We’re getting our kicks on Route 66

HAVING lived in the kingdom for nearly 20 years, with Singapore and Kenya before that, Saar resident and British expat Barry Hobday has always had a love of travel.

Also, being Head of Geography at St Christopher’s Senior School, he feels almost duty-bound to visit exotic and wonderful locations so that his students can be regaled with stories of far-flung places and derring-do!

Doesn’t every geography teacher show their holiday snaps in class at some point?

With son, Sam, finishing his golf scholarship at King University in Tennessee his wife, Sarah, suggested that they should do a road-trip to pick him up and bring back to Bahrain where he intends to play on the MENA Golf Tour.

So what better than combining a lifelong ambition to drive along Route 66 and helping their son relocate to his home back here in sunny Bahrain?

Route 66, the ‘Main Street of America’ - a drive of dreams, despair, depression and drama! Probably the most famous road in the world, the journey starts in Chicago, traversing through Mid-West America and ending 2,451 miles (3,945km) away on Santa Monica Pier in California.

Starting on Lake Shore Drive/Adams Street our epic journey began by driving through the busy but beautiful city of Chicago. Out into the Illinois countryside the first stops were in Wilmington and Atlanta in search of the Giant Hot Dog Man and Gemini Giant, two Muffler Men designed in the 1960s as huge advertising gimmicks for local businesses.

On to St Louis, Missouri and up the Gateway Arch which, like the Bab al Bahrain, is basically an entrance, this time to the Great Plains of the Prairie Lands, also known as the ‘bread basket of the USA’. A trip to the Cardinals Baseball Stadium was an amazing experience being set right in the heart of the city. Unfortunately, there was no game on but that experience will be rectified at a later date watching the Padres in San Diego!

At this point we made a diversion to Memphis in order to pick up our son who has just graduated from university in Tennessee. We made an evening visit to Beale Street where we sat and listened to some amazing blues bands playing in the various establishments.

The next day a cruise down the River Mississippi brought back tales of Huckleberry Finn and his many adventures. This was followed by an incredible visit to Graceland, the home of Elvis Presley. It is difficult to realise the impact that he had on the music industry until you see all of his gold and platinum records in the Hall of Gold. A must for all Elvis fans!

Back to St Louis and onto Missouri, stopping at the curious settlement of Cuba where the largest rocking chair in the world can be found which really is odd as unlike Route 66, it doesn’t rock!

Next is the intriguingly named Lebanon where an overnight stay at Munger Moss Motel was a must with its 1960s style evident throughout. A visit to the Meramec Caverns was interesting after miles and miles of hoardings pulling in the Route 66 traveller and the devoted geographer!

Two states down and six to go and a visit to the tornado state of Kansas was extremely swift as the road barely touches the south east corner as it passes into Oklahoma.

A warning here for those trying to follow the entire Route 66 as it does disappear in several places and despite two travel guides, one giant road atlas, Google Maps and a wonderful wife navigating, getting lost is all part of the experience. Especially as large parts of the route have been obliterated by the various interstate highways.

Travelling through to Tulsa is the iconic ‘Blue Whale’ in Catoosa which Karl Pilkington found to be the strangest sight on his ‘Route 66 Idiot Abroad’ programme. He is not wrong!

Visiting the National Museum and Memorial in Oklahoma City is recommended for all Route 66 travellers. It is here that America suffered its biggest domestic terrorist attack and it is remembered by a beautiful garden with candle-lit chairs representing each person that passed away that fateful day on April 19, 1995. A sad reminder of the difficult times we often live in throughout the world.

Fortunately, our spirits were raised when we then bumped into two adventurous Ozzies - Damien Rider & Dan Osper - who were skateboarding along the whole of the route in 66 days to raise money for PTSD and child abuse. An awesome effort and well worth supporting at http://www.theriderfoundation.com

Crazy guys!

After visiting an excellent Route 66 museum in Elk City, which also had the best restaurant on our whole trip, it was on to Texas and the ‘Devil’s Rope Museum’ dedicated to the history of barbed-wire of all things.

