1350 MILES ALONG ROUTE 66 - PART 2

October 24, 2012 • Leave a Comment

DAY 5 ON ROUTE 66: SANTA FE TO TUNCUMCARI

When I left Santa Fe I followed the old 66 route for a while east then rejoined I-40 (which swallowed most of the old road) to Santa Rosa. But stretches of the old road do remain though and the real enthusiasts come on and off I-40 to experience them: here’s one section just outside Santa Rosa.

By now the red rocks and mesas of western New Mexico have vanished and are replaced with wide open flat scribland: I guess this is in preparation for Texas, which is the next state.

The I-40 freeway bisected the town of Santa Rosa and cut its old Route 66 frontage in two, but for over 65 years people crossing New Mexico along Route 66 made a point of stopping here for a meal at Club Cafe. Thanks to signs lining the road for miles in both directions with the smiling face of the “Fat Man,” the Club Cafe became famous for its food. It closed in 1992 and all that remains is (as usual) the old sign:

I stopped to eat at Josephs' - yet another unusual 66 cafe with good food.

Among the decorations in Joseph's is a Schwinn bike. The fortunes of this classic American brand, as well as his own life history involving being stationed at Greenham Common in the 1950s, being transported back from Paris drunk, spending 20 years as an alcoholic and then recovering and become an AA advocate, were related to me by Jim, who is pictured below as well.

As so often in these Route 66 towns, there are plenty of examples of old motel signs and here are a couple in Santa Rosa:

The Route 66 Auto Museum looked to be worth a visit, offering exhibit on “anything to do with wheels,” but it was closed. The cars outside were worth a photo though.

East of Santa Rosa, along the south side of I-40, you can trace one of the older stretches of Route 66, only partly paved. These stretches convey a sense of what travel was like in the very early days, when less than half the route’s 2,400-odd miles were paved. I met Joe and Jane Walsh from Athens, Georgia, who were traveling Route 66 both ways along every single stretch of the remaining road. Their guide book had mile by mile turning instructions to ensure that the real enthusiast (like the Walshes) travel every remaining mile of the old road. They told me they needed 8 weeks for the trip as their dedication to experiencing every single inch of the old road meant that they could only clock up about 150 miles each day.

My next port of call was Tucumcari, “the town that’s two blocks wide and two miles long” (though the main drag which follows old Route 66 through town stretches for closer to seven miles between Interstate exits), My plan had been to drive on through to Amarillo, Texas, but I stopped to take a look at the famous Blue Swallow Motel. Built in the early 1940s, Lillian Redman took over in 1958 and turned it into “the last, best, and friendliest of the old-time motels.”.

The new owners, Kevin and Nancy Mueller, gave me some of the history. Motels used to have individual garages but over time owners turned these into rooms in order to maximize revenue. The Blue Swallow has kept its individual garages and this makes it almost unique. The Muellers have tried to keep the old spirit while catching up on restoration work. The Blue Swallow is renowned for its mid-twentieth century authenticity: each room comes with its own decorated garage and the rooms are period pieces in their own right with original fittings and furniture, black bakelite telephones and even a 1948 edition of National Geographic.

The restored period room at the Bluw Swallow Motel

The neon sign alone is worth waiting until dark. Which is exactly what I did and after a little persuading by Karen, I stayed the night and cancelled my Amarillo hotel.

Nancy was positive about the future in Tucumcari. One reason is a plan which has just been adopted to restore and turn on again all the abandoned motel neon signs, of which there are many in the town like these below:

Across Route 66 from the Blue Swallow stands another survivor, the landmark tepee fronting the historic Tee Pee Trading Post.

