We Visit the Burros in Oatman, AZ

Saturday January 19th

There is supposed to be a hot-air balloon rally here this weekend; unfortunately I don't think the wind will lay down enough for them to do much flying.   We drove down to the London Bridge area to look for balloons but saw none.  We drove around the park near where Schaeffer's are staying and discovered a nice beach and many nice places to picnic, but no balloons.  We intended to keep searching but we decided we were hungary and began searching for the Black Bear Diner.  But before we found the BBD, we found Rusty's Restaurant and had lunch there.  Looks like a good place, very clean, newly decorated inside and the food was good.  While we were eating we decided that today would be the day we drove up to Oatman, AZ, an old mining town about 45 miles north of here.  We have been talking about going for several days but other stuff always interferes since we need a good 4 or 5 hour block of time to drive there, tour and drive back.  

We followed AZ-95 back N to I-40 and then back to Exit 1 on the AZ side of the river; from there you follow Old US-66 NE to Oatman.  It must be uphill all the way since Oatman is at 2700 feet but the slope is gentle for the most part and hardly noticeable (especially since we were not pulling the trailer.)  Oatman is an old mining town which saw its best days in the 1920's so it was already in decline by the time US-66 came through in 1926-27.  There is still some mining being done in the area, although I'm not sure what they are mining for.  

Mostly Oatman is a tourist town with burros roaming the streets; very friendly animals who get fed by the tourists since nearly every business establishment sells burro food in the shape of alfalfa pellets.  There are also staged gunfights in the streets, although we did not see one while we were there.  The stores are typical tourist traps with a lot of trinkets and local artwork as well as thousands of items made by Chinese craftsmen.  I did buy some Route 66 memorabilia in the the form of a book and a map that shows the original US-66 route and subsequent route alterations.  

Wikipedia says that one of the worst driving stretches for hills and curves was around Oatman, AZ, but that must be the section between Oatman and Kingman since the portion that we drove on was pretty tame, even by today's standards.

There were so many tourists and kids feeding the burros that I didn't get to use all of my burro food, so I left the bag next to the curb for the burros to find tomorrow.  We stopped in one of the restaurants for a snack and coffee and then headed back to our temporary home in Lake Havasu City, arriving shortly before dark.