Losing our way, we asked a local if this was the way to Amarillo where the Cadillac Ranch is located. This is a bizarre but brilliant attraction consisting of 10 Cadillacs buried in the ground upon which people are actively encouraged to spray paint them with graffiti … including some now dedicated to Bahrain.

Sweeping across the dry and dusty plains where the Okies travelled during the Great Depression of the 1930s, we reached a tiny settlement called Adrian made famous by the fact that is the geographical halfway point of Route 66.

There is a delightful little place called ‘Midpoint Cafe’ where the ‘Ugly Pie’ is to die for. This is a typical 1960s-style diner of which there are many celebrating the rich history of the greatest American highway known worldwide as ‘The Mother Road’, a name first mentioned in John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath.

Having refuelled, it was now into state number six and New Mexico. After visiting the ‘Blue Hole’ in Santa Rosa where a freezing dive into a clear azure pool was most welcome in the blistering temperatures it was onto the old part of Route 66 diverting north to the lovely relaxed town of Santa Fe where artists and sculptors abound. A visit to the Jambo Cafe was also a must to sample the Kenyan delights of Ugali and Tusker, bringing back memories of an earlier life in Africa.

A brief visit to Albuquerque was followed by a long drive to our penultimate state of Arizona where more sights continued to amaze and astound. ‘Standing on a corner in Wilnslow, Arizona’ was a statue made famous by The Eagles song Take it Easy of which we certainly were but had to fly to see our next destination.

Meteor Crater is a giant hole in the ground formed by a large lump of rock from space hurtling into the earth, fortunately landing in a sparsely-populated area rather than one inhabited by millions of humans.

Trotting on through the ‘mural’ town of Gallup it was onto another highlight of Route 66, namely the Petrified Forest. This is an area of fragmented fossilised 225-million-year-old logs scattered over a vast acreage of semi-desert grassland. It is incredible to think that these trees are no longer made of wood but have been crystallised into sparkly quartz mashed up with iron, carbon, manganese and other minerals. A geologist’s dream!

But this was only a preamble to the next destination which was Flagstaff, being the entrance point for the Grand Canyon. No matter what you read in the guide books and on the internet nothing really prepares you for the awesome grandeur of this magnificent natural phenomenon. It really is an incredible and inspiring landscape only spoiled by the huge numbers of tourists that were present in the height of summer but this was only to be expected.

The best way to see this amazing spectacle is by air and a flight over in a helicopter comes highly-recommended. Another childhood dream realised!

Next on the route was the small town of Seligman that seemed stuck in the past but a must for all 66 travellers that want to visit the Roadkill Cafe. Their motto is ‘you kill it & we’ll grill it!’ So, after a lunch consisting of the Splatter Platter, Funky Skunk and Crispy Toad it was onto our final state of Californ…i…a.

First port of call was the small settlement of Needles where we filled up the car and immediately noticed the jump in gas prices and other items caused by the ‘sunshine tax’ imposed on goods in this awesome golden state.

A long drive through the Mohave Desert, passing the intriguingly named Bagdad Café, we arrived at Barstow which is the main stopping point for anyone travelling off Route 66 to the amazing city of Las Vegas. A two-day excursion followed for a departmental meeting of fellow geographers sharing stories of rocks, deserts, craters, cities and everything-else under the sun.

Back to California and a slap up breakfast at the Summit Inn it was on to San Bernadino where sleeping in a wigwam is the order of the day. Unfortunately, this has now been razed to the ground by the California wildfires presently raging through the state.

A final push into Los Angeles followed with a visit to the famous Hollywood Sign and Boulevard ‘Walk of Stars’. Here you could have your photo taken with every star under the sun including Captain Kirk, Darth Vader and The Simpsons.

After passing Beverley Hills the end was in sight and crawling through the LA traffic heightened our expectations of what had been an incredible experience.

And there it was … the end of the trail sign on Santa Monica Pier. Waiting patiently in turn the obligatory photographs were taken and we sat with a cold beverage reflecting on how we really had got our kicks on Route 66!

Barry and Sarah took a leisurely 30 days to complete their trip on Route 66, with a few diversions, driving a hired Nissan Versa.