DAY 6 ON ROUTE 66: TUCUMCARI TO MCLEAN

Texas

Known as the Panhandle because of the way it juts north from the rest of Texas, this part of the route is a nearly 200-mile stretch of flat plains. Almost devoid of trees or other features, the western half, stretching into New Mexico, is also known as the Llano Estacado or “Staked Plains,” possibly because early travelers marked their route by driving stakes into the earth. The Texas Panhandle was the southern extent of the buffalo-rich grasslands of the Great Plains, populated by Kiowa and Comanche Indians as recently as 100 years ago. Now oil and gas production, as well as trucking and Route 66 tourism, have joined ranching as the region’s economic basis.

Even more so than in New Mexico or Oklahoma, old Route 66 has been replaced by I-40 most of the way across Texas, though in many of the ghostly towns like McLean, Shamrock, or Vega, and the sole city, Amarillo, old US-66 survives as the main business strip, lined by the remains of roadside businesses.

First stop on the way was the Mid-Point Cafe at Adrian, so called because it is exactly half way between Chicago and LA (1139 miles in each direction on Route 66). The town’s water tower is painted with the “Midpoint” logo.

It’s another funky 66 roadside cafe (with the obligatory gift shop), but my visit was enliven by meeting Fran, who ran the cafe for 20 years before selling it recently and opening a shop next door. She told me about life in Texas and how it is changing: the ranches are now so big, mostly owned by trusts and corporations, and they use helicopters to herd the cattle. Fewer and fewer people lIve in Adrian now.

Fran was college educated and came from Massachusetts and I wondered how long it had taken her to get used to life in Texas. But she obviously loved it.

I somehow missed the famour cadillac graveyard west of Amarillo, but I did see a VW graveyard just east of the city.

I also called at the famous Big Texan restaurant and motel, where they will serve you a 72 oz. steak - which is free if you can eat it within an hour. This place has to be see to be believed - completely over the top yet truly fascinating. Real Texas.

Next stop was McLean. This town was founded by an English rancher, Alfred Rowe, who later lost his life on the Titanic in 1912, I thought that McLean (with a population of 830) was perhaps one of the more evocative town along the Texas stretch of Route 66. I took some photographs of the Texaco gas station which has been restored - a neat conjuring up of what motoring the Route 66 must have been like in the 1930s and ‘40s.

I met a couple from Mexico and we were discussing how the towns along 66 are so often deadly quiet with plenty of evidence of failed motels, restaurants and garages. Bypassed only in the early 1980s, the old main drag in McLean is virtually silent, with a few businesses—a barber shop, a boot shop, and some motels, including one with a fine Texas-shaped neon sign—holding on despite the drop in passing trade. The building of I-40 hit these towns badly. In McLean, there are two wide roads surrounding the town andf they have a one-way system. But there are virtually no cars.

I made the quick 20 mile trip to Shamrock to see the famous Tower Conoco and take some photographs of its neon after dark.

This unusual building was one of many similar commercial structures built during the early 1930s along the new US Route 66. When it became clear that the newly established Route 66 would cut through the north end of Shamrock, the owners of the prime corner lot agreed to sell the land and in return have a custom designed building constructed on the site for their own use. The Tower Conoco was designed by Pamper architect J.C. Berry and built by local entrepreneur J.M. Tindall in 1936. It is one of the best examples of a 1930s gas station/diner and shows many art deco influences particularly in the geometric detailing, glazed ceramic wall tiles, curves and neon lighting.

The original building combined the Tower Conoco gas Station, the U-Drop Inn Cafe and a retail store, never used as such but soon used as a ballroom and overflow dining room. The building fell into decline and reached its nadir in the 70s when it wa s painted red-white-and-blue and converted to a FINA station, finally closing completely in the mid 1990s. The Shamrock Chamber of Commerce has now restored the building and the cafe is to be reopened.

DAY 7 ON ROUTE 66: MCLEAN TO OKLAHOMA CITY

Unfortunately like a few other old Route 66 settlements, the first town over the Texas border, Texola, has all but dried up since it was bypassed by the interstate highway I-40. The completion of this huge highway in 1966 was a severe blow for a lot of towns on the old 66 route, although many have bounced back, particularly as 66 enthusiasts visit the old road in increasing numbers. A few remnants still stand in Texola but mostly you’re struck by the number of broken down houses and old gas stations.

