Samantha Brown's Places to Love

– Brown: I'm traveling the entire Route 66... Whoo!

...and I've arrived in a state where quirky small towns and iconic roadside stops all exist along some of America's most epic landscapes.

It's where you'll find treasures that are revealed on the ground and up above.

Discover how this road made it into a literary classic and a number-one hit... and what we all owe to one man who fought the government to put Route 66 back on the map.

Angels do exist.

I'm in Arizona driving Route 66.

I'm Samantha Brown, and I've traveled all over this world, and I'm always looking to find the destinations, the experiences, and, most importantly, the people who make us feel like we're really a part of a place.

That's why I have a love of travel and why these are my Places to Love.

Major funding of "Places to Love" provided by... Oceania Cruises.

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From exploring our national parks to learning about art and culture in Italy, we've introduced adults to places, ideas, and friends.

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-Ever wonder where your sense of wonder went?

Maybe it's winding its way along the banks of the Colorado River.

Or waiting in the shadows of giant canyons.

Or maybe it's revealed in all the moments in between.

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-Okay, so you and I are now headed right into Arizona, which boasts 244 miles of the Mother Road, going through some spectacular scenery here.

Arizona -- Each state has its own claim to fame with Route 66.

And Arizona boasts the longest stretch of the Mother Road still in use, so I guess that means we're really enjoying Route 66 as it was first, you know, intended, imagined back in 1926.

I guess that's what it means.

I'm just here for the fun.

I know you are, too.

Whoo-hoo!

Can you blow your horn?!

Do they do that on trains?

[ Laughs ] -[ Train whistle blows ] -Whoo!

Wow!

That's so cool!

My first stop in Arizona is an exclamation point -- Petrified Forest National Park.

-My name is Alex Verde.

I'm a National Park guide.

I work in the Division of Interpretation in the National Park Service.

– Brown: And, you know, this is what we travelers, you know, traveling on Route 66 -- Whether we're from the United States or from afar internationally, this is what we're here for.

-These wide spaces... -Verde: Yes.

Yes.

– Brown: ...that don't exist anywhere else.

It just tugs at our hearts, right?

This expansiveness.

Now, I see what it is now.

-Yes.

-But what was it then?

-You're looking at a swamp.

Water.

Huge rivers.

Think like New Orleans.

Think like Louisiana.

-Lush and hot?

-Lush and hot.

Huge rivers, like, bigger than any river on the planet today, would be flowing through this area.

At least that's what geologists believe.

And you would have seen all kinds of life that we don't see today.

Early dinosaurs walking around.

Huge reptiles.

You wouldn't want to be swimming in the water.

-And so are you still finding that today in this land?

-Every day, we find new species.

Just like the fossil trees that are rolling out of those hills.

All types of fossils are out there.

That's why they say this is a very fossiliferous region.

-Fossiliferous?!

Alright!

-[ Bell dings ] -Word of the day for ya.

An area that contains a massive amount of fossils.

And that's what we're seeing out there.

– Brown: Unbelievably, Route 66 passes through only two national parks.

Gateway Arch in St.

Louis is the other.

This very old Studebaker didn't break down here, but it was placed to mark the spot where the road once ran straight through the park.

Utility poles follow the old route today.

If fossiliferous means an area that contains a massive amount of fossils, one fossil is absolutely massive.

So now we're in the Petrified Forest.

-We've arrived.

-My gosh.

We have arrived at its most famous member, Old Faithful, one of the largest pieces of petrified wood here on the park and one of the most accessible.

Easy to get to for visitors, as it's right near a visitors center.

-So -- I'm so sorry.

I am so embarrassed.

I don't know what petrified wood is.

-Neither did I before I came here.

A nice and easy way to think about it is that it involves two key ingredients.

One of those ingredients was provided by the big rivers that once flowed through here.

– Brown: Okay.

Mm-hmm.

– Verde: Water.

The other ingredient came from volcanoes.

Volcanic ash put a mineral called silica out into the environment.

Silica would get into those rivers.

And so then a tree falls into said river, and it gets soaked with this mineral-rich water.

Minerals get inside the tree, and they start to form a rock inside the tree.

