30

My ex grew up in New Mexico, Los Alamos to be exact, and her parents settled in Albuquerque. I've been there a lot. Even though Albuquerque isn't the Dodgers AAA minor league affiliate anymore and is a Rockies affiliate, it's a good place to catch a minor league game. The stadium is great and it's a fun minor league atmosphere. And the caps are cool.

Image

Just up the road is Santa Fe, which you guys would like, and if you want to go further up the road, there's Taos, where they filmed some of Easy Rider. It's not much and I would hit Santa Fe if time was short. Albuquerque has good Mexican food, but it's not very nice - there's a reason they chose it as a locale for a series about a meth dealer.
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Re: Getting our kicks (we hope) on Route 66

Postby Brickyard Jack » 09 Apr 2018, 17:37

toomanyhatz wrote:So Pillowz and I are planning a Route 66 trip around Memorial Day weekend (as there's no JUotAs this year). The basic sketch is:

Starting in San Bernardino, seeing sights along the way to stay in the California desert somewhere
To the Grand Canyon for 2 nights
To Albuquerque or thereabouts
To Amarillo/Texas panhandle
To Oklahoma City (and a Dodgers AAA game)
Then back (possibly on the interstates for a quicker return)

Suggestions? Any BCBers live (or going to be) 'round those parts?


Near okc there is - or was recently - a sort of truck stop which sold hundreds of different kinds of soda pop. I am pretty certain it is on the old route 66. Also the Cowboy hall of fame in okc is worth half an hour, particularly if you like a variety of barbed wire.

Edit - the place is imaginatively called "pops" and is on 66 at Arcadia. 700 kinds of soda.

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toomanyhatz
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Re: Getting our kicks (we hope) on Route 66

Postby toomanyhatz » 28 Apr 2018, 18:14

Anyone else? The agenda is pretty much set for where we're staying, and we have two games to go to - one in San Bernardino and one in Oklahoma City - but we're still open to suggestions about what to see.

We are (of course!) staying here:

http://wigwammotel.com/
Footy wrote:
The Who / Jimi Hendrix Experience Saville Theatre, London Jan '67
. Got Jimi's autograph after the show and went on to see him several times that year


1959 1963 1965 1966 1974 1977 1978 1981 1988 2017* 2018 2020!! 2023?

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BARON CORNY DOG
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Re: Getting our kicks (we hope) on Route 66

Postby BARON CORNY DOG » 29 Apr 2018, 18:06

I don’t have anything helpful to say (I’ve driven west out of central TX exactly twice). But it may be worth checking out the Roadfood site for spots to eat.
take5_d_shorterer wrote:If John Bonham simply didn't listen to enough Tommy Johnson or Blind Willie Mctell, that's his doing.

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toomanyhatz
Power-mad king of the WCC
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Re: Getting our kicks (we hope) on Route 66

Postby toomanyhatz » 04 Jun 2018, 04:41

Wow, so much to say - a pretty amazing trip, though much of it (by necessity) strayed from the route. More to come.
Footy wrote:
The Who / Jimi Hendrix Experience Saville Theatre, London Jan '67
. Got Jimi's autograph after the show and went on to see him several times that year


1959 1963 1965 1966 1974 1977 1978 1981 1988 2017* 2018 2020!! 2023?

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BARON CORNY DOG
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Re: Getting our kicks (we hope) on Route 66

Postby BARON CORNY DOG » 13 Jun 2018, 00:41

toomanyhatz wrote:Wow, so much to say - a pretty amazing trip, though much of it (by necessity) strayed from the route. More to come.


I’m legitimately interested in the report!
take5_d_shorterer wrote:If John Bonham simply didn't listen to enough Tommy Johnson or Blind Willie Mctell, that's his doing.

