Hello from England January 31, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music.add a comment
We’ve put sound clips of British singer Charlese performing “Route 66″ in a studio. Here she is, doing the same song at a recent show in Chester, England.
The Blue Whale’s magical mushrooms January 30, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Preservation, Web sites.10 comments
I’ve visited the Blue Whale in Catoosa, Okla., literally dozens of times. But I’d never known about the existence of these things on the grounds until I saw this photo Saturday on the Blue Whale’s Twitter account:
That’s Ron Edwards John Davis taking a break, one of the many Fins of the Blue Whale volunteers who are cleaning up the Blue Whale property, including the Ark.
Behind the Ark are 16 mushrooms in a circle, ranging from 3 to 5 feet tall, that Hugh Davis apparently built during the 1970s. Because it’s in a spot away from the Blue Whale and has been choked by underbrush for years, I didn’t know those mushrooms existed. Not many others knew about them, either.
According to volunteer Ron Edwards in an e-mail:
We’ve known about the shrooms since about September when Blaine and John gave me some photos to scan.
Naturally I asked about them and Blaine went and showed them to me and a couple of the Fins. From that point it was our goal to get them where people could at least see them from a distance until we got them refurbished. We intentionally waited until the ticks and snakes were not an issue to clear things out.
We’re also working toward clearing around the old snake corral and starting the clean out of the ARK. As well as trying to finish the Souvenir Shack by May 1st.
Our curiosity piqued, Emily (aka Redforkhippie) and I drove Sunday to the Blue Whale site to check out those mushrooms and see whether there were other obscure things for us to discover.
It’s a good thing the vegetation is winter-killed, or else traipsing through much of the grounds would have been nearly impossible. Going into thorny brush on uneven terrain isn’t recommended. Much of what we saw also is fenced off. We explored this so you wouldn’t have to.
First, we found this concrete octopus that was uncovered in the pond just behind the Blue Whale:
Then we found the mushrooms behind the Ark, many of which are still concealed by brush:
Near the mushrooms is the old snake pit, where Davis kept his scaly pets:
Then, of course, is the Ark. You can see the turnstile that once was used:
Edwards said a website dedicated to the Blue Whale, bluewhalecatoosa.com, should go live in the coming days.
Emily also blogged about the mushroom-hunting expedition on Sunday.
A word from our sponsor … January 30, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Restaurants.1 comment so far
If you’re traveling in Poland, you might do a double-take when you encounter this restaurant:
Help requested in re-creating Riviera Roadhouse January 30, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Businesses, Restaurants.1 comment so far
Willem Bor of the Netherlands plans to build a miniature of the historic Riviera Roadhouse, which was destroyed by fire in June 2010.
Bor is planning on building the former Gardner, Ill., tavern to 1/50th scale. Here are samples of his work:
Bor hopes to donate this future work to the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum in Pontiac.
However, he is having trouble tracking down good images of the Riviera. If you have quality images or other information about that roadhouse, you can e-mail him at bordesign(at)planet(dot)nl .
Primitive roads January 29, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Highways, History, Road trips, Web sites.1 comment so far
Here’s something fun: A two-part video about the primitive alignment of Route 66 at La Bajada Hill in New Mexico by a brave soul to drove it in an SUV.
Here’s a short clip on the Cuervo Cut-off of Route 66, near Cuervo, N.M.
A drive on Oatman Road (aka Route 66) to Sitgreaves Pass in western Arizona’s Black Mountains:
And here’s a short clip of driving up Tucumcari Mountain near Tucumcari, N.M. We hiked the mountain by foot a few years ago.
These videos will be part of Richard Dinkela’s website HookedonRoute66.com, which should launch sometime next week, he said.
Right now I am building a Route 66 virtual tour based off google maps and my own photography. I have a lot of exciting things to bring to the people of 66 this year.
I’m looking forward to seeing it.
UPDATE: New video was posted on the Tucumcari Mountain drive.
A history of bottle trees January 29, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, History, People.2 comments
I thought the dozens of bottle trees erected by Elmer Long along Route 66 in Oro Grande, Calif., were a one-of-a-kind.
