In light of the 100-year birthday of Route 66 — and an upcoming milestone for his GMC pickup — my friend Gary decided to take a 493-mile, nine-hour round-trip to northern Arizona in June to enjoy the sights, sounds, and tastes of The Mother Road.
Gary’s trusty truck is a two-wheel-drive 2002 GMC Sierra 1500 “Work Truck” powered by a 5.3-liter V-8 mated to a four-speed automatic transmission. It was first put into service on September 21, 2001 with just 25 miles on the odometer, and it has served Gary well for nearly 25 years. As an avid motorcycle collector, Gary has hauled hundreds of bikes in the back of the truck over the years.
The route took Gary and his friend Steve from the Phoenix area north toward Williams, just west of Flagstaff along Interstate 40. They were able to check out some classic cars on display in Williams.
From there, they headed another 20 miles or so west to Ash Fork, where they hopped on one of the stretches of Route 66 that didn’t get consumed by an interstate freeway. Just a little ways up the road, they landed in Seligman, where they had lunch at the historic 1953-built Snow Cap Drive-In.
Gary said, “The Delgadillo family owns the restaurant and the gift shop next door, with a barber shop museum for Angel Delgadillo. He started trying to save the memory of Route 66 in the early ‘80s. He has retired from cutting hair but is still alive at 99 years old.”
Gary and Steve proceeded to Peach Springs and Hackberry (with an obligatory stop at the general store).
A little ways down the road, a special occasion took place at mile 79 on westbound Route 66.
Gary’s Sierra hit 360,000 miles, and he pulled over to document the occasion. The next stop was Kingman, where he visited Mother Road Harley-Davidson. The final stretch was a return to Phoenix via Highway 93, which took them through Wickenburg around. He and Steve grabbed a meal at Anita’s Cocina.
After 493 miles, nine hours of drive time, and 14 hours away from the house, Gary’s GMC pickup was tucked back in at home by about 8:30 p.m. Another successful trip in the books!
An interesting statistic can be obtained by calculating Gary’s truck’s lifetime-average speed. It comes out to 42.94 miles per hour. I can’t think of any vehicles I’ve owned that have a readout for hours as well as for miles, but now I’m curious what my averages would look like, too. Gary’s truck shows 8,388 engine hours.
Congrats, Gary, and here’s to another 25 years and 360,000 miles!
