Frankfort, Michigan - August 12-19, 2007

Welcome back, blog viewers! Just a quick blurb to tell you about our fun week of vacation in the northwestern corner of the Lower Peninsula! Frankfort is a gem we discovered a couple of years ago through a co-worker at Chrysler, Paula Draper. It is located right on Lake Michigan, about halfway between Manistee and Traverse City. It's very easy to get to - drive M-115 northwest until it ends, and you're there! (See green arrow on map.)

Paula and her husband Andy own property in Frankfort which is located only a few hundred yards from Lake Michigan. The property has three buildings on it - a hotel they are in process of renovating, a garage, and a carriage house which they completely gutted and transformed into a lovely guest house. Click on the link to the photo album to get a better idea of what the property, buildings and surrounding homes look like. We fell in love with this place from the moment we saw it. The downtown is charming, with a great marina and park on Betsie Bay, many nice shops and restaurants and an old fashioned movie theater, to name just a few attractions. But the greatest draw is the wonderful white sand public beach, and the picturesque breakwater and Frankfort Lighthouse which is right next to it. The beach is peaceful and uncrowded, and has plenty of room for things like frisbee throwing or kite flying (which Preston and I did a lot of!).

Here's a link to the photo album of the trip:

http://picasaweb.google.com/michiganalice/FrankfortMIAugust2007

Aside from the obligatory suntan / swimming time we enjoyed on the beach, and time simply relaxing and reading, we also took advantage of these fun things:

• Dune climbing (Preston only - John & Becky passed on this one!)
• Watching the shooting stars at night in a cloudless sky
• Fishing on Betsie Bay and the Lake Michigan breakwater (caught some small bass)
• Window shopping in the stores downtown
• Eating awesome Thai / Asian food at The Fusion restaurant
• Homemade ice cream at the Cool Spot
• Driving up M-22 to Empire to photograph the sunset
• Taking in a double feature at the Cherry Bowl Drive-In in Honor, MI (continuously operating for over 50 years)
• Hiking about 7.5 miles on beautiful trails in the Platte Plains area of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore

In the evenings we were able to enjoy DVDs, music, TV and wireless Internet on the great Media Center PC system Andy Draper set up here.

As with all vacations, the week went by far too quickly, but we had an awesome time, and look forward to coming back next year!

Day 4 (Wed July 4, 2007) - Amarillo TX to Albuquerque NM

Happy Independence Day! It was very fitting that we celebrated the birth of our nation by enjoying the God-given freedom we have to travel across this vast, beautiful country on a road so rich with history - Route 66. In other words, another day, another 400 miles or so!

Shortly after leaving the KOA in Amarillo, we came upon what has become a modern landmark for folks driving the Mother Road: Cadillac Ranch. Stanley Marsh 3 (yes, 3) and an art collective called the Ant Farm half-buried ten Cadillacs of select years from '49 to '63, at an angle (supposedly) the same as the sides of the pyramids at Cheops. Over the years, countless layers of spray paint have been added by visiting "artists." An interesting and fun stop, but it does make one wonder: Why?? Perhaps Stanley just wanted to create a wacky tribute to the love of cars and the open road - in that, I think he succeeded.

From there, Route 66 hugs closely to I-40 as a "frontage road" (see yesterday's post). It veers off slightly to enter small (often derelict) towns with names like Bushland, Vega, and Adrian. Adrian was significant because it had a marker designating the halfway point on Route 66 between Chicago and Santa Monica. The classic Midpoint Cafe is right across the road from the marker.

West of Adrian, several things happened: 1) we left the Texas panhandle and entered New Mexico; 2) we changed from Central Time to Mountain Time; and 3) most strikingly, the terrain seemed to change instantly to a look you'd associate with Westerns - large, flat buttes jutting out from expansive flat plains with scrubby and sparse foliage. It was so amazing how quickly the landscape changed. We took a brief side trip to an older alignment of 66, at a ghost town named Glenario. There was also a very rough dirt road spur, but since we weren't driving a 4x4, we did not want to chance it.

