3/22/2026 - Wagon Wheel Restaurant (Route 66)

 

For the night we were staying in Needles, CA we went to a restaurant called Wagon Wheel Restaurant that is located on Route 66.  It was down the street from the hotel.  We walked around and saw a gift shop and dining area.  The food was good. I had a turkey sandwich.  The atmosphere was fun. A lot of Route 66 stuff around.

The Wagon Wheel Restaurant was not the original name. In the early 1950's the restaurant was called Lynn's Broiler. In 1978, it became Wagon Wheel Restaurant.

3/22/2026 - Needles (Route 66)

 In March 2026, my mom and I did a road trip to California to do Route 66.  We started the drive from the first town on the route and that is Needles also called "Gateway to California."

That night we stayed at a newer hotel that was on Route 66.  This mural was on the driveway of the hotel.

Here is my start of Route 66 adventure in California.  Please come join me.

2/14/2026 - Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area - Saguaro National Park (East)

 

While I was at the Saguaro National Park, I got this stamp for the Santa Cruz Valley Heritage Area.

2/14/2026 - Hug a Saguaro in Saguaro National Park on Valentine's Day

 For Valentine's Day my mom and me meet up with some friends at the Saguaro NP.  We are part of group called National Park Travelers Club. Somebody set up a meet-up of people that live around Tucson, AZ.

We meet up at the Rincon Mountain Visitor Center around ten.  We got our stamps and then got are cars to drive to a trail that we were going to walk called Freeman Homestead Nature Trail.

There were a lot of beautiful spots along the trail to see the desert with a lot of saguaros and other plants.

It was a nice trail to walk.  I had some hard times walking but I made through the whole trail.  Here is the group picture of us.

It was a fun Valentine's Day.

Saguaro National Park (U.S. National Park Service)

2/27/2026 - Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area - Marana, Arizona

 

This was a new place for us.  We have never been to The Marana Visitor Center in Marana, Arizona.  We learned a lot of things about the Santa Cruz Valley NHA and the Juan Bautista De Anza NHT.  I didn't realize there was some more history around the area of Marana.

The one of the reasons we went there is because they started caring the Santa Cruz Valley NHA stamp for your park passport.

Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area (U.S. National Park Service)

2/27/2026 - Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area - Mission Gardens

 

This is the second time going to Mission Gardens, but we didn't stay long.  We were pretty going for the new stamp they just put out there for Santa Cruz Valley NHA.

We will go back another time to look around again.

Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area (U.S. National Park Service)

2/27/2026 - Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area - The Postal History Foundation

 

2/27/2026 - My mom and me went to a new museum that we have never even heard of before.  It's located at 920 N. 1st Ave near the University of Arizona campus, and it is also a small mail center.  The place is called Postal History Foundation.  They have an exhibit of some things that the post office and carriers would uses in the late 1800's to the 1960's.

The first Post Office in Naco, Arizona was near the Mexico border.  They used different kind of tools that the mail employees used.  They used train, horses, mules, donkey in the earlier years and they did by walk or car.

Here is a wall that have stories from mail employees and artifacts that they used.

These were stamp vending machines that you bought with a few cents and get one stamp.  There were different kinds to choose from.

This was a Paymaster that was used in the Post Office.  This was for money orders.

Here are some of the badges that the mail employees wore for work.

Here is the outside of the building.  It's open Mon to Friday 8:30-2:30.  They have volunteers there looking through old stamps that have been used and collected over the years.

The other reason we went there is you can get the Santa Cruz Valley NHA stamp for your National Park Passport.  This stamp is only located in Southern Arizona.

Here are some websites for you to look at to get more information.

Santa Cruz Valley National Heritage Area (U.S. National Park Service)

Postal History Foundation – Connecting people to postal history, philately, & the world of stamps to inspire curiosity & encourage life-long learning

Go check it out.  It was cool to see and learn.