On the way to breakfast, right on the side of the 66 is the Hackberry General Store. We've stopped there a handful of times in the past and figured we'd show it to some of the new viewers. Now a souvenir shop, it was originally built to operate as a gas station and opened in 1934 when that section of Route 66 was built. It remained in operation until the Interstate bypassed this section of Route 66 in 1978. In 1992, it was re-opened as a souvenir shop and information center, and is still a popular stop for those exploring Route 66.

After a quick stop, we headed back out on our way to Seligman. While the ride from Kingman is really only about 20 minutes, it’s a beautiful one to say the least. The weather was perfect, there was barely anyone out on the roads, and as we started to see some green, it was a nice change of scenery from the dry deserts the previous day. Not to mention we were excited to try a new breakfast spot that was recommended to us by one of our YouTube viewers! Thanks Dave!

Shortly after, we pulled in to the cool little town of Seligman Arizona. After a little searching, we found Westside Lilo's right on Route 66, and went to get some breakfast. We were told to ask for Brenda, one of the owners, and we were glad we decided to swing by! It had such a cool small town feel, and Brenda made us feel right at home. She gave us some local history and a back story on the restaurant which she runs with her family. 

We had a great breakfast with all the classics: farm raised eggs, some tasty bacon, and freshly ground hash browns. We were pretty darn full after that, but Brenda came by to drop off a hue slice of their famous home made carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, and well...we made some more room.

The food was awesome, and the hometown hospitality just made the experience that much better. We've been through Seligman countless times and somehow never made our way over there, but that's our new favorite breakfast spot without a doubt. We have a great conversation with Brenda, then got back out on the road to one of our favorite stops in Arizona...Williams!

Williams is about 44 miles east of Arizona, and is on another great section of the 66. Rolling into the town, you see some classic old western architecture as well as some newer buildings. With a population of around 3,300, it is a fairly small town, but it's got plenty of attractions and has a cool night life. Tons of tourists pass through every year, as it's located right along the southern end of the Grand Canyon Railway. As a matter of fact Williams is known as the "Gateway to the Grand Canyon".  

We wanted to hang out there for a bit, but being tight on time, we had to keep burnin' down the road. If you have the time when passing through, it's a fun place to spend a night or two! 

As we were heading to the gas station before heading over to Winslow, we looked in our rear views and saw somebody racing towards us! It ended up being a YouTube viewer and now friend, who we had recently built a riding route for him and a buddy to explore the Grand Canyon and surrounding areas! We got to hear how their trip was going, threw him a 2LaneLife hat, then got on our way to Winslow!

Winslow is about 90 miles east of Williams, and for the second time in a few week's span, we'd be checking it out again! Winslow has some neat history, some of which no one can say for certain. The town was named for either Edward F. Winslow, president of St. Louis and San Francisco Rail Road, which owned half of the old Atlantic and Pacific Railroad, or Tom Winslow, a prospector who lived in the area. Regardless of who is was named after, it's certainly a cool stop along the 66 and has a unique piece of history called "Standin' on the Corner". Opened in 1999, it was meant to commemorate the song "Take It Easy" which was written by Jackson Browne and Glenn Frey and most famously recorded by the Eagles. The song includes the verse "Well, I'm a-standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona and such a fine sight to see. It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford slowin' down to take a look at me." It's definitely an interesting place to see, and there's plenty of restaurants and breweries along the strip to grab some great eats.

We had another 240 miles or so to go in order to get to our home base of Albuquerque for the night, so we hopped back on the 66 and the 40 and headed towards New Mexico! Right after entering NM on the 40, we hopped back on the next section of the 66 for a few miles to find a little surprise. We used a live updating Route 66 app/map to navigate throughout our trip, but it looks like there was a closure that hadn't been updated yet. We were only a few miles down, when we noticed the road was blocked off. We stopped and enjoyed the scenery, then turned right back around to hop on the 40. These things happen on the road, so it's always important to have a Plan B ready to go. Luckily, it was a simple detour and we motored on.

Just as the scenery changed from California to Arizona, entering New Mexico had a whole new vibe to it. The air cooled down, the plains became greener, and there were humbling rock faces in every direction. It's always a great experience seeing the changing features and landscapes of different states, and it never gets old!

We had one last quick "stop", riding through the town of Gallup, New Mexico and got to see some original Route 66 buildings and some cool shops all along the road. It's pretty cray to think that a majority of the towns that we passed through essentially developed by necessity from the use of Route 66 in the early days before the 40. No matter where you look, there's some sort of neat history, and it's great to see that these places are able to stay preserved in history.

A ways down the road, we approached Albuquerque and were greeted with an epic New Mexico sunset to welcome us into the area. It was another solid day of riding, and we were really enjoying the cooler weather. We pulled into the city, checked into the Rio Grande Inn, and headed out to find some dinner.

After some searching, we ended up at Seasons Rotisserie & Grill. We had  some delicious chicken and salmon salads, a couple drinks, and headed back around the corner to our stay for the night.