This is supposed to be a desert December 21, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Weather.add a comment
You’d think the Mojave River, being in the middle of Southern California’s harsh desert, would remain dry or see just a trickle of water, at most.
But not today. Here’s what the river looked like after the region was lashed with severe rainstorms. This is off Route 66 near Helendale:
More storm and flood coverage can be found with the Los Angeles Times here.
Give an inch, take a mile to save a bridge December 21, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Bridges, Preservation.add a comment
Vicky Hartzler, the newly elected U.S. Representative in Missouri’s 4th District, has e-mailed constituents and asked them to send photos of notable sights in her district so she can display them when she takes office next month.
The Pulaski County Daily tells the rest of the story:
At Thursday morning’s meeting of the Pulaski County Commission, Eastern District Commissioner Bill Farnham said he’ll take Hartzler up on her offer.
“I think I’m going to send a few pictures of the Devil’s Elbow Bridge to our new congresswoman to see if we can get some federal money. She’s asking for pictures of things in the district,” Farnham said.
“That’s called sucking up,” said Presiding Commissioner Don McCulloch.
“Why not? We need money and that might work,” Farnham said. [...]
Due to deterioration, weight limits on the Devil’s Elbow Bridge have already dropped to the point that tour buses can no longer cross the bridge, which means many tourists never see the bridge.
McCulloch may call it “sucking up,” but I’d call it “smart lobbying” if Farnham lands federal dollars to repair that Route 66 bridge and reopen the rest of Devil’s Elbow to tourists.
If the deteriorating bridge is closed, many Devil’s Elbow residents will be forced to add miles to their trips, and Route 66 travelers will lose a contiguous route through that village. Farnham’s quest to repair the bridge could be called many things, but frivolous is not one of them.
The roots of Taco Bell December 21, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in History, Restaurants.add a comment
I didn’t know this, but the beginnings of the Glen Bell and his now-ubiquitous Taco Bell restaurant chain began at a corner eatery on Route 66 in San Bernardino, Calif.
According to OC Weekly:
This taco comes from the above restaurant, which is the exact location where Bell’s Hamburgers and Hot Dogs opened in 1952: on the corner of Mount Vernon Avenue and Sixth Street, in the city’s West Side barrio. It’s here that Bell decided to try and sell tacos–although tellingly, the largely Latino clientele he had forsook his Mexican offerings in favor of the hamburger and hot dogs. But Bell nevertheless had an instantaneous following, because Mount Vernon was originally Route 66, ensuring he got all that famished cross-country traffic.
Interestingly enough, the red-tile roof and wrought-iron fencing aren’t original; Bell hadn’t yet learned the value of exotifying Mexican food. Bell only stayed at this location for a couple of years, because he lost it in a nasty divorce. Amapola Rico Taco has sold tacos at the stand since 1975; this was its second location, and it’s now its own successful chain, located only in the Inland Empire. The taco, by the way, was delicious–nothing like its ancestor.
Bell also bought the tortillas a short distance away on Sixth Street (aka Route 66). That was all before he started buying and establishing El Taco chains in Southern California. He later built the first Taco Bell in 1962, and now boasts almost 6,000 restaurants in the United States.
I’m not about to become a big defender of Taco Bell food. But it did bring Mexican cuisine in a lot of places that didn’t have it before, and undoubtedly opened the taste buds of people so they could try even better food derived from south of the border.
Holiday road December 20, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Movies, Music, Road trips.add a comment
Here’s a new slide-show video of Route 66 sights in Arizona and California. Appropriately enough with Christmas fast approaching, Lindsey Buckingham‘s 1981 hit song “Holiday Road” is part of the soundtrack.
The song is best-known for being included in the movie, “National Lampoon’s Vacation.”
More from Rock the Route December 20, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music, Road trips.add a comment
Another video was posted today from the recently completed Red Bull Rock the Route tour for two unsigned rock bands. You’ll see a number of Route 66 sights in this clip:
Joplin blessed with a generous Secret Santa December 20, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Coins, People.add a comment
The Route 66 town of Joplin, Mo., boasts a Secret Santa who manages to place fat cashier’s checks into Salvation Army kettles in town every year, according to Time magazine.
Amidst the haul, a Salvation Army counting crew found five $1 bills, folded tightly into squares — each concealing a $20,000 cashier’s check with “Santa Claus” listed as the remitter. [...]
The most amazing part: such miracles are Christmas as usual in this threadbare southwest Missouri town, where a mysterious Secret Santa has been lifting spirits for years. Starting in 2004, the Salvation Army has found wondrous treasures in its humble kettles. At first, it was five cashier’s checks for $10,000 each, found in different kettles around town, totaling $50,000 per season each year from 2004 through 2008. Last year, when every other economic indicator was down, Santa was doubly generous, leaving a total of $100,000 at various locations.
This was the first year Santa put all $100,000 into one kettle, sometime between 5 p.m. and 9 p.m. on Dec. 13. It was a frosty evening. Across the street from the pharmacy, the message board in front of the old brick Bethany Presbyterian Church beckoned passers-by to a coming Christmas potluck. The bell ringer, a single mom in her 20s, reported slow traffic. “She didn’t think she’d gotten very many donations,” Poff said. Evidently, Santa can walk right up to you, and you may not even notice.
The checks were issued by the local Commerce Bank, and if the Secret Santa has an elf or two at work there, they are good at keeping a secret. Local media have tried and failed over the years to figure out who the donor might be. The anonymous gifts now total $450,000.
