Back home again in Indiana

Back home again in Indiana, but not done blogging. Taking a few days to rest up, get pedicures, manicures, oil changed, tire rotation, auto detailing, massage and catching up on emails, there has been no blogging. Still there is more to say about this trip, our experiences, what we learned that we want to share with you, and various other stuff.

There were lots to things that happen that we did not have the opportunity to share, and since my laptop died, many of my pictures have not been retrieved from it's hard drive yet. So, stay tuned for more photos and information.

While most of the trip was uneventful, one flat tire, one stuck convertible top, one dead laptop, over all the trip was great. If this is a trip that you are going to take on yourself you may want to know a few things to make it better

The first thing I would highly recommend, don't try to do this trip in a hurry. If you do, you miss it. Route 66 is about history, the love of the American car, and the rise and fall of businesses and cities. Progress and its effects.

More on that tomorrow.

Hazel M. Walker

Lost in Sedona

We left Flagstaff yesterday. I have to say it is very unlike any other part of Arizona, it is so green, while most of Arizona is desert Flagstaff is mountains and forest. It is a lovely college town and we enjoyed the stay at the Fairfield Inn. We had breakfast at a local place called the Village Kitchen, I promised Penny I would find her a place that made pancakes! Thank gawd they did, and she said they were good.



We left Flagstaff on 89A. What a wonderfully beautiful drive down and twisty curvy mountain. Here are some pictures that I took at one of the parks at the top, it is about 7000 feet here. These pictures do not do it justice.



This is a picture of the roads we were about to drive. I got to try Baby (lexus sc 430) out on the curves and it was great, she handles curves like nobodies business and we did not fall off the mountain. Speaking of falling.............

I saw this sign as we were going down the mountain...........so I thought I would stop and we could take another walk. We are getting a lot of walking in, way more than the 30 minutes on my treadmill. When we pull into our parking place it is about 95 degrees out and the car next to us has a dog locked in it. Penny, the saviour of all animals and nature took the license plate number and gave it to the guard at the front gate, who called for rescue. What kind 0f idiot leaves a dog in a car when the temperature outside is in the high 90s? By the time we got back to our car it was registering 108 degrees.

We walked down this path and came to this site. Look at all of the people sliding down the rocks in this river. What a blast, how fun, it's hot and the water looks soooo cool, and it was such a long walk to get here. And guess what we have bathing suites.........in the trunk of baby, a mile back. Damn, poor planning, look at all these people in bathing suites, except us.

OK, so here is the story, and if you ask me to tell you this story I won't be able to because I cannot stop laughing....ok ok, let me get myself together here. So here is the story, Penny loves the water and she will take every opportunity to get in the water. So here is the wonderful water running over these beautiful rocks. Now, sun, shallow water, and rocks equal slick algae. So, I said be careful just as Penny fell went down on her ass in the water in a denim skirt (skort). I was standing carefully trying not to fall, all the while laughing at Penny as she kept trying to get up on the slick rocks. Soon she was on all fours crawling to banks. finally a gentleman went over to help her as I was tippy toeing carefully to the banks.

So, I decided that we should just sit and watch everyone (wish we had our bathing suites) jump off the ledges into the water. Penny steps into a puddle that went to her knee and almost fell again. We decided to walk further up the river, here is Penny on her ass again. So I made her sit in the cold water to help her knee, toe and hand. "Just sit there for awhile." Ok, time to get up and get started again, she reaches down to get her shoe and gets stuck by a thorn, now her hand is bleeding! I may never ever get her back to the car.

Off we go, back to our car, on the trek back down the river, I see two or three nice round rocks near the water. I thought it would be a good place for us to rest, sitting on a rock with our feet in our water resting. I look over at Penny and she is on her back in the red, red sand and water, feet in the air, looking like a turtle turned on its back!!! How the hell did you do that? What happen? She did not know, she just fell backwards, looking into the sky! I laughed so hard that I wet my pants! I still can't stop laughing.

