Posts tagged Route 66
Christmas on Route 66
0As if the Thanksgiving on Route 66 trip wasn’t enough, now comes “Christmas on Route 66″. I’ve been wanting to get my dad out on the road with me for a couple of years & now he’s finally agreed. Destination: A Christmas steak dinner at the Big Texan in Amarillo.
He’s picking me up Christmas Eve morning & we’re interstating Wednesday & Thursday and bunking up at the Big Texan Motel Christmas night after a steak dinner at the BT. Friday we’ll turn around and mosy on 66 Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Should be a cool father/son bonding thing. I’ve always been intrigued by the story he told me of his family’s trip out to California in ’49. On the way back home…on Route 66…my grandpa had to be admitted in the hospital in Tucumcari, NM with stomach ulcers. Being the stubborn German he was, he checked himself out of the hospital 3 days later and my dad drove he & my grandma home via 66. So, I’ll be taking him on some of those sections of 66 that had been bypassed, but were in use in ’49, mainly in Oklahoma. No, I don’t expect he’d remember much about those sections, but it’ll be cool to tell him that this abandoned stretch is the same road he would’ve driven 60 years prior when he was a teen.
Anywho, I’ll be bringing along the laptop to provide updates as internet connections allow.
The Grapes of Wrath Filming Locations
3Beckham County Courthouse, US 66 – Sayre, Oklahoma
US 66 west of Albuquerque, New Mexico
One day, I was watching The Grapes of Wrath and noticed that this particular view looked very familiar. I checked our Route 66 honeymoon photos from June 2002 and saw the 2nd photo below. I don’t think I could have taken the photo of the same location and had it match more perfectly with a printed screenshot with me! We took this photo without even knowing about this particular scene!
June 2002
Trails Arch Bridge – Route 66, Topock, Arizona
2002. This bridge crossing on Route 66 from Topock, Arizona into California over the Colorado River was discontinued from traffic use in 1947. Today, it supports utility and gas lines.
Movie Filming Locations
4Here’s a random collection of movie filming locations, of which I don’t have enough photos to warrant a separate page.
Big
FAO Schwarz, 5th Avenue & 58th Street, New York, New York
12-year old Josh Baskin, frustrated at his slight stature, turns into a grownup after making a wish with a fortune telling machine called Zoltar. After frantically searching for the Zoltar machine to turn back into a kid, Josh has some time on his hands, while waiting for information from the Department of Consumer affairs as to the location of a Zoltar machine, and gets a job in the data processing department at MacMillan Toys. One Saturday, Josh spends a little time browsing at New York’s famous toy store, FAO Schwarz. Many locations of the store were used here, and I visited the store many times with my then 4-year old daughter. (She was very much into “Hello Kitty” stuff and FAO Schwarz had a huge area dedicated to this cute kitty). At that time (around 1991-1992), the store had changed very little since the movie was filmed.
In one of the movie’s most memorable scenes, Josh runs into his boss, the owner of MacMillan Toys, who spends his Saturdays at FAQ Schwarz observing what toys kids are into. He and Josh spend a little time bonding as Josh explains his likes and dislikes of various toys (much to the bemusement of Mr. MacMillan). They stumble about a large floor model “piano,” where Josh starts to play “Heart and Soul.” Mr. MacMillan joins in, and together they do a well-coordinated routine consisting of Heart and Soul and Chopsticks. Having not had so much fun in a while, MacMillan taps into Josh’s knowledge of toys and makes him vice president….one of them, anyway – they have a hundred of them!
From the movie:
FAO Schwarz, approximately 1991 – 1992:
In May 2013, when the photo below was taken, the clock was no longer in this location, as the store was completely remodeled/renovated. It was hung on a wall above an escalator leading to the lower level. It still played “Welcome to Our World of Toys” every 15 minutes. The store closed on July 15, 2015.
Rye Playland, Rye, New York
Two scenes in Big were filmed at the location below, which is Rye Playland Amusement Park in Rye, New York. It was depicted in the movie to be “Seapoint Park” New York. In one scene, Josh goes to Seapoint Park on a date with his co-worker, Susan.
