Trod Bogs Sadly – Oddstray's Blog

May 5, 2016

No pics here.  We stayed overnight at the RV park of one of the many casinos built along the river in Mississippi.

May 4, 2016

Beale Street turned into a movie set, Memphis, TN

This was particularly wild as we had just shown up on Beale Street, and there was a ’30’s’ movie set right there. We ambled around out of camera shot for a while listening to tires screeching and gunshots. Then had lunch.

Self-declared ‘institution’ on Beale Street, Memphis, TN

Waiting impatiently to tour Sun Studios, Memphis, TN

My, that was coolio. Going around the studio where all my favorite childhood performers got their start. From Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Charlie Feathers, Ray Harris, Warren Smith and Charlie Rich to Jerry Lee Lewis. We even got to behold the very microphone that Elvis was purported to use on his very first recording. It was the classic Shure ribbon microphone that made your voice sound deeper.

Then we went to the Stax studio museum. Performers there  included Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Carla Thomas, William Bell, Booker T. & the M.G.’s, Eddie Floyd, the Bar-Kays and  Albert King. A very different mix than Sun. Refreshingly different.

Archeological mound (Mississippi Mound Builder) at Chuckalissa Indian Village, near Memphis, TN

We stayed at T O Fuller State Park, which has an interesting history. It was the first African American campground in TN (and even to this day seems to have African American Rangers) created under  ‘Jim Crow’ era stuff. We don’t know whether this was the case when it was created, but the local sewage plant makes it stink to high deities. Other than the odor, it’s a lovely park.

May 2, 2016

Covered bridge at Bollinger Mill State Historic Park, near Cape Girardeau, MO

The lovely ranger/park attendant gal was sitting in a window corner in the sun’s rays as it was cold inside that mill. But she was vibrant and helpful as all heck.

Bollinger Mill, near Cape Girardeau, MO

Finally got my Steak N Shake.  What a disappointment!  They used to be as good as In N Out.  Not any more.  They’ve given themselves delusions of being a fancy sit-down restaurant, and cheaped out on quality to do it.

Bridge back over the Mississippi, Cape Girardeau, MO

Another view of the bridge, Cape Girardeau, MO

A different bridge – this one crossing the Ohio from Cairo, IL

April 24, 2016.  No, we didn’t teletransport.  We stayed on Route 66 (now along I-44) through Kansas (just a tiny corner) and Missouri.  There’s not a lot of Route 66 itself left to see in Missouri.  But our route was along the northern edge of the Ozarks, and the scenery was lovely.  We stayed a night at a ‘campground’ (actually more like an RV park than many campgrounds, but along a river so still a nice place to stay) in Waynesville.

A restored service station with some period trucks, near Litchfield, IL

April 25, 2016.  We stopped at the Ariston Cafe in Litchfield, IL, according to the AAA documents believed to be the oldest Route 66 cafe still operating.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t still operating.  It was out of business and up for sale.  We also visited the very interesting Pontiac/Oakland Museum, in Pontiac, IL.

Route 66 continues eastward to downtown Chicago.  We didn’t.  Our main purp0se for coming here was to visit family living southwest of Chicago, and that’s what we did.

April 30, 2016.  Our original plan had been to head back by a northerly route.  But we’d been dodging cold winds and rain most of the way east.  To change our plan was easy – we’d head south, along the Great River Road!

April 22, 2016.  All is well.  The shower repair works.  We’re finding campgrounds to stay at.  We’re happy and exploring.

The lake was high!  Luckily this was not our site at Arcadia Lake in Edmonds, OK (near Oklahoma City)

Pops!  A diner on Route 66 east of Edmonds, OK

And this is only a small look at Pops’ pops.

The round barn at Arcadia, OK

The downstairs is a shop.  The upstairs is an event venue.

The roof, on the inside

A visitor to our campsite at Arcadia Lake, Edmonds, OK

Sunset over Arcadia Lake, Edmonds, OK

April 21, 2016.  Route 66 (coincident with I-40) cuts through the northwest corner of the Texas panhandle.  It does, though, have a don’t-miss-it attraction.  Um . . . . was this worth it?  🙂

Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, TX

This is the stickiest mud I’ve ever encountered.  We had to keep kicking it off, or it glommed on in huge amounts to our shoes!

Someone gave up.

