From: Phil Barco
Subject:The Old Road Home

When I was growing up, Granny and the grandchildren just didn't understand Granddaddy. When he was being "good", we affectionately called him Papa Jim. It never failed that as we travelled down the road, he would raise his hand, point his index finger and say,"there goes the old road." Granny instantaneously would say, "wish I had a dollar." The grandchildren would laugh while Granny would put her finger to her lips and say, shhhh!! Lord knows, we didn't want to upset our primitive Baptist, God-fearing, salt-of-the-earth grandfather.

One time, Granny and Granddaddy were taking my cousin Jimmy fishing, cane pole and all, when all of a sudden, behind the wheel, granddaddy did something to cause our Southern Baptist, God-fearing, salt-of-the earth grandmother to blurt out,"damn". Granddaddy promptly said, "Eva, you better be careful. The Lord's riding in here with us." Young cousin Jimmy said, "well, you better stop and let Him out." Granny got tickled, Jimmy remained innocent, and all hell broke loose! So, you see, we just didn't understand granddaddy during those days gone by.

Last month, I travelled home to Florida and ended up in that Disney place for a conference. After a few days of that modern-day craziness, I headed out to see my mama in Bradenton. I instinctly wanted to take the old road. I found myself on HWY 27 but betrayed the old road, once I saw Interstate 4. I continued on I-4 until I saw US 301 and I thought, there's the old road. I didn't hesitate. I got off the interstate and headed south. My biggest treat that afternoon was coming upon The Silver Ring restaurant, Home of the Best Cuban Sandwich. I had been in grief since the original 1947 Silver Ring restaurant in Ybor City/Tampa,FL had closed a few years earlier.

Anyhow, I'm back in Atlanta living my rat race of a modern day life. Of course this means I have to surf the worldwide web. When what to my wondrous eyes did appear, but the Motel Americana website, roadside weblinks, and a comment about HWY 17, right outside of Wauchula, Fl and all the neon signs in front of the old motels. You know, my family used to live there. I remembered I had seen HWY 17 signs when travelling in Florida recentlybut I had chosen to take the quicker route.

After coming across these old time websites and reflecting on these few old time memories, I knew for the first time what my primitive Baptist, God-fearing, salt-of-the-earth grandfather meant when he said, "there goes the old road." I didn't laugh this time. I cried, for I had seen the light. Next time, I'm taking the old road, all the way home!

All text copyright, Phil Barco.

From: Wm. Rogers Mays
Subject: Motels in New Zealand

This is a little off topic, I know. But if one longs for the typical 1950's motel, it is still alive and well in New Zealand. We spent a few weeks driving around New Zealand and found many motels. The architecture and look reminded me over and over of the typical 1950 motel. Many had separate cabins and some had the courtyard style. They were all quaint and clean with hospitable hosts. A nice touch is when you check in they all give you fixin's for tea including a pint of fresh cream in a 1950 style bottle. Try it; you'll like it.

From: Troy Paiva
Subject: Lost America!

Nice sophisticated site. Looks like you've had a lot of fun. You should go see my site of "lost America" photos. They are pictures of the abandoned roadside west taken at night by the light of the full moon. [Editor's note: this site is awesome!] Unfortunately, I don't have any motel photos posted right now (but I've got gobs of them!) but, I think there's a lot of related intrest.

From: Kevin Cannon
Subject: Route 301

Too young to remember personally about Route 301 in the South, but I do know that Allendale, SC was a decent little stop along the highway to Florida--at one time (late 50's) it boasted one of the first Howard Johnson's Motor Lodges ever as well as a Holiday Inn. All gone now that I-95 has sliced through...

From: Chip
Subject: Salt lake city or bust

i started taking pictures of old motel, bowling alley, and bar signs about three years ago, and i really enjoy looking at your page. i am excited to see that you're planning a trip to salt lake city; there's a motherlode of great signs there.

your best bet is to travel down state street in salt lake. they've got a motel sign with the dome of the state capital in neon, a golden spike motel (commemorating the completion of the transcontinental railroad, of course!), and there's another with the spires of the mormon temple in neon too! there are also some interesting pawn shop signs on this street if you're at all interested in those. i think that you'll also find quite a few good motels if you follow the street "north temple" west towards the airport.

i moved from utah to michigan about almost two years ago, so it's hard for me to give you more specific tips about salt lake city. the town is full of interesting signs and sites, but you'd best get out there and capture it while you still can. the city is going through a major "face lift" in preparation for the 2002 winter olympics, and i've already seen some great lounges with great signs turned into sports bars in efforts to "modernize" the city.

i hope that this info will help your planning a bit. have a great trip and keep up the good work!

