With the Las Vegas nationals just a week before, we realized that it was a lot to ask of owners to ALSO go to the Route 66 Fun Run the weekend after, so we decided to run this in 2008 as an "exploratory trip" to see if this event is a good idea for 2009.  It turned out that all five cars who decided to join us were SKYs from Arizona and Southern California, and since two of the drivers were named Jerry, we decided to identify ourselves to the parade of nearly 1000 cars as the "Jerry's SKY Club."

This was the 22nd year that the Arizona Route 66 Club has hosted this ride from Selegmen, the official start of Route 66, to Topock, the last Arizona city along Route 66.  According to some long-standing participants, 2008 was the FIRST year that any Saturn SKYs participated.  We were told that there have been some Solstices in the past, and we even saw a red one and a yellow one at various stages of the event, but we weren't sure if they were both officially registered.

I think the biggest challenge of hosting this two-day event is finding accommdations for a large group.  Most of the local hotels in Kingman are gobbled up by car clubs, so we decided to go to Laughlin NV for rooms, which is 30 miles away, but has TONS of rooms.  In fact, we stayed in a 1000 room hotel and all had rooms that overlooked the river. 

What makes this event unique among all Route 66 events across the nation is the existance of about 180 miles of original Route 66 pavement.  When you do this run, you won't get on a highway or a freeway for even just one inch, and instead spend both days driving on country roads and sometimes extremely narrow winding roads through beautiful canyons with steep vertical drops (and often no gaurd rails).  We drove it almost exactly the way that the Route 66 drivers of 66 years ago drove it.

The first day drive is about 90 miles from Seligman to Kingman Arizona.  Starting at 10:00 AM, this road is mostly country drives through Native American Reservations with the Grand Canyon off to the right in the far distance.  Along the route, each of the small towns (often just a gas station and a bar) pull out the red carpet and hold a local festival, and dozens or sometimes hundreds of cars stop at each of these towns for a break and to do some Route 66 memoribilia shopping.  To the right and the left, these country roads are dotted with small groups under shade trees cheering us on and folks in motorhomes watching the parade of cars.

Saturday ends in Kingman with a massive car show and party at the Route 66 Historical Museum and Railroad park.  Added to the route cars are many dozens of show cars which were often trailered in for the event.

On Day 2, we arrived late for the line-up so we ended up situating ourselves at a point near the beginning of the parade of cars, and then we headed out on what most certainly has to be the most spectacularly beautiful part of Route 66.  This time, we stopped at every stop, and we were glad to arrive early to Oatman, which is a fun restored ghost town, although we can't for the life of us figure out where they cars who came after us parked.  In Oatman, we shopped for shirts and hats, and stopped at Judy's Salloon leaving just before the noon gunfight.  Leaving Oatman, we saw nearly a dozen wild burros grazing along the road.

Between Oatman and the finish, we stopped by one of the Jerry's mother-in-law's house in Golden Valley, and we stopped for lunch at Hooches before heading over the the finish where we learned that we didn't win any awards (with all of the amazing cars on this ride, no surprise)!

From the finish line, the two Jerry's lead the way to Lake Havasu for a photo opportunity at London Bridge, and then we headed home.

By unanimous consent, the Jerry's SKY Club has decided to whole-heartedly recommend that the Route 66 Fun Run be added to the GM Roadster list of official club events for 2009.  In general, GMR often seeks to host events dedicated solety to our roadsters, but we considered this to be one of the best organized driving events we have ever seen, with plenty of time and opportunities for our cars to park together, eat together, and even go on side-trips together.

Click here to see more photos on the SKY-SOL site. 

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