We spent a few nights in an interesting place – Pioneer Park outside Wellington, TX.  It’s main claim to fame is that it’s where Bonnie and Clyde, fleeing the police, missed a detour and drove off an incomplete bridge.

The park serves as both a county park and a state highway rest area.  The super-friendly hostess told us they get a free spot from the county, and a small stipend from the state for maintaining the facilities.

This was also the only night our weather alarm radio kept us “entertained”.  Mostly, it was for thunderstorms with hail which were first not for us, then north of us, then south of us, then … sheesh!  The hostess, hearing the forecast of hail, showed us where they parked their car, under the bridge, on low land next to the river, where there was predicted to be heavy rain :-o.  But we followed their lead and parked our car down there, and it all ended OK.

Retrieving the car from under the bridge, near Wellington, TX.

April 22, 2016.  We drove back up to Route 66 to explore Shamrock, TX.

If this looks familiar, you’ve probably seen the animated film ‘Cars’.  Shamrock, TX

Something new added to the old Route 66 Conoco station in Shamrock, TX

This 1928 Reynolds hotel is now a very interesting local Pioneer West museum, Shamrock, TX

Part of the Pioneer West museum, Shamrock, TX

April 13, 2016.  In our previous post, we were left with an untested shower repair.  But wanting to escape Flagstaff weather, we made our way to Albuquerque.  That night, we discovered that . . .

. . . the repair did NOT stem the leak.  😦  😦  😦

Albuquerque is a city of some size, with several RV repair facilities.  All of whom were solidly booked since this is the time of year when everyone’s getting their RVs in shape for summer travels.  But we did find one RV repair person who was sympathetic enough to agree to investigate, and if possible do a quick fix.

And so they did, and agreed that it was the shower floor that was cracked, and the repair done in Flagstaff simply didn’t cover the crack.  They removed the previous plumber’s epoxy and put on a larger amount.  And again, we needed to wait 24 hours before we could test it.  But by now we were resigned to the fact that we might need to rely on campground showers or in extremis, get a motel room.

A decorated adobe wall, Old Town Albuquerque, NM

Albuquerque was new to us, though, so we took our mind off our troubles and prowled Albuquerque’s Old Town.

San Felipe de Neri church, Old Town Albuquerque, NM

April 15, 2016.  The new shower repair works!  😀  We can be clean people!

We also moved from an RV park west of Albuquerque to Cochiti Lake campground (CoE) north of the city.  RV parks, at base, are parking lots.  Some are better appointed and/or provide nicer amenities.  But, they’re still parking lots.  We greatly prefer to stay at campgrounds. This one was splendid, with a view of the Rio Grande and the lake.

Petroglyphs at Boca Negra Canyon, Petroglyphs National Monument, Albuquerque, NM

View of Cochiti Lake from our campground, outside of Albuquerque, NM

In the US, most of the First Peoples were forced onto reservations.  And they don’t even own the land they’re on – it’s owned by the federal government.  In the case of the Pueblos, it was different.  They had already owned the land they were on before New Mexico (and additional lands) were ceded to the US at the end of the war with Mexico.  And that ownership was acknowledged by first Spain, then Mexico, then the US itself.

But that comes with a down side.  Since the land was owned rather than “reserved”, it was subject to eminent domain.  And Theodore Roosevelt decided he wanted to dam the Rio Grande to create a reservoir right about where the Cochiti Pueblo was located.  And got his way, using eminent domain.

There have been and are several instances where the US is trying to take land, sometimes land that is held sacred by the pueblos.  Sometimes the US gets its way.  Once in a while, the pueblos get to hold on to their land.

Tent rocks, at Tent Rocks National Monument near Albuquerque, NM

Years ago, someone found this cave and lived there!  In Tent Rocks National Monument near Albuquerque, NM

There was a different name, which I don’t remember, for these, without a capstone, but also in Tent Rocks National Monument

A recently (re)discovered pueblo at Coronado State Monument, Bernalillo, NM

April 15, 2016.  Our guidebook said that Tucumcari was one of the better places for exploring Route 66.  Our guidebook is somewhat out-of-date.  There didn’t seem to be much left in Tucumcari – it looks like the recession hit it strongly.  It does have a still-in-business classical Route 66 era motel.

