The Drive Home VII: Route 66 Centennial – Taking In The Sights Of The Mojave In Arizona

By William Hall

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January 5, 2026

Clear skies and the smell of fresh desert creosote greeted us Sunday morning in Barstow, CA, as we fueled up the caravan and made our way out to Amboy and the legendary Roy’s Motel and Café. It was the second travel day of The Drive Home VII: Rt. 66 – A Centennial of Adventure, and we were happy to log some miles on the authentic two-lane Mother Road, free from the interstate.

Route 66 returns to a two-lane configuration near Siberia, California.

All photos courtesy of the author are not shown. Only the captions.
If you want a link to the pictures, email to Bobfixesitup@yahoo.com I will email them to you.-Bob

Roy’s Motel and Café is neither – there is currently no food or lodging – but rather a once-and-future desert oasis which served Route 66 travelers skirting the southern end of the Mojave National Preserve. It is a cultural landmark and modern-era ghost town which still has a magnetic pull to those who dream of romantic travel, whether by land or air.


The GM muscle car contingent continues to grow. In addition to the GTO and Camaro, Eric and Coral Seiber’s 1966 Pontiac LeMans has joined the caravan.

A small group of Route 66 fans saw our itinerary and were waiting to greet us, including the pilots of two single-engined aircraft traveling from Montana. We chatted with them about our cross-country road trip before both aircraft started up, taxied down the road, and took off on the small airstrip behind the building.

Coincidentally, one of the pilots was – like us – also heading to the Detroit Auto Show as a vendor.

The tour takes their place on the flight line of Roy’s Motel and Café in Amboy, California.
Roy’s facility manager Kenneth Large hopes to return both the café and cabins to operation, but faces a daunting problem: water. According to Ken, a 2000’s era law makes it illegal to serve the public potable water transported by truck, and he’s hopeful a workaround will see the first of the historic rental cabins reopened later this year.

It’s top-down time for Pat and Julie Riley’s 1969 Mercury Cougar.

Just east of Amboy, Route 66 is closed for construction, so we hopped back on to I-40 and continued to the mining ghost town of Oatman, AZ. Now an enclave for artists and shopkeepers, the town is overrun by wild burros who keep the tourists entertained. Here we picked up another privateer couple joining our group, Eric and Coral Sieber of Lake Havasu City, AZ in their 1966 Pontiac LeMans.

Perhaps the most challenging stretch of the old Route 66 is the Oatman Highway over Sitgreaves Pass, which is marked by hairpin turns, cutbacks and magnificent views. The road is limited to 40-foot trailers or less, but our skilled chase-truck driver Kurt handled it with aplomb.

The Chrysler 300F is a mid-century marvel of design.

Just on the other side of the pass sits Cool Springs Station, purportedly the inspiration for Radiator Springs in the Pixar movie franchise Cars. Here, Rob Arends from Apache Junction, AZ, joined the convoy in his red 1967 Plymouth Barracuda.

From there it was a quick hop into Kingman, and a hosted welcome dinner from the Pharoahs Car Club, just one of the many car clubs in this car-crazy town. We look forward to meeting more of them, and you, at Monday morning’s Cars & Coffee event at the Route 66 Arch at the Arizona Route 66 Museum.
There is a similar Arch in Grants, New Mexico.

Taxiing for takeoff at Roy’s.

Mules mob the McLaren in Oatman. The Sieber’s LeMans at Cool Springs Station.

Rob Arends and his 1967 Plymouth Barracuda. Some crusty critters at Cool Springs. Can you identify them?

Madison from father-daughter team Tully Thunderbird.

The Pharoahs Car Club hosted The Drive Home team for dinner in downtown Kingman, Arizona.