Needless to say, it was a long long walk back to the car and if you think for one moment I let her sit in my car with this outfit on you have another think coming. She changed!

We drove down the road to downtown Sedona. Here is the problem, we are still here. We have only driven 34 miles in 2 days. We may never ever leave Sedona. Did we say that we were going to be home September 07? It may be "08"

Look where we had to eat breakfast this morning, can you imagine!

Route 66? Where is it?
Hazel M. Walker
Queen of the Road

Standin on the Corner in Winslow Arizona......

such a fine site to see, it's a girl my lord in a flat bed ford......slowin down to take a look at me. A Classic Eagles Song, Take it Easy.

We went to Winslow this morning. I would highly recommend it...in the next two years they will be doing a lot of improvement with a big Route 66 Park, and restoration of some of the buildings.

We stayed in Holbrook, Arizona at the Holiday Inn Express. They had the new super beds, you know the big pillow tops with the wonderful down comforters. We decided to order a Pizza from the Pizza Hut right down the street, at 7:30pm we called placed the order only to be told they quit delivering at 7:00pm. To say we were shocked, 7:00pm, you gotta be kidding me! We want Pizza. We had fish sandwiches from Burger King, cause we were in our jammies and did not want to get out of the car! Yuck.

BUT...........we had the BEST nights sleep ever at this hotel. It was great, beds just like home. I highly recommend this hotel. I know that Penny loved them too, she was talking to me, about Ghost Hunters, then the next thing I hear is Penny snoring...I mean humming. I never met anyone who can fall asleep in the middle of a sentence!

Arizona has so much to see. We went to the painted desert, which was beautiful, the petrified forest where satellites follow you around to make sure you do not steal any of the petrified wood. I picked up a piece of wood, it was beautiful and Penny said I had to put it down because there was a $325 fine if you picked up the wood, moved the wood or stole the wood. So they must have satellites watching the entire time you are there, right? I threw my piece of wood down! Damn it.

Hazel at the Crater

We went to the Meteor Crater today, both Penny and I were not very interested really but thought we would take a quick look. Wow.....are we glad we did. It is unimaginable how big this thing is. Or how old it is.

Penny at the Crater

Oh well, we both loved the views.

Now we are in Flagstaff Arizona. It is hard to believe that this is still Arizona! It is so green, pine trees everywhere! No more dessert, no more heat. It reminds me a lot of Washington. Tomorrow we will explore Flagstaff and take a side trip to Sedona and who knows from there.

Baby, my Lexus convertible has been great on the road. We get a great many comments from people about the car, everyone loves her! But, packing her has become an art, with so little space and so much shopping to do over the miles we have had to be very creative. DHL is our best friend! If you are thinking of taking this trip we highly recommend taking Packing Slips with you, it makes life so much easier.

We Found more Giants!!!!!!!!!!!

Well I am off to do laundry, that is the other thing, we are limited on the amount of clothes we could bring so we have to do laundry often.

Getting our Kicks on Route 66............
Hazel M. Walker
Queen of the Road

We're back.....did you miss us?

We took a little break to hang out with some friends in Albuquerque. Gail and Ted are very dear friends of mine, Gail is a BNI Executive Director here in New Mexico and they let me hang out with them during the Balloon Fiesta quite often. Ted loves to tell you the history of New Mexico, and he is a Music Collector. Ted and Gail used to perform in a band across the country and they owned a talent agency until recently, needless to say Ted has a massive collection of music and stock Penny and I up with music. We want to give a shout out and a Thank You to Ted and Gail!!

Currently we are in Gallup, New Mexico. Lots of Indian shops to buy stuff, lots of old 66 signs and old motels all along the route 66 road. We are staying at the El Rancho Hotel, and old hotel that is famous along Route 66. Many stars have stayed here including my favorite, Humphrey Bogart. There are a lot of international guest here to. We have met the Italians, a gentleman from Japan on his second Route 66 trip, and then the French Group. We have met a great many international visitors along Route 66, people from New Zealand, Venezuela, Italy, Netherlands, German, Spanish and French. It has truly been an international experience.

