Sedona, AZ to Home – Saturday, August 9

Gayle got up early this morning to take a few photos of the mountains as the sun rose.   Neal joined her a little later and we checked on Flash.  He was tucked in next to a bright yellow 2003 Corvette.  After we enjoyed the free breakfast at the Best Western, we hit the road home.

Dawn at Sedona

Corvettes at Sedona

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crossing the Colorado, Arizona in the rear view mirror

Neal called Jack and Carole Allison and discovered they were traveling towards Phoenix so we arranged to get together with them in Blythe so they could see the new car.  Neal and Jack looked everything over and decided Flash was a keeper.

We arrived home around 3PM and pulled Flash into his new garage.  Sunday morning Neal will be in the driveway giving him a much needed bath and probably a good waxing.  I’m sure all the men in the neighborhood will stop by to inspect the new car. 

 

 

Home at last

 

What a trip.  We had a good time, saw a lot of the country, found some areas we’d like to return to and got home safely.  All in all the drive was 2058 miles from the Museum to home.  Gas mileage was 25.9 mpg overall this included cruising at speeds up to 80, climbing to 7000+ feet elevation while crossing the divide and checkin out of the pipes.

Grants, NM to Sedona, AZ – Friday, August 8

We started off fairly early this morning after a comfortable night at the Holiday Inn Express in Grants, NM.  Our first stop was a gas station and gift shop at the Continental Divide at 7,245 Ft.  Lots of Indian jewelry and trinkets were available as well as more Rt. 66 items.  We bought gas, took photos and moved on through Gallup, NM – where we originally tried to stay but couldn’t find a Holiday Inn.  Once we drove through we understood why.  The town is filled with stores offering Indian jewelry and according to the AAA book, is a major trading area.  We saw a few hotels, but nothing significant. 

Gassing up at the Continental Divide

Route 66 at the Continental Divide

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The lady at the NM Visitors Center gave us a brochure on the Petrified Forest National Park, which also included the Painted Desert on one side of the road and the Petrified Forest on the other.  We spent a few hours admiring the beauty of the area and pulled off at most of the overlooks for photo ops.  Gayle finally drove the car — only at 20MPH — but that was the posted speed on that particular road. 

Gayle's first drive in Flash

The Bad Lands of the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest

 

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to pass up the meteor crater and push on to Sedona for the night.  We drove down the winding roads of Hwy 89 into gorgeous Sedona, took a few photos of the famous red rocks along the way and arrived at the Best Western way out on 89A, unpacked the car, and got into the room just as a huge thunderstorm hit the area.  We haven’t seen storms like that since we lived in Texas.  Once the storm passed, we walked down the hill from the hotel to have dinner at a little restaurant in a nearby shopping center.  Dinner was very nice accompanied by a bottle of wine (since we were walking home).  We slept well that night in one of the prettiest places in Arizona – not counting the Grand Canyon.

Lots to see at the Painted Desert

Some fellow Crows seemed to follow us through the park

Still tired, but now in Grants, NM. Thursday August 7

This all happened on Thursday, August 7.    We started off fairly early this morning and stopped to see the Cadillac Ranch, which for those of you who are uninformed, is a farm field west of Amarillo, TX with a row of vintage Cadillacs planted nose first in the ground.  The farmer encourages folks to stop by and write their names or some design on the Cadillacs, take pictures and enjoy the view.  We did that.  Then on to Tucumcari, a town that looks like it’s relying on their Rt. 66 fame to keep them going.  There were lots of old motor inns and half torn-down buildings, murals and signs paying homage to Rt. 66.  We took a few photos there.

Gayle and the Cadillacs

 

Route 66, New Mexico

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 On to the Route 66 Auto Museum, an interesting place filled with cars and Rt. 66 stuff – signs, salt shaker, glasses, mugs, pot holders, you name it.  It was worth stopping just to look at all the old cars – some of which we remember riding in when we were in high school. 

Lots of museums on Rte 66

The car is signed by "Elvis" but I'm not so sure....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got off Hwy 40 at Exit 117 and drove some of the original Rt. 66 through gorgeous rock formations, took photos and enjoyed the view.  We got back on Rt. 40 just before Grants, NM where we are now going to spend the night. 

