2015 - October 12th & 13th - Ludlow & Oatman on Route 66

Finishing our stay in Three Rivers and visiting Sequoia National Park, our longest driving day was ahead of us. We headed out towards our destination spot of fabulous Barstow CA. There just isn't much between Three Rivers and Barstow except desert ... very few towns to even speak of! We saw lots of desert views!

A nice leisurely day with desert temperatures in the mid-90's made it a good day to observe the landscape in the air conditioning of the Prius in the area while traveling through Delano, Bakersfield, Tehachapi and arriving in Barstow. We were able to find a coffee break place and also a nice restaurant for lunch along the way. We had only driven past Barstow over the years on our way to Las Vegas. So to stay there was something new. We thought we could find something to do like the Route 66 Museum; but wrong! The museum is closed except for three days a week. That seems to be the whole mode of everything in Barstow. The room was nice, no complaints. We went to Chili's for dinner which always has good food and the bottle of wine was a fine finish for the day! We must agree to the saying of "The best thing about Barstow is any road heading out of town" is real! The next morning we headed to Williams AZ taking a little bit of a detour to take in part of Old Route 66 and see fabulous Oatman AZ.
               
By mid-morning we were on Route 66 and just happened to be at Ludlow CA at coffee break time. Ludlow is one of the few remaining historical spots of Route 66. The Ludlow Café is right next to the road making it an easy exit. The Cafe makes and bakes their own pies. The apple pie had a little too much cinnamon, but most of it was eaten anyway; the banana cream pie was delicious. Nice stop and we all enjoyed experiencing the Ludlow Café.
Continuing having our kicks on Route 66, we approached Oatman AZ. This town simply wouldn't exist if it weren't for the tourists. It's a great place to visit and Oatman is even a stop on those bus tours. The town is controlled by the Burros; they roam freely and rule the town. The are free to wander where ever they want and everyone just walks around them. It would not be unusual to see a Burro enter through one of the stores front doors. Oatman is a former mining town in the Black Mountains of Mohave County, Arizona. The boom of 1915-17 gave Oatman all the characters and characteristics of any gold rush boom town. For about a decade, the mines of Oatman were among the largest gold producers in the West. In 1921, a fire burned down many of Oatman's smaller buildings, but spared the Oatman Hotel. Built in 1902, the now-Oatman Hotel is the oldest two-story adobe structure in Mohave County, a Mohave County historical landmark and is especially famous as the honeymoon stop of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard after their wedding in Kingman on March 18, 1939. Wild burros freely roam the town and can be hand-fed hay cubes otherwise known as "burro chow," readily available in practically every store in town. Though normally gentle, the burros are in fact wild and signs posted throughout Oatman advise visitors to exercise caution. The donkeys are descended from pack animals turned loose by early prospectors, and are protected by the US Department of the Interior.
               
And we saw the noon-time street show performance of the shoot-out bank robbery. All the money collected is given to a child health and wellness charity. Over the years they have donated over $86,000 through these volunteer shows.

Leaving Oatman towards Kingsman AZ, we follow a lovely winding road for about 20 miles that have spectacular views of the landscape in Arizona. This afternoon, Sandra and Ray were able to get some different sights from yesterdays flat desert landscape views.
We continued our drive for another hour when we reached Kingsman. Here we found a Cracker Barrel Restaurant, one of our favorites but one that cannot be found in California. We wanted to take Ray & Sandra here for the experience of just good-old-fashion down-home cooking. Sandra finally got a taste of one of Mary Anne's favorites, wonderful cornbread! We had a scrumptious lunch meal. All of the Cracker Barrel Restaurants have such fantastic gift shops that we spent quite some time looking around the one at this location. Then off again for about another hour and three-quarters when we pulled into Williams AZ and the Grand Canyon Railway Hotel.

For all of the pictures in Ludlow & Oatman, use this hyperlink by clicking here.