East from this borderline ghost town, a mile south of the I-40 freeway, a nice stretch of late-model Route 66 continues as a four-lane divided highway, passing through the great little town of Erick six miles east of Texola.

There are a number of “official” Route 66 museums along the way. I came across two just on this day. In the Old Town Museum in Elk City has the “official” National Route 66 Museum, which has an old pickup truck decorated to look like the one from Grapes of Wrath along with the usual Route 66 memorabilia. Much better, though, is the offering in Clinton. Clinton started life as a trading post for local Cheyenne Arapahoe people and is now in the home of the official Oklahoma Route 66 Museum.

This is a proper showcase, and not just another souvenir stand, which reopened in 1995 after undergoing a massive, expansion. Collectors from all over the country have donated signs, artifacts and memorabilia which have been organized into a comprehensive exhibition of Mother Road history and culture.

This museum offers illustrated tableaux and interactive information screens tracing the history of the road from its commissioning to the present day. It’s interesting to see how Route 66 played such an important part over the decades, changing its functions as the needs of the day dictated: originally conceived as a means of opening up the west to further development, its soon developed truck traffic to compete with the railways, spawned many different types of business and entertainment offerings, was a key deployment route during the war years, became the playground of the post-war rock and roll generation and a symbol to the hippy generation in the ‘70s. Today, it is seen as a key part of American culture and this helps explain the growth of enthusiasm for the old road.

There’s no greater contrast between the charms of the old 66 road and the blandness of the I-40 than at Hydro, a tiny town between Clinton and Oklahoma City. A really picturesque stretch of old Route 66 runs along the north side of I-40 right past the ancient service station and souvenir stand operated by Lucille Hammons from 1941 until her death in August 2000. Visiting Lucille’s place to buy a drink or gas was apparently an old Route 66 ritual.

West of Lucille’s, a surviving six-mile stretch of old Route 66 pavement follows the undulating lay of the land up and down and offering a better sense of the landscape than the interstate, which is far enough away from the old road at this point to make you think it doesn’t exist.

Now tragically synonymous with the terrorist bombing carried out by Timothy McVeigh in 1995, Oklahoma City (pop. 506,132) has long been one of the primary stops along the Mother Road and where I finished my trip.

The city was the biggest boomtown of the 1889 land rush when Oklahoma was opened for white settlement after being set aside “for eternity” as Indian Territory. Between noon and sundown on April 22, over 10,000 people flocked here to claim the new lands. A second boom took place during the Depression years, when oil was struck; there are still producing wells in the center of the city, including some on the grounds of the state capitol and at the airport. The collapse of the oil industry in the 1980s hit hard, but the shock of the 1995 bombing helped revitalize the City and it has a new baseball stadium, a concert arena and canal-side cafés in the “Bricktown” warehouse district south of downtown.

The impact of the terrorist bombing on April 19, 1995 the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, where 168 men, women, and children were killed, comes across wonderfully from the Memorial Museum. Between the capitol and Bricktown, the site of the bombing has been preserved as a museum and memorial park, beautifully landscaped with a shallow pool around which rows of sculpted chairs. Each chair represents a person killed in the blast, and the chairs range from very small to full-sized, marking the varying ages of the dead (who included 19 kids from the building’s daycare center.) The museum tells the story of the bombing, its perpetrators, and its victims and is simply outstanding.

THE UPs AND DOWNs OF ROUTE 66 NEON SIGNS

October 24, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Everyone associates bright, colorful neon-lit signs with the United States and most for people they define Route 66.

