Here it is, in full:

Greetings:

El Vado Motel is back on the Albuquerque Landmarks and Urban Conservation Commission’s agenda in two weeks. If you support preservation of this historic Route 66 landmark, know that its designation as a City of Albuquerque Landmark is again at stake, along with its very existence. Two related questions are at issue: 1) Should the El Vado be designated a City Landmark? and 2) Should the owner’s request for a Certificate of Appropriateness to demolish it be approved?

Issue 1 — The El Vado was designated a City Landmark in early 2006 by the City Council, but on appeal by the owner, that designation was reversed by a court and must be taken up again by the Landmarks Commission. The buildings remain suitable for preservation and easily qualify as a City Landmark under the City’s designation criteria. However, the economic impact of the landmark designation must be considered by the Commission and will be presented to them.

Issue 2 — Earlier this year, the Commission denied the owner’s application for a Certificate of Appropriateness to demolish, but this decision too was appealed and the application remanded to the Commission for further deliberation.

I’m writing you because the Commission’s decision is to be made in public with public testimony, written and spoken. If you are inclined to write or appear and voice your support for city landmark designation and the degree of protection that comes with that designation, please do so.

Here’s how:

Written: E-mail or write a letter to Charles Price, Chairman, and Members, Albuquerque Landmarks and Urban Commission, c/o Maryellen Hennessy, City Planning Department, P.O. Box 1293, Albuquerque NM 87103, by November 5th if possible. [Editor's note: Maryellen Hennessy's e-mail is mhennessy@cabq.gov]

Spoken: If you live near enough to attend the Commission’s hearing, please come and voice your support — it’s especially effective. The hearing time and place are as follows — 3 p.m. Wednesday, 14 November, Basement Hearing Room, 600 Second Street NW (corner of Roma and 2nd, a block south of Lomas).

Questions? Let me know at 505-924-3342 or reply to this message.

Thanks very much,

Ed Boles
Historic Preservation Planner
City of Albuquerque
eboles@cabq.gov

P.S.: Thanks for all your support to date. I’m optimistic about preserving the El Vado and seeing it back in service.

This is what we’re trying to save:

You heard the man. Get writing.

… but Shellee Graham will have a screening of her documentary “Built for Speed: The Coral Court Motel” at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Lincoln County Museum of Pioneer History at 717-719 Manvel, aka Route 66, in Chandler, Okla.

The Coral Court Motel was an exquisite art deco business on Route 66 in Marlborough, Mo., that was torn down about 10 years ago. A reassembled unit, however, is at the Museum of Transportation in St. Louis.

The former Big Chief Dakota restaurant and motel complex on the Manchester Road alignment of Route 66 in Wildwood, Mo., now a B. Donovan’s restaurant, may have some ghosts on the premises, reports the Suburban Journals.

Smith said he has heard a number of stories about the property.

“One is that there is a female Indian ghost that walks along the back of the property,”he said. “The other is supposedly when they tore down a cabin, a body was found in the wall.”

Smith said strange incidents happen in the restaurant.

In spring, he and three employees were sitting in the restaurant after closing time and heard a woman’s voice, he said.

“There was no woman in the restaurant at the time, and we searched for her — but she was not found,” Smith said.

He said footsteps sometimes are heard when no one is seen on the stairs.

“There are also a lot of noises in the attic,” Smith said.

The thing that seems to bother him the most are weird holes that appear in the ceiling of the attic. He said he keeps sealing them, and “when I return in the morning, a new hole appears,” he said.

Hope the health inspector doesn’t get mad about those holes.

According to an article last week in the Elk City and Sayre newspapers in Oklahoma, Harley and Annabelle Russell of the Sandhills Curiosity Shop in Erick, Okla., entertained 57 members of the International Regional Magazine Association earlier this month.

The group was in Oklahoma City for the gathering, but drove a few hours west to check out the Harley & Annabelle, aka The Mediocre Music Makers.

The article contained interesting tidbits about the Russells’ summer:

The Russells have had their busiest year ever, with as many as four tour groups a day stopping at their Erick location.

“On August 2, we started the day early with a bus load from the First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City and ended it after entertaining a group from Norway that arrived at 8 p.m.,” Harley said. “Annabelle and I are jogging and doing pushups trying to build up our stamina so we can put on shows our guests will never forget!”

