Route 66 Signs

A trip back in time

"Have you slept in a wigwam lately?"

The sign outside the motel office confirmed what we already knew. Just three days into our road trip, we had arrived at the place that was No. 1 on my wish list for our spring trip to the Grand Canyon.

We had found the Wigwam Motel on Old Route 66 (just off U.S. Highway 180) in the small town of Holbrook, Ariz.

Fifteen white concrete wigwams, each 32 feet tall and 14 feet in diameter, encircled the office building.

At first glance I worried that our reservations for two of the wigwams had been misplaced, because there were old cars parked in front of all the units.

Had we driven through a time portal to a moment back in the 1950s? Or more likely, had a car club traveling on Route 66 stopped for the night and taken all the wigwams?

It was neither. To enhance the aura of the Mother Road stopping place, the owners have "seeded" the lot with such vintage treasures as a 1959 Chevy Impala, a '56 Buick, a '55 Ford - even a ramshackle Hornet with a "Doc Hudson" license plate for fans of Pixar's first "Cars" movie.

Those who saw "Cars" will recognize the Holbrook wigwams, which were depicted as a traffic cone motel in the sad little town that had been bypassed by an interstate highway - just like many of the towns along Route 66 today.

Staying at the Wigwam Motel is indeed a trip back to another era.

Most travelers today can't imagine a motel room without a telephone or an alarm clock, without WiFi or a hair dryer, without an ice machine and a breakfast room with waffles down the hall.

An old-fashioned key opens the narrow door into the wigwams. At 14 feet across, they are cozy but not claustrophobic.

Ours had two double beds up against a partition wall built about 3/12 feet from the back of the circle; our son's wigwam had one double bed, a lounge chair and a small table.

A doorway in the center of the wall leads into a snug little bathroom with a toilet in one corner, a tiny sink below an angled mirror attached to the sloping wall, and a little triangle of tiled space on the other side with a shower head standing maybe 5 feet high.

The wigwam is not open to the top, but has a high ceiling. The circular wall angles inward; at ceiling height, the diameter is down to about 8 feet. An air-conditioning unit blocks one of the two small windows.

The interior is neat, clean, and comfortable, with framed vintage photographs of Old West scenes on the wall above the beds.

8 Stops on Route 66 - DriveSteady.com

Can you hear that? It’s the open road whispering your name! Pretty soon, that little whisper will turn into an ear-shattering scream, and your right foot (the one that puts pedal to metal) will get an itch that only miles of shimmering blacktop and iconic Route 66 signs can scratch.

Before you and your buddy jump into the car to take off for a wild road trip down “The Mother Road” without a care in the world, stop and think for a minute. To keep this trip in the fast lane and out of the I-can’t-believe-we-did this-what-were-we-thinking ditch, decide what you need to take, where you’ll stay, and what you want to see before you hit the road.