mga707
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Posts posted by mga707
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I have not been fortunate enough to own a car just for fun -- seems like my money always needs to go toward other things. The car I own now is probably the most fun one I've ever owned, in that mashing the gas pedal to the floor causes it to scoot pretty good. It's a 2003 Toyota Matrix XRS.
I sometimes have passing thoughts about picking up a used Mazda Miata for my road trips. We'll see.
I did just that three years ago--bought a well-used '99 silver Miata (the first year for the 2nd generation with the headlights exposed rather than hidden) as my 'fun' car. It came with the removable hardtop which I immediately took off and have had stored ever since. Can't see any point in closing up a convertible! The Miata has not been on any road trips farther than to the Phoenix area, though, as it's definitely not as comfortable on long drives as my '05 Pontiac Vibe (NUMMI Motors twin to your Matrix). The Vibe has been by far the best, most trouble-free vehicle I have ever owned. I am sad that the type has been discontinued ('10 Vibe and '11 Matrix are the end of the line) as I was hoping to replace it with a newer same model when the time comes. Guess I'll have to look for low-mileage used when that time comes.
The Miata is definitely a fun car and out here (southern AZ), convertible season is year-round: Daytime in the colder months, and now that it's getting hot, one puts the top down once the sun goes down and the beautiful cool evening begins!
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I received the current issue of the AAA Arizona magazine ("Highroads") today, and learned something new: Since my last Monument Valley jaunt (2004), there is a new lodging option right in the heart of the area. According to the magazine, which ranked MV as the #3 Arizona scenic attraction (behind only the Grand Canyon and Canon de Chelly, and notwithstanding the fact that a good chunk of Monument Valley is actually in Utah!), a Navajo-owned hotel called The View opened in 2009.
My sentimental choice would probably still be Goulding's, due to the John Ford/John Wayne/classic film connection that pervades it, but the "chicagochris" might like to know that "(The View) affords a rare photo opportunity when the sun rises between the formations."
The article does not specify, but I would assume that The View is probably located within the boundary of the Tribal Park.
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Does anyone know a good way to go, or has tips on going to Monument Valley? I am a avid photographer hobbiest, and will have a video camera as well. I want to take panorama photos and video....The time I have reserved off of work is late August to early September.
Thanks, and tips as far as lodging, balloon rides, etc...guides tours, and places to take photos would be great!
Chris
US 163 runs right through the heart of Monument Valley. Just north of the AZ/UT line is the junction of 163 and Navajo route 42. To the right (when traveling S to N), 42 is the entry to the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. It's a must-stop. The backroad loop through the park, which is just back across the AZ state line, is sandy and unpaved, but accessible in dry weather. It will get you much closer to several of the iconic Monument Valley 'monuments'--the Left and Right Mittens, etc. The park loop road encircles the Totem Pole formation. There is a fee charged, and as it is a Navajo park, NPS passes will NOT get you in free.
Turning left on route 42 takes you to THE iconic place to stay in the area: Goulding's Monument Valley Lodge, Trading Post, and Museum. This is simply the place to stay in the Valley. The original trading post is now a great museum with scads of John Ford western motion picture relics and ephemera. Note that since one is in the middle of the Navajo Nation (reservation), alcohol is neither sold nor permitted at the lodge or anywhere in the area.
Continuing west on route 42 from the lodge area, you can do a backroads loop on 42 to the village of Oljeto and back, crossing the AZ/UT state line several times. This loop gets you up close and personal with Hat Rock, and you will see lots of traditional Navajo ways, including plenty of hogans. Part of this loop is unpaved, but, like the park loop, is passable in dry weather.
Since you are planning to go in late summer, I strongly advise you to do these off-pavement drives early in the day, as the summer monsoon storms build up as the day progresses and you are much more likely to get caught in a thunderstorm in the afternoon.
Also please note that the Navajos, for whatever reason, are not big on road signage. Carry along an accurate map!
And please don't photograph any person of their dwelling without their permission--it is simply rude!
I've truly enjoyed exploring Monument Valley and much of the rest of Navajoland--I hope you will too.
Have a great trip!
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Very nice! Ash Fork is one of the few places in Arizona on a major highway (two in this case--jct. of 89 and 66(I-40)) at which I have never stopped, even to fill up or look around.
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Jennifer & I have since moved this little hobby to a different level. Instead of comparing postcards, we've gone Hollywood! We take still shots from various movies we like and go to those locations and shoot then & now images. It gives you a much bigger rush compared to shooting postcard comparisons, especially when you're on a location and capturing an image, and saying to yourself, "Damn, I'm standing in the same spot where Dean Martin-Frank Sinatra-Dustin Hoffman-Tom Cruise-Dan Ackroyd-John Travolta stood". And believe me, you can almost feel the "ghosts" from those movies there with you. This hobby of ours is what fostered the "Hollywood Boulevard" segment in each issue of American Road magazine that others have taken the reins on...and they're doing a great job with it.