And just like Jell-O takes the shape of the mold, the rock took the shape of what it formed in.

-So then the way -- The wood basically erodes away.

The organic matter erodes away.

And what's left is a perfect replica.

– Verde: Replica made of stone, allowing paleontologists to understand a little bit more about the environment of the past, what kind of trees were around.

-How old do we think Old Faithful is?

-So, geologists believe this is over 200 million years old.

-200 million years old!

And trees haven't changed!

– Verde: Absolutely.

-I have a question for you.

When I'm in the woods and there's a tree like this big that has fallen... -Yeah.

-...I like to walk across it.

And when you visit here, you have permission to do just that.

At first, I was afraid.

For over 70 years, travelers driving along Route 66 in both directions would see road signs reminding them how many miles away they were from the little town of Joseph City, Arizona.

But when they did arrive, they certainly knew it.

This is the world-famous Jack Rabbit Trading Post, one of the most iconic roadside attractions on the entire Route 66.

It's a treasure trove of souvenirs and memorabilia.

I am so excited to be here.

I have been seeing these signs since, what, Kansas?

Would that be right?

-The whole way.

We are worldwide.

We have signs literally around the world.

Our most furthest is Southern Australia.

It's over 9,000 miles.

-And you're the owner now, but you've been here your entire life.

-People that have been here years before, they'll come in and say, "It smells the same."

– Brown: Yeah.

-It's just something that you just can't change.

It always smells the same.

– Brown: Well, I mean, it's just so important, I think, the Mother Road to the United States.

Just the amazing history.

The diversity that has happened on this road, the resilience, and you are a part of that.

Do you feel that?

-We do, we do.

And if we can do our little part of saving something from Route 66, we're doing what we need to do.

Each of us on the Route have our own story, have our own tale to tell.

You know?

It's not just about us.

It's about all of us.

– Brown: Yep.

I'm standin' on the corner in Winslow, Arizona, and, no, we can't afford the song.

But tonight I'm takin' it extra easy.

I've booked a room in town at a historic gem of a hotel, La Posada, which is unlike any hotel I have ever stayed in.

– Allan: So, Samantha, you came in on the other side of the building where the cars come today, but in the 1930s, when this building opened, everybody came by train.

So all the people coming from Los Angeles to Chicago would arrive here at the train gate looking at this spectacular Spanish hacienda.

-Wow!

You know, doing Route 66, it's all about the car, it's all about the automobile, but before that, it was about traveling by train.

-And Winslow was the biggest intermodal city.

So we had trains, cars, airplanes.

Everything came together in Winslow.

-Oh, my -- -TWA stopped eight times a day.

-Wow!

-And then the whole thing just went to sleep, so it's like a Rip Van Winkle town.

-So it's very odd.

In my life, I've spent a lot of time in hotels, but I very, very rarely get to meet independent hoteliers.

You two own this hotel, but it's not just any hotel.

It is a Harvey House hotel and the very last one built.

– Allan: Exactly.

-Not only is it a Harvey House hotel, it was also a female architect, which was so rare at that time, right?

-She's not just any architect, female architect.

She is our most important Southwest female architect, maybe in the whole United States, because she was designing these buildings and the wonderful buildings at the Grand Canyon before women could actually sign off on their own drawings and get degrees as an architect.

– Allan: The National Trust for Historic Preservation put it on the Endangered list as one of the 10 most important buildings in the country that was about to be torn down, and that's how we found out about it.

We were in California, read this little thing.

"Mary Colter landmark about to be torn down."

We were adventurous.

We just got in the car and drove out to check it out and fell in love with the place.

– Brown: Allan and Tina did wind up buying the hotel from the Santa Fe Railroad, which was going to tear it down.

They restored and remodeled it, reopened it with only six original rooms, checked people in, did the housekeeping, filled it with Tina's amazing artwork, and all of it without knowing anything about running a hotel.

It's now been under their direction for over 25 years, so they certainly know how to do it now.

-We've actually kept it open longer now than it was opened originally.

-Good job!

[ Laughter ] -Brown: Through Route 66, I've been able to, you know, discover and connect with so much history.

