Cyber-driving March 26, 2007
Posted by Ron in Highways, History, Magazines, People, Photographs, Restaurants, Vehicles, Web sites.add a comment
This Associated Press article touts a bunch of Web sites for people who want to take a virtual road trip down Route 66 and other historic highways if they can’t do the real thing.
Many of these sites have already been linked here, but a few interesting finds turned up:
- StateEnds.com has a group of people in 11 states that has documented and photographed where each highway in their respective state ends. No Route 66 states are listed — yet.
- Roadside Online, which specializes in diners.
- The AP story didn’t cite this, but today I found a site dedicated to Gus Wilson of the Model Garage, who wrote stories about his life as an auto mechanic for Popular Science Monthly. The site has 91 percent of Wilson’s writings archived from 1925 to 1970.
- A Web site that specializes in the National Road, especially in Pennsylvania.
- The big find is American Mile Markers, in which the extraordinarily dedicated Matt Frondorf shot one photograph for every mile along a 3,304-mile trip from New York City to San Francisco. Even though the journey didn’t follow Route 66, the visual travelogue produces the same sort of awe of our country’s diversity and vastness that the Mother Road does. Frondorf also wisely avoided the interstates during his quest.
Historic Barstow cafe torn down March 26, 2007
Posted by Ron in Businesses, Restaurants.2 comments
Debra Hodkin, who runs the Barstow Route 66 Mother Road Museum in Barstow, Calif., gave the Route 66 yahoogroup some bad news yesterday:
Greystone Cafe at 31317 E. Main in Barstow, CA, is being torn down. This is a section of Route 66 where the road runs parallel with the freeway near the Marine Base. Unique in that the structures were built with river rock. Those from the sixties, seventies remember the place as a bar. The cabins appear gone, and the main structure will soon be.
Here’s a good overall photo of the restaurant from Ray Smith. 
And I found this intriguing history about the Glenstone:
When roads were still dirt even before Route 66 was named National Trails Highway, the Greystone Cafe was built in 1918.
World War I was over in Europe and expansion was on the rise in the United States. Motor vehicles were common, while horses still provided much of the transportation in the West.
In 1918, the Greystone was a way station catering to the growing numbers of Mormons settling in the lower valleys. The standing cobblestone buildings had a store, overnight rooms, and garage.
Now the Greystone has returned to the sand.
(Photos by Debra Hodkin.)
Restoration of Needles hotel begins March 26, 2007
Posted by Ron in Attractions, Motels, Preservation, Railroad, Restaurants.1 comment so far
The long-closed El Garces Hotel in Needles, Calif., built in 1908 and one of the last surviving railroad Harvey Houses, recently held a groundbreaking ceremony for its rehabilitation, reported the Mohave Daily News.
According to the article:
Plans call for El Garces to include a state of California Needles Visitor Center, an inter-modal transit center, first-class hotel and fine-dining restaurant.
Allan Affeldt, who beautifully restored La Posada in Winslow, Ariz., is the project manager on El Garces’ restoration. Anyone who’s ever stayed in La Posada knows that this is very good news indeed.
Needles also could use a top-flight tourism destination. Except for a few snowbirds and hardcore Route 66ers, it doesn’t attract many travelers except those who need to gas up before heading across the Mojave Desert.
Southwest Missouri tourism site launched March 26, 2007
Posted by Ron in Attractions, Events, Web sites.add a comment
The site, which features Route 66 prominently, is here.
According to the Springfield News-Leader:
The alliance is a marketing organization that aims to create positive economic growth in the region through cooperative tourism promotion and development. Its members include convention and visitors bureaus in Springfield, Carthage and Joplin as well as several chambers of commerce in the region.
