Arizona 66 is a lonely road, interrupted only by a few towns and one attraction, the Grand Canyon Caverns. At one point if you look carefully you can see the north and south rims of the Grand Canyon on the northern horizon. The Caverns were a 66 tourist trap until the bypass was completed and now the distance between I-40 and 66 has left them with less clientele. But when we drove by the parking lot was far from empty, mostly occupied by tour buses that make the Kingman-to-Seligman run and probably originate in Vegas or Phoenix. Cruising past there we followed the old road, passing only a few cars and dealing briefly with construction near Valentine as the sun approached the mountains near the Colorado River. The store at Hackberry was closed so we pressed on to the north side of Kingman and settled for generic coffee at Terrible Herbst’s on Andy Devine Boulevard. Now eager to get on to Cali, we took the interstate through the towering cuts in the rock cliffs between Kingman and Yucca; a drive through Oatman would have to wait for another day. We also got to see the old Dinesphere, originally intended to be a restaurant and showcase for Lake Havasu Estates, but now a private home, in the fading twilight.
We knew there would be a big difference in the price of fuel between Arizona and California so we stopped at the Lake Havasu exit to tank up. $2.69 for premium gas, the best price anywhere, and well below the $3.49 or better they wanted in Needles and beyond. (I never thought I would consider anything over $2 a gallon to be “low-priced,” but, well, c’est la vie.) We whooped and hollered when we crossed the California line, now with the targa top stowed behind the seats and the desert sky overhead. The moon lit up the thin clouds and paced us as we covered ground, not nearly fast enough, and when we crested Cajon and dropped into the basin below the San Gabriels it felt like home. We determined that we would drive on the 210 until we got to the 605, then connect with the 10/Santa Monica freeway that should put us right near the Pier.