At the end of the movie, Josh returns to Seapoint Park after discovering that a Zoltar machine is here, so that he could make a wish to turn back to a kid again.
Rye Playland Boardwalk, taken approximately 1991:
Palisades Interstate Park – Fort Lee, New Jersey
Where Josh wishes he were “big” with the Zoltar machine at the carnival.
The site below where the carnival was held and where Josh rode the next day to find the site looking basically like we did.
Hotel St. James, 109 W 45th St, New York, NY
After finding himself “big” Josh needs a place to stay and selects the Hotel St. James. During our stay here in May 2009, we did not find it at ALL in the condition from the movie. Rooms were pretty small, but that’s about it. I should’ve taken some interior lobby photos, as those scenes were filmed there.
Jingle All the Way
Mickey’s Dining Car – St. Paul, Minnesota
36 7th St W, St Paul, MN
The Producers
Bethesda Fountain in Central Park – New York, New York
This is from a scene from “The Producers,” in which down-and-out Broadway producer, Max Bialystock (Lane) is trying to convince his mousy accountant, Leo Bloom (Broderick) to participate in a get-rich scheme. They will oversell shares in a Broadway show, keep the additional money and go to Rio. But in order for the scheme to work, the show must be a “surefire flop.” Leo is too scared to do it, and runs away as Max desperately convinces him that it will work (“We Can Do It”).
August 2008
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
The Sun Motel – Braidwood, Illinois
Del Griffith (John Candy) and Neal Page (Steve Martin) are two very different businessmen who met by chance in New York City when Del “steals” Neal’s cab to the airport. Unfortunately, the simple, short flight from New York to Chicago just before Thanksgiving turns into a two-day ordeal, bringing Del and Neal together as they make their way from New York to Chicago by way of Wichita, Kansas.
In this scene, they are waiting for a ride to the “people” train station, 40 miles away, which they will make sitting in the back of a pickup truck. They just spent the night sharing the last motel room in town, at the fictional “Braidwood Inn.” This motel is actually in Braidwood, Illinois along I-55.
June 2006
From the movie
June 2006
A Christmas Story
The house in the movie “A Christmas Story” is located in Cleveland, Ohio. For more information, click the link for the official site. You can visit it and go on a tour! The house was being restored when we passed through Cleveland in July 2007, we just took a couple of exterior photos.
November 28, 2008: Route 66 (Day 2)
2This morning at the motel, I did searched geocaching.com for geocaches along Route 66, as well as back to Indianapolis. I just got a new GPS, a DeLorme PN-40, and was anxious to try it out. I hadn’t cached for a while, and was ready for some caching!
We left the motel and followed 66 through Rolla, where we found our first cache of the day, and our first in Missouri. We decided to stick with just one or two caches per hour so we could make it as far as Oklahoma City on this trip. We also wanted to get to Pop’s – a gas statiohn/ soda ranch / cafe that sells nearly every type of soda made. I recently saw a brand of soda, Olde Brooklyn, with flavors named after New York City boroughs / neighborhoods, like Bay Ridge Birch, Flatbush orange, Coney Island Cream Soda, etc. Pop’s sells it, so I know I’ll be picking up a lot of soda here! I also haven’t had Route 66 Root Beer in a while and it’s very good!
We slowly meandered our way on 66 through Missouri. For as many times as we have been through Missouri, I hadn’t stopped to take a photo of this A & W Root Beer Burger Family…not this time!
I also hadn’t stopped by the remains of the old Stony Dell Resort before, or at least, taken photos. Also picked up a cache here too!
We found several more caches along the way near Devil’s Elbow as well as one when we made our usual stop at Wrink’s Market in Lebanon for a drink and a snack (homemade cookies! mmmm). We talked a little with Terry Wrinkle, son of original owner, Glenn Wrinkle. As is becoming our trend, we also stopped at Redmon’s Candy factory in Phillipsburg.
