Lunch in Holbrook
Before seeing the Wigwam Village motel, we had lunch at Joe & Aggie’s Café. It was another place that was highly recommended by our travel books. It was an easily recognizable bright pink building with turquois window frames and door. The entire Route 66 was painted on one side of the wall. Inside was not as fancy as the other Route 66 diners, but we heard the food was supposedly very, very good. I went for the chili again and it was delicious! Our waitress was young and very talkative. She mentioned that the café was listed in more than 40 Route 66 travel books worldwide. The waitress seemed to know everyone who came in for lunch. We began talking to a woman I guessed to be in her mid-to-late 40s at the table next to us. She had four young children with her, likely ranging from 2-6 years old. They were soaking their chicken-nuggets in honey and all I could think of was dental care. We had seen a lot of “missing teeth” in the adult population along with obesity as we travelled through both small towns and big cities in the south. The woman told us she was the grandmother of three of the children and she had to take care of them as her daughter was in jail. I didn’t ask why! She had been taking care of her children for the past 1 ½ years, but she hoped her daughter would get out after the summer. The last little boy was her grandson (from her son) who lived in the area, but the boy liked to stay with her. She definitely had her hands full!
The last attraction on Route 66 before reaching Flagstaff was the world famous Jackrabbit Trading Post billboard proclaiming, “HERE IT IS”. After miles and miles of countdown to the sign, travellers full of anticipation were so eager to find out what the claim was all about, that they would pull over just to find out. Well, we ended up doing the same! Jackrabbit is also famous for the slogan: “If you haven’t been to the Jackrabbit, you haven’t been in the Southwest.” We got plenty of pictures of the renovated billboard.
