County OKs pact for Route 66 bikeway July 21, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in bicycling.add a comment
The McLean County Board in Illinois approved a $170,000 engineering contract in an effort to build a 3-mile bicycle path next to Route 66 from west Bloomington to Shirley, reported the Bloomington Pantagraph.
The county hopes to eventually attract federal stimulus money to help pay for the $1.75 million project. Getting the bikeway “shovel ready” is one way to improve the chances of landing the funds to cover 80 percent of proposal.
If federal funds arrive, construction may start in the spring.
Notes from the road July 21, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books, Businesses, Food, Highways, Music, Preservation, Restaurants, Road trips.add a comment
— The bad news in Oklahoma is that the state’s turnpike authority will raise toll-road prices an average of 16 percent. The good news is that this probably means more traffic on old Route 66 in the Sooner State.
— On Monday we briefly visited with Dawn Welch, owner of the Rock Cafe in Stroud, Okla., who was busy finishing a professional video shoot. At least some of the footage will be used to promote her upcoming cookbook, “Dollars to Donuts: Comfort Food and Kitchen Wisdom from Route 66′s Landmark Rock Cafe.” The book will be out Nov. 10.
— The superstar country-music duo Brooks & Dunn will very likely film a portion of a music video within the next few months at Combine City near Amarillo, Texas. Combine City features several vintage combines into the Texas earth; the site is very reminiscent of the nearby Cadillac Ranch.
— Scenic America, a nonprofit devoted to preserving and enhancing America’s communities and scenery, recently featured Arizona’s Route 66 in its June/July newsletter about a recent Historic Route 66 National Scenic Byway workshop in Flagstaff. A report about the workshop is here (28-page PDF document), and may prove useful to preservationists.
— The Elegant Cookie, based in St. Louis, is offering a new line of cookies, gifts and gift baskets inspired by Route 66. The company even has technology in which you can create an image of a Route 66 landmark on a cookie. You can see all of its Route 66 stuff here.
Cadillac Ranch takes on unintended meaning July 20, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Attractions, Vehicles.add a comment
Mitch Potter of the Toronto Star talks to Stanley Marsh 3, the Amarillo tycoon who created the art landmark that is Cadillac Ranch just off Route 66 on the west side of town.
But in the summer of 2009, this iconic row of classic Cadillacs jutting skyward from a farm field in the Texas Panhandle has taken on a darker meaning than its builders ever intended.
With the implosion of GM and Chrysler, the Cadillac Ranch now looks more like the graveyard of American greatness – 10 tragic steel-and-glass tombstones marking the sorry demise of automaking as we know it.
“It’s painful to think of it that way today. It’s not what the Cadillac Ranch is supposed to say,” says Stanley Marsh, 70, the famously eccentric Amarillo millionaire who bankrolled the landmark 35 years ago, conceiving, buying and planting the Caddies nose-first with the help of San Francisco art collective Ant Farm.
“We put it there as a public gesture to freedom, mobility and the open road. The Cadillac was the way to say it. And I like to think we got it exactly right – the cars tilt at the same angle as the Great Pyramids in Egypt.” [...]
Still, hunkered down in Amarillo, the owner of the Cadillac Ranch remains an optimist; he believes the American dream will thrive despite GM crashing into bankruptcy, the banks foundering and the housing market starving for buyers.
“I think America is going to do just fine,” Marsh asserts. “We’ve still got our freedom and as long as people all over the world want to be part of it, we’re bound to recover.”
Early heartbreaking July 20, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music.add a comment
Here’s an early clip of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers performing Bobby Troup’s most famous song. This 1977 video predates the band’s breakout “Damn the Torpedos” album.
A little too touchy-feely July 20, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Religion.add a comment
Here’s another chapter of “Route 66: A Road Trip on the Bible,” this one covering the first book of Chronicles.
King David should have invested in a pair of handcuffs and a large burlap sack.
A view from the passenger side July 19, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Photographs, Road trips.add a comment
Los Angeles artist and photographer Jason Paul Bennett embarked on a Route 66 trip from Chicago to L.A. last year, and shot more than 5,400 images to document it.
Bennett has a dedicated site, Passenger Side, to those photos. For a donation, yYou can download all 5,40o or so high-definition photos. You also can see about 170 of those photos in a slide show, or in these two YouTube videos below.
