Electric Route 66

On March 16th, we took The Blue Spirit down to Kingman, Arizona for the first Chillin' On Beale of 2019. Chillin' on Beale Street is a monthly cruise-in car show & block party that takes place in downtown Kingman from the spring to the fall. We had planned to attend the final event of 2018 last October, but our plans fell through. This year's first event was on March 16th and was the first CoB that we have attended. It was great fun! En Route: Santa Claus, Arizona On the way down highway US 93 to Kingman from Las Vegas, we made a short stop at an abandoned roadside attraction known as Santa Claus, Arizona. The settlement was begun in 1937 by a real estate agent whose intent was to develop a Christmas-themed resort town. The Santa Claus Inn restaurant was very popular, and other buildings were added with a fairy tale theme, such as Cinderella's doll house and the house of the third little pig. Though the real estate development never got off the ground, the res...

I hope everyone had a good St. Patrick's Day! We spent the day at home, but that gave me a chance to write about our March 10 foray into the Mojave Desert, a day trip to visit nearby tourist destinations and encourage development of EV infrastructure. Cool Springs, Arizona Located west of Kingman on Route 66, Cool Springs was opened in the 1920s and was once a service station, store and tourist cabins for overnight stays. This section of Route 66 was bypassed by a new alignment in the 1950s, and in the 1960s Cool Springs closed when a fire reduced it to ruin. Just a few stone walls and pillars remained when it was briefly reconstructed for the 1992 film "Universal Soldier", but only as a set piece to be blown up for the movie. In 2001 the property was sold to a new owner with plans to rebuild Cool Springs, and in 2005 the doors opened again, attracting Route 66 travelers from all over the world. It has also been reproduced in Cars Land at Disney's California Adv...