Website shows Route 66 alignments on Google Maps March 18, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Maps, Web sites.2 comments
Rick Martin of Yukon, Okla., has launched a website that incorporates Google Maps and overlays it with color-coded markings to designate various alignments of Route 66.
Route66map (screen shot of the section of Bridgeport, Okla., is above) shows the oldest alignments in red. Brown is for 1930s to ’50s alignments. Green is for ’50s and ’60s alignments. Blue stands for a later non-interstate section. And black signifies non-Route 66 sections used to connect noncontiguous Route 66 alignments.
Martin wrote on the site:
The lines were drawn using DeLorme Topo maps and then converted over to .KML format. So some of the lines may not be exactly on the road due to the differences in the two data sets of the maps. They should be “close enough” to figure out what road was intended.
In the short time I used the website, I liked its usefulness, especially with its zooming capability and the option of satellite images. I could easily see roadies use the site with on smartphones or with an iPad’s 3G connection.
The site also contains Google Maps waypoints for Route 66 motels, restaurants, historical landmarks, and notes on roads and bridges. Martin’s maps aren’t all-inclusive, but he tells you how to edit the maps to add your own favorite places.
Martin boasts several connections to Route 66. His father owned Martin’s Motel in Ash Fork, Ariz. Martin grew up in Los Angeles, and frequently traveled the Mother Road to visit grandparents in Oklahoma. He and his wife also are avid global-positioning systems buffs, and have used that GPS experience to help build the website.
No, it’s not algae March 17, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Events, Towns.add a comment
Today is St. Patrick’s Day. That means Chicago goes all-out in decorating the city in a green hue — including its river:
Blowin’ in the wind March 17, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Gas stations, People, Photographs, Signs, Web sites.1 comment so far
Here’s a video from Route 66 in Dwight, Ill.
It reminds me of an early scene in the Pixar-Disney movie “Cars,” where a bored Guido watches the wind blow a small hinged sign at Casa Dilla Tires in the Route 66 town Radiator Springs.
The person who shot the video, Frank Romeo, sports an extensive gallery of Route 66 images here for purchase. Romeo’s Facebook page about Route 66 can be found here.
A visit with the Route 66 Museum and Landrunner March 17, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Art, Museums, People, Television.add a comment
Here’s a clip from Australia’s “Classic Restos” television show that features the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum in Clinton and Ken “Landrunner” Turmel and his PostmarkArt.
Historic Oro Grande cemetery receives grant March 16, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Preservation.add a comment
Oro Grande Cemetery, located near Route 66 in Oro Grande, Calif., received a $15,000 grant from San Bernardino County for improvements, according to a story posted on Best Syndication.
“This funding will allow construction of a parking area and decorative fence that will beautify the cemetery and create an appropriate gateway to the site,” Mitzelfelt tells Best Syndication.
The county will build a parking lot and decorative fence. Before any improvements were planned last year, the county used ground-penetrating radar to determine the number and location of the grave sites. This gave planners a suitable location for the parking lot and fence.
Several photos of the cemetery can be found on the Find A Grave site. According to the site, the town was founded in 1852 and is one of the earliest-settled communities in the county. About 130 people are interred at the cemetery, many of them workers at a nearly cement plant. The site is registered as a state Historic Point of Interest.
Interment.net includes several photos and a listing of those buried there. The last person to be buried there was in 1977.
American Ghost Towns also features several photos. Here’s a photo of the cemetery on Flickr.
Pony Bridge March 16, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Bridges.add a comment
Here’s something I filmed for a project last year. It’s the historic Pony Bridge on old Route 66 near Bridgeport, Okla. The bridge was built in 1933 and is nearly 4,000 feet long.
Along Central Avenue March 15, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Highways, History, Signs.add a comment
Here’s an interesting video about the history and character of Central Avenue (aka Route 66) in Albuquerque:
A good chunk of the clip includes an interview with Robert Randazzo of Absolutelyneon.com.
