Month: Dec 2018

Roadkill Cafe, Seligman AZ

The Roadkill Cafe, along Route 66 in Seligman, Arizona

You kill it, we grill it!

The Roadkill Cafe along old Route 66 in Seligman has a wonderful souvenir shop inside selling gifts such as t-shirts, sweaters and aprons with slogans such as “you kill it, we grill it!” and featuring menu items such as Flat Cat – served as a single or in a stack, Rigor Mortis Tortoise and Fender Tenders. Of course, in reality it is a normal family owned, reasonably priced restaurant along a decent length of usable Route 66. The first time we drove past the Roadkill Cafe, we were trying to get to the Grand Canyon before sunset so we only stopped for some photos, however it was on a must-visit list for the next occasion, and we’ve eaten there several times since.

Seligman, an old railroad town was founded in 1886 and is known for being the birthplace of Historic Route 66, mainly due to the efforts of the Seligman Chamber of Commerce and local business owners to get the section of road between Seligman and Kingman designated as Historic Route 66 back in 1987, not long after the last section of the Mother Road, in nearby Williams, Arizona was bypassed by interstate 40. This was well before other towns and cities along the entirety of Route 66 started making similar efforts. Perhaps this is one reason that Seligman still looks so authentic and feels like you’ve suddenly been transported back to the heyday of the Main Street of America.

Seligman, Arizona – feels like you’re in the wild west

Seligman is a small, unincorporated town with a wonderful wild west heritage. The Roadkill Cafe itself was once the OK Saloon, and the bar/gift shop area is the original building. The restaurant section is an extension that was once a patio to the bar, but eventually enclosed to make a larger building. 

The jailhouse which dates from 1860 claims to have held criminals such as “Seligman Sam” and “three-finger Jack”. Apparently in 1866, four Indians escaped from the jail by tunnelling underground to the OK Saloon next door and made their getaway only to be shot dead four days later in a shoot out with law enforcers.

Radiator Springs, from the Disney Pixar film “Cars” was known to be loosely based on Seligman, and indeed as you take your road trip along Route 66, also known as the Will Rogers Highway you’ll see various locations and people who inspired parts of this fun, animated movie. 

Spotlight on Austin, Texas

I first visited Austin in 2013, fell in love with the city and have been back several times since.

I was asked to provide my replica A-Team Van for the annual South by Southwest (SXSW) event for a promotion by the National Geographic Channel and made arrangements to get it to the state capital.

SXSW is a large, annual event for the music, film and multimedia industries and features conferences, presentations and a bit of showing off! My van was part of a 1980’s promotion and was running as a VIP shuttle between the airport and downtown Austin and, with a Delorean and General Lee participated in several events during it’s time in Austin.

texas state capitol austin
The A-Team Van outside the State Capitol building in Austin, Texas

Whilst the van was being used for promotional activities, I spent the time exploring Austin and found it a really fascinating city. The recorded history of Austin goes back to the 1830’s when settlers founded the village of Waterloo on the banks of the Colorado River. By 1839 the settlement had become the capital of the Republic of Texas and had adopted the name Austin from Stephen F Austin, known as the “Father of Texas”. 

There are some wonderful buildings in Austin, including the State Capitol Building on Congress Avenue and the historic Driskill Hotel on famous 6th Street.

In addition to visiting the State Capitol and nearby museum, I always walk down Congress Avenue and across the Colorado River to South Congress Avenue to wander around some of the antique shops as I head up to Allen’s Boots. Despite my best intentions, I always buy a Stetson, belt or cowboy boots in Allen’s Boots, a large western store on South Congress Ave.

One of the must-do activities in Austin is to stand by the bridge on Congress Avenue just before sunset and you’ll likely see around 1.5 million bats emerge from the underside of the bridge – it’s a spectacular sight! As the evening continues, we have our favourite restaurants and we like to experiment with some new ones too.

Austin is known as the live music capital of the world and you’ll find no shortage of this in the bars and clubs along 6th Street.

One of the striking things about Austin is the lack of chain stores, restaurants and other businesses. There is a general desire in the local community to support local businesses and to shun large corporations. Of course there is an out of town shopping mall with all the large, well known stores and restaurants but there is a very noticeable lack of these household names in downtown Austin.

congress avenue austin
On the bridge looking North along Congress Avenue with the State Capitol in the background.

Further outside of Austin, I always make sure I take the short drive north to Round Rock, to buy a doughnut from Round Rock Donuts, who sell giant, Texan sized doughnuts which happen to be really tasty too! Dallas and Houston are just a few hours drive away and San Antonio can be driven to in about an hour which makes it ideal for a day trip. I’ll write a blog about this separately at some point, but I love taking a stroll around San Antonio and nearby Gruene and this part of Texas really deserves more time than you could give it on a day trip.

Austin features in various of our Southern Road Trips and is well worth a two or three day stop as a part of your itinerary. Visit our main website www.routetripusa.co.uk to book your trip to Austin.