And Arizona, it feels very strongly into sort of prehistory, especially in our landscapes, and giving us a clue of what 200 million years ago our Earth looked like here in this spot, but Walnut Canyon is really specific for its human history, right?

-So, Walnut Canyon was inhabited around 1100 to 1250.

-Okay.

-About a 100-year time span.

But there's a lot of history that predates that, as well.

– Brown: Wow.

And who were they that lived here?

– John: We have 13 associated tribes, so there's many people and many cultures that have significant connections to this landscape.

– Brown: The steps are the equivalent of a 13-story building down and back up, but the payoff is immense.

-So we're at the nine-room site right now.

This is one of my favorite cliff dwellings that are here in the canyon.

-Oh, it's amazing!

Because I'm like -- You know, we kept seeing dwelling after dwelling, and you're like, "No.

It gets better.

It gets better."

-It's an excellent display of fully built walls with the doors and chimneys.

-That's the black?

-That's what we're seeing.

The black here.

– Brown: Wow.

– John: Those chimneys were used to just kind of siphon that smoke out and keep a good airflow in the cliff dwelling.

– Brown: And with some dwellings, you're allowed to do a prehistoric home tour.

Oh, this is such a cool space.

And this is the soot from the campfires.

-This is the soot from those fires.

-Oh, my gosh.

-We can feel that it's really nice and cool in here.

-So cool.

-A really good feature of the cliff dwellings.

– Brown: Really smart design.

– John: Yes.

– Brown: And a beautiful area.

I would love to live in this canyon.

I mean, they knew their stuff.

-Me too.

They did.

– Brown: I wanted to stay longer, but the road beckons.

We've made it to Flagstaff.

At an elevation of close to 7,000 feet, the sun is hot, but the air is cool.

And speaking of cool... -Grundy: Percival Lowell founded his observatory here in Flagstaff in 1894, way before Arizona even became a state.

He was kind of the Carl Sagan at the time, who was a very popular lecturer and really inspired people to think about what it would be like to inhabit a solar system that had more than one civilization in it.

I'm Will Grundy.

I'm a planetary scientist based here at the observatory, and I study the outer solar system.

– Brown: So the Clarke Dome, this building, as well as the telescope, are famous.

In fact, you can see them from Route 66, right?

-That's right.

It's this big white thing up on the mesa.

– Brown: Everyone's like, "What's that?"

Because there's so many oddities along the route.

This is not an oddity.

-It's a bit of an oddity.

-Okay.

So what is the history of this building?

-So this was Percival Lowell's premier instrument that he was going to use to study Mars.

There was some thought that Mars might be inhabited, and Percival Lowell really wanted to study that.

And he built his main big telescope specifically for looking at Mars.

It was built in 1894.

Among the many things that this telescope did was the first evidence for the expansion of the universe.

When they put a spectrometer on the back end of the telescope instead of the eyepiece, which splits the light into all of its component colors, and they could use that to see that all of the galaxies, which at the time we weren't even sure what they were, they're zipping away from us at crazy-high speeds.

-Mm-hmm.

-And one way to explain that is if the universe itself is expanding.

And so those were really the first bits of evidence that the universe is expanding.

-Yes, it is.

Discovered right here on this telescope.

-The Clark isn't the only telescope here with celebrity status.

This is the Lawrence Lowell Telescope, built in 1928 expressly for the discovery of planet Pluto, which it did.

-Percival always believed that in addition to scientific research, it was crucial to bring it to the public.

And so we just completed a brand-new visitors center that can host a much larger capacity.

You can go up on the roof and look at the stars.

You can go look through historic telescopes, too, like the 1894 Clark Telescope.

– Brown: I've had a great day in and around Flagstaff, and even driving out of it is beautiful!

But I gotta tell ya, I am still feeling that hike down and up Walnut Canyon, and I'm not embarrassed to say I am pooped.

Welcome to the Poozeum, the only site in the world dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of coprolites.

-A coprolite is the fossilized feces of an animal anywhere from 10,000 to millions of years old.

– Brown: This is George Frandsen, and he holds the world's record for the largest amount of coprolites... and one other thing.

-This poop, this magnificent poop, is believed to be around 68 million years old.

We know it's from a T. Rex or believe it's from a T. Rex because of where it was found, its size, its shape.