Among their visitors this year was a documentary team sent by Al Gore to gather information about American small towns. An Irish television producer also filmed at the Sandhills Curiosity shop in 2007.

Pictures from the magazine association’s gathering at the Sandhills shop can be seen here and here.

Mark Landis, writing for the San Bernardino County Sun, wrote an interesting historical overview of the Green Spot Motel, built in 1937 on Route 66 in Victorville, Calif.

The Green Spot, at 16937 C St., was the finest motel in town, offering the most modern comforts and services available for the traveling public. Twin arched entryways and red tile roofs accentuated the Spanish-styling of the u-shaped courtyard. All 21 units featured air conditioned rooms, “running ice water,” private showers or baths, and “electric radiant glass heat.”

The individual units were connected by small garages. This unique feature advertised as “car-by-door” gave the motorist the luxury of parking next to their room and out of the elements. [...]

Longtime Victorville resident and community leader Felix Diaz recalls when the Green Spot Motel was a favorite of the Hollywood crowd.

“I remember the Green Spot when it was `the place’ to stay,” he said. “When actors came to the High Desert to film movies, that’s where they stayed.”

Former actress Kay Aldridge even owned the motel for several years. But it’s an Asian-American — and interest from Route 66 travelers — who are keeping the historic motel alive.

Hemant Patel, the current owner of the Green Spot, has been working to clean up the aging motel since he bought it in 2001.

“This place used to be a bad spot with a lot of drugs, but we’ve cleaned up the whole area,” Patel said. “Now, I choose the people I want to live here.”

The garages connecting the units have been converted into living areas and there are now 40 rooms that are at about 50 percent occupancy.

“There has been a lot of interest in the motel,” Patel said. “People from all over the world have come and asked about the place. It’s still paying all the bills, and I’m planning on staying and running the motel.”

Brad Carter has created a time-lapse video of the sights from the recent Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

The fiesta needs to use this guy’s work for publicity, pronto. It makes me wanna go.

(Hat tip: Duke City Fix.)

Straight from the Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff:

The fiberglass bull welded to the sign outside Crazy Bill’s Saloon and Steakhouse has been stolen.

According to Flagstaff police reports, the brown bull, which is about half-sized in scale, was taken between 8 p.m. on Thursday and 4 a.m. on Friday from the bar and restaurant, 3130 E. Route 66. The bull was wearing a tan-colored wig over its head and horns. It is worth about $4,000, reports stated.

Police noticed tire tracks and footprints in the dirt around the sign, and damage to the nearby wooden split-rail fence. Apparently, somebody backed onto the sidewalk from the west parking lot, causing the damage. A witness said he saw a red truck in the spot at about 10 p.m. and the bull was already gone, but he did not see the bull in the bed, reports stated.

Police have no suspects.

Two observations. First, this has to be a drunken prank and not a premeditated theft. I mean, what would you do with a fiberglass bull? If you stole it, how would you keep it hidden? What profit motive is there? It’s not like you can hawk it at your local pawn shop. I’ll bet it’s recovered fairly quickly.

Second, this was the same establishment that was placing homophobic comments on its marquee in this summer — a move so stupid and rude that even heterosexuals were offended. Based on the dearth of follow-up reports in the Daily Sun, it’s assumed that cooler (and smarter) heads prevailed and that the comments were taken down.

Johnny Mango at Duke City Fix shows a postcard of one of Albuquerque’s first barbecue joints, Oklahoma Joe’s, on Central Avenue (aka Route 66) near the University of New Mexico campus.

Mango said Okie Joe’s, later known as Okie’s, was known for 10-cent beer nights, with the brew served in paper cups. It was a popular imbibing spot for many years.

Okie’s is not there anymore; a convenience store took its place. But Duke City Fix wants to hear stories about it.

