La Posada Hotel in Winslow

The last great hotel built by the Harvey Company for the Santa Fe Railroad back in the 1920's.  The hotel was converted to an office then back in mid 90's A couple bought the grounds and buildings andthe hotel restored it to its 1920's ambiance and filled with art by local artists.

Door from Passenger tracks into back of hotel

Beautiful tin work by local artist

Placemat on table in the Turquoise Room

Old Railroad signal in hallway

Iron Gate with in shape of old steam engine

Fire pit for roasting marshmallows?

Gate to garden with corn stalks

same gate but in sunlight

another garden gate in shape of tree

Portico in back of hotel near RR tracks

hallway with statues

outside same hallway

Location:Central St,Winslow,United States

Winslow Arizona

Standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona as the old Eagles song goes.


What's really neat here is the wide open sky. We camped just east of town in Homolovi Ruins State Park.


Drove into town where We saw a train filled with army tanks supply trucks Stryker vehicles all on about 80flatcars in the train heading eastbound towards to be deployed in the Middle East.



We then ventured over to Ka Posada hotel, recently restored to its pre WW II era ambiance by some local artists. Place is filled With large rugs, paintings, wood & Tin sculptures, and many other forms of beautiful artistic display.



We Enjoyed dinner last night in the turquoise room in the law Posada hotel. The dinner was fabulous. They have re-created an old-style Spanish atmosphere with using indigenous local food groups and prepared by a classically trained chef.

Location:E Second St,Winslow,United States

Route 66

Departing Needles this morning we drove east to Kingman, Az, them turned left onto a section of the old US Route 66 highway. Remnants of the old highway still exist along sections as this one we traveled between Kingman and Seligman where we rejoined the interstate. Here are a few shots from my iPhone.

Old Sign just outside of Kingman

Balmy weather gave way to crisp cool air as we climb in elevation up to over 5,000 ft.

Old quonset hut greenhouse.  Hmm. What are they growing?

Along the highway are many older and campy places quite unique in character.

Hackberry General Store.  A real historical site

We found one place, Hackberry Store, which collects old gas pumps and cars and signs. We met the owner's son and grandson inside.

Entrance to Hackberry Store

Inside were all kinds of memorabilia.

Wow

We drove through the Hualapi reservation following the railroad line of the old Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe.

Old trucks abound

The Grand Canyon caverns is a private venture. The caverns were discovered back in 1921 and the land bought by a man named Peck.

This greated us at the entrance

Old man Peck thought he had discovered a mine with gold, silver and diamonds so he bought the land only to discover it wasn't.

And this one at the Gift shop.
No Dinasours down in caverns though.

So, he developed the place and them sold it to a other people. Who really commercialized it. They put in a 22 story elevator down to the entrance.
The cavern boasts the quietest motel room in the world.

Rated amongst the 10 best places to sleep in the world..right...
They do a nightly ghost tour in the caverns.

And Enough food storage that was put in place during the Cuban missile crisis to feed 2000 people for several weeks.

Somebody takes this stuff seriously to pack away all this water and MRE's

Apparently they have recently updated their inventory in light of recent world events and concerns.

More food storage.

And why is it called the Grand Canyon Caverns? Apparently they discovered the air I'm the caverns actuall comes from 40 miles away in the canyon. They did this by releasing red smoke bombs in the cavern. Takes 2 weeks for the red smoke to reach the canyon through the limestone. And there you have the tidbit of the day.

It was interesting. Now onto Winslow Arizona.

Location:Kingman,Az

Tehachapi loop

Departing Bakersfield we head up Hwy 58 towards Mojave desert. We see this beautiful light in the hills. A good omen.



As The rain pours down back home we enjoy a refreshing ride up the mountain. We always enjoy a visit to one of the railroading mecca's, Tehachapi loop. Pulling off at Keene we follow a train up the pass. I was driving so no good pix. We stopped at overlook to watch the train circle the loop.



We stop further up to have our breakfast. And we could see way down into the loop.


Then up over pass and into tehachapi for refuel. We ❤ Love's.


Across the Mojave desert. Thru Barstow at 2100 ft then descend to Needles, ca along the Colorado river.

Location:E Tehachapi Blvd,Tehachapi,United States

Camping in the Orange Groves

We stopped tonight after dark just east of Bakersfield at a place called Orange Grove RV park.  

Literally in the middle of an orange grove.  How cool is that?  Pretty cool, if you ask me.  But you are not asking, you are reading.
It is relatively quiet here and after a long day of driving on the interstate (because we do not like 99) and departing later than we like this is as far as we could get.  We still have 3 days to reach Albuquerque.  We could do it in 2 days but why push too hard.
We would prefer to take back roads, however the back roads to Albuquerque from here are: 1) not many, and 2) very very long drive time.  So we will drive up through Tehachapi and the Mojave, then head east over Interstate 40 across the Kaibab Plateau through Flagstaff (almost 8,000 ft) then down into southern New Mexico and explore that area for 2 weeks.

Location:Rosewood Ave,Bakersfield,United States