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Thanks for your patience!

from Debye (Route 66 yahoo group member)

Heading West to East

For those heading west, ignore the MoDot detour sign near Avilla and continue straight ahead (west) on Route 66/State Route 96. At the Route 66 Alternate Route (there’s a sign), either continue west on 96 or turn left and then a quick right (past the windmills on your left) to stay on the older alignment of Route 66.

You will eventually come to the intersection of 66/96 and Java Road. There’s a big gas station on your right with a metal sculpture of an airplane at the intersection. Best Budget Inn and Kellog Lake are on your left. Turn right onto Java Road.

If you take Alternate 66, follow it around until it comes back to 96. You’ll pass the Red Rock Apartments (formerly a motel) on your right. When you come to a Y intersection, stay to the right to continue back to 96. The Best Budget Inn will be on your right, and Kellogg Lake will be on your left. The metal airplane scuplture will be across the street on your right, and the Kel-Tel Motel across the street on your left. Continue straight through this intersection onto Java Road.

Once on Java Road, follow it around to old Route 71. You will pass an old race track on your right. When you come to the Y intersection, stay on the right to continue to old Route 71 (you are now on Jazz Street). When you get to old Route 71, you’ll be at a T intersection. There’s an old rock gas station on your right. Turn left (south) onto old Route 71. You’ll cross a few bridges and come through a small residential area to the intersection of old Route 71 (Garrison Ave.) and Central Ave. (Route 66). This intersection has a traffic signal. Continue straight (south) at this intersection to get back on Route 66 (also old Route 71). The Boots Motel is on your right. A block further down is CD’s Pancake Hut (in case you’re hungry from all this detouring!). The next intersection with a traffic signal (next to Braum’s Ice Cream) is Oak Street. Turn right to continue west on Routes 66/71 and follow them straight out of Carthage.

Heading East to West

For those heading east, follow Route 66 into Carthage, turning left (north) from Oak Street onto Garrison Avenue. CD’s Pancake Hut is two blocks up the street on your left, and the Boots Motel is a block further on, also on your left. At the intersection of Garrison Avenue and Central there is a traffic signal. At this traffic signal, continue straight ahead (north) on Garrison instead of turning right on Central (which, at this point is Route 66). You are now on old Route 71. The old Daisy Court Motel (now short-term residential) and the Carthage Family Restaurant are on the left. Go north through a small residential area and over a few bridges until you get to Jazz Street. You will see an old rock gas station on the right-hand side of the road. Turn right (east) at the street just before it (Jazz Street). Follow this street around (it will turn into Java Street), until you reach the intersection of Java Street and Route 66/State Route 96. There will be a big gas station on your left with a metal sculpture of an airplane at the intersection. Kel-Tel Motel is on the right. Across the intersection, the Best Budget Motel is on the left and Kellogg Lake is on the right.

From here, you can either turn left (east) onto 66/96 and continue on to Avilla or go straight ahead through the intersection to continue on the older alignment of Route 66. If you go straight, you will pass the Red Rock Apartments (formerly a motor court) on the left, and eventually a couple of small windmills on your right. Immediately after the windmills is a T intersection. Turn left at the intersection, and then a quick right to get back on 66/96. Continue east to Avilla and you’re back on the Route!

Obviously, these are women’s directions because we navigate by landmarks rather than by cardinal direction (north-south). I added some north, south, east, and west directions to help out the guys, in case they are navigating instead of driving.

Naturally this is of great concern for several local Route 66 businesses including the Pancake Hut, several old motor courts, Red Oak II and the Boots Motel (which hopes to open this Spring).

Traffic from the East will be detoured South near Avilla, then into South Carthage. Traffic from the West will be detoured South of Carthage, re-entering Hwy 96 near Avilla. Both detours will bypass the Boots Motel and several good local restaurants for three to four months!

The Route 66 Chamber will petition the City to allow for the placement of temporary Route 66 detour signs that will allow travelers to continue through Carthage on 66 using several local streets that will bypass the construction. The MDOT will likely not place such detour signs on state roads, but the City of Carthage may choose to do this. According to MDOT, their detour signs will also indicate an exception for “Local Traffic”, allowing 66 travelers to proceed into Carthage, however this may be confusing for many who may feel compelled to take the MDOT detour.

