It’s Day Eleven of our Route 66 road-trip, driving from Flagstaff, Arizona to Needles, California. Who are we? Jeff and Jane, expat Brits living in Santa Monica, California. We have just finished our number one bucket-list item – driving Route 66 from Chicago back to our home town. Our mission? To Eat Vegan on Route 66 and share our experiences with you.

Route 66: Arizona Rocks

This day was one of the best days of our Route 66 road-trip. Magnificent scenery combined with eclectic attractions to create a memorable day. But not everything lived up to its reputation. We’d visited Williams, AZ, many years back and found it to be a quaint, authentic cowboy town. Nowadays, it is Route 66 kitsch, gift stores, diners galore – with barely a hint of its gloried past. Even so, I was glad to see that the Sultana Bar was still going strong. I’d witnessed a real bar fight there back in the day!

For a more genuine experience, we visited the charming Ash Fork Museum. It was a cornucopia of historical artifacts ranging from antique vehicles to a jailcell to a model of a Harvey House hotel. Coincidentally, the museum guide, Debbie, had studied in Cardiff, Wales, and had even lived in the same road as my Welsh husband, though maybe a year apart!

Don’t miss the amusing Burma Shave signs, dotted along the Old Route 66 as you leave Ash Fork. And don’t miss the fascinating Hackberry General Store on the longest remaining stretch of Route 66. We did – and had to make a quick U-turn! This place is stuffed with the weird and wonderful, and is also a great Instagram spot. We also dropped in on the Desert Diamond Distillery, Kingman for a tot of whiskey, and a dose of bragging from the pompous owner.

As the sun dropped in the sky, we began our drive over the Black Mountains through the stunning Sitgreaves Pass. Not for the faint-hearted (that is, me), this long and winding road offers incredible views along with hairpin curves and terrifying drops! Heading into the setting sun made for even more difficult driving conditions, but the evening light brought incredible shadows to the landscape. As we reached the town of Oatman in the dusk, we spotted a mother donkey and her foal trotting along the Main Street. Sadly, some people were feeding them despite the warning signs. Apparently the semi-wild burros now suffer from diabetes due to over-feeding from tourists.

Fortuitously, the moon rose as we reached the flat desert plain, giving us a spooky view of the last Supermoon of the year.

How to Eat Vegan on Route 66: Sad Salad and Happy Hour Wine

We crossed the Colorado River into California in the dark, and sped to our final destination, Needles. The Best Western Colorado River proved to be a decent motel with a next-door sister diner, Chilling Point. We had planned to eat at a local Indian restaurant, but phoned first to check on their vegan options. They didn’t even seem to know what vegan meant, so that was a no-go. Instead, we popped over to the diner to find a typical meat-centric diner menu, but a very friendly and helpful hostess. She managed to cobble together a half-decent meal of corn chips and salsa, baked potato and salad. The special offer on a bottle of wine certainly sweetened the deal.

Next morning, the breakfast on offer at Chilling Point was rather poor, so back to the peanut butter and crackers. Not a great place to Eat Vegan on Route 66.

Tip of The Day – how long does Route 66 take? Well, we did it in 12 days (plus 2 days in Chicago) but many scheduled tours do it in just 10 days. I’d recommend a three week road-trip, as we felt that we had to rush some of the days. And there were places we’d have liked to explore further, such as Tulsa and Albuquerque.

Finally, use my public shared Google Map Route 66 Vegan to locate all the places mentioned on this trip.

Miles Traveled Today: 229

Total Miles Traveled: 2002

Next stop – Santa Monica, California.