Notes from the road June 14, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books, People, Road trips, Web sites.add a comment
My computer is still not connecting to the Internet, but my iPod is working like a champ. So here are a few news items I’ve tracked down while on the Mother Road (without links, alas). Also, I’ll be posting regularly at Twitter.com/route66news.
– The Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program reports that the U.S. Senate is considering a $10 fee assessed on foreign travelers. A nonprofit group would promote tourism to the U.S., which has been down since the terrorism attacks of 2001. The bill number is S.1023.
– Author Karen Colson has written a book, “Murder on Route 66,” which takes place partly at The Red Garter in Williams, Ariz., according to the Rawlins Daily Times in Wyoming.
– Longtime Illinois roadie Jeff Meyer is out of the hospital after recently encountering serious health problems. He felt good enough to post a sunny message on his Facebook account over the weekend.
– Author Tim Steil and photographer Jim Luning are out on Route 66 now to revisit some of the people and places from their “Route 66″ book but to video some new material as well. Updates will be found at luningphoto.blogspot.com.
Bluegrassin’ around June 12, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music.add a comment
Here are the Red Desert Ramblers playing a bluegrass-influenced version of Bobby Troup’s “Route 66.” It’s not often that you see a hammered dulcimer in a band.
Notes from the road June 10, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Uncategorized.1 comment so far
I’m on the road, and time is short and the computer isn’t connecting to the Net well. But here are a few items worth noting:
- Here’s a fascinating story about Springfield Underground in Springfield, Mo., which has 3 million square feet of underground storage under Route 66. Link
- Here’s a story about the Route 66 town of Vega, Texas, in the Patchwork Nation blog of the Christian Science Monitor. Link
- The city of Webb City, Mo., adopted an ordinance that makes it likely that it will land $25,000 in state money to create a Route 66 Welcome Center in town. Link
- City fathers in Williams, Ariz., fear the town may be becoming too noisy at night, and are considering an ordinance. So if you visit, pipe down. Link
- Here’s an item about a new book, “Route 66 in the Missouri Ozarks,” written by longtime roadie Joe Sonderman. Link
“Oklahoma Borderline” June 10, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music.1 comment so far
Here’s Sooner State native Vince Gill, from about 20 years ago. He shore does play that gee-tar good.
Appropriate June 9, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Photographs, Road trips, Towns.add a comment
Seen on Route 66 at 2:30 p.m. June 9 in Texola, Okla.
Programming note June 9, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Web sites.4 comments
I’ll be traveling on Route 66 for a little while, so posts might be erratic, depending on time, Internet connections and my energy level.
However, in the interim, it may be good to check my Twitter account from time to time for brief news items. Twitter is handy, and tweets can be written quickly. As a bonus, a feed to the Twitter account can be found on the right side of this page, below the Recent Comments.
Back in business June 8, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Route 66 Associations, Signs, Towns.1 comment so far
The Kingman (Ariz.) Daily Miner has a story about the resurrection of the Kingman Route 66 Association.
The goals, according to association President Tim McDonnell:
The first is to establish a new Web site promoting the city’s proximity to other Arizona attractions, including Oatman, Peach Springs and the Grand Canyon. The Web site, dubbed “Destination 66,” is being constructed with help from Cullen Linn of the local Web design firm Linn Logistics and will be designed to attract both businesses and hotels to the area, as well as to emphasize Kingman as a destination, rather than a place to stop on the way to somewhere else.
“Hotel occupancy rates for Kingman hotels are at the top of the charts, and there are lots of hotels that will build in Kingman because we’ve got the kinds of occupancy rates they want,” McDonnell said. “But the average check-in time is eight at night, and the average check-out time is eight in the morning. We want to create a destination, give people a reason to stay a little while.” [...]
But the association hopes to give more reasons for staying in the city limits, as well. Over the last several months, McDonnell and company have been working closely with the Downtown Merchant’s Association, the Route 66 Cruizers car club and the Kingman Chamber of Commerce to organize “Chillin’ on Beale Street,” a series of events designed to attract foot traffic to the downtown commercial district with games, live music, prize giveaways and other attractions. [...]
In order to further highlight Kingman’s historic appeal, the association plans to hire a mural artist to paint scenes of Kingman’s past around town, starting at the Old Trails Garage building at the corner of Third Street and Route 66, which once served as a Packard dealership decades earlier. The plan is to have the mural artist recreate the original scene Kingmanites would have once observed through the window of the dealership. [...]
“We have the original Packard sign that used to hang on that building, and we have full cooperation from the building owner to pull this thing off,” he said. “We can put that whole thing together just like it was in the ’40s – there’ll be people from all around the world who will come to take pictures of the building, and take pictures of those murals and take pictures of that sign.”
