Articles
Coolest Tree on Route 66
- Published on Sunday, 11 December 2011 14:36
This comes via Jane Read at CubaMoMurals.com.
I think that I saw the coolest Christmas tree on Route 66 last night. I mean it is freezing cool. It is the creation of Rudd Heating & Cooling owner Chris Palmer and is on the lot next to his business on Route 66 in Cuba, Missouri. We've all heard of Frosty the Snowman, but Frosty the Tree?
Later that evening, I saw Chris and asked him about the tree that I had seen on his lot when I had gone by earlier. Chris said that it has been three years in the making. "The first year, I had the vision for the tree and started thinking about how I could build it. Last year I was getting the materials and working on R & D (research & design), and this year, I made it happen."
Wagon Wheel Turns 75
- Published on Friday, 05 August 2011 03:11
The Wagon Wheel on Historic Route 66 in Cuba, Missouri turns 75 years old. Click on image for a larger view.
With rooms rented to Route 66ers for the 1930's price of $3.50 a night and 30's food prices, the Historic Landmark Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri is celebrating its 75th Anniversary on August 20-21 in style. As the oldest motel on Route 66, the Wagon Wheel Café building, gas station, and motel earned its placement on the National Register of Historic Places.
Connie Echols, who bought the old motel in 2009, finished a "hands-on" restoration this spring by redoing all the rooms, adding two decks, and a bike shelter/pavilion. Each room has an authentic feel of a Route 66 motel but with updates of WiFi and flat screen TVs. Rooms are of various sizes and amenities with details on the Wagon Wheel website.
“Vince and Larry” Become Permanent Additions to Smithsonian
- Published on Friday, 16 July 2010 05:00
WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation is donating a number of "Vince and Larry" crash-test dummy costumes and related auto safety items to the Smithsonian Institution, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced today. These objects now become part of the permanent collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.
Read more: “Vince and Larry” Become Permanent Additions to Smithsonian
Man takes a stand for oranges
- Published on Thursday, 04 March 2010 02:49
Here's a nice little ray of California sunshine for our readers that comes by way of the Los Angeles Times.
California's main squeeze
Orange-shaped juice stands recall state's simpler days.
By Martha Groves
As they motored through the scorching Central Valley in the family station wagon, Mel Haynes' nine children watched for the juice-and-fruit stands shaped like immense oranges that dotted California 99, symbolically proclaiming the Golden State's eminence as the king of citrus.
"Those guys could spot those orange stands from five miles off," said Haynes, 78, "and we had to stop at most of them."
Inspired by those family memories, Haynes satisfied his own thirst 11 years ago by buying one of the giant orange stands at the southern edge of the Northern California farming town of Williams from an owner who sold it as part of a package with the motel next door.
Haynes thus finds himself the proprietor of one of California's six known remaining "oranges," 20th century relics that a national preservation group has named to its list of the nation's 10 most endangered roadside places.
Squeeze out the rest of the story here...