“Man vs. Food” host visits World’s Largest Rocker March 25, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Food, Restaurants, Television.add a comment
Adam Richman, host of the Travel Channel’s “Man vs. Food” program, yesterday visited Fanning 66 Outpost on Route 66 in Fanning, Mo., including the complex’s World’s Largest Rocker.
Sure enough, Fanning Outpost has posted on its Facebook page several photos of Richman, including having a seat on the rocker.
Richman wasn’t there to take on an eating challenge, like he usually does on the show. According to Jane Reed of nearby Cuba, Mo., he was passing through, and visited with the folks in the store.
Richman likely was going to film a segment at the Cookin’ With Scratch restaurant down the road Newburg, Mo., with its 66-ounce burger challenge, Reed said. The challenge is to eat all this in 66 minutes or less — the 66-ounce hamburger patty loaded with cheese and other toppings, a 1.25-pound homemade bun, and 1.5 pounds of fries.
Earlier in the week Richman was in downtown Tulsa to film a segment at Elote Cafe. If you eat 25 of Elote’s puffy tacos in one sitting, they’re free.
Elote sits just a few blocks from Tulsa’s downtown Route alignment.
66-to-Cali owner going on a book publicity tour March 25, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books, People, Road trips.1 comment so far
Dan Rice, owner of the 66-to-Cali souvenir booth on the Santa Monica Pier, will start a book-publicity tour next week for his new biography, “End of the Trail.”
“End of the Trail” (The Way Things Are Publications, 242 pages, $24.95 retail) tells of Rice’s eight-year ordeal to recover from traumatic brain injury incurred during an automobile accident, and how his interest in Route 66 helped lead to his eventual recovery.
The curious part of the tour is Rice apparently has very few book-signing events at this time. However, a number of media appearances scheduled, with more likely coming. Perhaps Rice’s publicist feels he has a better chance at selling books with television and radio spots than at bookstore events.
Even without the book-signings, Rice and his wife Jessica are visiting relatives in the Midwest. So it’s not as if his road trip has just one purpose.
Also, if Rice is near your town, he said he’ll be happy to meet roadies if logistics and time permit. His e-mail address is danrice27(at)yahoo(dot)com.
Here’s the itinerary for Rice so far. Links for the stations are listed where applicable:
- Monday, March 28 – Flagstaff, Ariz.
- Tuesday, March 29 — Santa Fe, N.M.
- Wednesday, March 30 — Tulsa. Rice will be on the “Pat Campbell Show” at 6:05 a.m. on KFAQ-AM, plus “Good Day Tulsa” at 8 a.m. on KTUL-TV.
- Thursday, March 31 — Springfield, Mo.
- Friday, April 1 — Chicago.
- Saturday, April 2 — Chicago. He’ll be on NBC Chicago Weekend Morning News.
- Monday, April 4 — Detroit.
- Tuesday, April 5 — Flint, Mich. (TV appearance likely, but no set at this time).
- Wednesday, April 6 — Lansing or Saginaw, Mich.
- Thursday, April 7 — St. Louis.
- Friday, April 8 — Oklahoma City. With reporter Stan Miller on KWTV.
- Sunday, April 10 – Lubbock, Texas, at Live Oak Community Church.
- Monday, April 11 — Amarillo, Texas, on KFDA-TV with anchor Larry Lemmons.
- Tuesday, April 12 — Albuquerque, KDAZ-AM at 8:40 a.m., and “Good Day New Mexico” later on KOB-TV.
- Wednesday, April 13 – Flagstaff.
- Thursday, April 14 — Book-signing and speech at Santa Monica History Museum.
Tulsa station lands on National Register March 25, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Gas stations, Preservation.add a comment
Cities Service Station No. 8, at 1648 Southwest Blvd. (aka Route 66) in Tulsa, was named to the National Register of Historic Places effective March 14, according to an e-mail today from the National Park Service.
The circa 1940 station was nominated about six weeks ago by the Tulsa Preservation Commission and the state of Oklahoma. So its inclusion to the National Register was all but assured.
The station received a $30,000 cost-share grant from the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program in 2009 to help restore it. You can see what the station looked like just a few years ago here.
Tulsa attorney James Frasier is a co-owner of the building, and has it available for lease.
The most-impressive portion of the restoration is the building’s porcelain panels. As the Tulsa County News reported in its print edition a few weeks ago:
Each piece had to be carefully taken down and numbered. Then each was sandblasted and a powder coating applied before they went back up. Some pieces had to be repaired in a body shop and a few we had to be built to replace the unsalvageable.
It’s a beauty, and it’s a great new photo op for travelers on the Mother Road.
Grant awarded to start preservation of Route 66 State Park bridge March 24, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Bridges, Preservation.add a comment
Landmarks Association of St. Louis was given a $3,500 grant from the National Trust for Historic Preservation as seed money for a long-term preservation plan for the closed and deteriorating Route 66 bridge at Route 66 State Park near Eureka, Mo.
According to the news release from the Landmarks Association:
The master plan for the bridge will serve as a long-range plan for the future use of the bridge and its environs as historic resources. An economic feasibility study, which is part of the master plan, will examine preservation and rehabilitation costs, as well as physical enhancement opportunities such as the placement of overlooks, seating, handicap accessible viewing platforms and educational signage in the park. [...]
