Storm on the return trip
Trying to photo lightning; no luck.
Morning, Day 16 in Santa Rosa, NM
We made it back to our desired destination last night, although rather later than we wanted. The restaurant we ate at in Flagstaff was an old Route 66 place called Granny’s Closet, that used to be home of the very first fiberglass muffler man/lumberjack statue. They donated it to the University of Arizona as a mascot, but have a smaller replica at their cafe. I actually have a picture of the original from my friend Laurie, who sent it to me years ago.
Traffic around Flagstaff was terrible; we tried to make a 45 minute hop off the road for lunch, and it turned into 3 hours because traffic in town was slow, and then they had 2 exits to I-40 closed due to construction and traffic backed up for miles. Very strange way to handle construction. That put us behind the curve by quite a bit, but at least we made it in.
We also hopped off to get gas at round dome gas station, and indian blankets at the Meteor City Trading post, but those were both short stops.
Today we have about 600 miles to drive; we’re going to try to make it to Big Cabin, Oklahoma, which is halfway between here and home.
See All Photos from “Kingman, Arizona to Santa Rosa, New Mexico”
Photos Uploaded and Organized
I officially have all my photos uploaded and organized (so far; I’m sure there will be more pictures of the rest of the trip home, which will wind up in the “headed home” set.)
I will still need to add captions and descriptions and such for everything, but I created separate sets of pictures for each day, and a collection for all the sets, to make it easier to browse through everything we did, in order.
My Route 66 New Beetle Caravan Flickr Photo Collection
Route 66 Road Trip – To Chicago
Route 66 Road Trip – Chicago to St. Louis
Route 66 Road Trip – St. Louis to Tulsa
Route 66 Road Trip – Tulsa to Tucumcari
Route 66 Road Trip – Tucumcari to Roswell
Route 66 Road Trip – The RoswellR2K Show
Route 66 Road Trip – Roswell to Albuquerque
Route 66 Road Trip – Albuquerque To Williams, Arizona
Route 66 Road Trip – The Grand Canyon
Route 66 Road Trip – Williams AZ to Victorville, CA.
Route 66 Road Trip – Los Angeles
Route 66 Road Trip – headed home
Googie Retro Signs on Route 66
While waiting for my photos to upload, I was doing some ego surfing and found a nice woman named Cordelia had blogged about reading about our Route 66 road trip – and she mentioned that she looked up the word “googie” because I used it several times to describe some of the old retro signs along Route 66. I had intended to include a link to a definition of the term, but didn’t due to the lack of internet; it sort of made it hard to surf around.
Cordelia got a great definition from answers.com:
“Googie” describes a futuristic, often outrageous, building style that evolved in the United States during the 1950s. Googie architecture was designed to attract customers. The name “Googie” comes from a famous coffee shop in Los Angeles. Like the shop, Googie buildings often have flashing lights, sharp angles, boomerang and flying saucer shapes, and lots of glass and steel. On the east coast, googie ideas were expressed in the zig zag rooflines of coffee shops.The Googie style is sometimes called called Coffee House Modern, Doo-Wop, Populuxe, and Space Age.
—The article is attributed to Jackie Craven.
Also, Wikipedia describes “googie” thusly:
Googie, also known as populuxe or doo-wop, is a subdivision of expressionist, or futurist architecture influenced by car culture and the Space Age and Atomic Age, originating from southern California in the late 1940s and continuing approximately into the mid-1960s. With upswept roofs and, often, curvaceous, geometric shapes, and bold use of glass, steel and neon, it decorated many a motel, coffee house and bowling alley in the 1950s and 1960s. It epitomizes the spirit a generation demanded, looking excitedly towards a bright, technological and futuristic age. Googie or Populuxe style of architecture was characterized by space-age designs that depict motion, such as boomerangs, flying saucers, atoms, and parabolas. Building such as this reflects American society’s emphasis on futuristic designs and fascination with space-age themes.