More details on this situation will be posted soon, for for those making plans now, just remember to consider yourselves “Local Traffic” and continue on 66 into Carthage where the posted “66 detour” will take you off-the-Route for only 2 minutes! Thanks

(courtesy of Ron Hart)

We had exchanged a few emails and he graciously agreed to meeting me today at his friend, Laurel Kane’s Route 66 Packards, There were about 7 or 8 Japanese bikers pulling in ahead of me. Little did they realize the sights they were about to see.

Ron was visiting a Tulsa classic car show back in the late 1990s, when he fell head-over-heels in love with Route 66. The was walking around and noticed a lot of Route 66 memorabilia , including a 66 shield with a highway running through it.

Next thing you know, that shield was inked on his calf and this proud 62 year old Vietnam vet to decide to start dedicating some serious skin to the most popular icons along 66. Ten years later, he was named the 2009 “Person of the Year” by the Route 66 Alliance. Just this year he was immortalized on the label of Jones Soda.

Look closely and you will find muffler men, bridges, neon signs, diners and gift shops, with towns noted, in all ink glory. There’s the logo for the infamous biker bar in Devil’s Elbow, MO just where you would expect it, on his elbow! And the large VW van on his right side immortalizes Bob Waldmire, artist, hippie, inspiration for the movie “Cars” and whose father was the inventor of the Corn Dog in Springfield, IL. (and that one was the most painful, taking a grueling 3 days to complete.) You’ll find 3 tattoos to honor the Home of Ugly Pies – Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, TX.

OK – one, non-66 tatt snuck in the mix – Eskimo Joe’s, a Stillwater watering hole (bringing the total count up to 99 as of today). And what will be number 100? Emma Jean’s Holland Burger Cafe in Victorsville, CA, a 1940s cafe that serves up good old-fashioned home cooking and was also featured in the Uma Thurmon classic, “Kill Bill.”

Tiger Lily at the Smoky Hills river Festival in Salina

Day 16 – Salina, KS to Kansas City, MO

Last day on the road. Sure, it will be nice not to pack up every morning, but I do love a good car trip, and this has most definitely been a great one. But I am looking forward to home, my bed, friends, and seeing Elwood.

But the adventure isn’t quite over, yet. The morning rain subsided just in time for us to head over to the Smoky Hills River Festival – art, music, food – and chatting a bit more with Erika, who was manning the exhibit of Art Bikes.

Erika Nelson

Merry-Go-Round powered bike

Last night we met up for dinner (wine and whiskey, too) and the next thing you know, I am actually thinking about what it would be like to buy an old church in Lucas and creating a permanent home for my folk art collection when it returns from the road. So many bright shiny objects catching my attention.

So, we hung out a bit at the festival, ran into old friends and let those pesky rain clouds get a head start down the road.

Pedalpolooza - The art of the bike

Ah, home.

Elwood

Garden of Eden - Lucas, KS

Day 15 – Colorado Springs to Salina, KS

Well, my passenger thought so until today. OK, interstate driving can be road trip sacrilege, I know. And today is our first completely Route 66-free day. (Insert shameless cross-promotion of the Best Road Trip Ever! iPhone app here) But we gotta get across Kansas, and the fires in Colorado (yes, it’s burning there, too) prevented the southern trek. So, I-70 it is. (And yes, an audiobook helps.)

St. Fidelis Cemetery – Victoria, KS

St. Fidelis Cemetery - Victoria, KS

Heading east from Colorado, you may have seen the signs for the Catherdral of the Plains. OK – maybe you weren’t paying any attention. But next time, take the exit to see this amazing cemetary and stretch you legs. It will only take a few minutes and is well worth the time.

St. Fidelis Cemetery - Victoria, KS

The historic St. Fidelis Cemetery north of Victoria, KS is filled with unique Volga German iron crosses, marking the the gravesites of the earliest burial locations. Using hammer, anvil and forge, the early German artisans crafted crosses of iron, steel and other metals, often from pieces of scrap material.

They are particularly suited as prairie monuments – unlike wooden crosses, the wrought iron or other metals were tough enough to withstand prairie fires, storms, even time itself. The cross represented the sacred; the iron represented strength — attributes of the pioneers they honored.