There are some websites that do this type of thing for a particular movie. I know of a site that has "then-and-now" shots of all of the places around Southern California that "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" was filmed in 1962/63. The changes in less than 50 years are simply amazing!
While I have not taken pictures, I've done the same thing for two productions that were shot in and around my hometown of Tucson back in the same year, 1962. I've searched out locations for both the Oscar-winning motion picture "Lilies of the Field" and for the pilot episode of the classic TV drama "The Fugitive". 1962 was a busy year for filming in Tucson! And again, the changes that have taken place in the intervening years are vast--"LotF"scenes that were open desert in '62 are in the midst of decades-old subdivisions today.
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Jim,
That is quite a find. Interesting story.
Dave
Keep the Show on the Road!
I loved the book--recommended it on this site when it came out a couple of years ago.
The HST Nat'l. Historic Site in Independence is the obvious place for the New Yorker to end up. It looks restorable, and there are plenty of old Chrysler Corp. buffs out there (hello, Richard Carpenter!).
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I again drove east today on Interstate 10 to see the results of the Marsh Station Road demolition this past Friday night/Saturday morning. Sure enough, the overpass is gone...only the uprights are left standing. I also took Jeff Jensen's book with me to explore some of the other old/80/Bankhead Highway sites that he mentions on pp. 51/52, including the old bridge abutments at the Empirita Road exit that still stand on either side of the railroad tracks in the present I-10 median. Very interesting to see!
Since I've nearly used up my "global upload quota" (anyone know if that quota is ever replenished?), I'll only leave one picture here, of the "fine 1933 bridge" on the Marsh Station Road old 80 segment that Jeff mentions on page 52 of his book.
I have added some other shots to the member's gallery. Hope you enjoy them.
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That last photo is pure gold! Can you imagine a car on that road? Sites like that are rare and a joy to visit, and to see in a photo.
I am having a little trouble deciphering one aspect of the image, however. Obviously it is a crossing of a culvert of a type fairly common in the southwest of my younger days. What I can't reconcile is what appears to be an overly high concrete "rail" (abutment?)on the left. What is that? (We are in a remodel, so Jeff's excellent book is safely in a box....somewhere.)
Do you happen to have the coordinates for that photo?
Dave
Keep the Show on the Road!
Dave--
Please see my above answer to Denny G's post as to where the shot was taken. Sorry, do not have coordinates, but it is about two miles from the old bridge and maybe a mile or so from where Marsh Station Road effectively becomes the I-10 frontage road, paralleling the highway for about a half-mile before one reaches Exit 281 (SR 83).
The abutments date from circa 1920, so the missing portions could certainly have been reused for other purposes after the road was realigned and paved in the mid-1930s, especially if the bridge was made from wood.
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Thanks for the photos. I'm guessing that last shot is of the abutments that Jeff describes as "sitting right in the median". If so, then I'm further guessing that they are near the point where the unnamed road running west from Empirita Road turns north to pass under the expressway. Is my guessing close?
No, the old abutments are between the 1921 Cienega Creek bridge and the AZ 83 exit (Exit 281), just to the north of Marsh Station Road, which is old 80. From Jeff's book, page 52: "Re-zeroing our odometers at the bridge, we continue our journey along the old road to the SW. The road rises and falls with the terrain, and at about two miles, watch for old bridge abutments in the washes...a sure fire sign of the old B(ankhead)H(ighway) alignment which will parallel you on the right all the way until I-10."
I read the section on page 51 about the old abutments in the I-10 median area, but invisible from the highway, by Empirita Road (Exit 292). Have not yet checked it out, but will!
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Drove out to the Marsh Station Road exit today and took some photos of the old overpass bridge before it is demolished next weekend. Had to 'bushwhack' to it as the old approaches have already been obliterated.
The new interchange is a full one and one half miles east of the old--don't know why ADOT (AZ Dept. of Transpotation) decided on such a large variance between the two bridges. Attached are two pictures of the old bridge, one showing it's limited (15'2") clearance), one shot looking across the top of the overpass, and, as a bonus, a picture of a remnant of the original 1920-era Old Spanish Trail/Broadway of America/Bankhead Highway, taken from the mid-1930s alignment of US 80, about a mile or so east of the AZ 83 (Sonoita Highway)/I-10 interchange. Thanks to Jeff Jensen and his wonderful book, "Drive the Broadway of America", for cluing me in as to the existence of these old pre-80 segments along the Marsh Station Road segment of old 80.
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It is appropriate that the "gang" here has a representative pay our last respects! I nominate you, and propose to give you all the rights and responsibilities pertaining to the position!