It's filled with crushed bones.

And you can see these dark pieces in here.

Those are pieces of bones.

– Brown: Ohh!

-And then we had it tested, and it's full of phosphates and calcium, which don't occur naturally together.

Uh, but when they are together, we can tell that it was poop.

– Brown: So I'm looking at this, and I would not know that this is dinosaur poop.

They look like rocks to me.

– Frandsen: How you identify them is a lot of them are cylindrical.

You look at their surface.

Does it layer?

Does it have little bits of stuff called inclusions?

– Brown: Yeah.

– Frandsen: It can be bone scales, teeth, and even plants.

– Brown: Okay.

– Frandsen: A lot of them come to a little point because prehistoric animals pinched it off like modern-day animals, right?

-[ Laughs ] -And then... [ Laughter ] -I swear I'm an adult.

[ Laughter ] But George wants poop to have its due...due.

– Frandsen: It's a little bit funny.

It's a little bit naughty.

But no museums were sharing it.

You go to the biggest museums around the world, and they may have pieces, but they're not putting them on display.

So I'm like, "If they're not going to do it, if they're not going to share this great piece of information, I can do it.

And I think people will love it, and I think people will embrace it."

And that's absolutely what has happened.

-Well, of all of the things I've enjoyed on Route 66, this is my turd-favorite.

– Frandsen: [ Laughs ] -Brown: The Mother Road is often quoted as being over 2,400 miles, but really it just doesn't exist in certain places.

It's a chock-a-block of roads here and there, and you pick it up and you pick an alignment up there, but sometimes you just have to get on the highway, as well.

But right now we are traveling on its longest continuous stretch.

159 miles of pure original Route 66.

So let's enjoy it, shall we?

– Delgadillo: When our government began to build the superhighways, we knew that we would be bypassed.

Seligman died at 2: 30 in the afternoon February the 22nd, 1978.

All the traffic went to I-40, and we were forgotten by the county, the state, the feds.

My name is Angel V. Delgadillo.

I was born one block south of here on old Route 66.

– Brown: The town of Seligman is a must-stop, especially Angel & Vilma's Gift Shop, which not only has all things Route 66, but tucked inside the shop you'll find Mr.

Delgadillo's preserved barber shop with the chair and tools and mementos from his 75-year career as a barber.

But in terms of Route 66, this man is a legend.

– Delgadillo: We formed the first-ever in America -- the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona.

We did not let up once.

Our government finally declared Route 66 from Seligman to Kingman.

Historic.

November of 1987.

-You are absolutely instrumental.

I've talked to Mr.

Wallis.

Michael Wallis, the author of "The Mother Road," the book on the Mother Road.

-He interviewed me... -I know he did.

-...600 years ago.

[ Laughter ] -But he truly credits you as being the father of the resurgence of the Mother Road.

I think Cyrus Avery is considered the father of the Mother Road.

You are considered the father of its coming back.

-When our government first declared Route 66 historic, I thought that was the best thing that we the people had done.

-Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

-I was wrong.

We started to see national and international people come to Seligman.

I was barbering here.

They'd come in smiling from ear to ear.

– Brown: Mm-hmm.

-People of other nations don't have these kind of freedoms that we have in America.

-Mm-hmm.

I've been doing the entire route.

I have been absolutely speechless by the history and the tenacity of the people along this route.

I have been in awe of the scenery and the environment that is so much a part of this country, and without the Mother Road, it doesn't connect us to those places and those people.

-We had to fight the government, but we won.

-Mm-hmm.

-Because we believed in ourselves.

Simple.

Simple.

Simple.

-Brown: Angel & Vilma's Route 66 Gift Shop is not the only legendary Delgadillo business in the town of Seligman.

If I could only get into it.

The Snow Cap caf right next door is run by Angel's nephew, Juan Delgadillo.

[ Rattling ] But all orders here come with a side of pranks.

[ Bell jingles ] -Juan: May I help you?

-I'm gonna have a cheeseburger.

-Want the happy cheeseburger?

-[ Laughs ] That's Juan, and his mission is to make you smile.

This is what happens when you order a shake.

Ah.

