There She Goes Again

We had breakfast at the hotel and the dining room was PACKED.  Funny how if you’re up at 6:00 a.m. there’s nobody here.  We hit the road to Williams and then headed out on Route 66.  The first town we went through, Seligman, was the best as far as Americana and tackiness (including a Road Kill Café) but we blew through it.  John saw four tour buses and had no desire to stay.  If I ever go back to the Grand Canyon I’m at least going to stop there and take tacky photos.  Because I’m like that.  As we drove on we saw loads of tumbleweeds on the side of the road, stuck in the fence; as well as Burma Shave signs.  I kept meaning to take photos of those but by the time I spotted them we were past the first one.  I’m starting to think I need to get my eyes checked.  Wonder if you can get LASIK twice because I am not thrilled about the idea of glasses again.  I don’t think my eyesight is that bad but I don’t think it’s 20/20 anymore.

We stopped for lunch and to check out the Route 66 Visitor Center in Kingman.   The Museum in the Visitor Center was great.  I had no idea of what the pioneers really went through on their way out to the promised land.  I certainly didn’t realize that the people all walked NEXT TO their wagons.  I knew the wagons were jam packed but I thought the women and children rode in them.  Nope.  How difficult must that have been?  All that walking and the heat and all the clothes people wore back in those days.  When they set out they had everything they owned in the wagons but as they progressed they started ditching things to lighten the load.  Also learned that a huge percentage (70%?) of those who made it to California turned around and went back to where they’d come.  Amazing.  California must have been brutal. 

They also had a wall covered in letters from people who lived along Route 66 back in the day.  They were very interesting.  After leaving, we drove to Oatman to see the “Ghost Town” and the burros.  There are only 150 residents of Oatman and they’ve done their best to keep the buildings looking old.  Sometime in the way back people basically tossed their burros out into the wild and they’ve continued that way ever since.  They come into town every day to be fed by the tourists.  Every shop in town sells carrots and the baby burros have stickers on their foreheads with a carrot with the red “No” circle on it.  They can choke on carrots so the townspeople are trying to make sure that doesn’t happen.

I can’t imagine voluntarily living in a town this small and isolated so I asked one woman how she ended up there.  She had a son who she raised in Vegas.  When he graduated and moved out she came to visit a friend who lived near Oatman.  She said when she saw Oatman she fell in love with it and has been here ever since.  Another woman had moved there with her husband from somewhere near LA.  She’d been there for 20 years.  Talk about living somewhere where everyone knows your business.  Not to mention really being on your own.  No thank you.  I’m independent but not like that!

When we left Oatman we decided to go ahead and drive to Vegas for our final night.  We called Visitor Info to find somewhere to stay that was NOT on the strip and ended up at the Golden Nugget on Fremont Street.  We weren’t expecting much to be honest, I’ve always thought of downtown as old and run down.  The casino and hotel entrance looked like every other casino you go into in Vegas which didn’t tell us much.  However, when we walked into the room all three of us said “WOW!”  The room was huge and beautiful.  The only thing I can find fault with is you have to pay for internet access.  I’ve been spoiled in all the other places we’ve stayed.  I decided I can live without the internet for a night.

We walked around the hotel and the pool area, it’s all really gorgeous.  If I ever have to come back to Vegas (please, please no) I’ll definitely stay down here rather than the strip.  We walked around Fremont Street, had a giant margarita and saw part of the Helldorado Parade before heading back to the hotel.  John has been such a good sport, doing everything we’ve wanted, so we let him pick the final dinner spot.  He chose Lillie’s Noodle House, which is literally around the corner from the elevator to our room and again I was surprised.  It was fabulous.  Continuing our routine of wild, late nights we headed back to the room, watched Harry Potter 5 (Goblet of Fire) and then crashed.  I don’t even think I made it to the end of the movie.  No gambling and I haven’t overloaded on the ding-ding-ding noise of casinos – my best trip to Vegas by far.