The Meramec River Bridge is an important resource associated with Route 66 in Missouri. The bridge was specifically constructed in 1931-32 for the historic highway, and is one of only four similarly designed bridges in the state. When the road was bypassed by Interstate 44, the bridge was likewise evaded and fell into disrepair. The master plan funded by the grant is a critical step in stabilizing the bridge for future renovation and use. [...]
If you would like to make a tax deductible donation to save the Route 66 Meramec River Bridge, please send a check with “Route 66 Meramec River Bridge” written in the memo line to:
Landmarks Associaiton of St. Louis, 911 Washington Avenue, Suite 170 St. Louis, Missouri 63101
To learn more about the bridge and the efforts to save it, join the Friends of the Meramec River Route 66 Bridge on Facebook.
It’s a long way from getting the bridge reopened for Route 66ers and park users. But it’s a start.
(Hat tip: Joe Sonderman)
Mystery solved on the Texola monument March 24, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, History, People.1 comment so far
Longtime readers may remember Corkey Mayberry of Park Hills, Mo., and his search for a Texas-shaped monument that greeted westbound Route 66 travelers in Texola, Okla., right on the Texas border.
Mayberry and his wife had their photo taken at the monument in 1955, seen above. On a Route 66 trip in 2010, Mayberry tried in vain to find the monument again in Texola.
The Texas Department of Transportation, after a bit of sleuthing, reported that the monument was moved to the U-Drop Inn in Shamrock, Texas — 14 miles west of its original location but still on Route 66.
But Mayberry insisted the monument in Shamrock was not the one he saw in 1955. Upon comparing photographs between the Shamrock monument and Mayberry’s 1955 image, he made a compelling point.
I told him I assumed the Texola monument was destroyed in an automobile accident shortly after he saw it, and replaced with a similar but not identical monument.
Finally, it appears, the mystery is solved. Mayberry forwarded an e-mail today from Barbara Seal, public information officer with TxDOT. Here’s what she said:
I spoke with Hubert Moore who was working in the Wheeler County Maintenance Section at the time the interstate was built. Mr. Moore is now a Wheeler County Commissioner. Mr. Moore said he remembers this monument very well and also remembers what happened to it.
I know this may not be what you want to hear, but when Interstate 40 was completed in 1965, the monument was moved to the picnic area on the north side of the interstate. Later a new monument was made and the old monument you are referring to was given to the City of Shamrock to put at the U-Drop Inn. When our Wheeler Maintenance forces tried to move this monument, Mr. Moore said it broke into pieces. He said he remembers first hand taking the loader out and removing the rubble and hauling it off.
The new monument that was put up in it’s place was later donated to the City of Shamrock and that is the one that is sitting at the U-Drop now.
So the border monument met its untimely demise due to an accident … a less-exciting one than surmised.
(Photo courtesy of Corky Mayberry)
“Across the Tracks” CD set is re-released March 24, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in History, Radio, Road trips.4 comments
David Dunaway’s acclaimed documentary radio program, “Across the Tracks: A Route 66 Story,” has been re-released as a three-CD set for just $14.95.
The program was produced in 2001, heard across more than 200 radio stations, and was excerpted on NPR’s “Morning Edition.” Here’s more about it:
ACROSS THE TRACKS: A ROUTE 66 STORY is a nationally distributed series of three, one-hour audio documentaries, with great music and readings from artists who’ve celebrated 66: Woody Guthrie, Ry Cooder, Jack Kerouac, John Steinbeck, Bobby Troup, plus dramatic excerpts from films and old radio – Orson Welles and Wolfman Jack.
Here’s a sample of the series, from Chicago. You’ll hear Route 66 author Tom Teague, who died a few years ago, in the beginning. You’ll also heard Martin Milner, co-star of television’s “Route 66″ drama from the 1960s:
You can hear more excerpts at the interactive website.
Only about 500 copies of “Across the Tracks” have been made, so you’d better order one if you don’t have it.
(Audio sample and art courtesy of David Dunaway)
“30 Days in September” March 24, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Movies, Road trips.add a comment
A few weeks ago, Stephen Vernon-Clark posted some footage on a documentary road-trip film he’s working on, with the working title of “Dodge and Burn.”
Apparently the film has a new title, “30 Days in September.” And Vernon-Clark has posted a new trailer for the film:
As you can see, Vernon-Clark spent time on Route 66 in Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico while filming during a 4,000 mile trip in September 2010.
In an e-mail earlier this month, Vernon-Clarke explained:
Most of the destinations and interviews were the result of instinct and the flip of a coin.
I had seen ‘Roadside America’s’ website and that gave me the locations of Cripple Creek in Colorado where Lodi was fighting to save the museum from closure and it also gave me the idea of Salvation Mountain in Niland, California. After seeing some pictures of Leonard Knight and his creation I just had to go there and record the event.
The rest of the trip just happened and we just found ourselves on the ‘Old Route 66′. Wished I could have spent longer on that section, the stretch of road between Shamrock and Albuquerque gave me the most photographic opportunities and not forgetting Bozo and his fantastic collection of cars.
Vernon-Clarke said once the film is finished, he may shop it around to television.