Neon lit signs, which work when an electric current is sent through gas in a glass tube, were first introduced in Paris barber in 1912. By the 1920s, neon was seen as the most modern and stylish way to advertise and been a hallmark of American roadside commercial advertising since. Neon signs were brash, colorful and eye catching, a revolutionary form of advertising for business owners and often great entertainment for travelers.

Each sign was unique and handcrafted and could be made to reflect the creativity of the business owner. The colors, shapes, sizes and messages conveyed by neon signs through their long association with Route 66 are as varied as the businesses that made up the road during its long history. The significance of neon signs goes further: the evolution of these signs over time and the aims of the sign-makers reflected cultural and economic trends of American society during much of the 20th century.

The amazing neon sign at the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcai

By the 1950s, however, neon sign production began to diminish in favor of less expensive and more esily produced plastic back-lit signs. By the 1960s and 1970s, when urban renewal became a priority, zoning regulations often banned new neon signs so that when businesses were sold or remodeled their neon signs often were thrown away. By the 2000s, hundreds of neon signs along Route 66 were become badly deteriorated, as they were replaced by cheaper forms of advertising or - worse still - the Interstates destroyed businesses in hundreds of small towns which had previously benefitted from Route 66 traffic.

Examples (above and below) of abandoned neon signs on Route 66

So after being the advertising method of choice for many years the neon signs declined in popularity. But everything goes round and guess what? Neon is now the target for a restoration project.

In 2001, New Mexico’s State Historic Preservation Office recognized the historical, cultural and artistic value of its neon signs and received a $50,000 cost-share grant from the National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program. With the New Mexico Route 66 Association serving as project leader, nine neon signs in the communities of Tucumcari, Santa Rosa, Moriarty, Albuquerque, Grants, and Gallup were selected for restoration and sign owners participated actively in the project. The New Mexico Route 66 Neon Sign Restoration Project resulted in the restoration of nine classic neon signs in. These signs include motels, restaurants, and a curio shop that served Route 66 travelers. The neon sign for the Wig-Wam Motel in Holbrook and the Frontier Motel sign in Truxton, Arizona, and the Sno-Cap in Seligman has also been recently restored by Jeff and Kathy Register, two Arizona neon sign restorers.

Examples of restored neon signs along Route 66

The project has increased awareness of neon signs as outstanding examples of American folk art and ignited interest in their long- term care and protection.

The neon project is just one of a number of restoration plans for Route 66. The Friends of the Mother Road has been involved with the preservation of various forms of signage including the Vega Motel in Vega, Texas, and at Vernelle’s Motel near Arlington, Missouri.

1350 MILES ALONG ROUTE 66 - PART 1

October 20, 2012 • Leave a Comment

It seems to be the convention that Route 66 is travelled from east to west. I suppose this is because the road was the traditional route followed by economic migrants from the depressed mid-west in the 1920s and '30s to what they thought was the golden land of orange groves around Los Angeles. For various reasons, I opted to travel the route in reverse i.e. west to east. Nor did I have time to do the whole route from LA to Chicago and my trip will finish at Oklahoma City. At least, though, I will have covered the route travelled by the Oklahoma migrants whose troubles John Steinbeck described in The Grapes of Wrath.

DAY 1 ON ROUTE 66: LOS ANGELES TO NEEDLES, CALIFORNIA (280 miles)

So the first state through which I travelled was California, where Route 66 passes through every type landscape, from the beaches of Santa Monica, through the citrus growing inland valleys, over mountains and across the Mojave Desert, The guide book says that the old road survives intact almost all the way across the state and is marked for most of its 315 miles by signs declaring it Historic Route 66. This may be true, but it doesn’t make it easier to follow the old road through the LA metro area!

Near where Santa Monica Boulevard dead-ends at Ocean Boulevard, a brass plaque marks the official end of Route 66, the “Main Street of America,” also remembered as the “Will Rogers Highway,” one of many names the old road earned in its half century of existence.