But apparently not, according to an article by Virginia Smith of the Philadelphia Inquirer:
Bottle trees are a long-standing Southern thing, embedded in the life tapestries of African Americans, especially in the Mississippi Delta. Traditionally, live or dead crape myrtle and cedar trees were decorated with bottles – often blue Milk of Magnesia ones – intended to trap evil spirits and prevent them from entering the house.
In recent decades, however, bottle trees have been popping up around the country as decorative items. Most now are made of metal instead of wood.
That includes the many creations in Long’s Bottletree Ranch:
Elmer Long calls himself “the bottle tree man,” too, and he likely holds the record for sheer numbers of trees. He says he has more than 400 on his bottle-tree ranch, on Route 66 in Oro Grande, Calif., in the Mojave Desert. Long says he gets more than 200 visitors a day in spring and summer, including motorcycle clubs, artists, photographers, professors, and busloads of tourists. He scavenges through old, unofficial trash dumps in the desert for bottles, often adding funky items such as parking meters and wagon wheels to the unusual “trees” on his 2.4-acre property. Long has been making bottle trees since 2002, when he retired, after 31 years, from his job at a cement factory. “I think about bottle trees 24/7. It’s crazy,” he says.
Here are dozens of photos of Long’s property on Flickr. And here’s a great video about him and his ranch:
If I had to make a short list of must-see attractions on Route 66, Elmer Long’s Bottletree Ranch would be way up there.
Hello from Oregon January 28, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music.add a comment
The Mixers Band, based in Oregon, says its sound is a bit hard to define, although I hear jazz, blues and soul. This arrangement of “Route 66″ owes a bit to the arrangement of the Brian Setzer Orchestra‘s version. But The Mixer Band’s piano player is pretty special.
New stage production: “Tucumcari” January 28, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music, Theaters.1 comment so far
In the LA Weekly newspaper, I found this little item in the stage listings:
TUCUMCARI Riley Steiner’s story of “love, choices, tough times, and Western music on Route 66.”. Theatre 40 at the Reuben Cordova Theater, 241 Moreno Dr., Beverly Hills; opens Feb. 2; Wed.-Sat., 8 p.m.; Sun., 2 p.m.; thru Feb. 27. (310) 364-0535.
A little surfing found this page at Theatre 40, which has the Reuben Cordova Theater, and more information about “Tucumcari”:
When the passionate, sensual and gritty horsewoman Lillian loses her grandfather’s ranch in New Mexico, she settles for the love of her childhood friend and ranch hand, Lyle. Determined to make a good life for his bride, Lyle sets the couple up in a modest “tourist court” on the newly-booming Route 66 in 1928. Lillian had been hoping for a chance to be free and see a scrap of the world with her husband. She is devastated by Lyle’s choice, but pragmatic and hard working to the bone.
The couple makes a go of it until Cade, a wandering man of the road from Lillian’s past, appears on the doorstep. Charismatic and full of romantic tales, Cade is stranded in Tucumcari, New Mexico when the stock market crashes. The men become fast friends and Lill is torn between the love of a good cowboy and the lure of a worldly man.
TUCUMCARI weaves the enduring jazz, western and folk tunes from the Dust Bowl era throughout its passionate love triangle.
Help paint Bob Waldmire’s mural January 28, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Events, People.2 comments
The city of Pontiac, Ill., will be dedicating the Red Carpet Corridor Festival in May to the memory of prominent Route 66 artist Bob Waldmire. Festivities will include the public being invited to help paint a mural that Waldmire designed before his death from abdominal cancer in December 2009.
The festival is set for May 7-8 on Route 66 from Joliet to Towanda, Ill.
According to the news release from Pontiac Tourism:
Bob’s prolonged passion for Route 66 began in 1962 when his parents took the entire family on a motoring trip to California via Route 66. During that trip, Bob fell in love with the Mother Road and all that it offered. Bob then spent the rest of his life traveling along Route 66 in either his school bus mobile home or his 1972 Volkswagen Van. Both the van and the school bus are currently on display in Pontiac at the Route 66 Association of Illinois Hall of Fame and Museum. The Waldmire school bus home will be opened to the public for the first time during the Red Carpet Festival.
Bob supported his nomadic and eclectic lifestyle by painting and drawing for clients along the Mother Road. His art works are famous world-wide and Pontiac is proud to already have one of Bob’s Route 66 roadmaps painted inside the Route 66 Museum. During the Festival, Bob’s last commissioned mural project will be painted. Bob was asked to design and paint a mural for downtown Pontiac, but his illness prevented him from completing that task. Instead, he designed the mural and the public will be invited to come downtown during the festival to help paint Bob’s 66 foot map of the entire Route 66. The Diaz family, owners of Diaz Sign Art, will oversee the project.