I found a number of the images to be quite striking.
Hello from Austin July 18, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music.add a comment
Here are the Jazz Pharaohs, doing a Dixieland number on Bobby Troup’s most famous song.
Notes from the road July 18, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Attractions, bicycling, Events, Food, History, People, Road trips, Web sites.add a comment
A few things to move off my plate:
— One of the beneficiaries of federal stimulus package passed earlier this year is a Route 66 bicycle trail in Illinois. According to an Associated Press report, $25,000 in such funds will be used to build a four-way stop signal at an intersection for the Route 66 Bike Trail in Chenoa.
— The grand opening celebration of the Old Joliet Prison Park at 1125 Collins St. in Joliet, Ill., will be from 1 to 5 p.m. Saturday. Events include the Blooze Brothers Band, child safety IDs by made by local police, free kids’ activities, plenty of food and drink, and free mug shots in front of the old prison. The whole shebang will be in the parking lot outside the prison.
— Frankoma Pottery in Sapulpa, Okla., announced a couple of new pieces. This year’s annual collectors plate was designed by Joniece Frank, daughter of Frankoma’s founder, John Frank. The theme of the plate is “A Miracle in God’s Hands” and shows the infant Jesus in God’s hands. Price will be $33.00. In addition, Frankoma released its first new nativity piece in several years. The nativity set was started in 2002 and the set grew to 15 pieces by 2004. This year, a shepherd is added. Both pieces can be seen on the front page of Frankoma’s Web site.
— Illinois Route 66 advocates John and Lenore Weiss will present their free “Route 66, Then & Now” program at the Wilmington Public Library in Wilmington, Ill., at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday. The Weisses recently received the Route 66 Ambassadors award at the annual Illinois 66 banquet.
— The Crawford County Fair in Hood Park along Route 66 in Cuba, Mo., continues through Saturday. You can read about the fair’s long history — including the time a future president named Harry Truman visited — at the Viva Cuba blog.
— Jones Soda and Griffin Technology are sponsoring a photo contest for the best creative photos from people’s road trips. To participate, travelers must use the hashtag “#roadtripjones” in a social media update, including their destination or itinerary. Photos and videos can then be uploaded to the Jones Soda gallery at www.jonessoda.com/gallery and hashtagged through Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.
Route 66 guidebook in the works July 17, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books.1 comment so far
Tucked into this story from the Carthage (Mo.) Press about a Jasper County board meeting was this:
In other business, Gerry “Ringo” Meyer, Shawnee, Kan., spoke with the commissioners about the county buying advertising space and getting involved in a travelogue his company was putting together about Route 66.
He described “Keeping You on the Mother Road” as a 300-page travelogue that was the first of its kind to detail the entire route from Chicago to Los Angeles.
He said it would have chapters about the different states, maps, stories about Route 66 icons and the people who live on the route and advertising by businesses on or near the route.
The commissioners said they would get back to him regarding whether the county could participate.
An Internet search about this travelogue book has been fruitless. Does anyone out there know more about it?
UPDATE: I tracked down Meyer by phone on the road. He said “Keeping You on the Mother Road” will contain a schedule of events, Route 66 maps, directions, stories, photos and histories in full color, magazine-quality paper.
He anticipates distributing the books sometime in early 2010. The minimum print run will be 20,000, although that could rise depending on how much advertising is sold. Longtime Route 66 enthusiast Jim Conkle is writing the introduction for the publication.
In addition to distributing the books at museums, businesses and associations along Route 66, the company has deals with Borders and other major bookstores.
The price of the book, Meyer said, will be $19.66. Advertisers will receive a minimum of 10 free copies.
Blue Valley Inc., which is a longtime publisher of phone directories in Shawnee, Kan., is the publisher. Meyer said the Web site for the “Keeping You on the Mother Road” is motherroadinc.com, although the site wasn’t loading as of Friday morning.
If you are interested in advertising or want more information, you can call Meyer at 785-766-7800 or Dave Emerson at 913-387-6539.
I’ll be eager to see the finished product.