Take photos!Dave
Keep the Show on the Road!
OK, I will! I realize I made a bonehead 'math error': A 1956-vintage overpass bridge is 55 years old, NOT 65!
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A quick update: The new Marsh Station Road/Interstate 10 interchange is now open. It is nearly a mile east of the old interchange, which is where pre-1956 US 80 veers off from the I-10 alignment. The old Marsh Station Road bridge over I-10 is set for demolition on the night of April 8/9, which will of course require the Interstate to be closed for some hours that night. I plan to drive over there at some point over the next week to take a last look at the 65-year-old bridge, and will naturally drive the 'old 80' loop at least in one direction.
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June '09: Idaho State Route 21, from Stanley, across the Sawtooth Range, through Idaho City and on to Boise. A beautifully scenic route, but one of the most 'white-knuckle- trips of my life. Reason? I've never seen so many deer (mule deer, in this instance) on or near a highway. Probably the time of year and the time of day--late afternoon into evening--was part of the reason, but the deer were just everywhere!
When we came upon a freshly-overturned Chrysler Sebring on the side of the road, horn stuck 'on', with a person laying by the car (yes, help was there), needless to say that REALLY put some fear into us. From then on we slowed to a crawl around each and every hairpin curve, straining to see any deer ahead in the fading light.
Luckily, we made it into Boise that night without any wildlife incidents. After damaging one rental vehicle in an animal collision ten years before (Yellowstone, buffalo--who trotted away--1999), I sure did not want another one!
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That segment of the National Road near Reelsville is one of my favorite old alignments anywhere. That cracked concrete dates to the 1920s. Triangulating from my road guides, I'm guessing 1924-1926. That bridge is from the same time.
There's actually a second old alignment of the NR in Reelsville -- so old, that it's gravel. It runs a bit north of the concrete alignment. These two blog posts explain both alignments.
I am not sure when US 40 was rerouted west of Brazil, but if I had to guess, I'd say it was when US 40 was four-laned across the state in the 1930s.
jim
Thanks for the info on the Reelsville alignments. Wish I had noticed the oldest alignment and had checked that out as well. Oh well...
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I just checked a 1941 AAA Tour Book I have on the shelf - no Beacon Motel listed in Brazil, IN. Nor the April 1938 edition.
Hudsonly,
Alex Burr
Memphis, TN
That fits. From the postcard, the motel definitely has a postwar, '50s look to it.
One other question, for the Indiana experts. Approximately when was US40 realigned from downtown Brazil westward to the Clay/Vigo county line? The current four lane alignment runs just south of the older two lane, which is now Indiana SR 340, in addition to being signed as "Historic National Road". I drove both alignments.
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A small suggestion: It was common practice for motels in the days past to print post cards and leave them in your room (in that drawer with the Gideon Bible and phone book) or to give then out free at the registration counter. You might scout Ebay or some of the big post card dealers for a Beacon Motel post card. A little bit of a long shot, but perhaps it will turn up a real memory booster.
"You are correct, sir!" (in Ed McMahon voice)...what triggered this entire trip down memory lane was my (older) brother's recent rediscovery of such a vintage postcard among his 'stuff'. In glorious black and white, no less.
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Sorry I didn't take any photos, but on a trip to central Indiana this past weekend I spent an enjoyable Saturday motoring along US40 between Plainfield and Brazil. Just east of Brazil at Reelsville there is a short old alignment segment that is marked at both ends ("Historic National Road") and is obviously of quite some vintage. Cracked, narrow concrete and an old narrow bridge over Big Walnut Creek. Teens or Twenties, I would say. Check it out if you're in the area.
In Brazil I was looking for any evidence of an old motel called the Beacon Motel. Did not find it, or any old structure that looks like it could have been a motel at one time. There is a well-kept older motel on the west side of town called the Villa, but no Beacon. My gut instinct guessed that it could have been on the east end of town where the Wal-Mart now stands. The Beacon could very well be buried under the Wallymart parking lot! If you're wondering why I was looking, my family spent a night there in 1959 on our relocation trip west when I was but a small child. There's another old motel in Joplin MO that I would like to try to find as well!
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I was wondering how much anyone knew about this cart (attached). My grandmother drove it when she moved to Sun City AZ in the early 60's...it was not a golf cart; it was her way to the grocery store etc. I don't know anything about it and were it not for my cousin Cathy I would not have a picture of it...anyone with any inspiration it would be appreciated.