The scenery in New Mexico is both breath taking and sad. The beautiful Red Mountains, the piles of old lava, the breath taking sunsets are not to be missed. But the poverty, many old trailers, run down homes, and closed businesses are sad.

Most of Route 66 runs along the side of US 40 it is wonderful to stay along the frontage road and see the sites, but it is very moving to see how US 40 and major interstates destroyed the small towns and businesses along Route 66 especially when you realize how close the two run along side each other. Beautiful old Art Deco style building abandoned, outstanding neon signs no longer blazing, entire towns abandoned and only now starting to restore themselves for the Route 66 visitors. I cannot recommend enough to anyone that they take the route 66 trip and stay on as much of the old road as possible. The history and stories you will learn are amazing.

One of my favorite places in the last two days has been Midpoint Cafe. This is a little Cafe exactly at the Midpoint of this trip. What a great place, lots of old antiques, like a Hoosier cabinet and kerosene stove. Great staff who love to talk to you, give you information and help you in anyway they can. Check out this sign............this is the place you have to decided, go forward or turn back!

NOW........let me tell you about an exciting part of Route 66 that many people choose NOT to take. It is an 18 mile pre 1930s Route 66, dirt and gravel road through dessert. We met several people at the Midpoint Cafe. We all left about the same time. There were two women about the same age as Penny and I, from Virginia, driving a convertible Jag. They got to the dirt road and turned back, deciding to take the interstate. We passed them as they were turning around. Penny, Baby and I decided to take the road..............I know you are shocked that I would take a little Lexus SC 430 with high performance tires across the desert on dirt and gravel. (some of you will not be shocked at all).

It was a GREAT part of the trip, we drove about 20-35 miles per hour and kept stopping to look at things along the road. Penny said that I needed to stop there were apples along the road, I stopped, looked at her and said "Yea, they must be falling from all of the Dessert Apple Trees that we see along the road!" How the hell could there be apples along a dirt road in 102 degree heat? We stopped next time she saw some, they were gourds, we have in our car. Next we were driving along the road and Penny yelled....stop stop.........back up.......I did. Here is what she found, and this is what ended up in the back seat of Baby.

There was a second one, with teeth on it down in a little ditch. She wanted to go down and get it, but I could hear little rattles all around it which I am certain were rattle snakes sleeping in the heat. So I did not think it was a good idea for her to walk off the road to get a second skull. Therefore, only one hitched a ride in the back of my car on MY PILLOW! That Skull is now being shipped home to Mike.

We crossed the Continental Divide last night, today we will cross the boarder to Arizona and we promise we will blog again tonight. Now, I am off to shower and shop!

Getting our Kicks on Route 66

Queen of the Road

Hazel M. Walker

Oh the things we learn

Traveling brings such new perspectives to your life. Day in and day out we rush about trying to get from one thing to the next or one place to the other. When we take our time to travel, see the sights around us, talk to the people who are local and just enjoy ourselves we get a whole new view of the world.



Today we spent time at the Devils Rope Museum, I was reluctant at first to take this side trip, I was in a hurry to get somewhere else, I remembered, it is a vacation and I have the time. I am glad that we did. I learned that barbed wire played a major role in settleing this country and there are Barbed Wire associations across the country. We think of it as something used for fences only, but it was used as a way to automate crop planting for the farmers too. I learned there is an association of everything. This had to be one of the best displays of the history of farming and ranching that I have seen. The inginuity of man is amazing.

Off we go on Route 66 again. It is easy to follow now because it goes along the path of US 40, it is long and straight, no traffic and the speed limit is 70 in the daytime and 65 at night. Yes they have a night speed limit.

