Route 66 - Shamrock

From Amarillo, we continued east across the Texas Panhandle. And along the way I saw these really cool old grain silos, so I exited the freeway and stopped to get a few pictures. They sit along the interstate access road, which was actually Route 66 back in the olden days.



The silos are probably all that remains of the town of Boydston, which was a little farming community that only ever had a population of 40 people.





The silos used to sit along some Rock Island train tracks, which connected El Reno, Oklahoma and Tucumcari, New Mexico. The tracks, and the little town that they once passed through, are all long gone.



After that we drove to the small town of Shamrock, where we stopped for the night. Shamrock is home to one of the most iconic buildings along Route 66 - the Tower Station and U-Drop Inn. The art deco structure was built in 1936, and was a gas station and cafe.



It stayed open for decades, until the 1990s. But in the 2000s, it was fully restored and reopened as a museum, visitor center and cafe.







It was a quiet night in Shamrock, except for the fireworks. It was the Fifth of July, and there were plenty of people out shooting off their leftover fireworks.



The Tower Station and U-Drop Inn was the inspiration for one of the buildings in the town of Radiator Springs in the movie Cars. Here it is shown as Ramone's body shop:



The next day we continued driving east, heading towards home. We were eager to get back, so we didn't make any stops along the way (besides gas and food, of course). One really nice thing about this road trip was having the World Cup going on - we were able to listen to a lot of the games while we were driving. It really helped break up the time spent in the car. On this last leg of our trip, we listened to Spain play Portugal.

We crossed into Oklahoma, and then back into Arkansas. It started pouring down rain as we reached Little Rock, and it turns out the worst weather on our road trip hit once we were almost home. But we made it. We drove through six states for a grand total of 2,665 miles (and one flat tire).

Route 66 - Cadillac Ranch

It was time to start heading back home, so we packed up the car and drove south out of Colorado. We crossed into New Mexico, and then into Texas (and for the record, the most expensive gas we saw on the trip was in the Texas panhandle). And after a few hours of driving, we made it to Amarillo. And when you're in Amarillo, you are obligated to make a stop at the Cadillac Ranch.

Cadillac Ranch is an eccentric art display, with ten old Cadillac cars that have been half-buried in an open field. It opened in 1974 along Route 66, the byproduct of a group of underground artists called the Ant Farm.







At this point, I doubt most of the people who visit here are wanting to see an experimental and subversive piece of outdoor sculpture. It seems like most people just visit as an excuse to spray-paint graffiti. It was crowded when we were there, as soon as one person finished spray-painting the cars, another person took over and started painting over it. There were love hearts, smiley faces, people's names, religious notes, the countries people were cheering for in the World Cup, and people's opinions about Donald Trump.



The old cars have been spray-painted so much, with layers and layers of paint, that it looks like odd growths (or maybe something like cave formations) hanging off of the cars.



You can find pictures online of Cadillac Ranch when it first opened, back when the cars were free of graffiti. It's really strange to see the old Cadillacs in their original colors, way before they became the canvas for anyone walking by with a can of paint.



There was a truck parked nearby that sold cans of spray-paint, and dozens of empty cans littered the grounds around the cars. And the cars weren't the only things that had been painted. The ground itself was spray-painted with graffiti, along with the fence and the nearby road. The air itself seemed to be thick with the fumes from the cans of spray-paint too. If you stand still long enough there, someone will probably start spray-painting you as well.



I don't know, I'm sure a better artist or writer could say something about how Cadillac Ranch represents the modern way in which we consume and admire art. The constantly changing graffiti is a mirror to our short attention spans and the constantly changing experiences that are force-fed to us by the algorithm-based content of the digital era. Or something artsy-fartsy like that.

Route 66 - Catoosa and Tulsa

A few weeks ago we took a family road trip out west to Colorado. And coincidentally, we timed it with the 100th anniversary of the founding of one of the most notable road trip routes in the country. Route 66 was officially commissioned in 1926, and we were able to make a few stops along the Mother Road during our travels.

On our first day we left Little Rock in the afternoon and drove into Oklahoma. We arrived in the small town of Catoosa, and paid a visit to the iconic Blue Whale.



The Blue Whale of Catoosa was built in the 1972 by Hugh Davis, and was originally intended to just be a private swimming area for his grandkids. It was designed to look like a whale because his wife loved whales, and it featured water slides and diving platforms. A few years later, the whale was opened up for use by locals and Route 66 travelers.



After Hugh and his wife passed away, the whale fell into disrepair. But a few years back the town of Catoosa bought the property and fixed things up, and even opened a new visitor center this year.



