The Route 66 Chick

I knew I'd returned to the Midwest when I stuck my nose out the door this morning at the Boots Court in Carthage! The humidity was back with a vengeance. Well, I suppose it was already there and it was me that had just arrived in town. Anyway, it was great to stay at the Boots again and I tried out a different room this time. I've included an interior photo for those of you who have not yet had the pleasure of staying here. This place is a real treasure. I just love the feeling of going back in time when I enter one of those rooms - period furniture, wood floors, and no TV - but a "radio in every room," playing 40s-50s tunes. If I ever get around to writing one of the period novels I'm thinking of, I might just have to enter the Boots "time machine" and stay awhile. Before leaving Carthage this morning, I had an early lunch and good conversation at the Carthage Deli with Deborah Harvey and Debbie Dee of the Boots. Always good to catch up with ...

On Friday I gave myself a tour of Tulsa. I love all the art deco architecture and also the commemorative Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza and love to photograph it in different light. The oil boom and the art deco craze flourished at the same time here, coming together in a huge array of types and sizes of buildings in the various nuances of art deco style. If you'd like to know more -  http://www.tulsapreservationcommission.org/artdeco/ I had stayed in Oklahoma City the night before and woke up feeling a bit lazy. The morning disappeared with some writing and some shopping and then I made up some time on the interstate for awhile. From Sapulpa I took 66 right on up into Tulsa to the Cyrus Avery Centennial Plaza. There were lots of heavy dark clouds to give things a moody look. In 2004, the old 11th Street Route 66 bridge was renamed in honor of national highway advocate and "father of Route 66" Cyrus Avery and closed off with a memorial gate. The "East Meets West...

Thursday dawned bright and beautiful in Amarillo with the kind of brilliant blue Southwestern sky that takes over every photo I snap. It's a nice complaint to have. After a great breakfast at the Pancake Station, it was off for a real tour of Amarillo's Route 66 with Nick Gerlich, marketing professor, bicyclist, admitted sign geek, and Route 66 "roadologist." The first thing we took a look at was the amazing Herring Hotel on 3rd Avenue. This imposing redbrick structure was built at the same time Route 66 began its trek across the country, and, like 66 itself, has been used, abused, and left to deteriorate, but is still around. It's said to be one of three Amarillo oil-boom-era hotels built in the 1920s, but the only one left standing. It was used for government purposes during the 1970s, but has now been empty for quite awhile. We parked and walked across the street to get a close look, but when we went back to the van my mind was still so busy with details, arc...

A week of R&R at my daughter and son-in-law's in Albuquerque was just what I needed - love, laughter, catching up, dogs, cats, movies, a small stack of books to read, green chile and other great food, some antiquing and thrifting, a walk at the Bosque. I also had to finish up my monthly column for the Prairie Land Buzz  and take care of no small quantity of communications and phone time for the 2015 Edwardsville Route 66 Conference. My announcement of the Edwardsville conference at the closing of the Kingman Festival seemed to release a flood of opinions, frustrations, ideas, suggestions, and complaints on social media about the status in general of Route 66 events, event planning, event sanctioning, event travel, event timing, and other related topics. I see the Edwardsville conference as a sort of hybrid event. We in Edwardsville are probably not going to fix any perceived wrongs in the system, except in terms of offering up a forum for open, constructive, pertinent, and ho...

Route 66 is just about bookended by amazing historic theaters - the Rialto in Joliet and the  sadly-deteriorated Rialto in Pasadena. And all along the route are sprinkled grand bastions of the early 1900s entertainment industry such as the KiMo in Albuquerque, the Coleman in Miami (Miam-uh), and the Wildey in Edwardsville, all three of which are restored, open, and operating. In the interest of fostering some positive interest in the 2015 Edwardsville Route 66 Conference, I'd like to introduce you to the Wildey Theatre at 252 N. Main Street. The City of Edwardsville (owner of the Wildey) has committed our star venue for the conference weekend Halloween weekend 2015. By the way, the Wildey stood just a half-block from the earliest Route 66 alignment through the city. When the route was moved to its main alignment through town, that added another block. Wildey Theatre photo by Cindy Reinhardt. The Wildey was constructed in 1909 via a partnership between the Independent...