They sell homemade fudge, chocolates, taffy and a variety of hard candy that you can mix & match. They also have all types of new and old novelty candy like pop rocks, wax bottles, candy cigarettes, etc. We took 66 through Springfield and found a cache on the east end of town near the old Holiday Drive-in. Another place we hadn’t stopped to take a photo before!
We continued on 66 through Carthage, Carterville, Webb City, and Joplin. In Carthage, we noticed the HISTORIC 66 sign installed by Rod Harsh, who ran a Route 66 Visitor’s Center in an old filling station in Carterville, Missouri. Rod had a “sign the route” project, and we donated $25, which made this sign installation possible.
Outside of Joplin we took an old alignment of 66 into Galena, Kansas.
We thought about stopping to eat a newer place in Galena called “4 Women on the Route” but it was closed (probably due to the holidays). It’s a neat new addition to Route 66. They have a cafe & gift shop and two interesting photo ops-one is a rusty old tow truck. Why on earth you ask would a rusty old tow truck be a photo op? Well, old cars, whether rusty or restored, are always cool subjects. But this particular tow truck was the inspiration for the Pixar animators to create Tow Mater for Cars. A set of eyes added to the windshield and there you have him! Unfortunately, despite the fact that these ladies possess the actual inspiration for Mater, complex legalities prevent Disney’s legal team from allowing them to refer to the truck as Tow Mater, so they named him Tow Tater instead. I suspect that many children unknowing or caring of such legalities & whose minds soak up every detail regularly make the necessary correction. We arrived at Eisler Bros. a short time before closing.
We picked up a couple of Route 66 books – the 2nd volume of David Wickline’s “Images of 66″ and the 2nd edition of Jerry McClanahans amazing, “EZ66 Guide.” Don’t travel 66 without McJerry’s book. It’s an absolute must-have for any trip on 66. Here’s an endorsement…since we were originally heading to Atlanta, once we decided to take 66, I lamented about not having McJerry’s guide with us. As soon as I saw the updated 2nd edition, I immediately said we MUST get it! The EZ66 guide aids travelers in navigating Route 66. Excellent maps, very accurate and detailed without being TOO detailed and cumbersome, are provided along with EZ turn by turn directions. This guide is so well done, I dare say it’s darn near perfect. He gives the novice 66 travelers an EZ way of traveling the route seeing sights along the way, without bogging you down in details but yet remaining accurate with the explicit caveat that the route does change over time, traffic conditions, detours, etc.).
With late fall trips come early sunsets and sunset fell quickly as entered Commerce, Oklahoma.
Pat and I both had the same thought about dinner: Waylan’s Ku-Ku Burger! Great hamburgers and crushed ice…and a great neon sign at dusk! It was a little (only just a little) past the ideal time I like to shoot neon, but still enough ambient light to get a good shot.
We ended up in Stroud, and thought we’d check out the Skyliner Motel. After looking at a room, we decided to stay.
Slideshow of All Photos
For more details about a particular photo, click on it in the slideshow and it will open in my Flickr site.
[flickrslideshow acct_name=”roadtripmemories” id=”72157610721213953″ width=”500″]
November 27, 2008: Route 66 (Day 1)
0We woke up this morning intending to head south to Georgia. After a last check of the weather we noticed the forecast had worsened. The chance for rain increased significantly, and since I had a specific purpose for this trip mostly involving outdoor photography, it was not something I wanted to do in the rain. We struggled between wanting to go and whether or not to trust the forecast. We could go somewhere else with a better forecast or not go at all. Pat hinted at going west on 66 since we hadn’t done that in a while. He’s very indecisive, as readers of his blog know from his recent post. We didn’t have enough time for him to put up a poll on his blog to decide where to go, so he let Amber decide. He wrote 3 options on bottle caps: go to Georgia as planned, take Route 66 west as far as we could go, or stay home, and geocache locally. Whichever cap she picked was what we’d do, and she picked geocaching.
