Day 31 - 10/15/14
We woke up in Kingman and headed to breakfast at Mr. D'z Route 66 Diner. I've been to at least a half dozen Route 66 diners now but I'm not quite tired of them yet. I mean look at this:
How do you get sick of this? I wish my local diner had this going on!
Mr. D'z was conveniently located across the street from the Powerhouse Route 66 Museum.
The Powerhouse Museum is pretty huge considering its past as a power station. There is a visitor center and a big gift shop on the first floor and the museum is on the second floor. Like a lot of other Route 66 museums, it tells the story of the how the route came to be and what it was like during it's heyday. But there are some fun things at this one, like the mannequin exhibits of the okie migration and the murals of 66.
We spent an hour here and then headed back out on the road. Just 20 miles west of Kingman on Route 66 is a stop called Cool Springs Station. This has got to be the coolest restored gas station that is on Route 66.
Built in the mid-20s, Cool Springs served the many travelers of 66 in this desolate part of northwest Arizona with gas and food. The rock foundation gives it's a look and feel that's mesmerizes. The station was burned down in the mid 60s and never opened again until 2004 when a new owner bought it and decided to rebuild it.
You can find the full history of Cool Springs Station here: http://www.coolspringsroute66.com/history.htm
We went inside for some ice cream bars and cold drinks. They sell the usual 66 post cards and such but they also had also jewelry from local Native American artists. We chatted with the manager, a big burly guy, sarcastic but friendly.
The scenery here is unreal. There is literally nothing around here except for Cool Springs.
Cool Springs Station could easily be the highlight of the day but the cool thing with Route 66 is there's always more to see around the corner. And our next stop in Oatman, AZ is even better then Cool Springs.
The road to Oatman is easily another highlight on Arizona 66, if not the entire route. Batman is only about 9 miles from Cool Springs but it's 9 miles and about 130 turns - not exaggerating. It's a slow narrow road that climbs up the Black Mountain about 2000 feet with a series of hairpin turns on the edge of the mountain with hardly any guard rails.
http://goo.gl/maps/AeXAn
Not my photo but you get the idea:
It was a crazy road but tons of fun. Highly recommend if you don't mind the potential danger of falling off the side of the mountain. After some sweating and some low speed maneuvering, we arrived in Oatman.
Oatman is a former gold mining town dating back to 1863. It continued to mine gold until the 1940s. At its peak, Oatman had about 3500 people living there. When the mining was shut down, Oatman was able to survive because Route 66 ran right through the town, a stop between Kingman and Needles, CA. But when Oatman was bypassed by the new Interstate in 1953, the town was all but abandoned by the 60s.
Amazingly, Oatman has been able to revitalize itself from the rediscovery of Route 66.
If you go to Oatman now, you'll see shops selling 66 souvenirs, jewelry, artwork and a few restaurants as well. You'll also see a western gun fight show a few times a day. But there's one main reason why people go to Oatman - Wild Burros!
The burros were used to haul equipment and supplies when the mines were operating. But when the mining ceased, the miners left the burros to fend for themselves. Well, the burros survived and even reproduced. So now, packs of wild burros roam the town freely looking to be fed by the tourists. You can buy bags of burro food, which are hay cubes, from any of the stores in town. These burros are not shy! They will follow people with food and several times I even saw them rip people's bags open with their teeth to search for food.
These burros are definitely wild animals. They fight and bite each other over food. They can stampede up and down the town. And during mating season, the males will fight each other right in the middle of town. They've also been known to kick and bite tourists as well.
They didn't seem to have any issues with us. Overall, they're pretty cute and fun to be around.
Besides the burros, Oatman is also known for the Oatman Hotel.
The Oatman Hotel was once a favorite stop for Clark Gable. So much so that he had his honeymoon here with Carole Lombard. The hotel is also known to be haunted. People have heard voices from the room where Gable and Lombard stayed. It is also haunted by "Oatie," a ghost of a Irish miner found dead in the alley behind the hotel. People have seen and heard him in the hotel over the years. The hotel doesn't rent rooms anymore. The entire upstairs is currently roped off but they plan to make it a museum. The bar is active as well as the ice cream stand in the lobby.
After a couple hours in Oatman, we had to head out to Las Vegas. My girlfriend was flying back to Boston in the morning from Vegas. As we were getting situated back on the bike, Nikki was putting her sweatshirt away in one of my Givi side case. Then I heard her say, "Oh Shit."
She had broke the key off in left side case. That was the case that held our water, snacks, rain gear, and other important daily use stuff. Shit, there was nothing we could do. My only thought was to tried not to explode and then call a locksmith when we arrive in Vegas.
Vegas was over two hours aways from Oatman. It was mostly 95 north which was pretty straight and fast. Not a tough of cars but still had a handful of semi-trucks. About 30 minutes in, I found a couple of Harleys ahead of me and I rode behind them for a good 45 minutes, forming an impromptu group. Once we got into the Vegas limits, it was a nerve whacking experience navigating the Vegas spaghetti highway system while surround by tons of speeding cars.
Thank God for my Google maps on my iPhone and my Sena bluetooth headset. They both navigated us to our hotel on the strip flawlessly. Once we got to the hotel, I was happy to get off the bike and just walk around. We had dinner at an Irish pub at New York, New York. After dinner, I called a mobile locksmith and he said he could extract the broken key for $75. I thought that was pretty cheap considering the situation I was in. I agreed.
The locksmith arrived at our hotel room about 40 minutes later. He comes in his pickup truck and starts to extract the key. I stood outside with him in the parking lock as he worked. I saw him use a series of little skinny picks and something that looks like a long skinny drill bit. He seemed like a real pro but I got a bit nervous as his first ten attempts at the extraction didn't work. I was really nervous about 30 minutes later and he was still having trouble. By this point, he was using three different extraction tools in the lock at the same time. Something was holding onto the broken end.
$75, 45 minutes, three extraction tools, a vice grip and a set of needle nose pliers later, the locksmith finally got the broken key out. Thankfully, I had a spare key with me. We opened the case with the spare key and found my girlfriend's hoodie all jammed up in the lock mechanism. I was annoyed with the situation but glad he got the case open and it was useable again.
I climbed into bed to get some sleep since we had to get up at 5:30 for her flight. Oh well, another unforgettable day and night on this amazing adventure.