Lucas, KS

The Bowl Plaza - Lucas, KS

Lucas is THE hotbed of Kansas creativity. And they definitely don’t rest on their laurels. Current projects include the Bowl Plaza (a public restroom that is being designed to look like a giant toilet bowl (and covered in tile mosaic), a “fork” art garden, including a croquet lawn with fork wickets (created by local high schoolers) and a huge mural with the history of the Czechoslovakian immigrant experience, painted by Erika Nelson (of the World’s Largest Collection of the World’s Smallest Versions of the World’s Largest Things fame)

Mural detail by Erika Nelson - Lucas, KS

A few weeks ago, the Grassroots Art Center (and the main street of town) were hit by straight-line winds causing the facade of the building to bow. Luckily, no art was damaged, but the building will need to undergo work.

Storm damage at the Grassroots Art Center - Lucas, KS

The Garden of Eden - Samuel Perry (S.P.) Dinsmoor - Lucas, KS

Garden of Eden - Lucas, KS

Ahhh, the concrete crown jewel. The oldest complete self-taught artist’s environment in the country and on the National Register of Historic Places.

No, it’s not the one in the Bible, the one old S.P. Dinsmoor poured forth in his back yard with that miracle compound of its day – concrete! He was an old Civil War veteran (with a very young bride, but that’s another story) and one of those Kansas populists who liked to ruffle the status quo. He also just happened to have an amazing eye for sculpting, a passion he didn’t even indulge until he was in his sixties.

Built in 1905 and completed in 1927, Dinsmoor had the town’s only electric generator and lit the garden at night for all to see. Trains running between Kansas City and Denver would stop, passengers trekking the fields to ogle the spectacle and get an earful of  Dinsmoor’s point of view.

Garden of Eden - Lucas, KS

Serpents, soldiers, Adam, Eve, the crucifixion of labor by societal forces . . . it’s all up there, enduring harsh Midwestern heat and cold, while the man himself lays on display in his coffin in a mausoleum out back. Populists believed that humor could help get people’s attention, and the sheer audacity of the Garden must have brought a lot of grins.

But the town wasn’t always crazy about it. At one point, there was serious talk of bulldozing the Garden down. Luckily, cooler heads prevailed. And Dinsmoor’s vision (or something in the water!) seemed to have rubbed off on more than a few others.

Garden of Eden

And if the art isn’t enough to get you to stop the car…when he died in 1933, Dinsmoor had himself embalmed and placed in a glass-sided coffin in the large limestone Mausoleum he’d built on the grounds in the 1920s. He’s buried there with his first wife and you can see him there on display when you take the tour. No pictures, please.

“[On Resurrection morn] if I have to go up, I have a cement angel outside, above the door, to take me up.  If I have to go below, I’ll grab my [two-gallon cement] jug and fill it with water on the way down.  I think I am well prepared for the good old orthodox future.”

“If the Garden of Eden is not right, Moses is to blame. He wrote it up and I built it.” – S.P. Dinsmoor

Garden of Eden - Lucas, KS

A study in contrast…and she even pointed her toe…

Day 14 – Santa Fe, NM to Colorado Springs, CO

Truly, I would like to be chronological about writing this – but really the lead story is that the passenger in my car is fearless. Today we sauntered our way from Santa Fe, checking in at a couple of “old” folk art environments, breakfasting at the historic Plaza Hotel in the other Las Vegas (New Mexico – thankfully devoid of slot machines.) So let’s start with one of the most amazing folk art sites in the country…

Bishop’s Castle – Jim Bishop – Beulah, CO

Nothing can prepare yourself for the moment you see the castle. Winding roads up the mountain, a sketchy cell phone call to the folk art GPS master – Narrow Larry Harris – to be sure if we were on the right path (yeah, I gotta adjust the app coordinates – it was a bit further up the mountain than I thought).

Jim Bishop is high, as he likes to say, high on a drug the government can’t control. It’s called adrenaline and after one look at Bishop Castle, you’d get no argument from me. Soaring towards the clouds for some 16 stories in all, it’s made from stone; hand selected, hand carried, hand lifted and mortared into place by, you guessed it, hand. Jim Bishop’s hands. He’s been working the site for nearly 40 years now, that is when he isn’t busy fighting with the government about giving it up. It’s surrounded by National Forest land, and they’ve been itching to get his for some time now. But that’s another story and it distracts from the sheer magnitude of what he’s created.

16 stories tall? No drawings. Towers and flying buttresses and rooms of glass and stone? No engineers. A fire-breathing dragon on the roof? No plans. No plans indeed, except for those in Jim’s head. (thanks Randy from RVRR for sharing your well-crafted insights, and letting me pass some of them along…)

Jim Bishop, expressing his political POV...let's just say, he's not pleased with the government...

