Seligman AZ to Topock on Rt 66
May 5 – 7, 2017
by Conrad Monroe
One of the more fun car things that you can do in Arizona is to participate in the annual Route 66 Fun Run from Seligman to Topock Arizona following one of the longer remaining stretches of Route 66. This was the third time that Michelle and I made the run, and this was one of the best ones yet. As I recall the total entries numbered close to 900, which did not take into account all of the folks that made the run without signing up. There were several large Corvette and Mustang clubs in attendance including a group of 24 Mustangs driven by French citizens from Paris. A large number of Germans were aboard a variety of Harley Davidsons. The event has become quite popular with both the Australians and New Zealanders as well.
This year Michelle and I traveled the Mother Road with a group of friends from Show Low. We all met at the Mustang Gas Station on the corner of Rt 60 & 77. Making the trip with us was John & Jan Corder in their red Mustang Coupe, James & Sharon Johnston in their Chevy SUV, Ed Turner in his 1956 Chevy Wagon, Tom and Connie Kakavas in their white Corvette Coupe, Dave and Lydia Larson in their black Mustang Convertible, Jim Morse in his white Thunderbird, Bob & Linda Shultz, in their Dodge Ram Diesel Pick Up, Paul Edwards & Lynn Felton in Paul’s yellow Cadillac Hard Top, Sylvia Carruthers in her Honda Coupe and Dan Goude in his Nova. Terry & Sheila Ringey in their orange Boss Mustang Coupe, met us at the Cracker Barrell in Flagstaff.
Michelle and I were leading the group on the 1st leg of the drive. We were about a mile up Rt77 from the gas station when all of a sudden a very large cloud of dirt swept over the road in front of us. When the dust settled we saw that a very large cement mixer that been heading south on the highway had for some reason swerved on to the shoulder then proceeded to roll over and skid around so that when it came to rest it was headed north and was lying on it’s side. Fortunately the driver’s side was still in fair shape. By the time that I got to the truck, a couple of gentlemen had gotten the door open and had helped the driver to his feet. He had a pretty good scrape on his forehead but was otherwise in decent shape. Soon after Show Low PD arrived on the scene as did the paramedics. Of course during all of this, my camera remained on the back seat and my iPhone was in its cradle… sigh. Here is a link to the article from the White Mountain Independent.
Thankfully no further excitement was to be had on the rest of the trip!
After lunch at the Cracker Barrel we drove into Williams were we spent the night. After registering at the hotel we walked up to Main Street i.e. Route 66 and had a great time visiting the shops and seeing the sights.
Williams AZ
The weather had been great on Friday and it continued being nice throughout Saturday. After breakfast we loaded up and drove down I40 to Seligman where we joined all of the rest of the participants. We had about 1 1/2 hrs to spend before we took off at 10:00 AM for Hackberry. We had lunch at the General Store where we ran into Tom & Val Altgilber. Tom & Val have been regular participants of the Fun Run for a number of years, they were driving the Suburban and were having a good time! While walking around taking pictures I noticed that the 1957 Corvette that had been a fixture at the General Store for years was gone. Somebody finally made the owner an offer he could not refuse! Kind of sad to see it gone…
Seligman – Hackberry – Kingman
After a rather good Pulled Pork Sandwich we continued down Route 66 to Kingman, AZ. After checking in to the hotel, Michelle and I went to the car show that was set up in the downtown area. We were the only ones that had preregistered for the Fun Run and by the time that we got to Seligman they had sold out and were not taking anymore entries, so it was only us doing the Show & Shine. We had a lot of interest in the wagon from a number of spectators and entrants. It is really a lot of fun, owning a fairly rare car that is not often seen. Lots of questions and comments!
Kingman – Oatman – Topock
Unfortunately, over night a cold front blew in and we awoke to cloudy, overcast skies and gusty winds… oh well. We had a nice drive down to Oatman were we spent time window shopping and sightseeing. The Donkeys are still an integral part of life in Oatman, which made Michelle happy… After Oatman, we headed down to Topock to look at the awards hoopla and the rest of the crew headed off to Laughlin NV for some Casino fun.
The Award Ceremony was held inside the Golden Shores Rec Center so we could get out of the chilly wind for awhile. I was very surprised to see the number of winners that were no shows… I am guessing here but I think almost 1/3 of the awards went unclaimed.
All in all a very fun relaxing trip, mainly due to the great group of folks that we were with. Lots of laughing and storytelling! What’s not to love.
Until next time! Stay safe and keep it on it’s wheels… don’t be that cement truck driver guy… 😎
Conrad