From: Verlyn Miller
Subject: Bug's Bunny Name Change, Lakewood Colorado

The name of the Bug's Bunny was recently changed. Time-Warner threatened suit if the owners continued to use the name ( although it had been in use from 1955). The "U' was changed to an "I", the "s" droped , the Bugs is now the " Big Bunny Motel."

From: Sheila Graham
Subject: Coral Court Motel

CORAL COURT MOTEL book author seeks stories, memories, remembrances of the old Coral Court Motel in St. Louis, Missouri. (Your anonymity will be maintained!)

Please send your stories to: SGraham, P.O. Box 802, Bridgeton, MO 63044, or e-mail your story to coralcourt@yahoo.com.

From: Jim Badaracco
Subject: U.S. 301

First experienced it in 1957 (at age six) when we drove from New York for the first time. Since then, I have driven to Florida (from N. J., where I now live, at least 30 times) and from D.C. (where I attended Georgetown U and also lived for a few years after graduating. I've watched sections of 301 be incorporated into I-95 and other pieces totally replaced, etc. On most recent trips, we follow I-95 primarily, but nearly always take 301 from Northern Delaware to just North of Richmond, Va., to avoid perpetual delays around D.C.

We usually end up taking 301 for fun in different parts of the Carolinas for stretches of 50 to 200 miles just to break up the Interstate monotony. My last trip on 301 beyond Santee, S.C. to Florida was in 1974, when I returned from St. Petersburg to D.C. However, I am very familiar with the long stretches from Kenly, N.C., to Rocky Mount, N.C. and also around Fayetteville, N.C. I've noted motel franchise changes, feebel attempts to keep long distance travelers on 301 after bypasses were opened, etc. Please ask any questions you may have and I'll try to help.

From: Julian Sessoms
Subject: i grew up...

...in st. pauls, north carolina, and in the 50's just about all there was to do was drive dad's car down to 301 and watch the traffic going from north to south while listening to our radios.

it is a glorious old road and well worth traveling down to south carolina on.

From: Harry Baxter
Subject: California

If you get back here I would redommend highway 99 which was the first route from L.A. to the Oregon border and went through most of the towns it visits. And of course there is old highway 49 named after the 49ers of the gold rush which is very interesting, but after looking at your site I think highway 99 is for you, I belive it turns into I5 eventually which is the newer model of San Diego to Oregon and it misses all the towns and citys that it can.

From: Sydney A. Dawes
Subject: Childhood Memories

When I was 8 years old I made my first trip down Route 66. We lived in Chicago, Il and my father was headed for greener pastures, this was in 1966. We made the trek 3 times by the time I was just 12, so I got to know Route 66 quite well. My dad liked to travel all night stopping maybe twice at a Motel for a good nights rest. When everyone else in the car was fast asleep, I'd be awake starring out the window at the stars and oh those glorius Neon Motel signs. I really miss traveling that way.

From: LaurieF369
Subject: Motels

I thoroughly enjoy you[r] Web site. Way back in 1930 my family drove across country from Atlanta, GA to California. We went the southern route and came back the northern route--camping along the way. I wish I had been old enough to appreciate the trip, but I was only six and got VERY tired of traveling. My Mother had two albums full of picture postcards, but I have no idea what happened to them. I do wish I knew!! Thanks for a great job!!!

Added February 2, 1998

Recently, my husband David, daughter Sarah, and I launched out on a fantastic hobby-related odyssey. I've collected postcards of places along old Route 66, nicknamed the Mother Road, for years and have amassed a collection of almost 2000 cards. My husband collects and restores old automobiles. Our 24-year-old daughter is an aficionado of early American highway travel, too. So, combining our interests, we decided to attempt to traverse the whole of old Route 66, from downtown Chicago to Santa Monica, California, without using interstates unless absolutely necessary, and we set out to do it in our restored 1957 Packard Clipper.

Our goals were twofold. Our main challenge was simply to get there! Although we knew that Packards from the '50s were comfortable, safe, and reliable, we were also fully aware of various difficulties that could arise simply from the car's being 40 years old. Some of those challenges DID arise and will be enumerated later.

Our secondary goal -- or perhaps this one was primarily MY goal -- was to photograph the remains of old motels, diners, gas stations, and other structures along the Mother Road that are depicted in old postcards in my collection. Both these challenges, I'm happy to report, wer met with great success. We ended up having had the vacation of a lifetime, an experience to remember.

