Tag Archives: KOA

The most famous corner in the US?

Posted on by

Flagstaff got to 24 degrees overnight but we stayed pretty toasty inside.  I was pretty beat and slept until about 9am.  I then remembered about getting that sticker for the transmission that would show what temperatures it was reaching.  I popped up then Bob and I went down and got one.  It doesn’t exactly work like a mood ring where it changes colors based upon heat.  This one has dots that change turn a color when it reaches each temp level but do not change color back.  It will show what the max was.  Fine with me.

Some other Airstreamers were going to have breakfast in Flagstaff then stop for lunch in Winslow.  Now Winslow is only 50 miles away from Flagstaff so we thought that is awfully close to have breakfast and then lunch.  We decided to leave a bit closer to lunch so we would be in Winslow at lunch.  The planned location was the La Posada hotel.  A former railway hotel that fell into disrepair but now is being restored to its full glory.  We pulled up and found 3 Airstreams already there.  The hotel is beautiful.  We headed straight to the dining room and got a table.  Bob went over to the only table that had more that 4 people at it and found those were the Airstreamers.  We talked a bit with them but they were already finished eating and were preparing to leave.  Not a problem.  We went and sat down to check the menu.

The waitress had a suggestion of the tacos made with Filet Mignon.  3 of us chose those.  Roxie chose red corn tortilla taquitos.  None of us were disappointed and the prices were very reasonable.  Roxie also tried their Black Bean/Creamed Corn soup which she loved.  The chance for dessert came, Bob and Phyllis ordered a bread pudding with many types of nuts and fruits in it (terrible description).  We had creme brule.  Both of them were very good but the bread pudding was the best.

LaPosada

There is another thing Winslow is famous for.  Do you know it?  The Eagles made this town very popular with their song “Take it Easy”.  There is a reference to ‘standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona” (sing it if you know it).  Well we had to go to THE corner.  We had to take some pictures.  I had to play the song for Roxie afterward on the iPod.  It was a weekday so it wasn’t busy at all.  We did the photo exchanges (all these will be on Flickr when I return).  Here is one of the corner that the city has setup.

Winslow

When we looked at the clock we realized that we had spent 2 1/2 hours in Winslow.  Wow!  We still had 180 miles to go.  Time to get on the road.  We left Arizona, eventually and entered New Mexico.  We got to the Grants KOA around 7pm (their time).  We were the last two RV’s in the campground as they were full!  I am glad I made that reservation 5 months ago.  There are approximately 20 Airstreams here and we are heading to Camping World to join up with the rest and all go en masse.  Should be fun!

Oh and about my sticker?  Not even the first dot has shown up (190 degrees).  I am not sure if that is good or bad now…

Hot then cold

Posted on by

So Needles ended the first day on a hot note.  High 90’s and lots of wind.  We used the A/C all evening.  In the morning the temperature was very temperate.  We were able to see how beautiful the river was right behind our trailers.  Here is Bob and Phyllis:

bobphyllis

We hooked everything up and headed on to a relatively short day (200 miles).  We crossed over into Arizona and immediately became the slowest vehicles on the road.  The speed limit in AZ is 75mph regardless of vehicle type.  Well I still stay at 60-65 but even the big rigs were zooming right by us.  Except on the hills where we could pass the loaded ones.

We made a fuel stop in Kingman, AZ and noticed that the old Route 66 took off there.  We had been on this stretch before about 7 years ago on our Grand Canyon trip but don’t remember too much about it.  We thought we might as well do this stretch while we were there.  Great decision.  There was more traffic on this stretch but it was more scenic and more populous.  We were kind of looking for a quaint, Route 66’ish place to eat.  We thought at least one of the towns on the stretch between Kingman and Seligman would have something.  Phyllis produced a printout of a place in Seligman that looked very appealing.  Continuing to enjoy the scenery and nostalgia (even the Burma Shave signs) we headed to Seligman.  We found just the place:

Snowcap

Delgadillo’s Snow Cap drive in.  It was a very fun place and the Delgadillo’s are a very famous part of Seligman.  There were various other shops to purchase touristy stuff, which we obligingly did.  It was odd that for a period of time we were the only primary English speaking people there.  A tour bus dropped of a group of Europeans (I think German) and they milled around.  Later there was a Japanese group.  It was fun to listen to all the languages.

We parted ways with Seligman after almost 2 hours of leisure (sadly missing from our previous day) and stayed on the ‘mother road’ as far as we could.  We were eventually funneled back to I40.  We came across a sign on the freeway before Williams that stated slow trucks next 18 miles.  Usually slow trucks mean a grade but I could not think of an 18 mile grade that I have ever been on.  Well it was a grade and it was almost 18 miles long.  The transmission continued its’ light show but the truck performed just fine.  We made it to the Flagstaff KOA at any astonishingly early time of 4:15pm.  I called a transmission shop and discussed the problem.  I also conversed with my boss, who likes to rebuild vehicles also and every concurred that there was something probably bad with the sensor.  I am going to the transmission shop in the AM to get a type of temperature gauge for the outside of the pan.

We setup the trailers and decided to try another discovery from Phyllis, the spot this time: Miz Zip’s.  Very good food.  Chicken Fried steak with mashed potatoes was highly rated by the girls.  The guys liked the Roast Beef dinner.  We ALL loved the Peach pie with ice cream, even me and I don’t care too much for fruit pies.  We made a few more house keeping stops and came back to the trailers.  So what is the cold part regarded in the title?  The temperature tonight is supposed to be 32.  What a difference a day makes.