The mural will be on Main Street in Pontiac, just south of Howard on the Encore Shop building. Attached is a thumbnail of the Waldmire design; click on it for a closer look.
UPDATE 2/8/2011: According to a story by the Pontiac Daily Leader, the mural also will include Waldmire’s likeness. An image of the proposed mural can be found here.
Bad news, good news at Bird Creek Bridge hearing January 27, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Bridges, Preservation.3 comments
Those attending a public hearing Thursday night at the Catoosa Community Center in Catoosa, Okla., heard bad news and good news regarding the historic but decrepit Bird Creek Bridge that carried Route 66.
The bad news is the westbound 1936 bridge will be gone in a matter of months and replaced by a nondescript $5.4 million steel girder bridge. Route 66 advocates efforts’ to have the Oklahoma Department of Transportation build a new bridge that resembles or uses parts of the old bridge went for naught because of cost and/or safety reasons.
The removal of the historic bridge would end a prime photo op of the so-called Twin Bridges over Bird Creek and a big railroad bridge in the background.
The good news is a portion of the steel structure of the old bridge will be used at the entrance of adjacent Rogers Point Public Park. Also, ODOT will formulate a preservation plan for other historic Route 66 bridges and road structures, with the help of the state’s Historic Preservation Office.
ODOT engineer Craig Moody, who presided over the meeting, said its bridge proposal made the least impact on Rogers Point park, nearby businesses, and was the least-expensive option. He estimated the new bridge would be open to traffic by fall 2011.
As part of the agreement, ODOT will:
- Forge an agreement with the Oklahoma State Historical Preservation Office. That includes repainting the eastbound 1956 bridge over Bird Creek by 2015 and other repairs. ODOT officials at the meeting said the agreement would include a preservation plan for seven bridges or road structures on Route 66.
- Use one or two of the steel truss spans from the decrepit Bird Creek Bridge at the entrance of Rogers Point Public Park.
- Produce a video documentary about the Twin Bridges.
- Complete Historic American Engineering Record documentation of the 1936 bridge as well as the existing setting of both the Twin Bridges.
The westbound Bird Creek Bridge is deemed too narrow, too low for some trucks, and was closed for 40 emergency repairs in the past two years. On Nov. 29, 2010, the state declared the bridge unsafe, ordered it closed as soon as possible, and detoured its traffic to the eastbound bridge.
Moody declared the eastbound bridge “safe,” with its deck in good condition. He said the state would repaint it and conduct joint repairs in 2015 for an estimated $1.5 million.
When asked about the compromise proposal to use the steel trusses from the 1936 bridge as a decorative element on the new bridge, ODOT engineer Greg Allen said such a structure wouldn’t be stable enough to hold up to modern traffic and design standards. “It’s not safe,” he said.
Engineers also said ODOT had become “reactive, not preventative” with highway and bridge maintenance from 1985 to 2005 because state funding for the agency remained “flat.” That neglect from a 20-year lack of funds greatly shortened the life of bridges, including Bird Creek. Currently, about 400 bridges in the district that includes much of northeastern Oklahoma need repair.
Dawn Sullivan, an ODOT engineer, said the historic Route 66 bridges included in the preservation plan included the “Pony” Bridge near Bridgeport, Captain Creek Bridge near Wellston, and the I-40 service road bridge near Sayre. Sullivan didn’t have a full list of those bridges Thursday.
In her opinion, the Pony Bridge would receive the focus in the preservation plan. “We know it’s the crown jewel of Route 66 in Oklahoma,” she said.
Emily Priddy, aka Redforkhippie, advocated that ODOT impose stricter weight limits on historic Route 66 bridges to extend their life.
She also asked whether decorative pony trusses would be added to the sides of the new bridge after it was finished. Allen said “theoretically” it could be done, and it might be considered in the future. He and other ODOT engineers encouraged attendees and Route 66 advocates to convey those ideas in the comment form, which can be e-mailed.
The PowerPoint presentation at the public hearing can be seen here (warning: big Acrobat file).