David and I left from Connecticut the Friday before Labor Day and drove to Chicago, where we picked up Sarah at her apartment there. The trek across Pennsylvania the previous day had been marred only slightly by a bit of vapor lock we experienced in the mountains and which David quickly eliminated using the old-fashioned method of wrapping the fuel line in aluminum foil. The next morning the three of us climbed back into the shiny black-and-chrome Clippper and headed for the corner of Michigan and Adams, in front of the Art Institute of Chicago, the official beginning of Route 66.

Route 66 was commissioned and "opened" as a federal highway in 1926, and for six decades was the main thoroughfare between the Midwest and the West Coast. It ran southwest through Illinois and Missouri, cut off a tiny corner of Kansas, traversed Oklahoma and the panhandle of Texas, sliced east-west through New Mexico and Arizona, and plowed through the desert of California until it reached Los Angeles and the Pacific Ocean. Route 66 saw floods of migrant workers fleeing the Oklahoma Dust Bowl in the '30s, convoys of soldiers in the '40s, and the beginning of the "tourist years" in the '50s, when folks would climb in the old family car and launch out on their "dream vacations" on the road to California. For years, it was the most heavily-traveled route in America. With the building of the interstates in the late '50s and early '60s, the heyday of old Route 66 slowly drew to a close, one segment at a time, and sadly . . . all of it was officially decommissioned as a federal highway. Since then, many of the towns along the route have died slow, agonizing deaths. Others have hung on and some have even managed to flourish due to a strong spirit of self-preservation and much hard work on the part of their citizens. A traveler along Route 66 in 1998 can expect to see ghost towns, thriving metropolises, and everything in between.

Our adventure was enlightening, educating, and in many instances, moving. We stuck exclusively to the old alignments of the route, and only jumped onto interstates when it was absolutely necessary, such as when the new four-lane was built directly on top of the road, obliterating it completely. We remained faithful to the historical alignments for the entire 2,448 miles, and we're very proud of that fact.

All along the route, I snapped picture after picture. I took my entire Route 66 postcard collection with me (five heavy, overstuffed albums plus a box of loose cards), and Sarah would sit in the back seat and act as my reference librarian.

"Look, Mom! There's the Sunset Motel! You have a great linen of that!" David would dutifullly, albeit sometimes with a reluctant sigh, pull the car over to the side of the road for the twentieth time that morning while I hopped out and snapped a photo of what remained of the venerable old lodging place. I tried to make the angles of my shots the same as those on the postcards. In many cases, the old motels were just shells, identifiable only by their shape and configuration. In other cases, they were abandoned, but the signs were left intact. Sometimes they were still occupied, as apartments or by itinerant families, or occasionally by antiques malls. In the best of cases, the old motels were still open and still being used for their original purpose, accommodating the traveling citizenry! Each evening we would choose one of these old lodging places in which to spend the night. Sometimes it was a glorious walk through history. Other times, it was a challenge. We'd almost forgotten how tiny the rooms were back then, how dark and cramped the bathrooms, and how much unconquerable mildew can build up after 60 years of nightly occupancy!

We drove on two-lane roads, one-lane roads, dirt roads, officially "closed" roads (heck, we'd just move the barriers aside!), and roads that were nothing more than broken-up chunks of concrete with weeds flourishing in the cracks. We patronized NO corporate-owned motels or "chain" restaurants, sticking exclusively to the old local places. The Packard's windshield wipers, horn, odometer, and speedometer all gave up the ghost on the very first day, but we managed to exist without any of them for the duration of the trip. It was well over 100 degrees for many of the 17 days, but David had the foresight to install an air conditioner in the car (the only non-factory accessory), and it kept us cool and comfortable. We hit a huge boulder that had washed into the middle of the road a few days before during a flood in the California desert, and the havoc it wreaked to our exhaust system caused us to have to be towed for 60 miles into the nearest town, Barstow. Even that incident was blessed, however. We managed to find a mechanic that was open on a Sunday morning, and he had the equipment needed to bend exhaust pipes into the unique configuration required by the antiquity of our Packard. As a bonus, during the five hours we sat in the waiting room of his shop, we had the pleasure of conversing with many of the fine, friendly citizens of Barstow.

We reached Santa Monica Pier, the official end of Route 66, eight days after we started. We had a low-key celebration right there on the streetcorner, which drew a small curious crowd. Then, we turned around and came home, using primarily the old roads on the return trip, too. But I'll save those adventures for another time.