Plaque marking the end (or start for me) of Route 66

Santa Monica Boulevard where Route 66 starts

Route 66 across Los Angeles follows Santa Monica Boulevard through Beverly Hills and West Hollywood. East from Hollywood, Route 66 merges into Sunset Boulevard to downtown L.A. 66 then follows Figueroa Street to the soaring Colorado Boulevard Bridge, an arching concrete bridge at the western edge of Pasadena which used to mark the entrance to Los Angeles from the east. Recently restored, the bridge spans Arroyo Seco along the south side of the Ventura Freeway.

East of Pasadena, the San Gabriel Valley used to be the westbound traveler’s first taste of Southern California and its orange groves. This seemed to last until the mid-1950s, when Route 66 gave way to high-speed freeways, and the orange groves were replaced by endless grids of tract houses.

From Pasadena, old Route 66 runs east along the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains although these are now all new roads. It goes past the landmark racetrack at Santa Anita and past the classic Foothill Drive-In at Azuza, the last remaining drive-in on Route 66 west of Oklahoma, whose sign was saved when the land was recently developed.

All that remains of the Foothill Drive-in Theatre in Asuza is the neon sign. Not my photo

I'm afraid, as it was dark when I arrived here so I've used a stock image.

At Rancho Cucamonga, 66 seems to become the I-15 which heads north over the mountains and the Cajon Pass. But before Victorville, old Route 66 survives as an “old roads” 36 miles trek across the Mojave Desert. It parallels the railroad tracks and the usually parched Mojave River, passing through odd little towns like Oro Grande, which is still home to a huge cement plant and lots of roadside junk shops before rejoining I-15. Sadly I had to miss out this loop because it was already dark when I hit this point.

East of Barstow all the way to the Arizona border, old Route 66 survives in a series of different stretches alongside the I-40 freeway. The first place of interest, Daggett, is a rusty old mining and railroad town six miles east of Barstow along the north side of the freeway. Again I had to miss out this stretch but the guide books say that if you want a taste of what traveling across the Mojave Desert was like in the old days, turn south off I-40 at Ludlow, 50 miles east of Barstow, and follow Route 66, on a 75-mile loop along the old road. This goes through Ludlow, where two gas stations, a coffee shop, and a motel represent civilization and Bagdad, a turn-of-the-20th-century gold mining town that’s now defunct.

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From Amboy, it’s another 48 miles back to I-40 at Fenner. Another stretch of Route 66 runs east from Fenner on a roller coaster of undulating two-lane blacktop, parallel to the railroad track through the desert hamlet of Goffs. My stop was at Needles, a town which trades on its Route 66 heritage although I could find little of interest in the town so I moved on into Arizona.

DAY 2 ON ROUTE 66: NEEDLES, CA TO FLAGSTAFF, AZ

Arizona

Traveling east from Needles, Route 66 crosses the Colorado river and turns north to Oatman.

Route 66 crossing the Colorado River into Arizona

THe Santa Fe railroad, which parallels 66

The next stretch of Route 66 is said to be one of the most demanding and desolate stretches of the entire old road. Following at first along the wildlife refuge that lines the Colorado River, the old road then cuts across a stretch of desert that really is harsh. It then climbs the steep hills, winding over passes that bring you to Oatman (elev. 2,700 feet), an odd mix of ghost town and tourist draw that’s one of the top stops along Route 66.

Route 66 over the Cajon Pass to Oatman

Oatman was a gold mining town whose glory days had long faded by the time I-40 passed it by way back in 1952, Oatman looks like a Wild West stage set and its full of tourist shops, but it’s the real thing—awnings over the plank sidewalks, bearded roughnecks and a few burros wandering the streets, lots of rust and slumping old buildings. Scenes from the town follow:

The gold mines here produced some two million ounces from their start in 1904 until they panned out in the mid-1930s; at its peak, Oatman had a population of over 10,000, with 20 saloons lining the three-block Main Street. Apparently, Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their first night after getting married in Kingman in 1939 in the old Oatman Hotel. Saloons and rock shops line the rest of Main Street, where on weekends and holidays Wild West enthusiasts act out the shoot-outs that took place here only in the movies.