There was a steady stream of people there when we visited. There were lots of kids fishing in the lake, along with a diverse crowd of people stopping by to take pictures (lots of people making Route 66 pilgrimages this summer for the 100th anniversary, I'm guessing). I joined the crowd and took a good number of pictures as well.



We spent the night at a hotel nearby, and the next morning drove through Tulsa and made another stop along Route 66 at Buck Atom's Cosmic Curios.



Located in an old 1950s gas station, the shop is known for the 21 foot-tall statue of the space cowboy Buck Atom (I liked how his cowboy hat sits on top of his space helmet).



And nearby you can also find Stella Atom:



And then we got back in the car and headed north, leaving Route 66 and Oklahoma and driving into the flat lands of Kansas.

Chain Of Rocks Bridge

For Spring Break this year we headed up to Missouri and did a little visit to Saint Louis. It's a great city to visit, especially for kids. Our boys got to run around the Science Museum and feed the goats at Grant's Farm. Our five year-old Elliott, who is still obsessed with cars, was amazed by all the antique vehicles at the National Transportation Museum. And I even found some time to take pictures, including a trip to the historic Chain Of Rocks Bridge.



The bridge over the Mississippi River was built in 1929, and it cost a grand total of five cents to cross when it opened. By 1936, it became the river crossing used by Route 66 as it made its way through St. Louis. The Route 66 history is commemorated on the bridge by a vintage motel sign, originally belonging to the 66 Auto Court in St. Louis. The motel was advertised as "St. Louis’s Finest Modern Auto Court." The motel closed in 1978 and no longer stands, the only lasting memory being this sign that still greets travelers retracing the path of the Mother Road.



The bridge is 5,323 feet long, and has a rather distinctive 30 degree bend in the middle. The sharp bend was added to make it easier for boats to navigate the river around the bridge supports, two water intake towers, and a series of shoals and rapids called the Chain of Rocks. From the bridge you get a good view of the rapids, and the two water towers. The first tower here was built in 1894, and was used to divert water from the river to a filtration plant. In the background, about 20 miles away, you can see the skyline of downtown St. Louis and the Gateway Arch.



As the city grew, along with the demand for more fresh drinking water, a second intake tower was built in 1915. It was large enough that it also contained living quarters for workers who maintained the towers and the pipes.



The Chain Of Rocks Bride closed in 1968, after a new bridge was built just upriver. And for awhile, the bridge sat abandoned. It was nearly torn down a few times, at one point the army wanted to demolish it for practice. The bridge did get used one time as a filming location for the classic movie Escape From New York:



In 1998 the bridge reopened as a pedestrian and bicycle crossing, and is now part of a massive trail system that runs for 300 miles along both sides of the river. It was peaceful and quiet on my visit (no cars with chandeliers or disco balls crashed through), with a nice breeze over the river and several groups of people either walking or biking across.

Chicago - The Bean

It was getting close to the time that Millennium Park opened up for the day, so I headed down Michigan Avenue. 



I got to the park just as the workers were opening the gates up for the day.



Then I finally arrived at The Bean, but there were already people there. Two influencers (or wannabe-influencers?) had set up a camera on a tripod, and were filming themselves walking back and forth in front of the sculpture. I patiently waited off to the side so I wouldn't get in their shot. But after a few minutes of them repeating the same walk (and then rushing back to the camera to see if it turned out), I went around to the side to get a few pictures.



The Bean is officially called Cloud Gate, and is a large outdoor sculpture by Anish Kapoor. It's an iconic and popular attraction, known for its highly polished stainless steel surface that reflects back the park, the sky, and the downtown skyline. It was designed to look seamless, like an elongated drop of liquid mercury (or perhaps a part of the T-1000 from Terminator 2).



The sculpture gets its nickname "The Bean" because it kinda looks like a bean (and not because it was named in honor of Mr. Bean, like I had hoped).





The Bean opened to the public in 2006, and quickly became a popular attraction and emblem of the city. Most of the souvenirs we saw featured the Bean somehow (and we did end up buying a fridge magnet shaped like the Bean before we left).  





It was time to head back to the hotel, but along the way I made a stop to say hello to the lions in front of the Art Institute.





And just across the street from the Art Institute, at the intersection of Michigan Avenue and Adams Street, is the starting point of old Route 66. From here, the Route stretched over 2,400 miles to California.



In the distance you can see the Sears Tower (sorry Willis Tower). Stay tuned for some pictures from inside there (and also the Art Institute), coming soon....

