Where the West begins March 24, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Road trips.3 comments
Beautiful hills west of Clinton, Okla., near old Route 66.
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. This area serves as a preview of the astonishing New Mexico landscape.
I’ve heard author Michael Wallis mention the west side of the Arkansas River in Tulsa as the start of the West.
For much of the 19th century and a portion of the 20th, the West semi-officially began on the other side of the Mississippi River.
A few mention the canyoned ranch lands west of Alanreed, Texas.
And I’ve heard one or two cite cattle lands in the Vinita, Okla., area.
On my first Route 66 trip, I felt I got my first taste of the West a few miles on the other side of Clinton, Okla. This is where the gently rolling terrain suddenly turns steeper and Oklahoma’s red dirt is exposed in brilliant hues. The hills there look like something out of the Badlands of South Dakota or the Painted Desert of Arizona.
As far I know, these dozen or so hills nestled between Clinton and Foss are unnamed, and they last only a quarter-mile or so. But as anonymous and brief as they are, they never fail to inspire — especially in the orange glow of light about an hour or so before sundown.
A life less ordinary March 23, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books.1 comment so far
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 on the excellent book, go here.
“What Have They Done to Route 66″ March 23, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music.add a comment
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 March 22, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books, People, Road trips.add a comment
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 a tale of a long-ago driving trip. “Dick had finished law school, and he ordered a new car — a black Oldsmobile coupe. I was almost 9,” Ed Nixon recalled.
They took a train to Chicago, then traveled to Michigan to pick up the car. With Dick Nixon driving the shiny Olds and little brother Ed in the passenger seat, they drove home on Route 66, stopping in Claremore, Okla., to see the Will Rogers Memorial and in Arizona to see Meteor Crater.
“I became a map reader,” Ed Nixon said. Seeing the crater whetted his interest in geology. Dick Nixon, he said, always pushed him to learn.
Doing the math on Ed Nixon’s age (he born in May 1930), that road trip would have been from 1938 to 1939. Richard Nixon graduated from Duke law school in 1937 and went back to his native California shortly afterward. The Will Rogers Memorial wasn’t dedicated until November 1938, so the road trip more likely was in 1939. So Ed Nixon saw and traveled on Route 66 when it was less than 15 years old.
In case you’re wondering, Ed Nixon didn’t have much to say about Watergate, although there was evidence to suggest that he had at least some involvement in the scandal that brought down his brother.
Reaping the wind March 22, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Towns.add a comment
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 Tucumcari Mountain and the grain elevator.
The turbine is part of Mesalands Community College’s North American Wind Research & Training Center. The turbine generates enough power for 400 homes.
As you’ll see from the video, I was standing right under the turbine as rotated. I never for the life of me will understand people who complain about the noise. The sound it makes is nearly negligable, and it’s no worse than ambient noise from the wind itself.
Sign of the times March 21, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books, Businesses, Movies.2 comments
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 the Arts, the number of grant applications for “Big Read” community reading events around “The Grapes of Wrath” was twice what it was last year. In Jackson County, Mich., librarians estimate that more than 2,000 people will read the book this month as part of a “Big Read.” Kimberly Rapert is teaching the novel to her 11th-graders at Western High School there, and she says that having a book this relevant to the current economic crisis “is like a godsend.”
Out of curiosity, I surfed to Amazon.com and checked the book’s ranking in sales. There are three versions there: a centennial edition by Penguin, a Penguin Classics Edition, and a Penguin Modern Classics edition. Two of the editions are in the top 5,000 overall in sales. The centennial edition is No. 1 in the Classics division by U.S. authors.
In terms of DVD sales, John Ford’s 1940 movie from the novel is in the top 20 of Classic Dramas.
So, obviously, “The Grapes of Wrath” is being discovered and re-discovered.
More from Dry:
Steinbeck would think that we’re getting just what we deserve. And he’d like it.
Not because the Nobel laureate and best-selling author would wish misfortune upon his fellow citizens. But because, first of all, he romanticized the essential moral goodness that springs from adversity, and second, because he hated the material bloat of postwar America. He just didn’t like stuff. And now that we are brought low by stuff, acquiring it without really paying for it, devising complex financial instruments to get more of it, he’d think that maybe we’re ready to learn a lesson or two.
Rereading Steinbeck today — not the compassionate chronicler of human struggle Steinbeck of the 1930s but the cantankerous social critic Steinbeck of the 1950s and ’60s — is a little eerie. If only we’d listened to him, we might not have spent our way in to the current crisis. Of course, in the aftermath of disaster, anyone who punctured enthusiasms with vague harbingers of doom can seem retroactively brilliant. But listen to Steinbeck on the American obsession with things: “If I wanted to destroy a nation, I would give it too much and I would have it on its knees, miserable, greedy and sick.”
That sounds about right.
The irony of this is, I’ve encountered a number of Route 66 business owners who expect an excellent summer. That’s partly because the weak dollar is enticing a lot of foreign tourists. Also, the weak economy is making American tourists stay closer to home and, thus, the Mother Road.
It’s also worth noting that many Route 66 businesses are keenly aware of their road’s role during the Great Depression. As a result, they’re not greedy. They’re empathetic. They already know how to knuckle down if hard times arrive on their doorstep. And they know they can survive it and emerge stronger.
Blue Dome building will become trolley depot March 20, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Gas stations, Preservation.3 comments
The T-Town Trolley, a which is actually a nicely decorated bus that gives rides to various entertainment districts throughout Tulsa, is marking its first anniversary.
KJRH-TV is reporting on a development with the trolleys that’s even more significant to roadies:
But Lund is more excited about the location that will serve as the depot for T-Town Trolley, the historic Blue Dome Building at 2nd Street and Elgin in Downtown Tulsa. “This is a place where we can congregate, sit down and wait for the trolley.”
Some reports say it was built in 1912, others say 1924. The building served as Tulsa’s first 24-hour station. Lund says the historic building is perfect fit for his vintage trolley themed business.
He intends to maintain the art deco look of the building. “We’re working with a designer to design and decorate it for the theme of the building, because it’s a deco piece and it’s part of historical preservation. And it’s Route 66. So we’ve got a lot of cool things with this building.”
Here’s a photo of the Blue Dome from 1949, when it was still a Gulf station. It’s little-changed:
The T-Town Trolley hopes to have the Blue Dome depot ready by Mayfest, which is May 14-17.