Flagstaff fire is under control July 1, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Events, Museums, Towns, Weather.add a comment
After a number of tense days, the massive Schultz wildfire north of Flagstaff, Ariz., is finally contained.
R. Sean Evans, an archivist at the Cline Library at Northern Arizona University in town, sent this e-mail on Thursday:
The containment now is complete, and the total acreage burned is somewhere north of 15,000 acres (or 23 square miles). We had almost a thousand firefighters on the ground, and 2/3rds of the total air tanker fleet working the fire. The good news is that no properties were lost, the fire was kept out of the peak’s glorious Lockett Meadow area, and the fire never got closer than 2-3 miles from the older alignments of Route 66. It is true quite a bit of environmentally sensitive old growth burned up on the mountain however. It was quite scary for awhile — we could clearly see the flames from town.
However, all of the vegetation that’s been burned away makes the area north of town more susceptible to landslides, according to the Arizona Daily Sun. And monsoon season is only days away.
On a semi-related note, Evans also said the last day for the “Route 66 in Arizona: Don’t Forget Winona” exhibit on the Cline Library’s second floor is Aug. 13. The exhibit is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
A pit stop for foreign travelers July 1, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Movies, Restaurants.add a comment
The Santa Barbara (Calif.) Independent posted a story about the Bagdad Cafe along Route 66 in Newberry Springs, Calif.
I knew that the little restaurant has become a big draw from foreign travelers, but this is astounding:
“We had 13 tour buses here one day last week and five buses yesterday,” owner Andree (She’s also called Andrea) Pruett told me when my wife Sue and I stopped in. “All French. But I can’t feed but one bus a day.”
In fact, she estimates that 95 percent of those who arrive at the gravelly parking lot, despite the chill winds of winter and 100-plus summer heat, are foreigners. And about 75 percent are French. Lots of Germans find their way there, too. “We’re in all the European guide books,” Andree said.
It’s all because of a 1989 European film called “Bagdad Cafe,” which was shot on location in the restaurant. It was a somewhat strange movie, but it also had its charms, including a now-deceased Jack Palance living in an now-dilapidated Airstream trailer on the property. Andree Pruett has owned the cafe since 1995.
The place is stuffed with Highway 66 memorabilia and posters along with Bagdad Café caps and T-shirts for sale. It boasts a working juke box that plays the movie’s haunting theme, “Calling You,” an Oscar-nominated song written by Bob Telson and later popularized by Celine Dion. The film spawned a 1990 U.S. series starring Whoopi Goldberg, but that flopped after one season. Barbra Streisand was offered the role but turned it down.
When I visited Andree, she said she was writing a screenplay calledThe Real Bagdad Café. It’s finished now, and she recently emailed me a copy. She sells copies for $35 on her Web site, bagdadcafethereal.com, and intends to use the proceeds to finance the movie, saying, “I had it printed in five languages, English, French, German, Japanese, and Spanish.”
Here’s a video clip of TV host Huell Howser visiting the restaurant, back when a local eccentric named General Bob hung around the place: