• Camping/RV,  Events/Concerts/Sports,  Road Trips

    Birthplace of Route 66 Festival – Days 1-2: August 13-14, 2015

    As online chatter started among Route 66 roadies about the Birthplace of Route 66 Festival in Springfield, Missouri, we thought it might be fun to attend, especially since we weren’t able to make it to the festival in Kingman the year before and knew we wouldn’t be able to attend in Los Angeles the following year. When we first considered going, we debated taking the car versus the RV. But after purchasing a new-to-us truck to haul the Shasta Oasis, we didn’t want to leave that costly combo sitting at home collecting dust. If it was going to collect dust, it had better be road dust! The Rail Haven was…

  • Filming Locations

    The Grapes of Wrath Filming Locations

    Beckham 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…

  • Road Trips

    November 28, 2008: Route 66 (Day 2)

    This 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 /…

  • Road Trips

    November 27, 2008: Route 66 (Day 1)

    We 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…

  • Events/Concerts/Sports

    Michael Wallis Booksigning at Hit the Road Travel Store

    On June 21, 2001, I had the pleasure of attending a reading and booksigning by Michael Wallis of the updated version of his wonderful book, Route 66: The Mother Road. The updated version was done for the 75th Anniversary of Route 66 (and the entire U.S. Highway System, for that matter). The booksigning was held at a very cool travel store called Hit the Road. Unfortunately, it closed several years ago. I shopped there alot to try to support the efforts of the two owners, Annice Tatken and Maureen Geoghegan. I had the pleasure of meeting again (or for the first time) many roadies whom I would see often over the…