TR-VegasVacation ala ';The Griswolds'; (PART 1)

PART 1: (Long)

DISCLAIMER:

This family trip and report focuses a LOT more on the journey to Fabulous Las Vegas than Sin City itself, so if you are more of a ';Vegas Tourist'; than a ';Traveller'; to Vegas you might want to wait until ';Part 2'; and skip to ';Day 6';. If you are a road warrior such as myself, you might find some interesting moments along the road trip. I sure did. Total miles driven = 1,345.

DAY 1: Sharks and Eels in the Desert and Green Chile.

Flew from Texas to one of my fave towns, Albuquerque, NM. Rented SUV and proceeded to ABQ Aquarium and saw some sharks and a bunch of MEAN lookin moray eels. This exhibit was not a large as Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay, but also cost much less. Dinner was Green Chile Enchiladas and Chile Rellenos at Los Cuates, good grub.

DAY 2: Route 66, Volcano, Wolves, and Ribs.

A lot of this trip was planned around driving old sections of Route 66 from ABQ to Oatman,AZ. so we headed out of ABQ south toward Los Lunas on The Mother Road. A detour at Grants took us to a Wolf Sanctuary where they keep rescued wolves. Very interesting grizzled old guy gave a tour explaining all about the animals and the myths that surround them. Highlight of my day. Son wanted to walk up to see Bandera Volcano, so we did. 30 minutes later we were lookin at a not very impressive hole in the ground. ';Tourist Trap #1';. This SHOULD have been the lowlight of the day, but wasn%26#39;t. We stopped at a convenience store in Gallup, NM to get ice and water and some dumbass store worker decided it would be a great idea to leave a case of soft drinks tucked under the shelves, right where I would later stumble upon it and hit the not so soft concrete floor elbow and ribs first. First I was pissed at myself then the soreness in my ribs took over. Then I got over it and moved on. Oh yeah, ONLY another 200 miles to drive that day to Flagstaff. Stop at Indian

Trading Post in Arizona and buy 6 yr old son a REAL Indian arrow made by a REAL Indian. Actually pretty nice souvenir.

DAY 3: Meteor Crater, Painted Desert/Petrified Forest and Jack Rabbit Trading Post.

This was ';nature'; day for the most part. Started with MC which is supposedly the largest meteor crater that is accessible to the public. Yeah its big and impressive, but the most fun was one of the exhibits where you could create your own meteor size, speed, and everything and see what it would do to the earth. Of course mysom picked the biggest and fastest meteor and comet and obliterated the Earth. Good for him. Proceeded to Painted Desert (not that interesting really) and the adjacent Petrified Forest, which was pretty cool. Most of the REALLY big hunks of petrified wood are in the park, and the small ones are for sale about ten feet outside the park. Bought a couple and moved on. Ended the day at one of the coolest Route 66 souvenir places ';The Jackrabbit Trading Post';. Google that name and see what its all about. My son could not wait to get there and get his picture took on the ';Big Hop Hop'; as he called it a couple years ago. Explored the ruins of ';Two Guns';, a bunch of rock structures where tourist were lured in the 50%26#39;s and 60%26#39;s to see caged Mountain Lions and Snakes. Actually pretty cool stuff.

DAY 4: Easy Rider, Sno-Cap and WALKING Route 66?

Started the day on a old section of Route 66 at an old closed up gas station where some scenes of ';Easy Rider';were filmed back in 1969. A couple old posters were still there along with photos of Fonda, Hopper and Nicholson.

Drove a lot more of Route 66 into THE best Route 66 town I know of, Seligman. This is where ';Historic 66'; got started about 15 years ago. Angel Delgadillo got mad because I-40 skirted his town and businesses were forced to close so he got the old route renamed Historic 66 and now folks come from all over the World to meet him. He%26#39;s a great guy and the Sno-Cap is a great place for burgers, fries, and plenty of JOKES. Angel%26#39;s bro Juan ran the place but passed away a couple years ago, now his son has it. Got back on the road headed toward a neat stop at Hackberry General Store, which is in the middle of nowhere.

As we were pulling into the parking lot, we passed a guy walking and pulling some sort of wagon. this seemed VERY strange as it was 100+ degrees. The guy was beat and sat down outside and we started talking. Seems he is WALKING the entire length of Route 66! That would be from chicago to Los Angeles and right around 2,448 miles. Why? He is the spokesman for the National Pain Foundation and is making the walk to show folks that having chronic pain should not limit your life. He was stopping in clinics along the way talking to the folks .We talked for about 30 minutes and he seemed like a very sincere guy on a mission. We wished each other well and we were on our way at 70 mph and he was on his way at 2 mph. If you are interested in his walk at all, google ';Where%26#39;s Dennis Kinch';.

Part 2 to follow...

TR-VegasVacation ala ';The Griswolds'; (PART 1)

Great trip report. I have always wanted to drive Route 66 have only got as far as Hackberry going East. Can%26#39;t wait for the Oatman donkay review.

TR-VegasVacation ala ';The Griswolds'; (PART 1)

Hey, awesome TR. I%26#39;m driving from Boston to New Mex in July and will be spending some time on 66. That wolf sanctuary sounds great!

Great report, Steve. There is indeed a lot to be seen in this country of ours besides the large cities and usual tourist attractions!

Route 66 went right on the edge of the town where I went to college, loads of history on 66. ;)

Very informative report Steve. Looking forward to the rest ;)

Bump.

For those folks that just saw PART 2 and had somehow missed PART 1 of this spine-tingling adventure...

Ha Steve, you brought back my own memories of a trip many years ago along the same lines,Meteor Crater, Painted Desert, Petrified Forest etc. etc. Thanks for bringing back those moments to mind...:)

Your welcome.

Now feel free and return the ';rock logs'; you heisted from the Petrified Forest...

SS, you brought back some pleasant and funny memories. I took a vacation with my parents and my nephew the year before my mom died. I was about 20; my nephew, 13. All of us country bumpkins out to see the world. Among other things, we went to the petrified forest. We had a blowout before we actually got into the park. While my dad changed the tire, my mom, nephew and I were walking around and picked up small bits of the petrified wood off the side of the road. Later in the park, we noticed all the signs warning not to take any of the petrified wood out of the park. As we were leaving, we saw the guards searching some of the cars. We panicked when we remembered the bits we had picked up. You would have thought we were trying to steal the gold out of Ft. Knox. We started looking for places to hide our treasures. Even though we had gotten them legally, we were afraid they would take them away from us or that we would get in some trouble. None of us would have made good criminals...we all carry guilt too heavily. I don%26#39;t believe they actually searched our car (20 is too far past for me to remember all the details) and we came home with our great treasures. My nephew and I are the only ones around to remember that trip and we laugh about that whenever we reminisce.

I%26#39;m sure you felt the same way about the petrified wood as I did about getting caught by HomeLand Security with a REAL arrow made by a REAL Indian that I bought from the REAL Indian Trading Post.

...

nars