Wow...your grandma was a Sun City 'pioneer'! Great picture, with those now-historic early Del Webb houses in the background. Is that you or your cousin riding shotgun, off to shop at the A. J. Bayless? (no one who has not lived in pre-1985 Arizona will get the last reference)
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Very nice photos! Yes, we've been in a freakishly cold spell here in So. AZ the last few days. Gila Bend's Feb. 3 low of 28 is positively balmy compared to Tucson's record low of 18 on the same morning, and record low high of 38 that afternoon! Water pipes freezing and cracking all over town, along with natural gas outages as well (meaning no heat or water for lots of folks). Finally getting back to normal now--60s and 70s with lows above freezing.
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Four days later, still unable to delete my duplicate posts, and still getting the same error message when I attempt to post. Now I know just to click 'add reply' once, though!
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Sorry, folks--first I got a weird error message when attempting to post, hence the dupes, and now it won't let me delete the dupes. Help!
Four days later, still unable to delete my duplicate posts.
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Sorry, folks--first I got a weird error message when attempting to post, hence the dupes, and now it won't let me delete the dupes. Help!
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I've personally driven 54 from Santa Rosa NM, where it veers SW off of I-40, all the way to it's El Paso terminus. It was an interesting drive, first through the now near-ghost town of Vaughn NM, which was once a decently thriving town with plenty of now-closed or faded mid-century era road edifices (restaurants, motels, gas stations) due to its location at the junction of three US routes (54/60/285). If one is a fan of this type of architecture, Vaqughn is like an open-air gallery, on par with anything along 66. The highway continues southward through the Billy the Kid country of Lincoln County and Carizozo, then down along the eastern side of the White Sands Missile Range (where Trinity Site is located--open twice each year to visitors and well worth the trip) to Tularosa and Alamogordo (by far the largest town along this stretch of the highway. From Alamogordo it continues on, almost in an arrow-straight line, down through the vast emptiness of the Fort Bliss back country proving grounds into Texas and El Paso.
A close friend has driven the stretch of 54 from Wichita to Tucumcari NM, where it joins I-40 and runs concurrently for a short stretch between Tucumcari and Santa Rosa, just to take a slightly different route on one of her semi-regular Chicago-Tucson road journeys. She reports that the road runs mostly straight and empty through the high plains of western Kansas, the Oklahome panhandle, and across the extreme northwest corner of Texas into northeast New Mexico. She did make a slight detour in Kansas to visit Dodge City, which she describes as "like Tombstone, only bigger and less authentic-looking".
So, there's my firsthand and secondhand report on the western portion of US 54 between Wichita and El Paso!
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I've personally driven 54 from Santa Rosa NM, where it veers SW off of I-40, all the way to it's El Paso terminus. It was an interesting drive, first through the now near-ghost town of Vaughn NM, which was once a decently thriving town with plenty of now-closed or faded mid-century era road edifices (restaurants, motels, gas stations) due to its location at the junction of three US routes (54/60/285). If one is a fan of this type of architecture, Vaqughn is like an open-air gallery, on par with anything along 66. The highway continues southward through the Billy the Kid country of Lincoln County and Carizozo, then down along the eastern side of the White Sands Missile Range (where Trinity Site is located--open twice each year to visitors and well worth the trip) to Tularosa and Alamogordo (by far the largest town along this stretch of the highway. From Alamogordo it continues on, almost in an arrow-straight line, down through the vast emptiness of the Fort Bliss back country proving grounds into Texas and El Paso.
A close friend has driven the stretch of 54 from Wichita to Tucumcari NM, where it joins I-40 and runs concurrently for a short stretch between Tucumcari and Santa Rosa, just to take a slightly different route on one of her semi-regular Chicago-Tucson road journeys. She reports that the road runs mostly straight and empty through the high plains of western Kansas, the Oklahome panhandle, and across the extreme northwest corner of Texas into northeast New Mexico. She did make a slight detour in Kansas to visit Dodge City, which she describes as "like Tombstone, only bigger and less authentic-looking".
So, there's my firsthand and secondhand report on the western portion of US 54 between Wichita and El Paso!
The Automobilist's Grief - On The Road In 1910
in State Highways & Other Roads
Posted
The 32% grade reminds me of a passage I read some time ago in a reproduction of a similar-vintage New Mexico "auto trails" book: At that time the auto route between Albuquerque and Santa Fe (which would become part of the original 66 alignment a decade or so later, and today is paralleled by I-25) had a steep grade known as "Bajada Hill". The guide book advised motorists with autos that relied on gravity-feed fuel systems (no fuel pump) to turn their vehicle around at the base of the hill and BACK up the hill so as to avoid fuel starvation!
Your Tour Book pages are certainly fascination reading! As luck has it, the Oregon travel info that I ordered for my upcoming August trip to the Portland area (Columbia River Historic Highway here I come!) arrived in yesterday's mail, so I compared the route shown in your 1910 book to the present day. McDonald (John Day Ferry) is not even shown at all on the current official Oregon highway map, and the part of the route from Olex to the John Day crossing is even today still a gravel road. Interesting!