Off we go to Williams Arizona. We were originally heading to Flagstaff but decided to stay in Williams then off to Grand Canyon the following day.
We decided to take the Mojave Desert/29 Palms (part route 66) drive to Williams rather than the modern I40 (Interstate 40). The first 200k of this drive is through the Mojave Desert and provides some spectacular views with temp's reaching 41C. This route really shows the effect of the building of the I40 in the 70's and 80's, there are abandoned shops, petrol stations and houses all along the route. There are also quite a few Trailer Park towns. These are motor homes (old ones ) just propped in vacant areas, looks very downtrodden and desolate, these were all along the route. about 120k into the Desert we get stopped at road works and have to wait 15 minutes before we are allowed to continue, giving a good opportunity to get some photos. We arrived in Needles California about 2pm for a quick meal in Denny's. After coming out of the Mojave Desert, Needles is an oasis situated on the Colorado river, driving in from the Mojave Desert you can see a huge strip of green from about15k out. Needles is quite an interesting place, even though it is green from the Colorado River it is one of the hottest places in America. It has got to 60C, last year (Aug 2012) it had a thunderstorm and the rain temperature was the highest ever recorded in the world at 41C. The humidity was also the lowest ever recorded for rain at 11%25. There is my bit of trivia done (wikipedia rocks). For those who are not aware Denny's are configured like the original American diners, the Needles one even had the old farmer in his bib and brace overalls having lunch, the only thing missing was him chewing on a wheat stalk. Denny's also has OK coffee with free top ups, They are basically everywhere so you know you can get a decent feed wherever you are. We left Needles and headed out on the I40 towards Kingsman Arizona, once we crossed the Colorado River we saw a sign to Oatman, I have heard of this town before so we decided to detour and check it out. This put us back on the original Route 66 roads. Oatman is about 30k off the I40, on the way there we passed 3 or 4 gold prospectors with their ATV's and metal detectors working along the road. Arriving in Oatman is nearly like a step back in time. Most of the buildings are original, there are Donkeys (Jackasses or Burros) wandering around the town. The only bit is it is now commercial but that is life. It is interesting wandering up the street dodging the donkey **** checking out the original buildings. Purchased the route 66 Tshirt and fridge magnet then continued on to Williams. Instead of backtracking to I40 we kept going through Oatman and past several operating and abandoned gold mines winding through the hills to eventually meet up with the I40 again 35k later. About 3/4 of the way to the I40 we stopped at one of the original road houses on Route 66. It still had the original petrol browsers (not working of course). We hit the I40 at about 3.30pm with a couple of hours to go to Williams, it was still 39C. 2 hours later we arriving in Williams Arizona, it is 13C and raining. Havent been in such a temperature shift in years. got accommodation just out of Williams in Days Inn. Now for a good nights sleep and off to Grand Canyon tomorrow