Flagstaff to Kingman

Plan for the 3rd was to head to Kingman, see a zoo on the way, stay the night, see some trains in the famous Kingman Canyon, then head back. So we headed off on the 3rd. Encountered a wildfire along the way at Williams; turns out a controlled burn off had got a little out of control, hundred or so homes evacuated, etc. Oops!

Smoke on the highway

After Williams we turned off the Interstate and onto the old Route 66. Yes that Route 66. The Mother Road and all that. Stopped in at Seligman and had a look around; wow, what a weird town! I'd head the Snow-Cap store there was a must visit, so stopped in for a malt. Quite a shop! We went in and found ourselves in a tiny little hallway where we could place our order, but what really struck me were the thousands of things stuck to every available surface.

 
Outside the Snow-Cap store / Inside, little business cards and stickers everywhere.

I ordered a banana malt, but having never had a malt I wasn't too sure what to expect. The girl asked me if I wanted mustard with that while simultaneously reaching for a mustard bottle, then suddenly a great string of mustard flew out and all over me! But it was just yellow wool, sure gave me a shock though! Our malts were delicious though; they're more or less a milk shake made mostly with ice cream. Very refreshing!

Explored the rest of the town; it is very much living off the Route 66 fame. Saw a tour bus pull off the Interstate, let everyone off to buy their Route 66 memorabilia, then back into the Interstate! Somehow I don't think that's doing it justice. Everywhere we looked there were old cars, witty signs, etc.

Roadkill Cafe – "you kill it, we grill it" / "garden" at the back of the Snow Cap.

Various clever signs around town.

Onwards towards Kingman we went. Caught up to a BNSF freight along the way, so snapped off a shot of him. Picked up an odd fruit I found lying in the grass; it might be a mini pumpkin?

BNSF double stacker heading West, looking sharp in the black/orange paint scheme and powerbar logo.

Stopped at Keepers of the Wild, a small zoo on Rt 66. Was pretty much the same as Out of Africa zoo we'd been to the other day, only with different animals. Apparently all their animals are rescued, which is nice, but they have 25 or so tigers; that's a lot of rescued tigers! They had some very pretty wolves though.

And they had a fawn which was SO cute, and you could go in and pet him, but he took a bit of a liking to me and started licking my fingers, then my hand, then he wanted to suckle on my little finger, but he kept trying to suckle more and more of it! Luckily his teeth were very small so it wasn't a problem, but then without warning his chompers connected with my finger and oww! Extracted my finger but he'd drawn a little blood, so very sheepishly I went to the office and asked the lady there how good she was at first-aid; she immediately assumed the worst so was quite relieved when it turned out it was just a little cut. Luckily all their animals have had their shots so I should be safe; she said if I wake up in the morning with a deer head, give them a call! So bitten by a herbivore; nice one Michael1

Fred the fawn (who now has a taste for human)

The zoo itself was typical old-style zoo with high mesh fences and so forth. The tigers all looked pretty bored. They had some cool parrots that could say hello and byebye, so had a bit of a chat to them.

After that it was on to Kingman. Passed some amazing desert in the setting sun.

Desert on the outskirts of Kingman

In Kingman we were surprised to find the entire main street lined with motels, all advertising their rates in large neon letters. Was like window shopping. Found quite a nice place, got the railfan room where you can see both main lines from the bed :-) Their wifi was very intermittent though, had better luck with the neighbouring motels wireless.

BNSF transcon mainline from the room / Sunset from the room, motel signs and street lights lining the horizon.

Went to a bbq joint that night for dinner, had a the ribs and steak, but was way too much for me. Was served by Manny. The ribs were very good and tender though, was a shame not to finish them. Then it was off to bed ready for a big day of train spotting.