Internet notes from the road

Photographer and Adobe Photoshop guru Ben Willmore, whose blog is listed on the Blogroll, has been traveling Route 66 again and posting photos.

In addition to the image of Gay Parita in Missouri above, you’ll find other striking images of the railroad depot in Galena, Kan.; a couple of car-show shots from the Route 66 festival in Springfield, Ill.; the interior of the Odell Station in Odell, Ill.; and the Rainbow Bridge near Riverton, Kan.

— The folks at Vintage Roadside, who put vintage advertising of defunct roadside businesses on T-shirts, are attending the National Preservation Conference in Tulsa on Oct. 21-25. They will be traveling the Mother Road from Topock, Ariz., to Tulsa, and will be documenting photos of Route 66’s preservation successes on a new blog, Vintage Roadtrip.

A sample of the places we’ll be highlighting:

Arizona: Old Trails Garage (Kingman), Winslow Theatre (Kingman), Frontier Motel (Truxton), John Osterman Gas Station (Peach Springs), Twin Arrows (Flagstaff), and the Wigwam Motel (Holbrook)

New Mexico: Lexington Hotel (Gallup), El Rancho Hotel (Gallup), El Rey Theatre (Albuquerque), Blue Swallow Motel (Tucumcari), Del’s Restaurant (Tucumcari), and the Pecos Theatre (Santa Rosa)

Texas: Triangle Motel (Amarillo), Sixth Street Chevron Station (Amarillo), Phillips 66 Gas Station (McLean), U-Drop Inn Café (Shamrock), and Magnolia Station (Vega)

Oklahoma: Phillips 66 Gas Station (Chandler), Rock Café (Stroud), Vickery Phillips 66 Station (Tulsa)

In addition to its booth at the conference’s convention hall, Vintage Roadside will lead a panel called “Engaging People Online” from 1:30 to 3 p.m. Oct. 22.

— Illlinois roadie Peter Stork was at the recent St. Louis Route 66 Festival at the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge. Photographs he shot can be seen at his Flickr account here.

Stork also reported:

Attendance was pretty good considering it was the first year, and – especially on the Missouri side of the river (where the cars were all lined up, parallel with the run of the bridge) – it was occasionally hard to walk along the bridge because of the crowds.  There were a lot of classic cars – perhaps not as many as at Litchfield in June – but I’d guess good for October and a first year festival.  Not a lot of booths were setup on the Illinois side of the river, but the Missouri side had a nice artisans tent, a decent booth for the Missouri Association, and a good number of food vendors in addition to the main stage right by the entrance to the bridge.  Even with the lackluster attractions on the Land of Lincoln banks, most people seemed to go through there since the parking was free on that side.  They had shuttles running literally non-stop from the parking lot and we spotted Trailnet representatives a number of times.  The weather was 100% perfect.  We didn’t get to stick around for the sock hop or screening of American Graffiti, so I’m not sure how those events went.

— In case you haven’t been keeping up, Andie Smith and Holly McCaig, aka the F2 Chicks, recently made it to Santa Monica during their Route 66 road trip.

The route includes very little Interstates and lots of stops along the way. Interesting, eclectic, and beauty abound. We haven’t counted all the photos we’ve taken, but let me just say, the opportunities knocked our socks off. It’s a photographer’s dream.

You can see the photos they posted here.