Newest edition of Dining and Lodging Guide is out February 9, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books, Motels, Restaurants, Route 66 Associations.add a comment
In the mail Monday, we received a copy of the 15th edition of the “Route 66 Dining & Lodging Guide,” published by the National Historic Route 66 Federation.
According to federation Executive Director David Knudson, the newest edition contains 48 additional pages (for a total of 166), is printed on better-quality paper, and boasts 200 more photographs inside. The guidebook is updated every two years.
The spiral-bound book lists for $15.95 on the federation’s website store, with $6.95 for handling and Priority Mail shipping. Knudson says it’ll be another month before the book is available on Amazon.com. So if you need one now, you’d better go to the federation’s site.
According to the book description:
It lists well over 500 dining and lodging establishments objectively reviewed by Federation Adopt-A-Hundred members. (No advertising is allowed.)
It concentrates on the vintage properties that made the Route famous. Price ranges, amenities, credit cards accepted, must stops and other specialty features are included.
Emily (aka Redforkhippie) and I have served as Adopt-a-Hundred volunteers for the past few editions, where we check out motels and restaurants along specific 100-mile sections of the Mother Road. So perhaps we’re biased in favor of the book.
But we used one of the early guidebooks on our first Route 66 trip even before we became involved as federation volunteers. Even when the book was a mere 60 pages or so, we found it was indispensable for finding cool restaurants or comfortable motels.
And it still is.
Cruise ship kicks February 8, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Businesses.add a comment
Apparently the Disney Wonder cruise ship contains a Route 66-themed nightclub area. A deejay for KSON-FM in San Diego takes us through its hallway.
The Disney Wonder’s website reveals this is for the Cadillac Lounge and a couple of other taverns. More about it:
Cadillac Lounge is a 66-seat, vintage Cadillac-themed piano bar located on Deck 3, Forward in the Route 66 section on the Disney Wonder that features a full bar and nightly live music. Open from approximately 6:30 p.m. to midnight daily, Cadillac Lounge is off limits to Guests under 18 years of age after 9:00 p.m.
An intimate nightclub, Cadillac Lounge recalls the glorious heyday of the Rat Pack at their peak in the late 1950s. Boasting luxurious dark wood walls, low-lit fiber-optic city street murals, and custom chrome and alabaster headlight fixtures on the ceiling, the nightclub provides a romantic setting for adults and couples looking to escape to a more relaxed and subdued environment. Overstuffed armchairs, large porthole windows and a bucket-seat bar add to the cozy setting. [...]
Route 66, located on Deck 3, Forward of the Disney Wonder, is a section of the ship named after the historic thoroughfare, and home to 3 nightclubs and lounges that cater to adults in the evening, including WaveBands, Diversions and Cadillac Lounge. Decorated with a carpet that looks like a road map, dusty-looking billboards and vintage postcards, Route 66 is the route to fun for adults each and every cruise night.
Disney undoubtedly took a few design ideas from the fellows at Pixar Animation Studios and its 2006 movie, “Cars.”
Looking over the ship’s cruise schedule, it departs from either Los Angeles, Vancouver, or Port Canaveral, Fla.
So if you want a brief vacation to get away, here’s an option. And after the winter we’ve endured so far in Oklahoma, a few of those cruises look tempting.
Pontiac mural will include likeness of Bob Waldmire February 8, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Events, People.1 comment so far
We learned a few days ago that a mural in downtown Pontiac, Ill., will use a design by Route 66 artist Bob Waldmire, who died of cancer in December 2009 before the mural was completed.
Today, the Pontiac Daily Leader reports that the building’s mural not only will include Waldmire’s design, but also a likeness of Waldmire himself.
The newspaper reports:
The mural will be finished and dedicated during the the annual Red Carpet Corridor celebration on Mother’s Day weekend, May 6-8.
Ellie Alexander of the city’s Tourism Bureau asked the council’s persmission to commission a mural depicting the last art work of Waldmire. Waldmire’s family donated his two vehicles, a bus which is located behind the Route 66 museum, and a Volkswagen van, located inside the museum. The 66-foot-long mural will be made up of 16 panels, most 8-feet-high, except the three last panels to the south, which will be several feet higher.
The mural will be on the Encore Shoppe building along Main Street in downtown Pontiac. Diaz Sign Art will supervise the project. An rendering of the mural can be seen here.
Joplin marathon may be run by locals February 8, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Events, Sports.1 comment so far
After having a Florida-based firm run the inaugural Mother Road Marathon from Commerce, Okla., to Joplin, Mo., it appears the 2011 edition of the footrace will use locals to organize the 26.2-mile race instead.
The Joplin City Council instructed Joplin Sports Authority and the Joplin Convention and Visitors Bureau to put together the Oct. 9 marathon, according to the Joplin Globe.
Reinke Sports Group of Winter Park, Fla., organized the 2010 race. Shortly after the event, the city filed a federal lawsuit to extricate itself from its contract with Reinke. The city had been cagey on why it was reluctant to bring back Reinke, but the Globe article provided a few details:
But a disagreement took place when police organizations in the other states said they had agreed to give their services to help bring off the run believing it was a nonprofit or charity event. Dean Reinke was paid and then received a settlement from the city after a disagreement over his pay and who had rights to continue the event.