In regards to the Edwardsville, Illinois, Halloween weekend 2015 conference, following are the facts so far that are confirmed with either the City of Edwardsville or other appropriate organization. Everything else is unconfirmed, speculation, rumor, idea, or in the works but cannot be confirmed. This doesn't mean other plans and ideas will not happen. This is simply all that is confirmed at this point. I am in close contact with a number of people and organizations regarding the conference, most importantly the City of Edwardsville, for whom I am a volunteer consultant for the conference. (I also serve the City of Edwardsville in an official capacity as a commissioner on the Historic Preservation Commission.) FACT #1 - The City of Edwardsville has committed to sponsoring and hosting a Route 66 conference with speakers and workshops on Halloween Weekend 2015. FACT #2 - The City of Edwardsville will utilize its beautifully-restored Wildey Theatre, built in 1909 and now used...

My two mornings in Flagstaff at the base of the peaks dawned with photo ops. The rain soon started again on Tuesday morning and followed me all the way to Gallup. Tuesday and Wednesday were my first two days of R&R in Albuquerque with my daughter and son-in-law. Chicken enchiladas, movies, talking and laughing for hours, sharing stories, playing with the pets. So nice. I also had plenty of communications to take care of regarding the Edwardsville conference in 2015. It's so exciting to witness the plans being made to travel to Illinois, the offers of assistance and support, and the genuine excitement building in the aftermath of my announcement Saturday night at the Kingman Festival. I can't wait to share my adopted community. More on the conference next post. And I received an invitation to speak and sign books at a Northwest Chicago Historical Society meeting! It always pays to check your alternate email address.

Flagstaff always seems to me the quintessential western town, but maybe it just made a big impression on me during my first visit there as a child about eight years old. I was crazy about all things western and was completely intrigued by American Indian culture. My clear memories of our visit there include my very indulgent father seeking out the local BIA office and entering it, my mother and me in tow, and asking the man behind the counter (clearly an indigenous person), "Where can we witness some real Indian culture? My daughter wants to meet some Indians!" I don't really remember what the Indian man told us or where he directed us to go (or where he maybe wanted to tell us to go), but the incident embarrassed my mother, who didn't think that was a proper question to ask. "Gene," she said to my dad, shaking her head, "That man WAS an Indian." Anyway, eventually I did study Indian culture when I returned to school a dozen years ago, and spent a ...

A breakfast meeting at the Hot Rod Cafe was the last official act before leaving Kingman for seven of us that attended. I'm sure it was not the last official act for Jim Hinckley, who arranged the meeting and reserved the space. Jim and his wife Judy have devoted themselves to the successful production of this festival for many months. And more than pulled it off, I might add. I know that Jim is as devoted to the final wrap-up, assessment, and future conference plans as he was with the planning and production of this very fun and valuable event. So on Sunday morning, Jim and Judy, plus collectors extraordinare Mike and Sharon Ward and Steve Rider, Dries and Marion Bessels, representatives of the Dutch Route 66 Association, Kaisa Barthuli, Program Manager, National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program, and I gathered at the Hot Rod Cafe. We enjoyed some good food and a discussion of the development of the contemporary Route 66 conference, from the World Monuments F...

Saturday began with the e-group breakfast hosted by Mike and Sharon Ward, with plenty of food, prizes, and laughs. It was a great way to start the day. Then it was off to the Artists, Authors, Collectors, and Associations Expo in Beale Celebrations event space for Joe Sonderman and me. There was a good crowd in the building for a good share of the day. Of course there were plenty of other diversions. Jim Hinckley gave out “awards” of vintage “bat guano” cans. Roamin' Rich Dinkela had a vehicle hood on display and solicited some more of us to sign it. We took turns out and about enjoying the rest of the festival. By all reports the festival with vendors and entertainment a couple blocks away at Locomotive Park was going strong. The historic downtown was full of people having a good time. During the evening there plenty of choices for entertainment. Rich Dinkela and Kumar Patel threw a roadie bash. Various groups of visitors and roadies piled into the various downto...