Casa de Colores – Casimiro “Casey” T. Marquez – Las Vegas, NM

Casa de Colores - Casimiro "Casey" T. Marquez

But the day really started with a check-in in Las Vegas, NM (yes, on the old, original  alignment of Route 66) at Casey’s…he passed away earlier this year and rumor had it that his place was being dismantled.  Not true, although, I think that some of the spray paint art was created by another…and he did mention that he was getting on in age, and having others help…so I am not sure about the origins of the new, cartoon images. Nonetheless, it was great to see the place still in tact.

I originally met Casey when traveling with the guys from Rare Visions in 2008. The “House of Colors”  lived up to its name, both outside and in. Maybe its Technicolor  trapping shouldn’t be a surprise, since Casey worked for years in auto body repair.  He was a nice man of few words, who told us he did this because “it makes me happy.”  Casey also reminded us that “mi casa no es su casa.”  That is, he loves for people to look it over, but only from outside the gate.

Casey passed away on Dec 17, 2010.  Most of his work is painted on the plaster inside and stucco outside.  The entire structure is just about to collapse.   Anything that local art patrons considered for removal/preservation would just hasten the collapse.  The electric in the ceiling had already failed from the poor roof. Hopefully, you can get by to see the site before is is gone.

Robert “Bobby” Valdez – Las Vegas, NM

Bobby Valdez's home sculpture environment

While in Las Vegas, I had to do a drive-by at Bobby’s Valdez’s house just to see that it, too, was fairing well since my first visit in 2008. Cartoon rodents, birds, spiders, dinosaurs, a nun and an anatomically correct caveman are just part of the party in Bobby’s yard. Still a hoot.

Whew…

Todos Santos

Day 13 – Albuquerque to Santa Fe

All planning has been tossed aside, even the plans we made 30 minutes earlier. Leaving Albuquerque, we were heading to Beulah, CO for Bishops Castle…but got to talking about Santa Fe. Laura has a good friend, Judy, who has been giving us smoke updates and lives in Santa Fe – so, of course we should visit.

Museum of International Folk Art – Santa Fe 

Museum of International Folk Art

Heaven and Hell (at the museum)

Entry to the Girard collection

Detail from Alexander Girard's collection of milagros

After dropping Laura off at a Nia class, I headed straight for the International Folk Art Museum. The centerpiece here is a collection of folk art from all over the world donated by Alexander Girard.  (He was a graphic designer that also collected folk art – a man after my own heart.) After donating it, he demanded to do the installation himself as well. Hey, why not?  The result is an idiosyncratic, quirky layout that’s a work of art in itself.  Teamed up with the various rotating exhibitions, it makes quite clear that self-expression knows no national boundaries.

Todos Santos – Santa Fe

My version of heaven at Todos Santos

Continuing on with my folk art obsession du jour, I headed in search of to my new favorite chocolate shop/folk art extravaganza – Todos Santos. Folk art dealer, Hank Lee in San Antonio, TX has always raved about the shop with it’s Day of the Dead decor and amazing handcrafted treats. He was right. Fancy chocolates and an over-the-top store to showcase the masterpieces.

A Michael Jackson Day of the Dead figure - so wonderfully wrong on so many levels...

While studying fashion design in Paris, New Orleans native Hayward Simoneaux began collecting antique chocolate molds. His tiny candy store, Todos Santos, is crammed with his signature shop-made dark chocolate milagros; palets d’ors, disks of dark chocolate flecked with gold; and candied orange peel-tarragon flavored chocolates and rose-scented marzipan from Vienna. Oh so good.

On to Judy’s house and we spent the evening with great food (thanks Judy!), wine and an incredible sunset, courtesy of those fires.

End to another great day

Day 12 – Winslow, AZ to Albuquerque, NM

Ok, how about Plan C? It was so nice in Winslow with no winds, so we decided to see how far we could get. Just had to see the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert again, and we were the first in the park. Gallup, too, had blue blue skies. Then we came into Grant, NM. Suddenly the mountains were invisible. The air was acrid.

But, we met a biker at the gas station that said that Albuquerque was clear – so we pushed on. He was right. Beautiful mountain scape, great signage! Until just now (at 7:30 pm). The smoke monster! The mountains are gone. Even the hotel room smells like smoke.

But, before the smoke got in our eyes (man, I am really sorry, but I can’t seem to help it) I was able to grab a lot of great vintage neon along the way.