Joliet museum, theater may face budget cuts March 19, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Museums, Theaters.add a comment
Several mayoral candidates for the City of Joliet, Ill., are taking a look slashing costs at several city facilities, including the Joliet Area Historical Museum and the historic Rialto Square Theatre, both which are on Route 66 or have a strong tie to the Mother Road.
The Joliet Herald-News quizzed the nine candidates about what they would do to close a $27 million deficit in the city’s government. Most targeted a water park for closure or putting up for sale.
But several complained about the annual $700,000 spent on the Rialto theater, and think funding cuts should be considered for it.
The city spent about $300,000 on the museum last year. At least one mayoral candidate said a cutback on the facility’s hours should be considered to trim costs.
City elections in Joliet are April 5.
La Posada chef receives prestigious nomination March 19, 2011
Posted by Ron Warnick in Books, Food, Motels, Restaurants.add a comment
John Sharpe, chef of the Turquoise Room restaurant in the historic La Posada hotel in Winslow, Ariz., received a nomination as one of the country’s best chefs by the James Beard Foundation, according to the Arizona Republic.
Sharpe is one of the 20 semifinalists — including those in Aspen, Santa Fe, and Las Vegas — for the prestigious honor. He’ll find Monday whether he’s one of five finalists for the best chef in the Southwest. Winners will be announced May 9 in New York City.
This excerpt about Sharpe’s more-utilitarian approach stands out:
The Turquoise Room is in La Posada, the only hotel amid all the roadside motels in Winslow, and Sharpe must make sure his food fits its guests: a mix of international travelers and RV tourists. He also caters to the blue-collar tastes of local ranchers and railroad workers.
“This is not a ‘just doing dinner and high-end food to impress everybody,’ ” he said. “This is not just a chef trying to show off.”
It means Sharpe can’t simply focus on the blackberry sauce for his bison short ribs, or the consistency of the mashed Gilfeather rutabagas that will be the bed for the steelhead trout. He must sometimes flip burgers.
The whole article is worth reading — about owner Alan Affeldt saving La Posada (a former Harvey House) from the wrecking ball, the suspicion that locals regarded the English-born Sharpe, how he trains his staff but encourages them to be themselves, how he uses local produce and meat when he can (including churro lamb from Navajo Indians).
I’ve found Sharpe’s restaurant to be extremely creative, and recommend it highly. If you’re curious about what he serves, you can peruse his menus online. Sharpe also published a Turquoise Room cookbook a few years ago.
Looking over the Beard list, I found one other chef nominated for a restaurant directly on an early alignment of Route 66 — Restaurant Martin in Santa Fe. Other restaurants nominated that aren’t on Route 66 can be found in St. Louis, Albuquerque, Los Angeles, and Chicago. But Sharpe’s nomination for his Turquoise Room is made even more impressive by how far off the beaten path it is.
UPDATE 3/21/2011: Alas, Sharpe did not advance to the finalist stage in the competition.
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.