Also, a cursory Internet search also turned up many other problems that cities across the country encountered when they hired Reinke. It makes one wonder why Joplin didn’t do a little Googling of its own before Reinke was initially hired.
Documentary being filmed about haunted Route 66 sites February 7, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Ghosts and Mysteries, Movies, Music.2 comments
A couple that proclaim themselves as experts about paranormal activity recently traveled Route 66 to film a documentary about haunted locations along or near the Mother Road.
Patrick Burns and fiancee Marley Gibson began in November their journey in a recreational vehicle for a film titled “Spirits of 66.” The couple maintains a website at Haunted Highways. Their Facebook account is here, and here’s their Twitter account.
“I plan to pitch the concept (of the film) to various networks, but if they don’t bite, it will be available streaming online and as a DVD release,” Burns said in an e-mail.
Burns said they didn’t strictly stay on the Route 66 corridor searching for haunted sites, but remained within the towns the Mother Road traverses. Here are a few of the spots they investigated:
- “We investigated the alley in Chicago were notorious gangster John Dillinger was gunned down by the FBI.”
- “Resurrection Cemetery in the Chicago Suburbs – home of Resurrection Mary - the famous hitchhiking ghost.”
- “Abraham Lincoln’s home in Springfield, Illinois.”
- “Lemp Mansion in St Louis.”
- “Joplin Spook light, near Joplin, Missouri.”
Burns even recorded his own version of Bobby Troup’s “Route 66″ for the film project. Appropriately, it sounds a bit spooky:
Everybody sing! February 6, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Religion.3 comments
If Paul started crooning “Feelings” next, I’d demand to be left by the side of the road.
This is the latest edition of “Route 66: A Road Trip through the Bible.”
So what happens to Carthage’s Whee Bridge? February 6, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Bridges.add a comment
The Carthage Press in Carthage, Mo., posted a transcript of a question-and-answer session at a Carthage Emerging Leaders meeting with City Administrator Tom Short.
Most of the questions dealt with an upcoming Carthage Capital Improvements Tax initiative that will be voted on Tuesday. A few questions dealt with the eventual fate of Carthage’s Oak Street Bridge, aka Whee Bridge, aka Tickle Tummy Hill. Short’s comments provided clarity about the bridge’s future:
Is the Walnut Street Bridge really necessary, couldn’t we just take out the bridge and keep the Oak Street bridge and do away with that one?
They are also in the process of trying to close down as many at-grade crossings as they can and they prefer stuff above their right-of-way as opposed to going across it. One of the options we had talked about, if we can get them to contribute so much to the project, that we would consider shutting down some of these other bridges. We have to keep Oak Street, Oak Street is Route 66, and that’s a current MoDOT enhancement project. We do have some funds from the state, but because of the railroad, the price has shot up about three times its original estimate. It would be an inconvenience to close any of the bridges and the railroad will not allow us to replace a bridge with an at-grade crossing.
On Oak Street, are you thinking of just repairing and not replacing the Oak Street bridge since it is historical?
It has to be replaced. We can just do little stuff that will not change its load limit but it’s not going to serve anybody purpose. The fire trucks still won’t be able to cross it because they are about twice as heavy as the load limit. The engineers to have a design for a new bridge and it’s one of those kinds of concrete monolithic ones and it’s higher. One of the things the railroad requires is that the elevation of the bridge be higher and that means the approaches will have to be increased so the hump in the bridge will be taken out.
That Oak Street Bridge, it’s the Whee Bridge, it’s iconic to Carthage, and in changing that, is it just going to be another boring flat bridge?
Well it won’t be flat, but it won’t be as severe an arch. It will be flattened out some. We drove over it the other day with the people from Drury and we had our driver drive as fast as he dared to give them the feeling everyone feels when they go over it.
In case you’re wondering about the bridge’s curious nicknames, the bridge’s steep apex causes an unsettling sensation as you drive on it, hence the “tickle tummy” or the “Whee!” I’ve always wondered whether it was a safety hazard, but it’s surprising how many generations of Carthage residents are fond of it.
Alas, simply because it can no longer even support firetrucks, it appears the 90-year-old bridge will be replaced, and its unique sensation will likely be blunted, if not eliminated altogether.
(Photo courtesy of Rod Harsh)
A valentine from Valentine February 5, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music, Towns.2 comments
A video about the upcoming holiday and the Route 66 hamlet of Valentine, Ariz.
The clip comes courtesy of Historic Seligman Sundries in Seligman, Ariz. The song is by British resident Aaron Phillips, an Elvis impersonator who provided the music for the video.
Shelvis is in the building February 4, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Music.1 comment so far
I heard a rumor that Elvis Presley actually faked his death and resurfaced in Germany.
Seriously, though, it’s a good imitation of The King.
One of the characters of the Mother Road February 3, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Businesses, People.1 comment so far
The fellows at Third Story Films pay a visit to Frank Kohlrus at The Old Station on old Route 66 in Williamsville, Ill.
More about the Game On road trips can be found here.