Jackrabbit Trading Post has been on my list for quite a while. I grew up watching Pixar's Cars, so Route 66 in general has always been a big deal to me, but this was my first time actually driving it. You can't miss the Jackrabbit sign, and even if you don't know about the place, you can't help but stop and see what IT IS that is actually HERE.
The main event is the oversized jackrabbit statue that the original owner, Jim Taylor, brought with him when he moved to Arizona and bought the building in 1949. In 1961, Glenn Blansett bought the business and it is still run by his family today! In '69 his son Phil & daughter-in-law Pat bought the business, and their daughter & son-in-law Cindy & Tony bought it in '95 and still run it today. They live on the property and do most of the upkeep themselves.
I got to talk to Cindy while I was there and she is lovely. She told me they'd just repainted the sign. It was pouring when I got there, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to paint, but in the time I spent perusing the awesome 66 memorabilia inside the rain letup and there was some beautiful light on the horizon. In setting up, I made the mistake of driving through the red clay mud in front of the sign and got about an inch of it stuck to all my wheels. Took about 10 minutes of driving slowly through puddles and gravel to get it all off.
Jackrabbit Trading Post has been on my list for quite a while. I grew up watching Pixar's Cars, so Route 66 in general has always been a big deal to me, but this was my first time actually driving it. You can't miss the Jackrabbit sign, and even if you don't know about the place, you can't help but stop and see what IT IS that is actually HERE.
The main event is the oversized jackrabbit statue that the original owner, Jim Taylor, brought with him when he moved to Arizona and bought the building in 1949. In 1961, Glenn Blansett bought the business and it is still run by his family today! In '69 his son Phil & daughter-in-law Pat bought the business, and their daughter & son-in-law Cindy & Tony bought it in '95 and still run it today. They live on the property and do most of the upkeep themselves.
I got to talk to Cindy while I was there and she is lovely. She told me they'd just repainted the sign. It was pouring when I got there, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to paint, but in the time I spent perusing the awesome 66 memorabilia inside the rain letup and there was some beautiful light on the horizon. In setting up, I made the mistake of driving through the red clay mud in front of the sign and got about an inch of it stuck to all my wheels. Took about 10 minutes of driving slowly through puddles and gravel to get it all off.