April 8, 2016.  We’d been on a photo shoot and previous journey, so we’ve pretty well seen Route 66 in Arizona and part of New Mexico.  So we stayed mostly on I-40 (which is coincident with Route 66 for a good part of its way).  So no pics for Arizona.  Instead, a tale of minor RV disaster.

We discovered last night that our shower was leaking water onto the RV floor.  Simon tried to investigate, and it seemed that a particular part might be leaking.  We called around and found a mobile RV service man who came out, investigated, and agreed that part needed to be replaced.  But this was Friday afternoon.  He would not be able to order the replacement until Monday.  😦

We were in Flagstaff, where we’d been several times.  So there wasn’t really anything new for us to do indoors.  The weather was cold, windy, and showery.  For us, unpleasant enough to keep us indoors.  (We were later told that was quite good weather for Flagstaff in April.  Normally, April is when Flagstaff weather has PMS.)  But we managed to get through Saturday, Sunday, Monday morning.

Monday afternoon we phoned the mobile service guy to check on the progress of the replacement part.  There wasn’t any!  >:-(  He wasn’t able to get the part from his suppliers.  He did, though, come back and reinvestigate.  This time he thought the shower floor itself was cracked, around the drain.  So he put a pad of plumber’s putty over it, hoping to seal it.

Here comes the cliffhanger … we couldn’t test it for 24 hours.  And we were NOT going to spend another night in Flagstaff!  So we drove away, hoping the repair would hold . . .

Our site at Prado Regional Park, Chino, CA

April 4, 2016.  Our general plan is to drive up Route 66 towards Chicago, visit with B’s mum, and return maybe via a northern route through Dakota and Montana.  We don’t plan to drive very far on any one day, so we’ll be finding camps and making forays from there to explore the area.  This is our first stop, in Chino, to explore the western end of Route 66 in California.

Aztec Hotel, Monrovia, CA

In Los Angeles county, Route 66 has been submerged into the suburbs that grew up around it.  It also has several alternate alignments which were in use at various times.  We didn’t have a good map – just a photo-based guidebook.  Eventually we found ourselves on Huntingon Drive.  At first, going through San Marino (like Rancho Santa Fe outside San Diego, or Winnetka outside Chicago).  Money talks!  But then we crossed from San Marino into the city of Los Angeles and it was like night and day.  Lack of money talks just as loudly!

The western end, if you believe its claim

We asked our GPS to take us to Santa Monica pier, the claimed western end of Route 66.  Dutifully it took us to Venice Beach.  No good, Garmiin!  Santa Monica pier was a lot more crowded than this photo implies, since it’s a big tourist attraction.  Since we’d achieved our goal, we didn’t stay long.  All that was left for today was to drive bacn to the camp.  Through Los Angeles rush hour (how misnamed is that – there is no rushing during rush hour!)

A Prado Regional Park resident

Evening at Prado Regional Park

April 5, 2016.  Today’s exploration is eastward from  the camp.

Restored (but non-operational) service station, Rancho Cucamonga, CA

Check out the prices!

Winery (now a shopping center), Rancho Cucamonga, CA

The Sonoma wineries claim to be the first in California, but this (and another in Rancho Cucamonga) pre-date them by about 30 years.

Before it was “Route 66” it was the “Pioneer Trail”.

Wigwam Motel, San Bernardino, CA (still in business!)

We saw another of these ‘wigwam’ motels farther east on Route 66.

Along the route (mainly, Foothill Boulevard) there were also many no-longer-open motels and businesses that could certainly have been of classic “Route 66” age.

April 6, 2016.  We decamped and headed for our next stop at Needles, CA.  We kept pretty faithfully to Route 66 through Newberry Springs (which played the role of Bagdad in the movie Bagdad Cafe).  East of Newberry Springs, the road turned horrible.  We gave up and managed to find a feeder road back up to I-40 before we reached Amboy, which we’d already visited on an earlier journey.

No pics from today.  There’s not much left in Needles – not even a grocery store.  They drive five miles into Arizona to go grocery shopping.

April 7, 2016.  We back-tracked a short way along Route 66 to Goffs, CA.  They are in the process of assembling what looks like a very interesting outdoor museum.  Unfortunately, it was closed so all we could do was look over the fence.

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Yes this is old, but I (S) recently came across this set of photos from our late 2014 trip to Northern Arizona, Utah and New Mexico. Enjoy.