Route 66, Day Seven – Kingman, Arizona, to Santa Monica, California.

by Keith Morgan on Sunday, November 9th, 2014

Route 66: Day 7

Santa Monica, California – It took us seven long days to drive 4,063 km – 56 hours, 30 minutes at the wheel – but we arrived safely at the end of Route 66 in Santa Monica late Saturday afternoon.

This group of Canadian Auto Journalists (yours truly in the middle of three at the back) left Chicago last Sunday morning and boy was it chilly. Today, we are enjoying sun and soaring temperatures in Marina del Ray before heading home to locations across Canada.

There is much to reflect upon and share and later this month I will offer a complete report online and in print about this Nissan Altimate Rogue Trip along the historic but now decommissioned route across the U.S. Later, I will also review the vehicles we used for the road trip – 2015 Nissan Altimate and 2015 Nissan Rogue.

The last day began in Kingman, Arizona, where we had spent the night at the 1930s’ era El Travatore Motel. All the rooms are themed and yours truly chose the James Dean suite, where large photos of that “Rebel without a cause” from yesteryear adorned the walls. Worth a stay . . . for one night.

We took the Oatman Highway section of the old route and enjoyed the very curvy road into the mountain desert. The one-horse town of Oatman, actually more accurately a three-donkey town, is a remarkable example of the old west. Donkeys roam the main street – three on Saturday – while a lone cowboy plays a guitar.

It was the search for gold that formerly attracted people to this odd place but now it’s pure nostalgia and the many tales of hauntings and strange ghostly goings on at the Oatman Hotel. The hotel bar is covered in dollar bills bearing messages from visitors. There are supposedly around $200,000 pasted up from floor to ceiling. (We added $1 between 14 of us!)

The run from there to the finish line was sadly, mainly modern freeway. The demand for a faster track to California has mean the original lines of Route 66 have become buried barring the odd stretch here and there among the final stages.

Watch out for a full account later this month.

keith [dot] morgan [at] drivewaybc [dot] ca

Follow Keith on Twitter @ChangeGears

Learn more about his journey by searching #nissanroute66

Route 66, Day 6 – Williams, Arizona to Kingman, Arizona

by Keith Morgan on Friday, November 7th, 2014

Route 66, Day 6

Kingman, Arizona – The Grand Canyon is not part of Route 66 but we strayed off the straight and occasionally curvy, narrow road today to take in this magnificent natural wonder.

The Nissan Altimate Rogue Trip participants pointed the vehicles in the direction of the gorge and canyons that carry the mighty Colorado River and its tributaries. We had barely two hours to explore but made the most of the public viewpoints; some of the photographic results appear – a larger gallery will appear later this month.

Early afternoon, saw us roaming the streets of Williams, which is the last major Route 66 community to be bypassed by the I-40 freeway. Frankly, it’s more of a parade of gift shops than it is a glimpse into the past.

Seligman, an hour or so further west, is much more interesting and a parade of nostalgia. The Rusty Bolt captured our attentiona and some of our dollars. Angel Delgadillo is a driving force for Route 66 preservation and promotion in Arizona. His family-owned barber shop has grown into a must-visit centre for gift buying and hearing about yesteryear of the route that since the early 1920s has carried vehicles from Chicago to Santa Monica.

Tomorrow, we complete our journey to Santa Monica. My final road blog will appear Saturday.

An expanded feature will appear in Black Press papers later this month and a full report and picture gallery online at the same time.

keith [dot] morgan [at] drivewaybc [dot] ca

Follow Keith on Twitter @ChangeGears

Learn more about his journey by searching #nissanroute66

Route 66, Day 5 – Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Williams, Arizona.

by Keith Morgan on Thursday, November 6th, 2014

Route 66: Day 5

Williams, Arizona – It looks like some alien landscape from a far off planet, but the Petrified Forest is very much of this ancient earth.

A visit to this remarkable U.S. National Park was a highlight of Day 5 of the Nissan Altimate Rogue Trip, which is retracing the old Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica. It’s situated about 40 kilometres east of Holbrook in a semi-desert region and is named for the massive deposits of petrified wood that began forming around 225 million years ago. The rock formations are most unusual and very colourful.

A rusting car marks a connection to one of the earlier lines of the decommissioned highway through the park, and the overheard power lines sit on the exact route.

Entering Arizona, our 2015 Nissan Altima tugged us to the side of the highway into a large tee-pee-like structure where we shopped for examples of local art.

Speaking of tee-pees, the inn bearing that name was the choice for an overnight stay by a Latvian couple, Guntars and Anda Vaishia. They too are exploring the route and couldn’t resist booking in for a night in a wood framed tee-pee!

Tomorrow, we head for the Grand Canyon and on to Kingman, Arizona. Check back for a further installment of this blog tomorrow and look out for an expanded feature in Black Press papers later this month and a full report and picture gallery online at the same time.

keith [dot] morgan [at] drivewaybc [dot] ca

Follow Keith on Twitter @ChangeGears

Learn more about his journey by searching #nissanroute66

Route 66, Day 4 – Amarillo, Texas, to Albuquerque, New Mexico

by Keith Morgan on Wednesday, November 5th, 2014

Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Everything they make in Texas is oversized, why they even grow Cadillacs.

First stop on day four of the Altimate Rogue Trip on Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica was the Cadillac ranch. There, ten classic examples of the prestige marque are planted in the red dirt. Three members of a local art group created the art installation in 1974. The cars represent the evolution of the car’s tailfins from 1949 until 1963 and their final ‘disappearance’ as a notable feature.

Interestingly, they are half-buried nose-first at an angle that corresponds to that of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. Visitors spray paint graffiti on the cars and pose for photographs by their contribution to the art.

You can’t escape the animated Cars movie on this trip because this installation is mimicked in the popular kids’ move where they appear as a mountain range!

Today’s 500-plus-kilometre trek took us through the midpoint marker for the 1966 line of the route at Adrian. That alignment made the route around 3,670 kms but our group of Candian auto journalists will drive the 2015 Nissan Altimas and Rogues about 4,000 kms as we are mixing up the stretches from different historical alignments.

Drive partner Mark Richardson, from the Toronto Star, and I struck out on our own and took what was little more than a dirt track for almost 15k, which dated back to a route taken in the 1920s. It starts just after the New Mexico border and brought us out near to San Jon. The one-lane track opened up amazing vistas in this very Big Country.

The freeway buried most of the route in the last 100 or so kilometres to our bed for the night in Albuquerque. Thursday we motor to the Grand Canyon, Arizona, for a night under the stars. What has been dubbed Team UK will be spotting locations used by the TV series Breaking Bad.

Check back for a further installment of this blog tomorrow and look out for an expanded feature in Black Press papers later this month and a full report and picture gallery online at the same time.

Contact: keith [dot] morgan [at] drivewaybc [dot] ca

Follow Keith on Twitter @ChangeGears

Learn more about his journey by searching #nissanroute66