Fortunately we had plenty of gas

 

 

Our dinner tonight was at a local restaurant where we sure did enjoy watching the locals – cowboys with hats on, a woman with tight bun of hair balanced on her head (how did she do that), successful Indians from the local tribes, and town folks enjoying an evening out.  It reminded us how lucky we are to live in a much bigger town with good restaurants and shops.  When we checked into the Holiday Inn Express, the front desk clerk handed us a list of local restaurants – the top 5 included Denny’s, Pizza Hut and McDonalds.  Yum.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Friday’s goal is Sedona, AZ.  We’ll stay there for the night, then get up early on Saturday morning and head for home.  We hope to get there in time to pick Quincey up from the kennel.  Neal will be in the driveway on Sunday morning washing all the trip dirt off Flash as the neighbors come by to see the new car.

Ft Smith AR to Amarillo TX August 6

Finally a full day driving at the speeds Flash likes to travel.  It was difficult the first few days to hold him in check till we reached the 500 miles mark.  He is purring along the highway and has met every expectation weve had.  Gas mileage, of course, went down a little from the 29mpg we were getting at the lower speeds, but still is quite good around 26-27mpg. 

 

We picked up Rte 66 at Oaklahoma City. 

Very nice visitor center at the Oaklahoma border

We picked up a lot of dirt already

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We pulled into a Carl’s Jr. for a lunch of $6 burgers and low and beyond, right across the parking lot was an O’Reilly’s Auto Supply.  We now have photos of Neal cleaning Flash in the Carl’s parking lot. 

One in the cage and one running free

This was the best of the Rte 66 Museums, Clinton OK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gayle checking out how things were..

From a very different era..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second museum was in Elk City OK

Lots of things to see

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A restored museum at the U drop Inn

 

While we were stopped here, an Italian couple came up and young lady asked if her boyfriend could take a picture of her posing with the car.  She looked so cute, Neal almost took one too, but Gayle slapped him. 

 

 

 

 

Leaning tower of Texas

Both of us were exhausted last night (Wednesday) after a full day of stopping along Rt. 66 to see museums and various other strange things, and lots of driving.  We had a nice dinner at the Texas Roadhouse which conveniently was right across the parking lot from yet another Holiday Inn (we’re using all those points Neal has accumulated).  After the dinner, we both decided the blog would have to wait and then promptly went to sleep.  Yawn.   Gayle decided to post a note this morning to let ya’ll know she hasn’t killed Neal yet so bail money isn’t necessary. 

  So far there haven’t been any mechanical problems, just a few minor things with the navigation system and Onstar.  We’ll have to do a little more reading about both, but  we’ve decided the turn-by-turn OnStar feature isn’t necessary since we have the navigation system.  And the navigation system is good, but doesn’t have as much information as our handheld Magellon.

We plan to make it to Grant NM tonight after another full day of Rt. 66 memorabilia.

Jackson TN to Ft Smith AR, August 5

Another day on the road, we rolled out early about 11:30 am after a leisurely breakfast and a bunch of e-mails to answer.  Neal couldn’t help but clean the bird droppings off the car.  First he tipped some transient in the parking lot with the name of Freed Love (No Kidding) anyway Freed said that I was a lovely car and he sure wished he could afford of them but he was kinda down on his luck but he delivered a good story before $20 persuaded him that could go find someone else to talk to. 

Neal needs to get a bottle of show n shine.

 

After that we got down the road to Memphis.  We didn’t have time to visit Graceland but Gayle ran into Elvis at the visitors center, we picked up lots of Elvis stuff for the next visit. 

A brief chat and photo session with the King in his younger days

Back on the road we looped around Memphis with thoughts of the Barbecue we missed and then crossed the mighty Mississippi and kept on rolling into Arkansas. 

Crossing the Mighty Mississippee

From there we headed across Arkansas. We stopped in some little podunk town in North Arkansas for a sandwich and our first gas purchase.  We had traveled some 305 miles on 11.3 gallons of gas — Al Gore can keep his Prius.  We rolled on through the lovely North Arkansas scenery.  Lots of swamps, duck ponds, rice fields, corn fields and cotton fields.  It really is the prettiest part of Arkansas that Neal and Gayle have seen.   But it was all new to me.  It didn’t look like Spring Mountain. 