Today, I received a message in the mail from the Illinois Department of Transportation. Here’s what it said:

Governor Rod R. Blagojevich
and the Illinois Department of Transportation
in conjunction with the
Great Rivers Greenway District
Cordially invite you to the
Dedication Ceremony for the
McKinley Bridge
and the opening of
The Chamber of Commerce of
Southwestern Madison County
McKinley Bridge Roadside Park

Saturday, November 17, 2007
9:30 a.m.
Illinois Side of the Bridge
Intersection of Illinois Route 3 & Broadway
Venice, Illinois
RSVP
Ross.breckenridge@illinois.gov or 618-346-3420

Don’t worry if you didn’t get an invite. The public, one and all, can definitely come. And it’s been six years in coming since the nearly century-old McKinley Bridge, which carried an alignment of Route 66 over the Mississippi River to St. Louis, was closed for safety reasons. It’s cost $46 million to rehab the span.

According to the Belleville News-Democrat, IDOT is hinting the bridge might be ready for traffic by the Nov. 17 ceremony. Previously, the agency said it might reopen another week or so after that.

He said if the span is not yet open to traffic at that time, “it’s going to be close to the 17th. The ceremony will begin at 9:30 a.m.”

“We decided to pick a day,” he added. “If it’s open that day, it’s open. If not, it will be open in the near future.”

Gov. Rod Blagojevich is scheduled to attend the dedication, and about a thousand invitations have been sent to area businesses, civic organizations, municipalities and others. The public is welcome to attend.

If the bridge is opened to traffic before Nov. 17, it will be shut down during the dedication because the ceremony will be held on the bridge, Anderson said. People who attend will be able to walk across the bridge for an up-close view.

The News-Democrat also has a useful video that shows work that’s been done to the bridge, including new bicycle lanes.

It’s a significant and welcome development for Route 66ers. The westbound travelers who wish to avoid the interstates to drive into St. Louis soon will be able to do so again.

And St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Amanda St. Amand says it’s not just Mother Roaders looking forward to the bridge’s reopening:

About 10,000 cars and trucks a day were using the McKinley when it was shut down. Granite City officials have said they are expecting as many as 20,000 vehicles a day to use the new and now toll-free McKinley, but Brown said the transportation department had not given her any traffic estimates.

No one is a bigger booster of southwestern Madison County than Brown, and even she acknowledged that when the McKinley closed “it looked like the devil.” But with the entryway park in place, and the bridge set to reopen, she feels certain that her corner of the county is on the way to a comeback. She’s not alone. Business and political leaders in Granite City, Venice and Madison have said the reopening of the bridge should help cause a mini-boom in their local economies.

I heard a few days ago that the video for Enrique Iglesias‘ hit song “Hero” was shot in the Route 66 settlement of Amboy, Calif.

Sure enough, it is. Check it out:

Roy’s is featured prominently, as is a church in town.

And I was thinking the stone ruins were at Cadiz Summit, on Route 66 a few miles away, but it doesn’t look quite right. Any ideas?

Los Angeles Downtown News Online has posted a long story about the city’s attempts to revitalize the historic Broadway district, part of which is old Route 66.

Many similar efforts have failed. But because the downtown area is gaining more residents, there’s some urgency and hope that a Broadway revival will be for real.

For the first time, many of the area’s key stakeholders are at the table, including theater owners, landlords, business leaders and community groups. The shared vision, initial plans for which could be completed by year’s end, would turn Broadway between Third Street and Olympic Boulevard into an entertainment destination. It would diversify the largely Latino shopping hub with new retail, nightclubs, creative offices and live shows in renovated theaters.

One of the big issues Broadway will have to tackle is a lack of parking. Officials are looking at using a nearby garage, encouraging pedestrian use and perhaps establishing a trolley line. And planners are agonizing on how to let the downtown district evolve naturally, yet still use zoning and ordinances keep it desirable.

There’s more in the article, including a lot of interesting ideas, for other urban planners to chew on.

We’ve noticed that more cities are taking advantage of the Internet and YouTube in particular in an effort to draw visitors and tourists.

Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., is one of them. It has posted a nicely produced three-minute video that briefly explains the history of Route 66 and Rancho Cucamonga’s current links to it.

The embedding for the video is turned off, but you can view it here.

Here’s a few more videos from Dwayne of New Zealand.

Most of the footage here is in Oklahoma. It’s interesting to watch his companion get a bit freaked out by a severe thunderstorm in the western part of the state. It’s routine stuff for locals, but foreigners and non-natives tend to become frightened by them.

More Mother Roading in western Oklahoma:

The Arizona Republic today published a compact guide to the portion of historic Route 66 that veers miles away from Interstate 40 from Seligman to Kingman.

