Grand Canyon Trip
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 bernandino.
Beau has now been in 25 states and five provinces. We added seven states last month as we took I-40 from Oklahoma City to Flagstaff. I am going to describe some of the people, places and events that we discovered on this trip through the old Route 66.
People:
• Annabelle and Harley are the self-proclaimed Mediocre Music Makers and they live in Erick, OK, the self-proclaimed redneck capital of the world. Erick is the birthplace of King of the Road Roger Miller and Sheb Wooley drive-- the Purple People Eater, intersects. They sung Route 66 and gave us well rehearsed schtick. We gave them tips.
• Our docent at the Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque talked about the first nuclear test explosion, part of the Manhattan Project. His father, a scientifically literate electrician couldn't tell him much, but had some inside information and told our docent child to look out the window and to the south early in the morning. Our docent did this on Friday. Then, Saturday and Sunday. If he had done so on Monday, he would have seen Trinity and the first nuclear mushroom cloud. Later, he was an FBI agent in the wrong area and got his lifetime radiation dose at another test explosion.
Places:
• Oklahoma City has a nice Osteology museum. Their Homo floresiensis skull next to Lucy shocked me. I looked up and it was there. The fine print said that it was a re-creation. I had read a book called Your Inner Fish, but the similarity of all skeletons amazes me.
• There is a memorial honoring the victims and survivors of the bombing in 1995. There are chairs on a lawn honoring each victim. It was Sunday evening and Beau came with. The security guard did not let us know that Beau was not allowed until after we had toured the whole area. He seemed quite polite.
• Weatherford, Oklahoma has the Thomas Stafford Air and Space museum. Stafford was an astronaut, general and technical leader. The museum focuses on joint projects with the Soviets, such as the Apollo-Soyez mission in 1975.
• Amarillo, TX-- Cadillacs, VW Beetles and Giant Legs stick out of the ground in various cattle fields. Graffiti is encouraged.
• Clines Corner-- 100 miles east of Albuquerque. A gas station and gift shop with WiFi and a roadside repair guy who replaced the broken belt on my VW a few minutes after the battery light went on. (We took the VW because Monica's battery light comes on intermittently.)
• Between Winslow and Flagstaff, AZ-- the Barrington meteor crater from 50000 years ago is 2.4 miles in circumference. Except for the vegetation, it looks like the moon. I had never been. It is privately owned and some say it is too expensive to see. I thought it was well worth seeing.
• Grand Canyon, AZ: we watched the sun set, two days in a row. Beau did not enjoy posing too close to the edge
Events:
• Manny Ramirez and former Twin, Luke Hughes, played against the Albuquerque Isotopes. We saw a limo pull up outside the stadium. Then, we saw men walking toward it. Then, they announced a pinch-hitter for Manny. Manny is now released. So, the Twins can get him if they want him. Luke Hughes was sent down to the Oakland AA team.
• A rare annular eclipse of the sun, which we watched with eclipse glasses at the International Balloon museum in Albuquerque. It was a long line, but the museum and the park space behind it had plenty of room. There were telescopes as well, with large screen projections.
Conclusion:
The portions not on I-40 are now ghost towns, but Route 66 still has appeal. Monica, Beau and I enjoyed our trip. We met interesting people like Harley and Annabelle, saw unique places like the Barrington Crater and Grand Canyon. And, we even managed to catch some events, like Isotopes games and the eclipse. You can still get your kicks on Route 66.
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 bernandino.
Beau has now been in 25 states and five provinces. We added seven states last month as we took I-40 from Oklahoma City to Flagstaff. I am going to describe some of the people, places and events that we discovered on this trip through the old Route 66.
People:
• Annabelle and Harley are the self-proclaimed Mediocre Music Makers and they live in Erick, OK, the self-proclaimed redneck capital of the world. Erick is the birthplace of King of the Road Roger Miller and Sheb Wooley drive-- the Purple People Eater, intersects. They sung Route 66 and gave us well rehearsed schtick. We gave them tips.
• Our docent at the Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque talked about the first nuclear test explosion, part of the Manhattan Project. His father, a scientifically literate electrician couldn't tell him much, but had some inside information and told our docent child to look out the window and to the south early in the morning. Our docent did this on Friday. Then, Saturday and Sunday. If he had done so on Monday, he would have seen Trinity and the first nuclear mushroom cloud. Later, he was an FBI agent in the wrong area and got his lifetime radiation dose at another test explosion.
Places:
• Oklahoma City has a nice Osteology museum. Their Homo floresiensis skull next to Lucy shocked me. I looked up and it was there. The fine print said that it was a re-creation. I had read a book called Your Inner Fish, but the similarity of all skeletons amazes me.
• There is a memorial honoring the victims and survivors of the bombing in 1995. There are chairs on a lawn honoring each victim. It was Sunday evening and Beau came with. The security guard did not let us know that Beau was not allowed until after we had toured the whole area. He seemed quite polite.
• Weatherford, Oklahoma has the Thomas Stafford Air and Space museum. Stafford was an astronaut, general and technical leader. The museum focuses on joint projects with the Soviets, such as the Apollo-Soyez mission in 1975.
• Amarillo, TX-- Cadillacs, VW Beetles and Giant Legs stick out of the ground in various cattle fields. Graffiti is encouraged.
• Clines Corner-- 100 miles east of Albuquerque. A gas station and gift shop with WiFi and a roadside repair guy who replaced the broken belt on my VW a few minutes after the battery light went on. (We took the VW because Monica's battery light comes on intermittently.)
• Between Winslow and Flagstaff, AZ-- the Barrington meteor crater from 50000 years ago is 2.4 miles in circumference. Except for the vegetation, it looks like the moon. I had never been. It is privately owned and some say it is too expensive to see. I thought it was well worth seeing.
• Grand Canyon, AZ: we watched the sun set, two days in a row. Beau did not enjoy posing too close to the edge
Events:
• Manny Ramirez and former Twin, Luke Hughes, played against the Albuquerque Isotopes. We saw a limo pull up outside the stadium. Then, we saw men walking toward it. Then, they announced a pinch-hitter for Manny. Manny is now released. So, the Twins can get him if they want him. Luke Hughes was sent down to the Oakland AA team.
• A rare annular eclipse of the sun, which we watched with eclipse glasses at the International Balloon museum in Albuquerque. It was a long line, but the museum and the park space behind it had plenty of room. There were telescopes as well, with large screen projections.
Conclusion:
The portions not on I-40 are now ghost towns, but Route 66 still has appeal. Monica, Beau and I enjoyed our trip. We met interesting people like Harley and Annabelle, saw unique places like the Barrington Crater and Grand Canyon. And, we even managed to catch some events, like Isotopes games and the eclipse. You can still get your kicks on Route 66.
Labels: travel
posted by David Rasmussen at 3:30 PM
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