Edward Is Everywhere

  Vinita, Oklahoma (founded 1870) is the county seat of Craig County, OK and has almost 5,200 people living there. On the western edge of Vinita is this old Phillips gull wing gas station, named after the angled canopy over the gas pumps. The building has been restored and is a visitor information center.  When I was there it was being manned by Jeff Lair, he brought a restored car that had been his father's. Relax Inn motel is a great place to be relaxin'. Or at least, I'd expect it to be. It was formerly the Motel Vinita. It, like many motels in Vinita looks well cared for.  Quite close to the Relax Inn is the Route 66 Inn at Vinita, a U-shaped building with parking out front and a fenced-off grassy play area. On the right is an abandoned service station. The office portion of it is gray painted stone and then there are two service bays next to the office. Older photos show a canopy in front of the office which would have been over the gas pumps.  One side of the s...

 Holbrook, AZ really benefited from Route 66, the town has a lot of motels, or, at least it did.  With the coming of the interstate, Holbrook was hit hard.  Now, many of those motels have been converted to apartments. The town soldiers on though, a bit bloodied and worse for the wear.  Holbrook is known as one of the few places where Route 66 took a 90 turn. It suggests that it is the last remaining one. That corner is the intersection of Navajo Blvd and Hopi Drive.  Also on the corner is Gillespie Park with this stone, with a painted Route 66 shield, along with a statue of a pony express rider on a  horse, and a windmill.  Rainbow Rock shop technically isn't on Route 66, but it is close.  The big thing here are the dinosaur statues, but I'm not sure how true-to-life they are. It also has geodes and piles of petrified wood. This is the old Navajo County Courthouse.  It is currently used as a museum and visitor center, and has a nice plaza in ...

Geronimo Trading Post is Exit 280 on Interstate 40, 5 or 6 miles west of Holbrook, Arizona.  It is very close to the interstate, and, if you are driving towards the west, you can easily see the building and the parking lot full of cars. You'll probably be trying to decide if it is worth stopping (you just left Holbrook, after all, but, when you see cars in the parking lot, you'll think, there must be something good there if people are stopping, so I'll stop too. Well... All these cars are decorative. They are just to make you think it is busy.  Most of the cars have flat tires and no license plates.  In fact, it wasn't even open when I went.  Google Maps also lists it as "Temporarily closed" so I'm not sure it is ever open now.  Looking in the front door, all the merchandise is still there, so maybe this really is a temporary condition.  Even if it is closed, it is probably worth stopping for a few minutes.  next to the parking lot is a large collectio...

1876 Pioneer Museum   Joseph City, Arizona fits comfortably between exits 274 and 277 on Interstate 40.  Joseph City was founded in 1876 by LDS pioneers and it currently has almost 1,400 residents.  Welcome sign: "Welcome to Joseph City", "A Pioneering People", "Since 1876".  This is the sign on the west side of town. I'm not quite certain what this is or was, but I'm pretty sure it was a Harley dealership.  It looks like at one point it might have been a cafe or convenience store.  In the middle is a mural with Betty Boop bending over and various landmarks identified. There are a number of Betty Boops scattered across Arizona along Route 66.  The You Are Here says it is "Trader Joe's", though I suspect it was not an outpost of the well-known grocery chain. 1876 Pioneer Museum They have a pretty large outdoor museum with lots of old farm implements. It is only open Saturdays and Holidays, so I couldn't go in, but you can see a ...

Here It Is Jack Rabbit is exit 269 on I-40 in Arizona, just one exit west of Joseph City. You can also get here by taking Old US 66 from Joseph City, but the road ends right around here. The most famous (and basically only) thing here is the Jack Rabbit Trading Post.  Out front they have this distinctive billboard that says "HERE IT IS" and has a silhouette of a rabbit on it.  If this looks familiar, the movie "Cars" did a riff on it with the same words but a Model T silhouette.  Jack Rabbit Trading Post Here's the store itself with another sign, this one with a rabbit on a motorcycle.  On the left is a large jack rabbit statue. Abandoned gas station There used to be a gas station at this exit too. It is long abandoned, but the gas pumps are still there on the covered pump island. The service bays have a "For Sale" sign and phone number painted on them, so maybe you could grab this.  This photo is really dreary, but it was a cloudy day and the station ...

Winslow, Arizona welcome sign on the west side of town   Welcome to Winslow.  There is enough in this town that I split it into two posts, you can (and should) read Winslow (Part 1) . That post was mostly about downtown and places being actively maintained. This post is has more out-of-the-way and less maintained or even abandoned places.   The subway in Winslow   You might thing that Winslow is too small to have a subway, but you'd be wrong, there are several signs like this that clearly say "subway" so they must have one.  They aren't talking about an electrified commuter underground rail line like everyone else, but they are talking about an underpass that takes Williamson Avenue underneath the railroad tracks. Yup, the "subway" is just a road, sorry.  It was built in 1936 to cross the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railway (now BNSF). Highway Diner   The nondescript brown building (the one closer to the camera, not the one just beyond it) wasn once ...

  The corner (taking it easy) Winslow, Arizona is well known from the Eagles song "Take It Easy" which has the line "I was standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona".  They have really leaned in to that publicity and tied it in to Route 66.  There's a lot to see here so I'm splitting it into two posts, this will cover some of the newer or more well known spots and the second post will cover the relics and abandoned places.  This is by far the most well known and popular spots in Winslow. I don't think this corner was empty the whole time I was there.  On the right side you can see a "flat-bed Ford" parked at the side of the road, and in the intersection is a huge "Arizona US 66" shield.  Yup, this has been designated "the corner" from the song. La Posada hotel La Posada Hotel is a former Harvey House and also the site of the Amtrak station. It is well worth walking around it if you are in town.  Delta Motel Delta Motel has b...