Having left Springerville, Arizona two hours ago, with our evening destination being Flagstaff, I had a feeling that some of our checkpoints might involve small segments of the old US-66 route. Indeed, I was correct.
Our first stop was to find the ruins of an old drive-in theater, the Tonto Drive-In, located along the old Route 66 in Winslow, Arizona. This drive-in opened in 1951 and closed in 1985, and was one of the last open air theaters along Route 66.
Continuing that theme, our next checkpoint was to locate the Old Observation Tower in Winslow. Constructed in the late 1930s, the Meteor Crater Observatory was constructed for remote viewing of the meteor crater (also known as the Barringer Crater) out in the desert. The meteorite hit this spot about 50,000 years ago. Today, there is a modern visitor center located closer to the crater, with guided tours available. The old observation tower still stands along the old Route 66, but the stretch of road is closed off to traffic.
Nearing Flagstaff, another ruin along Route 66 is the Twin Arrows Trading Post, which originally included a gas station, diner, and gift shop. Only one of the twin arrows remained standing when I visited.
The next checkpoint was the Walnut Canyon Bridge, completed in 1924 and becoming part of Route 66. The bridge is closed to traffic, and part of the road is still intact; it is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Our last checkpoint of the day was the final muffler man on the rally. This muffler man, Louie the Lumberjack, was located on the campus of Northern Arizona University, which is the university mascot. There was a second, identical muffler man located inside the university’s Skydome, but it was removed after a 2018 renovation. Both of these muffler men originally stood at the Lumberjack Café in Flagstaff until a new restaurant owner renamed it to Granny’s Closet and gave the statues to the university. During its stay at the restaurant, it was seen in the film Easy Rider, with a red shirt.
Roadside America has a great interview with Steve Dashew, who owned International Fiberglass, the company that made these muffler men and other large fiberglass figures. There were many variations on the muffler men–cowboys, Indians, spacemen, etc., and they also made the iconic green dinosaurs for Sinclair. Dashew bought the business from Bob Prewitt, who made the original Paul Bunyan statue for the Paul Bunyan Café in Flagstaff. As that restaurant was later renamed the Lumberjack Café, one of the two muffler men at the university could have been the first one made by Prewitt in 1962.
Forgoing the recommended hotel for the evening, I checked in at a brand new La Quinta just down the road, and decided to visit a favorite restaurant in Flagstaff–Oregano’s. The location I ate at previously appears to have been closed, but this one was located in a shopping mall near the hotel. For once, I didn’t have Mexican food for dinner. I wavered between the pizza or the pasta, and ended up with the latter.
One concern we had during the driver’s meeting was the ongoing Tunnel Fire just north of Flagstaff. Late in the afternoon, we had an email from the Lemons staff that US-89 north of Flagstaff was closed, and the recommended alternate route would prevent us from backtracking nearly all the way to the New Mexico border, or from driving through Hopi or Navajo lands (which they strongly discouraged). The recommended route would instead use Arizona state roads to rejoin US-89.