As I mentioned in the previous post, Lake Havasu City was hot as hell. So the drive to our next stop Seligman Route 66 KOA in Seligman, Arizona was the road from hell! Or as our friend Penny says, “just another day on the boat.” By that she means, living full time on a boat can be a challenge. Things will go wrong, and if you are not in port, you will have to figure out a solution to your problem.
Our problem began or should I say continued with I-40. I thought it was bumpy getting to Lake Havasu, but the drive from there to here was so rough it turned off the generator, lessened the air in one of the front tires on the coach, which then overheated, and set off the tire pressure monitor. Yikes! So after all of that, I seem to have developed a knack for making a wrong turn. As we came off I-40 onto Route 66, either the GPS was wrong, or I made the right instead of the correct left. (really? Let’s blame the GPS!) If I had turned correctly, the campground was only a few miles down the road. But turning the wrong way added fifty miles to the drive. The first available place to turn around a forty foot motor home towing a car, was twenty five miles away. And that was after waiting for paint to dry. Literally. They were repainting the lines on Route 66, so they set up trucks to block traffic in both directions, and we all just sat in the Arizona sun and waited for the paint to dry.
We knew the Seligman KOA was not going to be anything special, and boy were we right. It is basically a dusty field with some water and electrical connections scattered about. It was in great need of repairs and also not well maintained. It is literally a field between Route 66 and the most active train tracks in Arizona. Twenty to thirty freight trains pass by all day and all night. We did set a new record for the longest train though, 217 cars, beating the old record of 176 set in Idaho. So why did we stay here? There were no sites available in Kingman, Ashfork, or Williams, as we headed East to Flagstaff, so this was it. Any port in the storm to get away from the heat. Just another day on the boat! Our ratings: Kathryn 3, Paul 3, out of 10.
Given my wanderlust personality, my curiosity about Route 66 dates way back to even before I graduated from high school, (1966) or I learned how to drive. I think I watched every episode of the TV show Route 66 which was on from 1960 – 1964. Not that the writing was so great, but the sense of adventure and the attitude of go discover what is out there attracted me. And of course, who hasn’t heard of John Steinbeck’s 1939 Novel The Grapes of Wrath, or the Nat King Cole song, “Get Your Kicks on Route 66.” Following the Depression and World War II, The Mother Road came to embody the optimism and excitement of the American automobile traveling experience and featured plenty of neon lights, space age architecture, kitschy roadside attractions, cafes, motels, billboards, sightseeing and souvenirs. So my wrong turn was not an auspicious start to my long awaited adventure!
As part of GOAT Tour 2021, we will be staying in several campgrounds along Route 66: Flagstaff Arizona, Gallup and Albuquerque in New Mexico, and Tucumcari and Sayre in Oklahoma. Hopefully we will be able to make a brief pull off in Winslow to “Stand On The Corner” if we can find parking. Stay tuned! I am not expecting to discover much along the way other than the iconic scenes I’ve seen for years. It’s a fine line between old, falling down and rusting away, to historic. You decide! Seligman was all of that. We did discover the historic 1860 Territorial Jail, The Roadkill Cafe, Delgadillo’s Snowcap Restaurant and Ice Cream Shop and of course Burma Shave Signs!
On to Flagstaff, more elevation and less heat!
RVTourUSA 