Benny's Bit:
Our destination today is Winslow. There is not much left of the Old Road in the eastern part of Arizona and we decide not to drive any of the dirt sections of the old road. So, we are back on the interstate shortly after leaving Gallup. We cannot understand what happened to the old pavement. How did the Mother Road along this stretch manage to become dirt again after all these years? Did Arizona or the Feds bankroll a project to pull up and haul away all of the old concrete roadway?
To distract ourselves from this mystery, we decide to take the loop off I-40 through the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park. It is fabulous. Having never seen it before, we are stupefied by its color and grandeur. The loop ends at a highway leading into Holbrook.
Holbrook still looks like a Route 66 town. Lots of old establishments survive. We have lunch at one of them: Joe & Aggie’s Café. Then I take a photo or two of Ann standing with the dinosaurs at the Rock Shop. As we leave town on the Mother Road, we stop to admire the renovated Wigwam Motel. It is magnificent. The dozen or so old cars parked in front of the tee pees add greatly to the nostalgia.
Next stop is west of Joseph City at the Jackrabbit Trading Post, now just a Stop ‘n Go market with a nice souvenir shop. The owner, Antonio Jaquez, bought the place in 1989 and still has the big “Here It Is” sign out front. The infamous string of warning signs that stretched for miles on either side of the Jackrabbit, counting down the distance to the trading post and stoking the curiosity of every youthful traveler, are survived by just a few on either side of the Jackrabbit exit on I-40. Ann takes a photo of me astride the big fiberglass jackrabbit in front of the store.
To distract ourselves from this mystery, we decide to take the loop off I-40 through the Painted Desert/Petrified Forest National Park. It is fabulous. Having never seen it before, we are stupefied by its color and grandeur. The loop ends at a highway leading into Holbrook.
Holbrook still looks like a Route 66 town. Lots of old establishments survive. We have lunch at one of them: Joe & Aggie’s Café. Then I take a photo or two of Ann standing with the dinosaurs at the Rock Shop. As we leave town on the Mother Road, we stop to admire the renovated Wigwam Motel. It is magnificent. The dozen or so old cars parked in front of the tee pees add greatly to the nostalgia.
Next stop is west of Joseph City at the Jackrabbit Trading Post, now just a Stop ‘n Go market with a nice souvenir shop. The owner, Antonio Jaquez, bought the place in 1989 and still has the big “Here It Is” sign out front. The infamous string of warning signs that stretched for miles on either side of the Jackrabbit, counting down the distance to the trading post and stoking the curiosity of every youthful traveler, are survived by just a few on either side of the Jackrabbit exit on I-40. Ann takes a photo of me astride the big fiberglass jackrabbit in front of the store.
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