AZ - Day 13 - Route 66 (PD)

Although this was my first time on Historic Route 66 I felt I knew it already, and still it amazed  us both.

Arizona has the longest section of the Mother Road of any of the states it passes through. 

Towns bypassed and left in desperate times have been rejuvenated by the tourist attraction it has become.

Williams the last town to be bypassed by I40 back in 1984 would have been dead had the railway not returned. Okay, for every one of the thriving towns like Williams and Seligman there are places where the shuttered and even burned out like Truxton are evident. 

It could be the same here in UK. Many towns and villages that thrived on passing trade reduced to dormitorys for larger towns and cities because they were bypassed by the motorways that started to be built in the 1950's.  Many of these old routes have been there since the Romans built the original road almost two thousand years ago.  

We fuelled up in Williams and then set off along Route 66, a trip on the interstate and finally a short stretch into Seligman, then Truxton, then Hackberry and finally into Kingman. We stopped in all of them to take in the kitsch or the abandonment.

After Hackberry with the car running on cruise and at close to the limit we managed to get over 41 to the US gallon.

From Kingman it was onto the Oatman Highway arriving a bit too late for many of the shops who had called it a day.  The donkeys were out.  More photos will be added later.

All the photos from Route 66 as here - Photos from Flickr