A nearly 50-pound meteorite that was stolen in 1968 from Meteor Crater near Route 66 in eastern Arizona has been found and returned, reports the Arizona Republic. It's called the Basket meteorite because of its shape. How it was recovered is remarkable: Tom Lynch did not know any of this three years ago when he … Continue reading Stolen meteorite returned to Meteor Crater
Month: March 2009
San Bernardino motorcycle festival postponed a year
The Berdoo Bikes & Blues Festival in San Bernardino, Calif., scheduled for early May, has been postponed to 2010 because the economic recession made it difficult to attract sponsors, reports the San Bernardino County Sun. The inaugural festival was last year, and it drew about 8,000 people. It was an offshoot on the Route 66 … Continue reading San Bernardino motorcycle festival postponed a year
The story of the KuKu
KALB-TV in Alexandria, Va., goes waaaaay off its beaten path to tell about Gene Waylan and the last survivor of the old KuKu Burger chain, located on Route 66 in Miami, Okla. In the early 60’s, there were lots of Kuku Burger joints around the Midwest. Gene took over and settled in. He liked his … Continue reading The story of the KuKu
A visit to the Joads’ hometown
Rafael Rachael Alvarez, a contributor to the Christian Science Monitor, pays a visit to Sallisaw, Okla., the home base for the fictional Joad family in the John Steinbeck novel that takes place on Route 66, "The Grapes of Wrath." The first striking observation that Alvarez makes is the recession hasn't hit Oklahoma as hard as … Continue reading A visit to the Joads’ hometown
Where the West begins
When you ask roadies where the West begins during Pacific-bound trips on Route 66, you're bound to get a variety of answers. Many cite the area west of the tiny hamlet of Gruhlkey on the edge of the Texas Panhandle. This is where the flat Caprock suddenly falls away, revealing mesas, cliffs and rock-embedded hillocks. … Continue reading Where the West begins
A life less ordinary
I've read quite a few book reviews of Michael Zadoorian's Route 66 road-trip novel, "The Leisure Seeker." This one from Dan DeWitt of the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times is the best yet. DeWitt's observations about "ordinary, decent" Midwest couples in particular rang true -- especially to a native Midwesterner such as me. For my take … Continue reading A life less ordinary
“What Have They Done to Route 66”
This is a song by folksinger Bill Dobbins. It doesn't contain much material about the actual Route 66. It's a highway song that serves, I think, as a metaphor about getting old. Lyrics for the song are here.
Riding with Tricky Dick
Ed Nixon, the youngest brother of the late President Richard Nixon, has just published a book, "The Nixons: A Family Portrait." Ed Nixon is plugging the book, and a report in the Everett (Wash.) Herald has an interesting aside during an interview with him: Of all his memories, none were told with more delight than … Continue reading Riding with Tricky Dick
Reaping the wind
This is the new 1.5-megawatt wind turbine that was erected a few months ago in the Route 66 town of Tucumcari, N.M. If you're a semi-regular visitor to Tucumcari, it's quite striking to see it for the first time. It's nearly 400 feet tall, so it dominates the area landscape like nothing else except for … Continue reading Reaping the wind
Sign of the times
From an op-ed piece by Rachel Dry in the Washington Post: Seventy years after John Steinbeck published his best-selling tale of the Joad family's journey from Oklahoma to California along Route 66, "The Grapes of Wrath," required reading that never really went out of style, is suddenly in high demand. At the National Endowment for … Continue reading Sign of the times