Route 66 Day 33 Nov 10, 2019

Sunday morning, I hang out at the hotel until noon, because that's when check out is.  I try and get completely caught up on my computer work, but it doesn't happen.  Uploading photos takes forever.  But I get more done than if I'd left at 10am.

I drive east on Route 66 until I see nothing of interest, then turn around and head west.  I didn't want to miss anything interesting and because I'd done that detour to get the El Morro NM and Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, it'd skipped the part of Route 66 from the Continental Divide to Gallop,  But I drive to the edge of Gallop, took more photos of old motels and headed towards Arizona.

Route 66 gets really weird in Arizona.  It will merge with I-40 for a few miles, then be a stand alone next to it.  Sometimes I'm not sure if I'm on it or not.  Luckily my GPS has been sometimes helpful with this as it will state Route 66 next to I-40 when they are merged.

I cross over into Arizona and I have a couple of list items to take care off.  There are a bunch of tacky tourist shops right past the boarder.  I take a couple of photos, because I love me some tacky tourist stuff, but there is a big Trump sign out front, so obviously I can't spend any money here.  Parts are closed anyway, either to off season or Sunday.

I take some photos of old abandoned bridges that have been left to rot and then off to the Painted Desert Trading Post.  If I had actually read the description rather than punching it into my GPS, I probably would have skipped it.  My app states its closed to the public during its refurbishment and that access is only available per invitation, or something like that.  But I drive the back road and cow field to access it anyway and end up at a gated fence with a gentlemen just getting read to close it.  The gentleman's name is Professor William Hozie and he was happy to let me in and give me a tour.  So I went through the gate and he closed it up behind me.  The trading post was a couple of miles down the road and we stopped about halfway down so he could show me the old road that connected the old Route 66 to the new I-40 when part of Route 66 in this area was still in use.

Once we got to the trading post, he showed me around inside and told me about the work they were doing on it.  The trading post was, at one point, completely collapsed and buried under dirt and time.  It was in an open cattle field, so the cows had also trampled it and left many a present in the area.  The Route 66 Co-op had purchased the property and fenced it off to keep the cows away, the excavated the old pieces and put it back together like a jig saw.  Some new parts were needed and the inside is mostly all new lumber to help support the old walls on the outside.  Post of the originally flooring still exists, but a couple of places they had to poor new.  It was a fantastic tour.  Afterwards, Prof Bill pointed out a bridge at the bottom of the hill that was an original part of Route 66 and there are a bunch of old crashed up cars down in the wash under the bridge.  He also gave me direction on a spot a couple miles away that would get me some good photos.  I followed all his direction and got great photos of both the bridge and the landscape.  I was passing the gate at the same time he was exiting the gated area and he had me follow him down the road about another mile where he showed me an old old old road/trail.  He calls it the Transcontinental Horseless Carriage Trail.  West of the current road, you can clearly see the road as the wheels wore away the vegetation.  East of us it was grown up some and the weeds made it harder to see.  But if you looked in the distance at a hill, you could clearly see where change in the vegetation still exists because of that old trail.  It was really fascinating.  Prof Bill has hiked the area and found old license plates ad parts of old crank cars.  People like Prof Bill are one of the reasons my trip is becoming so interesting.  The interesting people you meet along the way.

Next stop was Petrified Forest National Park.  It was going to be late when I got there, but I figured I could scope out places to stay and get my hiking trails map and get sorted, doing the bulk of the trip the following day.  It was 4:30pm when I pulled in and they closed at 5pm, so not much time.  I talked to the booth attendant about local areas to camp or park and the closest one is nearly 20 miles away.  Seriously??? This is a National Park and there is no lodging close by.  And they don't even allow overnight camping.  Maybe they are afraid people will steal all their petrified wood if they allowed people in the park overnight.  But I got my maps and drove about 3 miles into the park, walking about a bit and getting some quick photos before heading out and 20 miles down the road to the Hopi Travel Center.