Throughout our journey, we met myriad interesting , friendly, unique people, saw and photographed towns, natural wonders, and structures that just might not be around long enough for the next generation to photograph, and we bonded as a family in a way we never expected. I'm convinced that it was these old postcards that made it all happen for us. If I had not spent many years being romanced, enticed, and yes, even seduced by the faded pictures on these beautiful old Route 66 cards, our odyssey would never have unfolded. I love postcard-collecting!

From: Alexander Cross
Subject: Motels in Cinema

There's a motel in Concord, CA called (if it's still there) The Royal Palms Motel; pure sixties California roadside motel architecture and signage. I and other local Bay Area natives swear we get a glimpse of it in American Graffiti when the guy is taking off in the plane near the end (looking down on the blonde). That is Buchanan Airfield with Mt. Diablo in the background which would put The Royal Palms Motel right around there. If TRPM is really in the movie, it's for a fraction of a second, thus relegating it to "not-so-famous" status. I haven't seen the movie in years, but that motel reference sticks in my mind.

From: Allen Malanowski
Subject: Gateway Motel in Williams, Arizona

My name is Allen Malanowski, and my family owns the Gateway Motel and the Grand Motel that you feature in your motel guide. We had a laugh about the sign directing people across the street, but we really just use the Gateway as an adjunct to the Grand Motel across the street in the summer. However, the Gateway is open in the Winter full time, and the Grand is closed. We also would like you to add a phone number to contact, in case people are using your website to plan a vacation to visit the Grand Canyon. Also, although the Grand Motel sign is not as interesting as the old Gateway neon sign. The Grand Motel will be listed on the National Historic Register in 1998 (as soon as the State of Arizona finishes the paperwork). The Gateway is over fifty years old, and the Grand is sixty one years old. Thanks for your interest in the Mother Road, and give us a call when you want to stay in Williams (520) 635-4601.

Watch for our webpage in May of 98!

From: Daniel Keller
Subject: Shawnee Motel, Cincinnati

As a freshman at Ohio State, spring quarter arrived and with that came my hunger for a road trip. My friend from back home in Amherst, Ohio loved amusement parks so we decided to go down to King's Island in Cincinnati. We decided to stay overnight so we wouldn't have to drive back to Columbus after a tiring day of roller coaster riding, waiting in lines, and endless walking. My friend looked up hotels in the area, and they all exceeded our meager budget. He got in touch with the Shawnee Motel, and it was pretty cheap (maybe 20-30 dollars a night, as I vaguely recall). We arrived and the hotel had about ten rooms with a white exterior and a quaint little main office with a doorbell to contact the manager. We were not sure if we made the right decision, because this place didn't look too luxurious. The manager, an older man, saw this in our eyes and asked us if we wanted to see the room. He showed us a room with two beds and when he opened the door it was like a jump back in time. The carpet was orange, and the room contained old-fashioned "night tray" ash trays. We agreed to stay there, but later found out that the pillows had duct tape on them, along with the mattresses. We also found out the TV didn't have cable, which the sign outside claimed.

Overall, my friend and I had a great experience. We had to go outside to use the pay phone-the rooms didn't have any. The duct tape caused many spells of laughter along with the mattresses that felt like pure rubber. If anyone is around King's Island, this motel is a good alternative to an expensive hotel. It's only about 15 minutes from King's Island, and close to many restaurants and entertainment centers.

From: Jerry Levy
Subject: Georgia Motels

I have really enjoyed your piece and hope sometime soon to put up my motel web page about US 301 from Washington, D.C. through to Florida. A great motel highway. The reason GA has so many good motel roads is that it borders florida. Georgia carries most of the midwest and Northeast to Florida traffic and that has been a major business since WW II. US 41, US 1, US 301, US 17, and US 19 are the main roads that carried the Florida traffic until I-75 was completed in the mid 1970's and I-95 was completed in the late 1970s. There have even been a few documentaries written about this. Keep up the good work and when I get my site up, I will contact you about putting in a link.

From: LadyLeonov
Subject: Route 66 Motels

Your site not only reminds me of the family road trips I took as a child (1940-1950's) in the midwest and the Pennsylvania Turnpike, but will also inspire me to visit some Route 66 sites (mainly AZ and NM) as I travel from the west coast back home to Texas (for now).

My question is this; I am an otter and badger nut. If you have the answers at the tip of your tongue, where can I get ANY badger goodies such as a stuffed one, badger pelt, books, and figurines/sculptures etc.

Last year, I was snowbound in Seligman(sp?) AZ for a few days. I felt as though I was in a time warp when I stayed at a motel and ate at a 50's diner (I don't remember the names). It was quite an experience!

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