And that’s just their first project. Ultimately, the association wants to paint another mural on the FastTrax building at 1301 Beale St. to mark its proximity to the road that once led to a Hualapai tribe internment camp at Fort Beale.
Membership fees have been lowered from $100 to $50 through the end of the year. Call (928) 377-9684 or e-mail at kingmanroute66association(at)gmail(dot)com for more information.
Book review: “Driving Like Crazy” June 8, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books, Road trips, Vehicles.add a comment
P.J. O’Rourke seems to be in a somewhat dour mood these days. The famed gonzo journalist is feeling the creeping effects of age, blames auto executives, unions and politicians alike for the current free-fall of American cars, and saves his biggest ire to the “Fun Suckers” that are ruining everything he loves.
Yet O’Rourke’s 14th book, “Driving Like Crazy” (Atlantic Monthly Press, 256 pages, $24 retail), will have you laughing in spite of its rampant cynicism. With the telling subtitle “Thirty Years of Vehicular Hell-Bending, Celebrating America the Way It’s Supposed to Be — With an Oil Well in Every Backyard, a Cadillac Escalade in Every Carport, and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Mowing Our Lawn,” it shows again why O’Rourke is one of the best humor writers on the planet and why he’s sold millions of books, including the massive best-sellers “Parliament of Whores” and “Give War a Chance.”
“Driving Like Crazy” collects O’Rourke’s automotive-based articles from more than three decades, including magazines such as Automobile, Rolling Stone and Car and Driver. But it’s not just a rehash of his old material for a quick buck. O’Rourke wrote a number of new essays, plus added annotations to old articles that seemed dated or poorly written (by his own admission).
O’Rourke is best-known as a humorist and a libertarian. But he’s also an unrepentant gearhead who grew up in the auto-factory town of Toledo. When he writes about the steering response of a Land Rover Discover II or the exciting handling of 1967 Mustang he drove for a few weeks from a Rent-A-Wreck in Los Angeles, he knows (or seems to know) what he’s talking about.
Not only does O’Rourke write from a base of authority, but he does it entertainingly — whether it’s off-roading in the Baja Peninsula of Mexico, being among the first mainstream journalists from north of the Mason-Dixon line to cover a NASCAR race, embarking on a long motorcycle ride in the Midwest, and competing in the classic-vehicle California Mille (aka the Geezers’ Grand Prix).
Route 66ers will probably like “Sgt. Dynaflo’s Past Patrol,” in which O’Rourke and a buddy try to drive a 1956 Buick from Florida to Los Angeles. The journey goes through the heart of Mother Road country, but it’s not a pleasure trip. The Buick can’t get up to freeway speed, thus necessitating driving on secondary roads. It constantly breaks down because of vapor lock and a touchy radiator. Much alcohol is consumed during the trip — not so much from partying as to pass time after a breakdown. After hearing yet another “that car’ll run forever” remark from locals, O’Rourke’s exasperated pal responds that he’d “settle for tonight.”
Here’s one passage that ends up ringing true for roadies:
We’d bought a five-gallon jerry can in Tucumcari and whenever the gauge went all red we’d stop and one of us would get out and splash down the radiator while the driver gunned the engine. This would hold us for two hours, or one hour in the midday heat, or ten minutes on an uphill grade. We had no business being away from the amenities and attentions of the interstate in this car. We knew that. But we’d started out driving on the backroads because the Buick couldn’t make turnpike speed, and these little bypaths had been so quaint and charming in the primitive way, and with such quaint, charming people and so many quaint, charming places to break down in front of and buy beer in that we’d forgotten ourselves and now we were in a real piece of Americana indeed.
One of the essays from the late 1970s, “How to Drive Fast on Drugs … ” (rest of title excised because this is a family blog), now seems so dated in its live-fast-die-young ethos that O’Rourke wrote a retort 30 years later, called “How to Drive Fast When the Drugs Are Mostly Lipitor …” (remainder of title excised for space reasons). Maybe O’Rourke was embarrassed by his youthful over-exuberance. Regardless, the sequel is funny, and O’Rourke, now 61, clearly feels that growing old is a welcome bonus.
O’Rourke often rails against the “Fun Suckers” in government and society in general. Fortunately, O’Rourke — and his book — is a Fun Expander.
Recommended.
Scenes from the road June 8, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Photographs.add a comment
A couple of slide shows from the Mother Road have popped up on YouTube in recent days.
The first is a batch of photos from Christian Holzknecht:
The second slide show is by Bradley Blalock. There isn’t as much from Route 66, but an image of the sunset near Rod’s Steak House in Williams, Ariz., is amazing.
A road trip on Samuel June 7, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Religion.2 comments
Here’s a new chapter of “Route 66: A Road Trip through the Bible.” This week’s episode comes from the first book of Samuel, but the author gets no respect.