Road Trip Studios: Family-Friendly Adventures on Route 66 and Beyond in the Great Southwest

Stopped in the interesting semi-ghost, artsy mining town of Chloride, just outside of Kingman on Highway 93. Established in 1860, it is the oldest continuously inhabitated mining town in the state. The town is the home to the Chloride Cliff murals, painted by artist Roy Purcell in 1966 and touched up by Purcell in 1970 and again in 2006 when he was 70 years old (when you see the height of these boulders one wonders how he accomplished this task!).  From the highway it seemed there was nothing out there, but the town (population 352) has a couple restaurants, a hotel and several art/antique/curio shops. Every resident who happens to be outside will wave to you as you pass through 😊.  Las Vegas Journal - Chloride Plan Your Trip Explore Kingman Arizona Highways: Ghost Towns Road Trip Studios: Unique Mementos and Gifts

Looking West from Cool Springs Station as Gold Hill Grade makes it's narrow climb towards Sitgreaves Pass on the Historic Route 66 National Backcountry Byway. Beginning at Kingman, "this 42-mile stretch of two-lane blacktop is one of the last and best-preserved segments of the original Route 66, one of America's first transcontinental highways. This portion of the highway once included one of the most fearsome obstacles for "flatland" travelers in the 1930's: the hairpin curves and steep grades of Sitgreaves Pass, which characterize Old Route 66 as it makes its way over the Black Mountains of western Arizona."  BLM Back Country Byway As you enter Sitgreaves Pass, on the way to Oatman, you will pass by Memorial Hill where dozens of crosses and unique tributes are carefully placed overlooking the mountain range to the south.  Oatman offers a unique rustic charm, rooted in the authenticity of its history as a mining town and the legend of Olive

Sometimes, or perhaps, always, great and far reaching human kindness starts on a smaller yet no less significant scale. In the case of the Make-A-Wish Foundation, it arguably might not exist but for it's Founder, Frank Shankwitz's experience growing up on Route 66 in Seligman, Arizona. By age 10, Shankwitz had spent years on the road, homeless, with his mother who had kidnapped him. The kindness and mentorship he received working as a dishwasher at Juan Delgadillo's Snow Cap Drive-In set him on a path of philanthropy and success in the air force, as an Arizona Highway Patrol motorcycle officer and homicide detective. Shankwitz has described Delgadillo, who passed in 2004, as a stand in father figure. In several interviews he has shared how Delgadillo taught him the then novel idea of "turning negatives into positives." When Shankwitz's mother abandoned him in Seligman at age 12, Delgadillo arranged for him to live with a local woman (whom he descri