I’ve heard about Secret Santas dropping krugerrand gold coins into kettles. But adding whopping cashier’s checks into the Salvation Army’s coffers is a lot more impressive, especially when one considers that krugerrands are worth just $1,800 each, tops. And the cashier’s checks contain the additional benefit of being able to be used right away. The krugerrands have to find a buyer.
Joplin is blessed.
Original Big Boy restaurant was on Route 66 December 19, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in History, Restaurants.1 comment so far
This slipped through my radar, but the original Bob’s Big Boy restaurant was established on Route 66 in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles.
Dan Kimpel of the Eagle Rock Patch dug up details about the eatery, which now boasts more than 100 restaurants in America and is best-known by its portly, smiling mascot.
Some interesting tidbits:
- The mascot was patterned after customer and gofer Richard Woodruff, who as a 6-year-old was already portly and had a distinctive pompadour.
- A Warner Bros. animation artist designed the logo.
- Big Boy founder Bob Wian is credited with creating the cheeseburger, although that remains in dispute. That was at Sternberger’s, a restaurant in nearby Highland Park, before he started Bob’s Big Boy.
- The Bob’s Big Boy that Wian opened in 1937 at 1500 W. Colorado Blvd. (aka Route 66) formerly was a Hinky Dick.
- Bob’s Big Boy has been gone from that location for at least 30 years. It’s currently occupied by a Panang, a Thai restaurant, although the restaurant’s Googie architecture still reflects its past.
Frankoma Pottery remains in limbo December 19, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Businesses.add a comment
A well-researched story this week in the Tulsa Business Journal tells about the sad state of affairs of the closed Frankoma Pottery business in nearby Sapulpa, Okla., off old Route 66.
Closed March 19 last year, the plant’s telephone numbers are out of service, and the home page for its website, www.frankoma.com, simply reads, “This site is temporarily on hiatus.”
A sign on the front door of the plant at 9549 Frankoma Road says, “Frankoma has temporarily closed the showroom and the factory. We will announce our reopening at a later date.”
With no trial dates on the schedule, the future of the 72-year-old plant is uncertain and hangs on the results of the foreclosure suit filed by Oklahoma City-based BancFirst on Dec. 21, 2009, against majority owner Joseph Ragosta and his company, American Made Pottery LLC.
The business, which opened in 1933 and moved to Sapulpa on Route 66 in 1938, has closed at least three times since 2004.
According to the story, an unnamed source says a dispute over who is the primary secured lender is holding up a foreclosure sale. This sounds suspiciously like the scenario that’s affecting thousands of foreclosures and home mortgages across the country — nobody seems to know who holds the title in the blizzard of bank mergers and credit-default swaps in recent years.
Longtime manager buys, reopens Eisler Bros. Store December 18, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Businesses.3 comments
That was a short hiatus.
Scott Nelson, longtime manager of the historic Eisler Bros. Old Riverton Store in Riverton, Kan., has purchased and reopened the business after it was shut down indefinitely Dec. 5 during ownership wrangling.
Eisler Bros. reopened Friday. Nelson, who’s managed the Route 66 grocery and souvenir shop since 1980, said in a phone interview Saturday that he officially closes on the ownership on Dec. 29.
“We’re back in business,” he said. “I’m glad to be back doing what we do.”
Now that he’ll own the property outright, Nelson says he has no drastic plans for the business that’s operated since 1925.
“We’re not going to do anything different with the building, that’s for sure,” he said. ” We just want to improve on what we do well.”
Nelson said he had been negotiating since June with longtime owners Joseph and Isabell Eisler to buy Eisler Bros. Store. He said the deal for the property started to fall into place earlier in the week.
“My vacation is over,” Nelson said, laughing. “It was about one week. That’s about all I could stand; that’s where I’m used to being every day. It all worked out, and it’s good to be back and going.”
(Photo by Ron Hart)
Name that baseball team December 18, 2010
Posted by Ron Warnick in Sports.add a comment
The new Frontier League baseball team in Joliet, Ill., soon will begin its inaugural season, and it is asking its potential fan base to come up with a name:
We have held some brainstorming sessions and come up with a list of names. BUT… We know that someone out there may have a better idea! So…. Here’s the drill. Look over the list and let us know if you like any of these names. Or, send us your suggestion. While our “name the team committee” may choose your suggestion, we won’t be using a strict “vote count.” Of course, all ideas about how the new team name may be “marketed” are welcome.
One of the proposed names is the Joliet 66ers, named after historic Route 66 that runs through town.
Other suggested names include the Jailers or Jailbirds (a reference to the now-closed state prison) or the Steelheads (a reference to its long reputation as a steel-mill town).
Each suggested submission will be eligible for one of 66 (!) prizes that the team will give away, including a grand prize of a luxury box on opening night, a customized team jersey, tossing out the ceremonial first pitch, and two season tickets for the 2011 season.
All entries must be submitted by noon Monday. Rules and instructions are here.
The Frontier League operates as an independent professional baseball organization in Missouri, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Ohio.
If 66ers is chosen by Joliet, it wouldn’t be the first sports team with that moniker. The Tulsa 66ers basketball team plays in the NBA Development League, and the Inland Empire 66ers of San Bernardino, Calif., is a Class A baseball team affiliated with the Los Angeles Angels. Bartlesville, Okla., also boasted an amateur basketball team, the Phillips 66ers, for decades.
(Hat tip: Kathy Miller)