We got to Groom Texas where we stopped to see the giant cross. This is the second largest cross in the western hemisphere. It use to the be tallest, but the builders, being good christians let the good people of Effingham Illinois use their blue prints to build one of their own. OOPS they forgot to put any stipulations on the height of the cross on the blue prints so the Effingham cross was built 8 feet taller. I have been to both now, and can say with complete confidence, the one in TEXAS is stunningly displayed. There are beautiful life size statues displaying Christ carring the cross, the crucifiction and the empty tomb with angels on it and in it. There is also a lovely gift shop that supports the cross ministries. Here is a link to their website. It really is worth taking the detour for. http://crossministries.net/




Finally we are in Amarillo. A city divided by US 40, once you figure that out it is easy to get around. But, I have to say here, if there are two people who are more like Lucy and Ethel in the world it would be Me (lucy) and Penny (ethel). If there is a bad side of town, we end up there, if there is a wrong way to go and a right way to go, we always end us the wrong way. Even when we think we are right we are wrong..........and then we start laughing so hard it hurts. Oh well, that is just the way it is. There are 3 Comfort Inns in this town, 2 are beautiful, newer and in a very nice part of town, near the mall. There are New Holiday Inns, Farifield, Residence Inns, Marriotts, and so on. They are about 8 miles EAST of where we are, because we kept getting off on the wrong area, we ended up at a Comfort Inn in a less favorable part of town. The rooms were old, the beds sucked, and so forth and so on. BUT hell we stayed anyway. I parked baby by the window so I could keep an eye on her.....all night.

We did find this great Car Wash, and a Giant Duck. Baby got a wash and we got a picture of the duck.



Now we are off to Albuquerque, New Mexico. We will be staying with Gayle Williams, a very dear friend and BNI Director. Gayle has had me to her home for the Balloon Fiesta in years past. I love Albuquerque, so we are going to stay there an extra day and visit Old Town and do some sight seeing. We will let you know what we find!


Getting our kick on Route 66
Hazel M. Walker
Queen of the Road

We made it out of Illinois

We stayed at the Route 66 Hotel. It was full of great memorabilia. Ironically we found it by accident, we were kind of misplaced when we looked up and saw the Hotel. Bonus, there was a laundry room so we were able to do our laundry and have clothes for the next few days. It makes our car smell better when we wear clean clothes. The day started out HOT, HOT, HOT, and right now it is still hot. There was a big wedding at the hotel last night, Penny was quite entertained by the whole thing. It kept her occupied while she was working on the laundry.

We left around 11am and already it was hot. We put the top down, and took off. We saw a few more sites, and by 2 we had to put the top back up, I began to feel ill from the heat.

At 4:30 we crossed the state line, from Illinois to Missouri and across the Mississippi HOORAY!!!!!.

This is a Brick Road part of Route 66 in Illinois. It is really very nice. Notice the heat coming off of the bricks. It was around 100 degrees when we took this.

Once we got into Missouri we got lost, again......so we decided to stay in Fenton for the night at the Fairmont. Penny needs to work on the maps and figure out where we are then where we want to go. LOL....she is sitting next to me working very hard.

Until tomorrow, and keep sending us your comments, we love them.

Hazel M. Waller

Yes, we are still in Illinois

Yes, we are still in Illinois.

We are staying at the Route 66 Motel in Springfield. It is a very cool location, like staying in a museum. Tomorrow I will put photos up of the hotel. Today, has been very very pleasant, the weather perfect, overcast and a little cooler. Illinois has so much to see historically and many of the small towns have embraced that heritage and started the process of rebuilding and restoring their towns.



This is Ruth Hieronymus. She is the Librarian at the Historic Octagonal Library in Atlanta, Illinois.







We stopped in Atlanta after being told by several people it was a MUST see. The Library is beautiful, old and loved. Ruth has lots of information about the history of the town, when she saw us walking around the town taking photos she opened the Library privately for us. We were very excited to meet her and learn more about the town. If you decide to do Route 66 stop and talk to Ruth. You will be glad you did.

