Today was a bit more difficult than yesterday for a lot of reasons. For starters, lack of sleep was a big problem. I didn’t get to bed last night until 1 AM, and due to the poor AC in the room that led to 95 degree temps at 1 AM, along with my existing sinus problems, I only got 1 1/2 hours of sleep the whole night. I gave up around 7, and Beth and I got the car packed and headed out around 8:45 AM. Driving 12 hours on 1 1/2 hours  of sleep is a tall order, but I managed to make it through with about 2500 milligrams of caffeine and Beth’s conversation to keep me alert.

We ended up only skipping a few places today in an attempt to catch up, but ultimately, we still ended up behind. This is largely because, genius that I am, I forgot to account for time zone shifts. So we lost an hour I didn’t plan on.

Anyhow, our first stop of the day was at Oatman, Arizona, which is billed as a ‘living ghost town’. Oatman used to be a mining town, back at the turn of the century (1900, not 2000), but when the gold mine shut down, it turned to tourism to keep the town alive. It boasts a bunch of wild burros (or shit factories, as I call them) that roam the streets getting in people’s way, stinking up the place, and generally being cute but highly annoying.

The rest of the town is like most tourist traps, unfortunately. There’s a lot of antique beauty in the town, but it’s covered and nearly ruined by the blatant commercialism. Regardless, Beth got some good shots of the town, and the best ones that aren’t still being processed are below.

Next, we hit the Laughlin Classic Car museum in Laughlin, Nevada. This was actually better than I expected. They had a lot of rare old rides on display, including several ‘55-‘57 models and a few hotrods.

Several Corvettes were on display, including a ‘54, ‘63, and ‘72 454 Stingray vert. But perhaps the most rare ‘Vette on display was this one:

Since the museum is free, it’s really highly recommended if you are a classic car buff. The only negative is that you have to wade through a casino to get to it.

After this, we headed up to Flagstaff, AZ to eat lunch at a little place called Criollo. I had pork belly tacos and some Poblano-cheddar grits, which were perhaps two of the tastiest things I’ve ever eaten. They were gone before the waitress could return to find out how I was doing.

Beth had a chicken sandwich that she said was fabulous. I ate the last of her fries and bacon, so I can vouch for that much of it…

Overall, this is probably the best place we’ve eaten, though the portions are laughable, and the atmosphere is crunchy granola.

After that, we hit up the Roadkill Café (pics coming later), which has an interesting old-west stage setup that you can mess around on.

We then hit up Winslow, AZ, where we both stood on the proverbial corner (pics coming later as well; processing is required). And yes, they do play the song out on the street, and yes, I imagine it annoys the everloving crap out of residents. But the mural on the corner and statue are both pretty cool, as well as the flatbed Ford (girl not included).

Lastly, we went to the Wigwam Motel, which is a motel of teepees, basically, surrounded in classic cars. Very 60’s/70’s, and all kinds of cheesy. This would have been pretty cool, but the area is kind of sketchy, and we got panhandled really rapidly.

We ended the day driving to Albuquerque, seeing some spectacular sights. This is where we are bedding down, and tomorrow we hope to avoid any wrong turns.

It’s 2 AM here now, so I will cut it short, but a post will be up later with more pictures from today (including a few of the GT500, dirt and all).