In looking through all my pictures thus far, I have dozens, perhaps even a hundred or so, cool retro signs and buildings from along Route 66, so I’m going to put together, when I get the chance, a flickr photo set of just those pictures. Aside from being really cool, It will help me with some design ideas I have for a project I’m going to work on next…
Kingman, Arizona for the night
We decided to make an early night of it in Kingman, Arizona; staying at a Comfort Inn because they have a indoor hot tub and free wireless. Ah, sweet high-speed internet, how I love thee so. I thought I would never see you again. This way we’ll have some time to decompress and get an early start headed east in the morning. And upload some of the gazillion pictures I’ve taken, I hope. I’m realizing that I need to create separate sets of pictures for each day of the trip, but that’s not going to happen until I get home.
Our friends Dan and Doug are having the billionth annual 70’s party back at home in Indianapolis; we’re keeping caught up with the festivities by twitter.
And if someone gets a chance, tell John Steele that Phoebe loves her new vacuum hose, and we are so grateful to him for being our personal Route 66 mechanic, along with Jerry. John Steele rules.
See all photos from Lompoc, California to Kingman, Arizona
Good Morning, from the West Coast
Yesterday, we reached our destination, the Pacific Ocean, and the official end of Route 66. It was an exciting day, and I have all those bittersweet feelings you get when you’re at the end of a big event and it’s finally time to say goodbye to people and head home. There’s lots I want to say about how nice the people we traveled with are, but it’s too soon, and I don’t want to be sad right now to say goodbye to them, because we’ve had such a great time.
We started out yesterday morning from Victorville, and drove through the very last legs of Route 66 – through San Bernadino on Foothills Blvd., where we visited the Wigwam Motels, one of the two sets that are left on Route 66. Phoebe looks great in front of a wigwam.
We followed Route 66 as it winds through Hollywood and Beverly Hills, and out to the Santa Monica Pier, when Route 66 “officially” ends, although Earl said it originally ended at Ventura Beach, but they moved it for tourism’s sake. Tons of great pictures along the way. L. A. is very pretty, and quite different than I expected, somehow. I took an unbelievable 535 pictures yesterday, so obviously, I was visually stimulated.
Traffic wasn’t really awful; very busy, but we managed to keep the caravan together better than I expected in the traffic. Chicago traffic was MUCH worse.
We spend an hour on the pier taking pictures and eating lunch, then Earl took us up the Pacific Coast Highway for a while, where we stopped at Farina Beach and walked around in the Pacific Ocean, and I called my mom, and Stephanie called her dad. It was very cool to have sand in my shoes from the Pacific Ocean.
For those who crave even more excitement, exploring the ocean on a jet ski adds a whole new layer of thrill. Whether you’re weaving through waves or cruising along the coast, a jet ski adventure is pure exhilaration. To make sure every ride is as smooth as your time on the shore, The Jet Ski Doctor offers top-notch watercraft repair and maintenance services. From routine tune-ups to addressing unexpected mechanical issues, their expertise ensures your jet ski is always ready for the next Pacific adventure. After all, every memorable beach day deserves an equally flawless ride on the waves.
Earl lives in a little town called Ballard near Buellton and Solvang, north and west of L.A. along the coast. Buellton is the area where the film “Sideways” was set, so lots of wine growing. Also lots of horse ranches. Lots of stars and celebrities have ranches out in the hills in this area, too, so we passed where Whoopi Goldberg lives, and the golf course belonging to the guy who made Beanie Babies, and off in the distance we could see the mountain that’s above Michael Jackson’s Neverland ranch. Ron and Nancy Reagan’s ranch was out in this area too.
Earl and his wife Syd have a pretty home we visited for a while. We went to Sovlang for dinner – Solvang’s motto is “More Danish than Denmark” (at least, that’s what the t-shirts said) and the town looks like something out of a storybook; very charming. We ate dinner at a Danish restaurant with the rest of the caravaners, and then drove to Lompoc to stay the night.
Today we turn around and head home – we have four days of driving to do to get back by Tuesday. We’re coming back on I-40 and I-44. If we get a chance, we’ll stop in one or two Route 66 places that we missed on the way out, but mostly we’ll be on the road.
All Photos of “Route 66 Trip – Victorville to Santa Monica Leg”
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