Penny and I are having a great time meeting people and driving the legendary mother road. But every now and then we are attracted by small signs that takes us off the road. Today was another one of those days. We decided to take the road less traveled. Like this one, the long road with beautiful green over head and on either side, as far as we could see. At the end of the road, beautiful flowers, birds, butterflies and a nice place to take time to just sit and enjoy life.

Sometimes it is good to just take the time to slow down, get off the beaten path and enjoy what you find. Not having a schedule to adhere to has been a bit of a challenge for us to start, we keep thinking we need to hurry up. Then we see places like this or the deer that we watched yesterday and we realize, there is nowhere we have to be except home by labor day.

Hazel M. Walker

Day One

We are on the road! We stopped by Penny's Moms house. She took a picture of us with the Flat Bob, a replica of her dad. He really wanted to take this trip with us so she made a Flat Bob, and a Flat Mike, her husband. You will be seeing more of them!

We left Indianapolis at 3pm and arrived in Chicago around 6:30pm. We made great time. Baby handles so well on the interstate you are doing 80-85 without even being aware of it.

We got to Chicago, no reservations so we had to search a little to find a hotel with a room available. We finally found a room at the Sheraton 4 Seasons. Nice room great location. Tomorrow we will spend the day in Chicago. We are not far from where Route 66 Starts.

Tomorrow I will attempt to upload pictures again. Seems there is a problem tonight and I can't get them to up load.

It is an odd feeling to know that know one is expecting me, I have no schedule, no where to be and nothing to really do. Penny and I can stay in Chicago as long as we want there are not time schedules. Wow!

Until tomorrow,

Hazel M. Walker

Why? Why Not?

Someone asked me why? Why are you going on this trip? My response, "Why Not?" Really, why not do it?

I have this beautiful little blue Lexus SC 430 named BABY, that I love to drive. I have a friend who has been my friend for almost half my life, so why not take the friend I love and the car I love across a country that I love and do something I love to do. Seems like there is no way to lose on this one.

Since planning this trip I have talked to a lot of people, especially older people and they always say things like, I always wanted to do that or I wish I could do that. There seem to be a lot of "if only" or "someday" in their language. I do not want to look back on my life when I am 114 years old and say, if only I had or I wish I could of. I do not want to wait for someday anymore. This is my someday, so, I am going to take full advantage of it and share it with a friend.

What are those things in your life that you are waiting to do, write a book, take a trip, have a life. Are you saving up your life for someday? How will you know when your someday is here?

Be careful that you don't save your life for someday only to find, that someday has come and gone. Enjoy your life, your family and friends today. All the other stuff will still be there tomorrow. Carpe Diem

Follow us on our trip of a lifetime....................can two people still be friends after a month in a little car with only a few belongings? 8 more days and counting.

Hazel M. Walker

The Plan

Actually there is no plan, other than to leave from Indianapolis to Chicago on the First of August, get on Route 66 and return on Labor Day weekend to Indianapolis. Beyond that we are pretty much flying by the seat of our pants, what few pants we are taking. You see, BABY, the car we are driving is a hard-top convertible. Therefore, no trunk space. So we are pretty limited on what we can take with us. But, we figure there will be WalMarts, K-Marts, Targets, or other places we can pick up new clothes or hotels with washers.

Penny and I have been friends for nearly 25 years. We have always talked about taking a long road trip. Our longest to date was 2 weeks, so we decided that this is the year.

People have called us Thelma and Louise, but we hope that our trip turns out better for us than theirs did for them. Others have said we are like Oprah and Gail, but we won't have a camera crew, wardrobe or frankly anything else Oprah had, but we are friends like she and Gail.

I think we are best described as Lucy and Ethel.

Stay tuned for the trip of a lifetime.

Hazel