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Matthew Stone

Spark was a great replacement for Sparrow but yeah
Nik

It is 2023, and I am still missing Sparrow.

" Travel "

Get off your horse and drink your milk

07 May , 2011 1 Comment Image Post

For those of you who have never seen a Western, the title of this blog is a famous quote by John Wayne, and reflects the last 2 days of our trip which have been crossing the desert through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

After we left Amarillo we passed through Albuquerque and stopped off for our first Taco Bell. I can honestly say I’m not massively fussed about the Tacos, but the Quesadillas and Burritos are amazing and I can only hope that they continue to expand across the UK from the 2 locations they have at the moment. I love the city of Albuquerque, its modern and retro at the same time and the city has clearly spent a lot of time and money ensuring its beauty is top notch. Everything is decorated with traditional Mexican artwork and even the bus stops have neon signs on them (Google Albuquerque Rapid Ride).

We stopped over for one night in Tucumcari, New Mexico which is a small town that was once a thriving stopover for weary travellers, but since the Interstate opened a lot of its businesses disappeared. One that remains is the Blue Swallow Motel run by Terri and Bill, it is one of the more famous icons along the Mother Road which at night is completely illuminated in blue, red and green neons.

We arrived in Holbrook Arizona which is a small town that is literally in the middle of nowhere with nothing but desert through to the horizon. The next day we setup off for two side trips, and I found out that it is possible to stall an automatic car!

Our first side trip was to the Petrified Forest National Park which is a forest of trees that have been turned into rock (but they still look like tree trunks) all within the amazing setting which is the painted desert (see the latest pictures on the flickr feed). The second side trip was to Meteor Crater, a giant hole in the middle of the desert caused by a meteorite impacting earth 50,000 years ago.

We have arrived at our final destination on Route 66 (excluding Santa Monica which we will be visiting in Los Angeles next week), as from Flagstaff Arizona which is our current locaiton, we will be heading to the Grand Canyon and onto Las Vegas missing out the California section of Historic Route 66.

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Happy Cinco de Mayo!

06 May , 2011 3 Comments Image Post

I thought I would give Matt the night off and have a go at writing my first ever blog. So instead of old petrol stations and railway bridges you can get an idea of the exciting things on Route 66 from my point of view!

Today we drove from Tucumcari, New Mexico to Holbrook, Arizona mainly on the I-40 because Mapquest said it would have taken 19 hours to drive the old Route 66!

Although we have spent most of the day on the interstate we have seen some exciting things, here are my highlights.

We saw three of those mini tornados that churn up all the dust and sand – Matt kept calling them dust devils? They’re quite exciting but we definitely don’t want to see any other kind of tornados!

Travelling through New Mexico into Arizona there are more and more “authentic Indian villages” which sound so exciting, until you get there and realise it’s a gift shop – not a wig wam in site! Anyway, we’ve visited a few of them now and I’ve become obsessed with moccasins! I’m still holding out hope of finding an authentic Indian Village though.

Arriving in Arizona we stopped off at the Arizona Visitor Welcome Centre, which was really nice. It’s located in the mountains (or mesa’s) with fantastic views, there are prairie dogs – they’re amazing and it has some more of those Indian gift shops (with wig wams!) but what stood out most for me was the sign “poisonous snakes and insects inhabit the area” no more flip flops for me!!

Today is Cinco de Mayo, Its an American holiday as a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride. It was the perfect time to start the day in New Mexico. Happy Cinco de Mayo!

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Is this the way to Amarillo?

04 May , 2011 No Comments Image Post

The weather today has been perfect. We’ve had hot sun with a stiff cool breeze all the way through Oklahoma and Texas which has been greatly welcome after the pouring rain that forced us to use the Interstate through part of Missouri.

We set out from Oklahoma City for Amarillo at about 10 o’clock after a breakfast of sausage and melted cheese bagels with maple syrup waffles, and hit the mother road headed west. We had several stops in some small towns that were very run down and had seen better days prior to the interstate arriving and cutting off all their trade, which reminded me of the Disney film “Cars” which is what inspired us to book the trip in the first place!

One of our stops along the way was the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma which has been the highlight of our day as it showed the story of Route 66 from the 1930s through to the 1980s when the highway was removed from the US numbering system, all accompanied by the soundtracks of each decade. We also stopped in Elk City to visit the museum which also had a Route 66 section and one of the largest Route 66 emblems ever created (see my flickr photos).

We arrived in Amarillo this evening and decided to visit the Big Texan Ranch, home of the 72oz steak challenge. If you can eat the entire steak in under 60 minutes you get your meal for free. I opted for the 8oz sirloin and struggled to finish that!

Tomorrow we are heading to Tucumcara, New Mexico where we will be staying in the famous Blue Swallow Motel. Come back soon and check out our progress.

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The Windy City to the Sooner State

03 May , 2011 2 Comments Gallery Post

Our plane landed 15 minutes early mid afternoon on Friday, although it felt like mid evening due to the time difference. We were surprised at the distance between our gate and the exit to the airport, it took around 20 minutes to walk it, but the queues for customs were almost nothing so we were out in the arrivals hall before we knew it.

The first thing we noticed about Chicago was it truly lives up to it’s name, It’s bloody windy in the narrow streets between the skyscrapers! We had decided that we had to sample the famous Chicago Deep Pan Pizza and ended up having takeaway pizza from one of the best restaurants in downtown and it was nothing like the version they sell in Sainsburys, it was amazing and I cannot wait to visit Chicago again to have some more.

After a broken nights sleep which saw us waking up on British time (2am over here!) we headed a diner which the customs officer had recommended to Dianne, called Lou Mitchell’s, which happens to be on Jackson Boulevard which is the start of Route 66 in Chicago! Next on our list was the Willis Tower (formally the Sears Tower) which is the 5th tallest building in the world and the tallest in North America.

We started our journey that afternoon and after an hour freaking out at driving in traffic and streets that rival New York city we made it onto Route 66 and headed to Springfield Illinois to our Motel 6 stopping at many nostalgic and retro sights along the way.

The next day after a filling breakfast at the IHOP (International House of Pancakes) we headed to our next destination which was Springfield Missouri! Most of the day it poured with rain and we ended up jumping onto the interstate to get to our hotel on time which was the Best Western Route 66 Rail Haven (see my earlier post).

Today we have travelled for almost 9 hours and reached Oklahoma City where we are staying in a luxorious Hampton Inn & Suites by Hilton which is worlds apart from the cheap motels we’ve been in the last 2 nights!

I’ve not had much chance to write and no Wifi for the last few days so I apologise if this post is more of a summary but I have lots of exciting pictures and videos to share upon my return (some of which I’ve already uploaded to my flickr which you’ll see on this site).

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