Another critic of “Great American Road Trip” July 16, 2009
Posted by Ron Warnick in Movies, Road trips, Television.6 comments
I got this e-mail today from Kathleen Miller, a longtime member of the Illinois Route 66 Association and co-editor of the association’s The 66 News magazine:
Is the Great American Road Trip on Route 66 really that great? Over the past two weeks NBC broadcast a television show called “The Great American Road Trip.” They tout it as “a wholesome show the whole family can watch!” And it is just that, I can say that after watching it I agree, it is a wholesome family show! On the NBC website it says this about the show, “Adventure and competition prevail as seven families begin their journey across America on Route 66, beginning at Chicago’s Wrigley Field.”
I wondered why they chose Wrigley Field. The ballpark has nothing to do with Route 66 in Illinois. Couldn’t they have met in Chicago on Michigan Avenue or on the steps of the Art Institute? That is closer to where Route 66 starts in Illinois, not Wrigley Field. I watched with eagerness to see our wonderful historic sites, the icons of the road revealed as the families made their way to Springfield, IL.
They left the ballpark and made their way to the Mother Road, we saw the Sears Tower and then we saw I-55. Ok, I thought they’re waiting for Joliet, and then they passed Joliet. What about the Gemini Giant in Wilmington, they have to stop there. Nope, instead they showed I-55 and farmland and barns. Did I see the Odell Station? Nope, instead I saw I-55 and heard comments like, “All Illinois has is farmland and barns!” Did they at least stop at the Meramac Cavern Barn, which was a preservation project in Cayuga? Did they stop in Pontiac to visit the Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum to learn the history of Route 66 in Illinois? Did they make their way to Atlanta to visit Paul and the Palm’s Café? How about Ernie Edwards and the Pig Hip? Nope, they continued on I-55 and talked about how boring Illinois is. They spent the night in Springfield, performed their challenge and left to continue on I-55. When they left Springfield a sign flashed that read “Monee”. For those who don’t know, Monee is located on Route 50 approximately 35 miles east of Route 66 at the closest point. We saw more farmland, then they magically appeared at “The Chain of Rocks Bridge”, so much for Illinois. I was devastated!
In one hour this show has done more harm to the tourism on Route 66 in Illinois than I-55 ever could have. Everything that the Route 66 Association of Illinois and the Preservation Committee, the cities, towns, and villages, the Mom and Pop businesses and the people on Route 66 have worked for years to promote and preserve was invalidated in one hour.
How many hundreds of thousands of people saw that show? How many hundreds of thousands of people now think there is no reason to visit Route 66 in Illinois? How many hundreds of thousands of tourism dollars did Illinois just lose? All in one hour!
The promotion for upcoming episodes boasts about visiting “Branson, MO.” Is Branson on Route 66? Heck NO! They are using the Mother Road to lure viewers to see “Route 66” and I feel all they will see is I-55 and all the other super slabs from here to California.
I wish associations, cities, villages, towns, Mom and Pop businesses and the people of Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California better luck than Illinois had. I fear especially, with the economy the way it is now, we just lost more revenue potential than we can recoup this summer.
I urge everyone who has seen this show to write to NBC and complain about their misrepresentation of Route 66 to the American public!
Miller has made her views known. Now it’s time for mine.
I don’t begrudge the show’s producers for stopping in non-66 places such as Wrigley Field in Chicago and Branson, Mo. Side trips have long been part of the Route 66 experience, and both of those very popular destinations qualify. If I didn’t think side trips were relevant, I wouldn’t have news about the Grand Canyon and other sites that are inextricably linked to the Mother Road.
Miller’s complaint about the families doing a lot of interstate driving may have merit, on the surface. Then again, you’re talking about people who are inexperienced in driving large RVs. The show’s producers probably thought it would be safer — and less troublesome logistically — to stick mostly to the interstates. I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt on that.
As for Miller saying the show “has done more harm to the tourism on Route 66 in Illinois than I-55 ever could have,” that’s giving “Great American Road Trip” waaaaaaaaay too much credit. The show saw such abysmal ratings in its original Tuesday night premiere that NBC moved it to Monday nights. There, it continued to flounder for viewers in Week 2, finishing a distant fourth of the four major networks.
Sure, the show may not have presented Illinois Route 66 is the most flattering light. But, with ratings lower than a snake’s belly, few ultimately are going to care. And I can attest from Route 66 News’ traffic that people are far more interested in the three-year-old “Cars” movie, not the current “Road Trip” TV show.
Frankly, I’m more offended that NBC squandered a great opportunity and made a bad show. If you still feel the need, you can give your opinion to NBC on “Great American Road Trip” here.