Next came Tucumcari NM, which is another postcard favorite of Route 66 lore. Dozens of old-style motels and gas stations are here. We stopped to look at the restored Blue Swallow Motel ("100% Refrigerated Air!"). These old motor lodges included garage spaces for your vehicle, with a door connecting to your room - I suppose this was done so that old Betsy wouldn't get so lonely!!

While in Tucumcari, we stopped at Teepee Curios for some souvenir shopping. We talked for a while with the owner, Mike. He had just come back from a Route 66 trip of his own - to Tulsa OK, to see the unveiling of a 1957 Plymouth Belvedere which had been buried in a time capsule for 50 years. As a freelance photographer, he took shots of the car as it emerged. The car came out very rusty, but Mike said that Chrysler may end up buying it and restoring it for the Walter P. Chrysler Museum - right in our backyard, in Auburn Hills, MI!

After passing through several more small towns, we took a BIG side trip (adding over 160 miles to our day) on the pre-1937 alignment of Route 66. This route took us north and then west through the beautiful Pecos Pueblo country, through Santa Fe, and finally to Albuquerque.

Pecos National Historical Park had beautiful examples of adobe construction in the Pueblo ruins, and in the huge Spanish mission which was built on the site when the Spaniards arrived to evangelize the Indians. If you are ever in this part of the country, I strongly recommend a visit.

Santa Fe is a beautiful, artsy city with seemingly hundreds of art galleries, boutiques and gift shops, all with the Pueblo style architecture. Unfortunately, we could only see it from our car windows as the rain finally caught up to us in torrential fashion. Maybe next trip...

All ended well, though, as we arrived in Albuquerque at yet another KOA (we should own stock!). As I'm typing this I'm watching fireworks in the distance, reminding me again of how blessed we are as a nation to live in freedom! GOD BLESS AMERICA!

Day 3 (Tues July 3, 2007) - Tulsa OK to Amarillo TX

I'm at the end of Day 3, sitting in a "rustic" log cabin at the KOA Kampground in Amarillo Texas, but enjoying the air conditioning and blogging via the WiFi Internet connection! (Camping just ain't what it used to be, folks... and I for one am grateful!)

Today's drive was fairly long again (400 miles), but we saw an amazing variety of terrains, towns and road types as Route 66 stretched out from rolling hills across the great plains. Oklahoma and Texas have had so much rain, but God blessed us with another beautiful day - some overcast skies in the morning gave way to sunshine, blue skies and huge cumulus clouds (Google that, meteorology fans!). The other benefit of the rain is that the grass, trees and fields all were beautifully green.

Just west of Tulsa, in a little town called Sepulpa, there was a "frozen-in-time" stretch of Route 66 that made us feel like it was 1935. Check out the historic Rock Creek bridge.

The town of Depew OK looked like a movie set with its western-style facades and rock buildings, but they still thought enough of Route 66ers to paint the logo on Main Street, and roads leading into and out of it.

In Davenport and Chandler OK we stopped to photograph classic examples of Texaco and Phillips 66 service stations (the Phillips station was undergoing restoration).

Oklahoma City has the distinction of being the only city along Route 66 with a state capitol building on the road. And an impressive capitol it is!

For many, many miles, Old Route 66 ran right alongside the Interstate, now as a "frontage road" or service drive. This was true for both I-44 and I-40. The interesting thing about the drive was that the old highway followed the ups and downs and turns of the terrain much more closely. On many occasions, the road would dead end on the south side of the Interstate, so we would cross over to pick up the frontage road on the north side, and vice versa. The road did this so many times we lost count!

Somewhere between El Reno and Hydro OK, the old highway crossed the Canadian River via a 38-pony bridge. (A "pony," we learned, is the term for one trussed arch unit of a bridge. This bridge, at nearly 4,000 feet long, had 38 ponies strung together! Quite impressive.)