East of Oatman the road passes the recently reactivated gold workings at Goldroad before climbing up and over the angular Black Mountains. Steep switchbacks and 15-mph hairpin turns takes you through a 2,100-foot change in elevation over a very short eight miles; the route then continues for another 20 miles into Kingman

The only town for miles in any direction since its founding as a railroad center in 1880, Kingman has always been a main stopping place on Route 66. It still proviodes the only all-night services on US-93 between Las Vegas and Phoenix, and along I-40 between Flagstaff and Needles. Kingman is still a way station although increasing number of people who have relocated here in recent years, attracted by the low cost of living.

The railroad station at Kingman

Quite a few of the old Route 66 cafés and motels still flourish alongside the old road including Mr. D’s Route 66 Diner where the coffee was really excellent:

A few miles outside Kingman along 66 a large green sign marks the entrance to Grand Canyon Caverns . These were once a major tourist destination along the old road. The Canyon Caverns were discovered and developed in the late 1920s and still have the feel of an old-time roadside attraction.

My next stop Hackberry, which was little more than a general store surrounded by masses of Route 66 memorabilia collected by the guy who runs the store.

The store at Hackman was overrun by a group of German Harley Davidson riders, who were traveling the length of 66. I spoke to them because I’ve always been fascinated by the attraction of the American south west to the Germans. They told me their trip was 40 days, so I guess they weren’t rushing back to pressing engagements.

The east end of the long loop of old Route 66 brings you to Seligman, the location of Andreas Feininger’s classic Route 66 photograph:

Here's my version showing the same scene today:

I found this town a little disappointing and most things seemed to be closed. The town retains a lot of its historic character with old sidewalk awnings and even a few hitching rails. The Snow Cap Drive-In has a sign which says “Sorry, We’re Open,” and the menu advertises “Hamburgers without Ham.” Behind the restaurant, in snow, rain, or shine, sits a roofless old Chevy decorated with fake flowers and an artificial Christmas tree. There are several old Route 66 cafes and motels and the (apparently) world-famous Black Cat saloon.

My next stop was Williams, the last Route 66 town to be bypassed by I-40.

Williams is primarily a gateway to the Grand Canyon, but it takes full tourist advantage of its Route 66 heritage and the downtown streets have old-fashioned street lamps and every other store sells a variety of Route 66 souvenirs.

My final stop for the day was at Flagstaff, an old railroad and lumber-mill town. The natural beauty of its forested location has meant that, compared to other Route 66 towns, Flagstaff was less affected by the demise of the old road and its been given a new lease on life by an influx of students at Northern Arizona University and by the usual array of ski bums and mountain bikers attracted by the surrounding high mountain wilderness, So today it is an enjoyable, energetic town high up on the Coconino Plateau. Downtown Flagstaff has been redeveloped ; and is really attractive; I spent some time wandering around the area with its restaurants and coffee shops—probably a dozen within a two-block radius of the train station—and converted warehouses and buildings. The student population hang out here and have done much to change the character of the town. I had driven there from the hotel and by mistake ended up in the campus of NAU. Its a huge facility and very impressive and I can understand the impact it has had on the town

DAY 3 ON ROUTE 66: FLAGSTAFF TO GALLUP

From Flagstaff I drove to Walnut Canyon which is one of the most easily accessible of the hundreds of different prehistoric settlements all over the southwestern United States. Walnut Canyon contains some 300 identified archaeological sites. The Canyon is also very beautiful, with piñon pines and junipers clinging to the canyon walls and walnut trees filling the canyon floor.

Walnut Canyon. Some of the many cave dwellings can be seen below

From the small visitors center gives a short but very steep path that winds through cliff dwellings tucked into overhangs and ledges 400 feet above the canyon floor.