[ Laughs ] This is what happens when you order a small Coke.

What is that?

-Small Coke.

That's what you asked for, Samantha.

– Brown: This is what happens when you ask for crushed ice.

[ Laughs ] -Is that enough?

– Brown: So this has been in the family for how long?

– Juan: 72 years.

-How old are the jokes?

-Uh, 72 years.

-[ Laughs ] -Juan: You come in a bad mood, you leave in a good mood.

– Brown: My last major stop in Arizona is the city of Kingman, a mere 1,805 miles from where Route 66 begins in Chicago.

This is how I know that.

And an essential stop here for travelers is the Route 66 Museum, which shows the history of the Mother Road well before its official birth date in 1926.

– Stagg: Well, Route 66 was actually an indigenous trade route.

There are indigenous tribes.

We have petroglyphs and pictographs all over Arizona that are proof that people were here.

And so we know there was trading all the way through this region for centuries.

– Brown: Leah showed me to a powerful exhibit of the lesser-known history of Route 66, when in the 1930s it was used to escape the environmental disaster known as the Dust Bowl.

-There's entire families that are packing themselves into these, you know, trucks and cars that probably should not have been used anymore, and they're just hoping they can make it to the next stop.

-These are absolutely refugees in our own country.

-Mm-hmm.

– Brown: And they are seeking a better life, like everyone here still today in this country.

And this really is the the theme of "Grapes of Wrath."

-Exactly.

-And when that book came out -- and I feel like still to this day -- we don't want to know this about ourselves.

-There's so much of our history that doesn't feel triumphant.

And we as Americans, we love -- we love the story of triumph, as well we should.

-Mm-hmm.

-But the reality is more of our story is about that, you know, struggle and enduring than it is about, you know, this clear triumph.

-This manifest destiny.

-Exactly!

-In God's eyes.

The triumphant.

-Exactly!

It's 'cause you did what you had to do to get through it.

And, "We'll figure it out.

It's not always gonna look pretty, but I'm gonna get it done."

– Brown: Mm-hmm.

-Brown: Alright.

So I've left Kingman.

I'm headed towards California.

But there's still a little left of Arizona to enjoy.

And let me tell ya, it is spectacular!

This is gonna be a spectacular finish, Arizona.

Thank you.

– Verde: Route 66 captures something that I think is really important, and that that history remains here, that it didn't disappear, allows me to tell a story that we can easily connect with.

Everyone can understand what it's like to be on a road trip.

Everyone can understand what it's like to experience a new and special place.

-Route 66, to me, is the American dream.

Nowhere else would the Poozeum make sense other than on this amazing road.

– Delgadillo: And why do they come from all over the world?

People need... something of yesterday.

– Brown: Mm-hmm.

– Delgadillo: Mom-and-pop restaurants.

The wide open spaces.

I am so happy that, because I had a thought... I have helped people worldwide.

– Brown: Okay, seven states behind us, one more in our view as we complete the entire Route 66.

California, here we come!

For more information about this and other episodes, destination guides, or links to follow me on social media, log on to placestolove.com.

Major funding of "Places to Love" provided by... Oceania Cruises.

– Announcer: A journey aboard Oceania Cruises is designed to cultivate curiosity.

Evenings offer craft spirits, international wines, and dishes prepared by our master chefs.

That's the Oceania Cruises Small Ship experience.

– Announcer: Since 1975, we've inspired adults to learn and travel in the United States and in more than 100 countries.

From exploring our national parks to learning about art and culture in Italy, we've introduced adults to places, ideas, and friends.

We are Road Scholar.

We make the world our classroom.

-Ever wonder where your sense of wonder went?

Maybe it's winding its way along the banks of the Colorado River.

Or waiting in the shadows of giant canyons.

Or maybe it's revealed in all the moments in between.

Introducing Canyon Spirit, a rail experience between Denver, Moab, and Salt Lake City.

Canyon Spirit.

Proud sponsor of "Places to Love."

-Railbookers helps you discover the world by train.

From bucket-list dreams to iconic scenic journeys, a Railbookers itinerary includes trains, hotels, sightseeing, transfers, and more.

Railbookers offers guests a seamless way to explore the globe on vacation.