Road Trip: Glenrio

Glenrio sits on the border between Texas and New Mexico, and was founded in 1903 as a stop along the Rock Island Railroad. Route 66 was routed through the town in the 1930s, resulting in several hotels, gas stations and diners being built. But in the 1970s, Glenrio was bypassed by the interstate. It steadily declined, and turned into a ghost town.

I've made a few stops here over the years. Glenrio was an interesting, and forlorn, little town. I was eager to make another stop as we drove by, but I was incredibly disappointed when we exited the freeway and drove through. Most of the old buildings in Glenrio are gone, either collapsed or torn down. And almost all of the few remaining buildings here were covered with graffiti.

It was a great reminder of why we should take pictures of old buildings. These old places can be lost or destroyed so easily, or ruined by vandalism and graffiti. It was depressing to see how much Glenrio had changed.

One of the most prominent buildings in Glenrio was an old motel, built in the 1950s. Depending on which direction you were traveling, the sign would say it was either the "First Motel in Texas" or the "Last Motel in Texas." The building still stands, but it's a shell of its former self. The roof is gone, and the walls are covered in graffiti. I didn't even bother getting a picture of it this time, the damage was so severe. This is a photo of the motel from 2010:



The ruins of a gas station was just down the road from the motel. But it is gone now. Here it was in 2010:



And then again in 2015:



The gas station was next door to the old post office, which was one of the last places to close in Glenrio. This was the view in 2010 along the divided highway, which was built back in the time when there was traffic in Glenrio. Now both of these buildings are gone. Now a weed dispensary sits here.



There is, luckily, at least one old building that has somehow managed to survive being torn down or covered with spray paint. It is the Little Juarez Cafe, which was built in 1952.





My son Elliott, who just turned four, is obsessed with cars. And also with the movie Cars. We were watching it the other day, as we often do, and I had to quickly pause it. There in the background, in a scene where Lightning McQueen and Mater were talking, was a building that looked awfully familiar. It turns out that Pixar based one of the buildings in Radiator Springs on this old diner in Glenrio. It is actually shown a few times in the movie, originally as the "Glen Rio Motel." In the epilogue here, it turns into a racing museum:

Road Trip: Tucumcari

Our next stop was Tucumcari, which has been a popular destination for travelers since the early days of Route 66. We were actually staying the night at one of the most iconic places on Route 66, the Blue Swallow Motel.



Which was a really neat place to stay. The motel opened in 1939, and it still contains a few original features. Each room has an attached garage, where travelers could park their cars for the night (modern cars don't really fit in them now). Each room still has a rotary phone that still works, and some of the furnishings have been in the rooms since the 1940s. But the rooms have also been modernized and renovated, with comfy mattresses and wifi.

After we checked in, I had some time to head out and get a few pictures of the other Route 66 buildings in Tucumcari. The town contains a large collection of vintage buildings that were built between 1930 and 1960. Many of them are still open, like the old Buckaroo Motel:



Tucumcari is known for its many vintage neon signs, dating back to the Route 66 era. Most of those signs are for motels or restaurants that no longer exist, and they stand as rusty and silent tributes to that bygone time. One of those signs is for the Ranch House Cafe, which opened in 1952. I stopped to get pictures here as it started to rain, so I retreated back to the car. But then I saw a rainbow form in the sky so I rushed out of the car to get a few pictures:







Across the street is this old gas station recently painted with a few Route 66 murals, with a towering wind turbine behind it.



I then hurried down the road to try to get pictures of the rainbow with as many Route 66 signs as I could before it faded away. This is the sign for the Westerner Drive Inn. It opened in 1949 and closed in 2000. The building was torn down, but the sign still remains.



I stopped at the Motel Safari, which opened in 1959. It is still open, and was renovated in the 2000s.



I passed by the Blue Swallow Motel again, with its distinctive neon sign.



And just down the road is the Teepee Curio Shop, which is another iconic Route 66 location. The shop originally opened as a gas station in the 1940s. But when the road was widened, the gas pumps had to be removed. So it changed to a curio shop. To make it stand out, the owners built a teepee on the front that you walk through to enter the store. The neon sign was added around the same time.









And just down the road is the old Palomino Motel, which is still open.



After that, it seemed like the rainbow started to fade away. Which was good timing, since it was dinner time. So we headed down to La Cita, a Mexican restaurant that has been along Route 66 for decades. To go in, you walk under a giant sombrero. As we parked, the rainbow reappeared, and was even more vibrant. So apparently the treasure at the end of a rainbow is....tacos?





I headed out later that night to try to get some shots of the neon signs. Luckily I didn't have to go far to get pictures of the Blue Swallow Motel sign.







And one last shot of the Teepee Curio Shop and its neon sign, taken before I headed back to our room for the night.