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toomanyhatz
Power-mad king of the WCC
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Re: Getting our kicks (we hope) on Route 66

Postby toomanyhatz » 15 Jun 2018, 07:28

Well, just typed a long, well thought-out report, and neglected to save it, forgetting I wasn't currently logged in. And *poof!* Damn. I will reconstruct soon. Anyway, on our first night we saw a game here:

Image

And stayed here:

http://wigwammotel.com/

More to come soon.
Footy wrote:
The Who / Jimi Hendrix Experience Saville Theatre, London Jan '67
. Got Jimi's autograph after the show and went on to see him several times that year


1959 1963 1965 1966 1974 1977 1978 1981 1988 2017* 2018 2020!! 2023?

User avatar
toomanyhatz
Power-mad king of the WCC
Posts: 29992
Joined: 07 Apr 2005, 00:01
Location: Just east of where Charlie Parker went to do some relaxin'

Re: Getting our kicks (we hope) on Route 66

Postby toomanyhatz » 18 Jun 2018, 08:19

Saturday May 26th - Camarillo to San Bernardino

Usually before a Monday holiday my work gives me a half-day off, so I left work around 1 on Friday assuming I could get all my packing done so we could leave early in the morning. Our different styles came into play here - Pillowz will make a list and check it twice (at least), hatz will throw everything he sees that he thinks he might need on a trip into a bag and assumes anything else can be bought on the road. The good news is I didn't really miss anything, but the bad news is throwing everything together last minute is not the most efficient way to get an early start. So, we intended to leave early in the morning, but it didn't really work out that way. We did manage to get out before noon, which, considering we had the least amount of miles to cover of any day on our trip, was good enough. We gave Roscoe big hugs from each of us (we had a neighbor looking in on him) and were on our way.

Because much of Route 66 in LA is in places we'd been a million times, we didn't start at the beginning, but got off the 210 in Pasadena and started following it through the northeast end of the city. Even still within the LA City limits, we started to see roadside diners with ancient neon signs and motels that look to be stuck in time.

First stop was Claremont, CA, cute little college town not literally on 66 except at the outskirts, but we were hungry and we knew that was our best lunch option for a while. We had a nice bagel sandwich at a local cafe, and of course stopped at the last remaining Rhino Records store in Southern California (I thought it might be the last one in the world, but apparently there's one in upstate New York that's still open as well.) We also stopped at our favorite little folk music store, still owned by Ben Harper's mom, where we played around with xylophones and acoustic basses (and a percussion instrument shaped like a frog) for a bit.

Now as everybody who knows me knows, any trip I go on must have a baseball element in it somewhere, so in this case, the Dodgers' single-A team was playing the San Bernardino 66ers, so we took in a game (see above) that started at 6 p.m. As anyone who's ever been to one also knows, minor league games are great. The best seat in the house doesn't cost much more than a movie, you're really up close to the action no matter where you're sitting, and the atmosphere surrounding it is usually a lot more casual - the players on the field can actually hear individual fans cheering rather than a collective din.

The home team won, but Dodger prospect Gavin Lux (our first round draft pick a year ago) looked good. Catching prospect Connor Wong did not look as good, going 0 for 4 with 3 strikeouts, and making two costly errors in the same inning to contribute to the loss.

As also mentioned above, we stayed here, which used to be a landmark in several locations, mostly on route 66. Now only two remain, this one and the one in Holbrook, AZ (more about which later). This one is well-cared for, and the staff was friendly and welcoming (informing us that many visitors were staying there after seeing Lynyrd Skynyrd in concert 8-10 miles away in Glen Helen (where I saw Tom Petty many years ago). The rooms were comfortable, but disappointing in that they're really small on the inside (they have low ceilings - disappointingly the room does not continue to the top of the teepee), and the southwestern theme is not really maintained inside the rooms. But we had a relaxing sleep in readiness for our next day, which was going to be a full one.
Footy wrote:
The Who / Jimi Hendrix Experience Saville Theatre, London Jan '67
. Got Jimi's autograph after the show and went on to see him several times that year


1959 1963 1965 1966 1974 1977 1978 1981 1988 2017* 2018 2020!! 2023?


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