Standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona...

Day 7: Friday, March 25, 2016

We woke up in the Cozy Cone Motel.  Well, not really.  We woke up in Wigwam Village #6.  There are actually 3 of these Wigwam Village motels in the country.  There were more, but most of them have closed down.  There’s the one we stayed in in Cave City, which I believe is the original, the one in Holbrook, and another in San Bernardino.  We aren’t going that far, so we won’t stay in all three, but the one in Holbrook was the inspiration for the Cozy Cone Motel in the movie Cars and, for some reason, I just felt we should stay in as many as we could.  There’s even a Mater tow truck out front! The kids were all super-excited to wake up and find themselves in another wigwam.  Even Tucker, who originally was just NOT - no way, no how- sleeping in a triangle (to which Max helpfully responded that it was actually a cone) was happy about it.  And this wigwam was actually pretty nice. I would definitely stay there again.

We had breakfast at Joe and Aggie’s, another Route 66 iconic establishment.  The pancakes were delicious, but the real draw was the fact that the owners were turned into Cars characters for the movie.  They even have signed drawings of Lightning McQueen and Mater drawn by John Lasseter hanging on the walls.  It was a real Cars sort of morning!

Upon leaving Holbrook, we drove to Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park.  The boys really loved all the petrified wood, and there were lots of other things to check out.  We saw a 35 foot long petrified tree called Old Faithful.  There were weird rock formations called The teepees.  We were quite amazed at all the barren wasteland of desert.  It just goes on and on forever and ever.  Oh, and the petroglyphs! They were different from the rock carvings in Bandelier.  Those were just carved into the rock, but were difficult to see if you weren't looking for them.  These are scratched into the desert patina and stand out very well.  I always wonder why they don't get re-covered in the patina again, though.  I mean, right? Shouldn't that happen?  Someday, I'll remember to ask someone about that.  Anyway, the part I thought was cool was a an old section of Rte 66 that used to go through the park.  The road isn't there anymore, but you can see where it used to stand because the old telephone poles that used to line the road just stretch out along the reclaimed desert.  It wasn’t my favorite park, but definitely worthy of inclusion on the Rock Tour. 

 

My favorite stop of the day was last.  We stopped in Winslow, Arizona and went to Standing on a Corner Park.  There is an actual park in town, with a false storefront with “Winslow, Arizona” painted across it and a flatbed Ford parked out front, that people can visit.  There’s a statue of a guy (there is some question as to whether or not it was supposed to be Jackson Browne, but I only saw a passing resemblance) standing there with a guitar, and the song Take It Easy plays in the background.  It’s a cheesy and corny stop, but I was actually pretty shocked at the number of other people “standing on a corner” that day.  We met two brothers from Oklahoma and Texas driving the Mother Road in their restored old car.  We took pictures for another couple passing through town, and as we left, another 10 or so people crossed the street to take our place.  I had been hoping to have the corner to myself, but, apparently, I was deluded in my thinking that I was the only person weird enough to think this was a Must-Do pit stop.  Instead, we drove off into the sunset to meet up with Aunt Gale in Kingman and begin the second leg of our epic Family Rock Tour.