Shortly after we crossed the Texas border, we drove through Shamrock, which is the home to a Route 66 icon - the Art Deco-designed Conoco tower service station, with its attached "U-Drop-Inn" restaurant. The design elements of this station were featured in the Disney/Pixar movie Cars as Ramone's House of Body Art.

At last, around 7:30pm local time, we arrived at the KOA, Becky made a dee-licious dinner of grilled chicken breast, peas and cole slaw, we took a nice walk around the campground, and I settled in for some blogging! God is good, and the Mother Road is a blast! Can't wait to see what tomorrow holds... until then, nighty night!

Day 2 (Mon July 2, 2007) - St. Louis MO to Tulsa OK

Today's "getting our kicks" started from our kozy (sorry) Kamping Kabin at KOA in Eureka MO.

As we rolled through towns with names like Sullivan, Bourbon, Cuba, Rolla and Doolittle, we enjoyed many faces of Old Route 66. There were some areas where an older alignment of the road were still visible (but not drivable).

Other areas of the road went through quaint little downtowns, and sometimes by shabby boarded-up remnants of what were once vibrant burgs, now virtually ghost towns due to the advent of the Interstate.

I really loved a long section where we paralleled train tracks, and paced with a freight train. Not too many miles later, the road surface was described by signs saying "Fresh Oil / Loose Gravel." I can still hear the thousands of little rocks hitting the wheelwells and underbelly of the car, and wondering "how many more miles of this do we have?"

And it was sad to see the Mother Road so little used in some spots that grass was growing in the cracks of the pavement. But then we'd drive a few more miles and see cool things like Route 66 Motors in Rolla, with '56 Lincoln Mark IIs and '67 Cougars, and so many nostalgic signs.

We started the day in Missouri, went through a 13-mile corner piece of Kansas, and ended up in Oklahoma. Not bad for a day's drive!

Day 1 (Sun July 1, 2007) - Chicago IL to St. Louis MO

On Sunday morning, we joined Tim and Colleen at their Church, New Life Community Church. The Pastor, Al Garcia, gave an excellent message from Matthew 5 (Sermon on the Mount) about Jesus as a "revolutionary" in condemning sins of the heart, compared to the Pharisees and scribes who only looked at the external.

By the time we had lunch with them and said our goodbyes, it was after 3:00pm, so we had a lot of miles to drive in not a lot of time!

Entering downtown Chicago was fun with all the traffic; this was compounded by the Taste of Chicago event which drew tens of thousands of people to within blocks of where we needed to be!

Finally we reached the "official" starting point of Route 66, the corner of Michigan Avenue and Adams Street. (Historically, the start was at the corner of Lake Shore Drive and Jackson Avenue, but the streets were made one way and the start point westbound moved.)

What a change in scenery during the afternoon, as we went from city streets and skyscrapers, to older city neighborhoods, to suburbs, to small towns and rural landscapes in central Illinois.

We loved the "tacky" roadside stuff, like the Gemini Giant at the Launching Pad Drive-In in Wilmington IL. There were also beautifully restored old service stations like the Texaco and Standard Oil stations in Dwight IL.

Due to time constraints, we did not get to visit Lincoln's home and gravesite in Springfield IL, but hope to catch it on the return trip. We were very late arriving at our KOA Kampground in Eureka MO (just west of St. Louis), but we had a wonderful day of driving and sightseeing.

Route 66 - The Day Before

We arrived at Becky's cousin's home at 6:00pm local time on Saturday, June 30, 2007. Colleen and Tim Dearborn were so welcoming, and we had a great time at their home. Tim got some Chicago style pizza for us to eat. (Hawaiian - yum!)

Becky and Colleen went for a walk with their golden retriever Karis, while I vegged out watching a nature program on PBS. (Tim had an activity with his Bible study group for a while.)

When all returned, we watched the Terabithia movie played on Tim's Apple iBook. Very impressive machine - I think I'm being won over from Windows PCs...