Needles, California, United States
So the thing about a wigwam (at least our wigwam!) is that
the Internet doesn’t work (“you are connected to this network but you do not
have Internet access”), the television doesn’t work, there is no phone, there
is literally nowhere in the bathroom to put your toiletry bag except on the
toilet, the staff do not provide shampoo or other toiletries (soap, yes), the
bed is really close to the wall so one of you has to clamber over the end of it
to get out in the middle of the night, the light switch for the bathroom is
outside the door, so you have to flood the wigwam with light every time you
turn it on, there are only two pillows, and wigwams do not have blackout
curtains. They also do not provide free
hot breakfast! (Maybe it’s just as well not to have Internet access; Internet
in a wigwam is a serious anachronism!)
HOWEVER: one does not stay in a wigwam to have high-class creature
comforts; one stays in a wigwam so that one can say one stayed in a wigwam! I loved it.
And we’re staying in another one later on.
Today was the most aggravating day of the trip so far, I
have to say. What we saw was very cool
and mostly super funky, but we kept running into problems—some minor, some less
so. The biggest ones had to do with an
apparent total lack of competence by those in charge of Arizona roads. First, they were doing massive construction
on I-40, and it was down to one lane for miles and miles without any actual
workers in sight. Then, after we were able to drive an actual section of old 66, we needed to get back on to drive west on I-40
for two miles. The onramp was
closed. As, it turned out, was the next
one to the east, although all the detour signs directed us to that next one
east. In the end, we had to drive 22
miles out of our way to go 2 miles west.
Later in the day, we headed out on a long stretch of old 66
through the Black Mountains to Needles.
We drove about 14 miles and discovered that the road was closed. Avalanche wiped out a section. We had to retrace our steps completely,
meaning another 28 miles out of our way—50 on the day—and more than another hour
wasted.
It would have killed them to put
up a sign at the beginning of that stretch of 66 to say “Hey, tourists! The road is closed at mile marker 34!”? Madness.
Then we got to the hotel, finally, only to discover that for
the second night in a row, the wifi does not work. I get these are vintage hotels, but if they
advertise wifi, it really should work!
We did see some very cool things today, however, in our 11.5
hour sojourn, hotel to hotel. I’ve put
the commentary on the pictures.
Much less driving tomorrow—only 160 miles (as opposed to
today’s 319 (not counting the 50 extra), so we should be less tired and cranky
when we are done. There’s a drive-in
tomorrow, though and the movie choices are crap: The
Incredibles 2 and Ant Man and Wasp,
which we saw the other night, or The
First Purge and Jurassic World. We knew we couldn’t escape another round
of ridiculous claims about dinosaurs. We
just don’t have that kind of luck!
2025-05-23