There’s a lot more than that, but the article is good for starters.

This is a welcome addition. Route 66 has a news site (you’re looking at it, obviously), and now the Lincoln Highway does, too.

Brian Butko, author of “Lincoln Highway: America’s First Coast to Coast Road,” has launched LincolnHighwayNews.com in the past few days. In three days, he already has items about Niland’s Cafe, new Lincoln Highway signs in Goshen, Ind., original LH bricks, and others.

Frankly, I can’t think of a better person to launch such a site about “the Father Road.” And I’m grateful that Brian gave a shout-out to Route 66 News for the inspiration for his site.

A few of you roadies probably know that David Knudson, executive director of the National Historic Route 66 Federation, and his wife Mary Lou are based in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., in the mountains above Los Angeles.

Hearing about the grave conditions caused by wildfires in Southern California, including Lake Arrowhead, I called David on Tuesday to check his well-being. His answering machine picked up, and I left a message.

On Wednesday evening, David called. He and his dog are staying in a modest motel room away from Lake Arrowhead because the entire region has been evacuated. His house is still intact. At last report, he said, the closest wildfire to his home was 10 miles away.

His wife, Mary Lou, was admitted to a hospital several days before for a nonfire-related ailment.

David said the fire conditions obviously are unpredictable. But the winds appear to be dying down, and he’s optimistic he can return home by the weekend.

More YouTubes from Dwayne of New Zealand.

Here’s one from western New Mexico, with images of Gallup’s neon:

Arizona sights, including Flagstaff, Holbrook, Williams, Oatman, the Black Mountains and the Painted Desert:

On to California and the isolation of the Mojave Desert and the congestion of Los Angeles. Warning: There is brief nudity at the beginning; Dwayne must have spent a little too much time in the desert heat.

Dwayne of New Zealand has posted a bunch of new videos from his recent Route 66 trip.

Some Mother Road sights from Illinois, although I don’t think the apocalyptic soundtrack of “Gimme Shelter” fits:

More from Illinois and Missouri, including a lot of footage of Rich Henry and his pet rabbit Montana at Henry’s Rabbit Ranch:

Here’s the second part of Missouri, with plenty about BowlingShirt.com in St. Louis and a side trip to Branson:

Part 3 in Missouri, with plenty of footage of the splendid Sinclair station re-creation at Gay Parita:

POPS on Route 66 in Arcadia, Okla., has posted several videos, many of which appear to have been produced by OklaTravelNews.

This one has interesting comments by Route 66 writer Michael Wallis and POPS architect Rand Elliott:

Here’s a video from when the 66-foot-tall pop bottle was erected:

Here’s a video of a reporter for Food and Wine Magazine being interviewed about an article about POPS:

And this is basically a commercial for POPS:

I recently received a message from Yves Barbreau of France, who plans to take an ultra-marathon team to America in September 2008 so it can run one marathon a day in eight days, on each of the eight Route 66 states.

It is called Team Globules, boasting a two-time French marathon champion and a winner of the European 100-kilometer race. It apparently does fundraising for research into Evans syndrome, an immunity disorder.

Here’s an excerpt from Yves’ blog, as translated from French by Google:

The Team will travel to the WBC route 66 from east to west, as is the tradition by wearing the colors of the A.F.S.E.!

On the trail of Thelma and Louise, she will leave Arkansas, transferred to Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona (Grand Canyon) to finish in Southern California in the Mojave Desert, where is the famous “road motel Baghdad coffee, which gave its name to the film!

Route 66, 2,448 long miles (about 4,000 km) retains a mythical character immortalized in books, movies, songs; It remains a symbol of the American deep off the beaten track, a nostalgic evocation of the age gold of a vanished America.

The blog says the team will run in six states, but Yves’ e-mail said Team Globules will run in all eight Route 66 states. Either way, it’s no idle feat.

The translator tripped over the reference to Bagdad Cafe, which is in the Mojave Desert down of Newberry Springs and was a foreign film by the same name. The movie has enticed a lot of Europeans to travel the Mother Road.

I’ve already given Yves advice on where to run so the team can be on the real Route 66 for long stretches, avoid the interstate, and run in relative safety.