Route 66, Hotels, and Donkeys – Thoughts from September 15 and 16, 2024

September 15, 2024

Today is not only Patti’s birthday, but it is the beginning of our Route 66 trip. We’re driving to various locations in Arizona and New Mexico. After we hit Roswell, we head back to California. We finished packing last night. I’m not sure I have enough clothes for the return trip, but I’ll find out when we’re leaving New Mexico. We got gas in California. I’m sure it will be the highest we’ll pay for a while. We listened to podcasts as I drove. Patti doesn’t even pretend that she’s going to drive at any point. With the problems with her right eye, it’s probably for the best.

Our first stop was in Lake Havasu City. It’s about four hours from our house, but it took more like five to six hours because of stops along the way. We got set up in our hotel room and went to bed early. It wouldn’t be early to most people, but it was early for us. Netflix and YouTube were available in the room so we watched YouTube shows until we were actually going to bed. Patti must have a show on the TV to sleep. Brooklyn 99 was on Netflix so we slept to that. I put on my eye mask and earplugs. It was still a struggle to get the volume on the TV low enough. Patti needs to hear the voices on the TV even though she’s supposed to be sleeping. It keeps our marriage exciting.

September 16, 2024

Patti and I woke up in Lake Havasu City this morning. I think Patti woke up about 9:00 AM and I woke up about 10:00 AM. She got me some complimentary breakfast items. It was the beginning of my vacation breakfast. My normal breakfast consists of zucchini, mushrooms, almonds, an apple, radishes, and my homemade hummus. The only thing that was the same was the apple. It just reminds me what happens when I eat a “normal” breakfast and why I eat the way I do. The normal American diet is not healthy. It’s just easy and tasty.

We arrived at our first real Route 66 location a little before 1:00 PM. It was Oatman, Arizona. The small town is famous for its free-roaming donkeys. As if he was the welcoming committee, a donkey was standing in the middle of the street with the old western town behind him. Both donkeys and people crowded the town. This seemed odd for a small town in the middle of nowhere at one in the afternoon on a Monday. The people outnumbered the donkeys, but our focus was on the donkeys and the donkey-related merchandise.

More than one donkey walked right into the shops around town. The shopkeepers seemed to know the donkeys by name. One of them taught a donkey to dance. Early on, we bought food for the donkeys. It was clumps of hay mashed together that was slightly larger than a golf ball. You were supposed to hold it in your palm and let them eat it out of your hand, but Patti could never get herself to do it. She put the food on the ground and made them eat from there. I tried to feed the donkeys equally, but some of them were pushy. One was so pushy he went right for my bag of food and ripped it open. Two of the pellets of food fell out. He seemed not even to notice the ones on the ground and was still going for the bag. I held it closed where he ripped it. It took two hands to hold the bag now.

I walked around holding the bag with two hands, just looking for donkeys to feed so I could give away the rest of the food. Patti fed the donkeys before me, so I had to wait until they finished eating what she gave them. Eventually, I cleared out the bag and threw the empty bag in the trash. Now I could go back to taking pictures of the donkeys and the town. I really wanted to wash my hands of all the donkey food, fur, and slobber, but there wasn’t a convenient restroom around. I asked Patti if she had any hand sanitizer. She did. This is one of the few times I will use hand sanitizer. I’m against using hand sanitizer unless soap is unavailable. Using hand sanitizer instead of soap is just stupid.

At about 6:30 PM, we arrived in Winslow, Arizona. We stood on the corner and took it easy. If you don’t know why we did that, play Take It Easy by the Eagles. There are statues of Glenn Frey on the corner and a giant Arizona US 66 on the ground facing the opposite corner where all the references to the song exist. There was a store on that corner that had a giant guitar. Patti took a picture of me playing the guitar. There was Eagles merchandise along with the usual Route 66 memorabilia. The sun was going down, and it was dark by the time we left Winslow.

Our last stop of the day was in our tepee-shaped hotel room in Holbrook where we were staying for the night. The idea of staying in a tepee sounds more fun than it actually is. It’s giant for a tepee but small for a hotel room. The tepees had been there many years, and everything inside showed their age. The key to the door was a regular metal key and the air conditioner was so loud, we had to turn up the TV. This became an issue when Patti insisted on having the TV while we slept. I turned it down until I could barely hear it with my earplugs in. In the middle of the night, Patti commandeered the remote for the TV and turned it up. This fun dance will probably continue until our final days.