We rolled on to some roadside overlook looking at a lake in North Arkansas.  At that point we held Flash’s Bar Mitzvah ceremony because the obligatory 500 mile break-in was complete.  No more poking along.  At the point the computer said the average mileage was 29 miles/gallon.   Not bad for an Automatic Tranny. 

The overlook and Bar Mitzvah

The odometer reading was recorded for posterity in case the warranty folks ever have an opinion.  After this event the departure from the overlook was a tad more brisk.  We also passed a few of the folks that had previously passed us wondering if we had car trouble. 

Finally 500 miles -- no more pussyfoot

We then rolled on to Ft Smith, were weren’t sure what to expect because none of us had ever been to Ft Smith AR before.  Its a bit of a college town with an extension of the University of Arkansas and a bit plain and simple.  Just a good example of a countrified town in rural America.  Actually its the kind of simple place that makes a guy want to get up early and get on the road.  When we questioned the waitress at dinner as to where the house wine came from, she replied — from the box in the refrigerator.  That should give you an idea of the sophistication in this town.  Actually, dinner was pretty good once we got past the salad dressing drenched iceburg lettuce.

The main drag at Ft Smith, it was not cruise night

Pick Up Day at the Museum, August 4

This is a very abbreviated note because it was late by the time we got to Jackson.  We had a very enjoyable tour and introductory session.  They crammed about a 4 hour tour into 6 hours with no lunch break.  But its done, got see a lot of neat things about how they are built.  Equally impressive were the quality checks before they release the car.  These include a Chassis Dyno test which is a sight to see by itself. 

Neal also got invited to sit one of the new cars at the end of the line and start its engine for the very first time.  He has a certificate to go with it, and its future owner will never know. 

Click on the pictures for a larger view. 

Plate is installed and Neal and Flash are ready to go.

Out front, luggage loaded and getting ready to leave

Gayle was disappointed by the driving rules

Do you think they mean it??

Tomorrow we hit the open road, sort of following the break in rules and trying to decipher the electronics.  If we have time, we hope to stop at Graceland. 

Nashville to Bowling Green, August 3

Neal and Gayle looking for love

Neal and Gayle spent Saturday night in Nashville, then went off to see some friends.  We also stopped at the Loveless Cafe for some Blackberry Jam and Country Ham.  Neal was assured that the ham would last the drive home and would not make the new car smell like a smoke house on the way home.  We”ll see. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Who says a man can't read dirctions

After after a delicious lunch with some Nashville friends, N&G headed for Bowling Green to get a chance to meet up with me, (PW Flash).  Neal couldn’t remember how to get here and so he had to check the paperwork for the umpteenth time. 

 

They drove up to the museum at 5min before closing and Neal talked his way in.  There they took a look at the other cars, none looked as shiny and posed for some pictures. 

 

 

Here we are with the first chance to get a good picture of me. 

Neal and PW Flash

As you can see, Neal has a short attention span and wasn’t looking at Gayle when she took the picture.  Gayle checked the car out to verify the seats and the Automatic transmission.  A short walk around the Museum and then they were gone leaving me to spend one last night with all my friends here in the “Nursery” . Tomorrow is the open road, I can’t wait.

Heading to Nashville, August 2

Saturday August 2. 

Gayle and I arrived at the Palm Springs Airport, courtesy of a ride from Jack and Carol. 

 

Neal and Gayle at the airport and ready to go, only about 90 minutes before our flight to Dallas.  From there we will change planes have a bite of barbecue and get to Nashville about midnight.  From Nashville it will be about a 60 mile drive by rental car.

 

 

 

 

 

 Changing planes in Dallas.  Our flight from Palm Springs was comfy in first class (Neal has a lot of airline miles) and Gayle enjoyed the warm choclolate chip cookie that they served after lunch.  Changing planes in Dallas is now easy since the added the trains.  Some nice lady offered to take a picture of both of us at the trains but I think they turn out better with just Gayle in the picture.  Here she is with our carry on luggage.  Neal says wheelies are for sissies. The Corvette duffle bag holds a lot of stuff that we plan to use for the drive home including license plates, camera, GPS, Radar Dectector, spare clothes in case our luggage doesn’t make it,  hats and extra shoes.  Fortunately we don’t have to carry it that much.

Hello world!

This is the story about the arrival of PW Flash, a 2009 black Corvette.