East of Flagstaff, following old Route 66 can be frustrating task for those so inclined since much of the roadway is blocked or torn up or both. Unlike the long stretches found in the western half of the state the old road exists only as short segments running through towns, and most of the way you’re forced to follow the freeway, stopping at exit after exit to get on and off the old road through towns. One of these is the only town mentioned out of sequence in the Route 66 song: “Flagstaff, Arizona, don’t forget Winona”; give it a miss - there’s nothing there.

Further along I-40 is Meteor Crater. Formed by a meteorite some 50,000 years ago, and measuring 550 feet deep and nearly a mile across, the crater is a privately owned tourist attraction. I sotopped at the gas station and store but decided not to look at a hole in the ground.

More than the other Route 66 towns in the eastern half of Arizona, Holbrook feels like a real place, with lively cafés and some endearing roadside attractions around the center of town. I stopped for a coffee at a long-established 66 establishment, Mr. Maestas. The owner collects bric-a-brac and told me he wanted to open as museum eventually. Until then, the restaurant is jam-packed with his collection of old Americana, household goods, clocks (mostly produced by Coco-Cola) and Route 66 memorabilia.

The other attraction in Holbrook is said to be the concrete wigwam village, but I gave this a miss. The Navajo County Museum in the old Navajo County Courthouse, ifs good though.

One of the few remaining relics of the old Route 66 along this stretch is the Two Arrows Trading post. The store is now abandoned but the two arrows sign is still standing and can be seen from miles away as you approach the site - which was the idea, of course.

New Mexico

Following old Route 66 across New Mexico gives you a great taste of the Land of Enchantment, as the state calls itself on its license plates. There is less of the actual “old road” here than in other places, but the many towns and ghost towns along I-40, built more or less on top of Route 66, still stand. In Albuquerque, Route 66 runs through the center of this sprawling Sun Belt city, while in other places finding the old road and bypassed towns can take some time. Western New Mexico has the most to see and the most interesting topography, with sandstone mesas looming in the foreground and high, pine-forested peaks rising in the distance. In the east, the land is flatter and the landscape drier as the road approaches the Great Plains.

There is a 15 mile stretch of the old road just before Gallup and I went off I-40 to follow if for a change of scene. Actually, there isn’t much of a change of scene as the old 66 runs alongside I-40 which itself parallels the Santa Fe railway, with it mile-long freight trains.

A stretch of Old Route 66 in New Mexico

Gallup was founded in 1881 when the Santa Fe Railroad first rumbled through, and calling itself “The Gateway to Indian Country” because it’s the largest town near the huge Navajo and other Native American reservations of the Four Corners region, Gallup has some of the Southwest’s largest trading posts and one of the best strips of neon signs on old Route 66.

Some examples of the old motel neon signs

DAY 4 ON ROUTE 66: GALLUP TO SANTA FE

Setting off from Gallup, I soon came across this amazing old (but apparently still functioning) garage. Unlike many of the old garages along 66, at least this one is still working although for how much longer I couldn't be sure:

Along with the usual Route 66 range of funky old motels and rusty neon signs, my first stop after Gallup was the former mining boomtown of Grants. I took a quick look at its New Mexico Mining Museum.

Most of the exhibits trace the short history of local uranium mining, which began in 1950 when a local Navajo rancher discovered an odd yellow rock that turned out to be high-grade uranium ore. Mines here once produced half the ore mined in the United States, but production has now stopped. The museum has a convincing re-creation of a uranium mine, complete with an underground lunch room emblazoned with all manner of warning signs

A dozen miles east of Grants and 50 miles west of Albuquerque, one of the Southwest’s most intriguing sites, Acoma Pueblo, stands on the top of a 357-foot-high sandstone mesa. Long known as “Sky City,” Acoma is one of the very oldest communities in North America, continuously inhabited since ad 1150. The views out across the plains are unforgettable, especially the Enchanted Mesa on the horizon to the northeast.

