May 31, 2011 Glendale, UT to Seligman, AZ

Today we left our home of the last 5 nights. Glendale, UT. Had we stayed a couple more nights we probably could have voted in future elections. When we pulled out the temperature was 52 degree's. From Glendale we went through Kanab, then on to Page, AZ, and down to Flagstaff. I missed a sign directing us to I-40 and it appeared we might have to go through all of Flagstaff. Betsy grabbed her handy dandy little map and got us out of the mess. I tell people that she's our navi-guesser, but she really is pretty good at getting us from A to B. After finding the interstate we headed west toward Exit 139. Exit 139 is where you get off and find a 17 mile portion of old Route 66. As we drove the old road we thought of all the people who had used it to get from Chicago to Los Angeles. In the 17 miles we met one pick up truck. We both commented on how isolated this part of the road felt. We were thrilled to see a series of the old Burma Shave signs. The first series we flew by, but when we came to the second set I told Betsy I was stopping and would she please hop out and take a picture. She made me promise that I wouldn't leave her out there before actually getting out of the vehicle. In honor of "The Mother Road" I've published that picture in black and white. We arrived at our destination of Seligman, AZ which I've read about and wanted to visit. Seligman was founded in 1895 as a railroad town, but embraced Route 66 when it was constructed in the 1920's. It was a place to get some food, stay the night, fill up the tank the next morning and head out. In the late 1970's the interstate bypassed the little town and the tourist trade dried up. Then in 1985 the Santa Fe RR closed up the local depot. But you know what, the little town has managed to hang in there and caters to Route 66 aficionados. One of the places we stopped was the sundry store where we took a picture of our rig in front. This place still had a lot of old sundry inventory and several advertisement pieces. I think I saw a Sergeants Flea Soap cardboard advertisement that I recognized when I worked for Dad or Uncle Dick. We skipped the biker apparel shop as Betsy says she's lived this long without a pair of chaps so why bother now.
I definitely wanted to stop at the Snow Cap which was started in 1953 by Juan and Angel Delgadillo.
You can get a hamburger, taco and a shake or their speciality of dead chicken. I didn't ask. Angel became something of a legend on Rte. 66 for his humor and pranks. Today his son John got me good when he grabbed a plastic mustard container and squeezed. Out came a stream of mustard, aimed directly at my chest. Talk about shocked!! The mustard was actually yellow yarn. We both had a good laugh. Oh yeah, the coke float that Betsy and I shared was the best ever.