Since we now had no time constraints, I watched the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade with Amber & plotted a couple of Indiana cache routes with my new DeLorme Topo 7 software. I also played with transferring waypoints to my new GPS, a DeLorme PN-40. So once I did that and the parade ended, I asked Pat about heading out. Then Pat says, “Wanna go to Atlanta?” So much for the written in stone bottle cap selection. I’m game to try it, so I finished packing, said goodbye to Amber and off we went.
We figured by this late hour, we’d have to superslab most of the trip, so we could get to our destination at a reasonable hour the next day. It was especially important, since the forecast called for some showers building late Friday and Saturday was looking like a total washout. As we headed south on I-65, I started feeling some negative road karma, but while I didn’t want to go home, I really didn’t want to deal with rain. I also didn’t feel like having to superslab the trip in a hurry, and I thought that by the time we’d get to Atlanta, I’d only have a small window of “cloudy” weather with rain closing in. At best, I’d have to rush around taking my photographs before rain set in, and at worst it would be raining. So I said to Pat, “Let’s go on 66 instead!” So we cut across town to I-70 and started our journey west.
After we crossed into Illinois, we took US 40, only taking the evil-I into St. Louis. We exited at Hampton Road and took 66 partly through town. By now, Ted Drewes is in “Christmas tree selling” mode. We passed by Crestwood Bowl, of which I haven’t had the chance to take a photo until now.
On Chippewa, there was a Shell station with unleaded gas for 1.33! We took the Interstate from the west side of town to Eureka, then took 66 until Stanton. At that point, we got back onto the Interstate. We thought we might make it as far as Rolla where there are plenty of lodging choices. We passed by Finns Motel in St. James and decided to check it out. The price was reasonable the room was clean and they had WiFi so we opted to stay.
We didn’t get much sleep the night before and I was fairly exhausted so I fell asleep right away.
Slideshow of All Photos
For more details about a particular photo, click on it in the slideshow and it will open in my Flickr site.
[flickrslideshow acct_name=”roadtripmemories” id=”72157610721213953″ width=”500″]
Route 66 Cozy Dog Run
0Sure you can get an average corn dog anywhere, but why settle for average when you can have the best! The Cozy Dog Drive-In, on Route 66 in Springfield, Illinois was started by Ed Waldmire in 1946. You can read more about the history of the Cozy Dog here.
Slideshow of All Photos
For more details about a particular photo, click on it in the slideshow and it will open in my Flickr site.
[flickrslideshow acct_name=”roadtripmemories” id=”72157603706854785″ width=”500″]
September 2007: Missouri Route 66 Motor Tour
0Missouri Route 66 Motor Tour
Slideshow of All Photos
For more details about a particular photo, click on it in the slideshow and it will open in my Flickr site.
[flickrslideshow acct_name=”roadtripmemories” id=”72157601974310965″ width=”500″]
Animal Paradise – Route 66, Stafford, Missouri
Slideshow of All Photos
For more details about a particular photo, click on it in the slideshow and it will open in my Flickr site.
[flickrslideshow acct_name=”roadtripmemories” id=”72157601978087550″ width=”500″]
June 2006: Munger Moss 35th Anniversary Party
0Slideshows of All Photos
Photos en route to the Munger Moss
Munger Moss 35th Anniversary Party
Route 66 Tattoo Man
The Party’s over…
May 2005: Illinois Route 66
0Slideshow of All Photos
For more details about a particular photo, click on it in the slideshow and it will open in my Flickr site.
[flickrslideshow acct_name=”roadtripmemories” id=”72157610906382469″ width=”500″]
May 14-15, 2005: Illinois Route 66 Cruise
0Pat had the idea to do a cruise on Route 66 in Illinois with some of our Route 66 friends. We started from the Luna Cafe in Mitchell and headed north on 66. With Pat and I were: Randy and Melody, Kent and Mary Sue, Marge, Fran and Dolly, Denny, Shellee and her son Trevor, Kip and Quinn, and Jane.
Slideshow of All Photos
For more details about a particular photo, click on it in the slideshow and it will open in my Flickr site.
[flickrslideshow acct_name=”roadtripmemories” id=”72157610906382469″ width=”500″]