Few people live on the mesa today, though the many adobe houses are used by Pueblo craftspeople, who live down below but come up to the mesa-top to sell their pottery to tourists. Its a diversion from Route 66 and I was undecided about making it but I’m very glad I did. The tour begins with a short bus ride to the mesa-top and end with a visit to San Esteban del Rey Mission, the largest Spanish colonial church in the state. Built in 1629, the church features a roof constructed of huge timbers that were carried from the top of Mt. Taylor on the backs of neophyte Indians—a distance of more than 30 miles.

An Acoma guide, who was excellent, spent 90 minutes taling us round the pueblo and talking with us to some of the people living there.

Another stretch of old Route 66 survives near here along the interstate, passing crumbling tourist courts and service stations across the Laguna and Acoma Indian Reservation.

My next stop was Albuquerque, New Mexico’s largest city which spreads north and south along the banks of the Rio Grande and east to the foothills of 10,000-foot Sandia Crest. For Route 66 enthusiasts, Albuquerque boasts a great stretch of the old Route along Central Avenue through the heart of the city—18 miles of diners, motels, and sparkling neon signs. The odd Aztec Motel, a very funky Pueblo-style 1930s motel kept alive as a live-in sculpture gallery and artists’ community, is an offbeat taste of the city’s Route 66 heritage.

One of the best parts of town is Old Town, the historic heart of Albuquerque. Located a block north of Central Avenue, at the west end of Route 66’s cruise through downtown, Old Town offers a taste of New Mexico’s Spanish colonial past, with a lovely old church, the 300-year-old San Felipe de Neri; as well as shops and restaurants set around a park.

I then made the northwards detour to the state capital, Santa Fe. The original Route 66 alignment ran north from Albuquerque along the I-25 corridor, then curved back south from Santa Fe, along what’s now US-84, to rejoin I-40 west of Santa Rosa. This was subsequently straightened out along I-40 for “political reasons”: apparently, there was a move to deprive Santa Fe of the Route 66 business. I must find out why.

The best sense of this old route across old New Mexico comes just north of Albuquerque, at Bernalillo. Route 66 here follows the much older El Camino Real, which linked the Spanish colonies 400 years ago. Silva’s Saloon, whose walls are coated in layers of newspaper clippings, old snapshots, and other mementos, is the place to see.

I been to Santa Fe a few times so I didn’t spend much time in the town - just enough, though, to have breakfast at the excellent - and very popular on a Sunday - Plaza Restaurant (“Since 1931”) in the colonial square and spend a hour in the Georgia O’Keefe museum.

Cloud burst

March 14, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Cloud burst

I took this image just north of the English border as I was driving home from the Edinburgh Festival this year. It was a bright, clear evening and I pulled into a lay-by to capture the beautiful cloud formations and colour reflections in the calm sea.

I knew that straight shots would be effective and I took a few which turned out to fine. But I also wanted more of an ethereal look so I took a few more in which I moved the zoom during the exposure. I thought this would work but I also know that it's a hit and miss technique, so I took a number of shots in this way. This one was the best of the crop.

Street theatre in Rouen

March 14, 2012 • Leave a Comment

Street theatre in Rouen

There is a strong tradition of street theatre in northern Europe and the annual festival each June in Sotteville-les-Rouen, a small town about 5 kms from Rouen, is one of the biggest in France. I went this year with my daughter Olivia and a few of her colleagues from University and took a number of interesting photographs. I'll post more in the near future.

This image is from a show called Tango with Fire, a small company who acting out a narrative in dance over the course of an hour with lots of fire effects.

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1350 MILES ALONG ROUTE 66 - PART 2

THE UPs AND DOWNs OF ROUTE 66 NEON SIGNS

1350 MILES ALONG ROUTE 66 - PART 1

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Street theatre in Rouen

Street theatre in Rouen