Route 66 State Park March 15, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Museums, Towns.1 comment so far
A visit to the Route 66 State Park near Eureka, Mo.:
It’s the site of the former Route 66 town of Times Beach, which was evacuated permanently in the 1980s because of dioxin contamination.
Injured endurance athlete closes a chapter March 14, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in bicycling, People, Road trips, Sports.add a comment
Six month after nearly dying in an accident on Route 66 in Arizona, endurance athlete James Cracknell participated in an ultramarathon in Yukon Territory of Canada during severely cold temperatures, according to an excellent article by Chris Harvey for The Telegraph in London.
The Yukon adventure closed a chapter for Cracknell, who is still dealing with the brain injury that’s affected his short-term memory and strained his marriage. The Discovery Channel will air a trilogy of programs about Cracknell’s ordeal starting later this month.
The Telegraph article details how grave Cracknell’s injury was:
But at just after 5am, in the half-light around sunrise, Cracknell was struck from behind by the wing mirror of a truck travelling at 75mph. His race across the continent became a desperate fight for life. [...]
Turning back when he didn’t arrive as expected, the support vehicle arrived at the scene of the accident to find police lights flashing, blood on the road, Cracknell’s helmet cracked in two, and his cycling shirt, which had been cut off, lying on the ground. The truck driver had stopped and called for an ambulance. Cracknell had been conscious at the scene, but drifting in and out. The paramedics had sedated him and taken him to the local hospital, from where he was flown by helicopter to the neuro-trauma unit in Phoenix. [...]
Cracknell’s wife, the journalist and broadcaster Beverley Turner, was in America to support him on his ride. Only 24 hours earlier she had been telling the cameras, ‘I just want him to retire and become an accountant or something.’ She was in a hotel room in Las Vegas when the call came, summoning her to the hospital. ‘It was basically to say goodbye,’ Cracknell says. ‘For two days they weren’t sure whether I was going to live, and after that they were convinced that they had to prepare her for me not remembering who she was.’
Cracknell felt recovered enough a half-year later to drive his mountain bicycle in the Yukon Arctic Ultra, a 430-miler over harsh terrain and in subzero temperatures.
He would not reveal too much about what happened in the Yukon event, except that “I wasn’t ready for it and I would have been in the past. I definitely missed home in a way that I hadn’t before.”
Mining and Route 66 museum coming to Godley March 14, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Events, History, Museums.add a comment
An Illinois Route 66 Mining Museum soon will be established in the old City Hall building of Godley, Ill., according to a news release today.
Exhibits will feature the region’s mining roots, its ancient beginnings unearthed as the result of the mining industry, the Route 66 culture the evolved along the way, and other topics of local interest.
The project is made possible through a joint partnership between the grassroots group, Godley Red Carpet Corridor Committee, the Village of Godley, and the Route 66 Association of Illinois Preservation Committee.
Catherine Costello, executive director of the Godley Red Carpet group, said she hopes to have the museum open full-time by summer. The old City Hall building is at 150 S. Kankakee St. in Godley (map here).
However, the museum will open for the Illinois Red Carpet Corridor Festival on May 7-8. Costello said the museum will host Bob and Peggy Kraft, former owners of the Riviera Roadhouse in nearby Gardner. A fire destroyed the Riviera last year, but the museum will host a “Taste of the Riviera,” where Bob Kraft will make sweet cocktails, tend bar like he did for decades, and display memorabilia from the Riviera.
The Route 66 Association of Illinois Preservation Committee plans to hold a work day at the museum at 10 a.m. March 26 for interior and exterior construction and painting. A supper will be planned for work-day participants. Those interesting in helping should contact John Weiss at 815-458-6616.
Before the work day begins, a short ceremony will be held for those who died in the Diamond Mine Disaster in nearby Braidwood, Ill., in 1883. Forty-six workers remain entombed in the mine after it collapsed, despite weeks of rescue efforts.