A quiet day in the country. The house is clean, the refrigerator stocked, plans are made to go to the city on Thursday for lunch with the Jersey City gang. It's hot despite last nights rain. I've been relatively lucky with the weather--not too hot and muggy--it looks like the worst days are going to be on Thursday and Friday--I should just plan to be as air-conditioned as possible, I guess.
In any case, I haven't done one bit of work on the house today. A bit obsessive about filling in the historic record, I'm going to seize this moment to write up a quick report of my last trip east. I had of course planned to do something of the sort for my six other cross country drives of the past three years--and perhaps I will one of these days--but throwing my desire to put things in their proper order (a desire that always feel a bit suspect in this going-backwards-blog-format)--here's a report on my drive from June 19-24th.
Just five days. I didn't meander. On previous trips I'd either visited friends for a while, or drove short distances and did some exploring, hiking, and sight-seeing. I don't drive in the dark--but do seem to be able to go for hours without a stop--a talent that seems to have come with age. Or maybe it's the result of yoga practice almost every day for the past several months. All that stretching and concentration may have paid off.
My first destination was the Delta Motel on Route 66 in Winslow, Arizona. I'd found it on Trip Advisor (as reported weeks later here on July 14). It was an easy 8 hour drive--arrived around 7pm and was warmly welcomed by the owners--Chuck and Joy. They've owned the place for about five years and clearly love getting it in surprisingly good shape (most of these old motels, if they are up and running are pretty dreary spots). They've created "theme rooms,"--Betty Boop, The Beatles, Elvis, Cars, etc. The walls are covered with posters and related jig-saw puzzles and they work to choose bed spreads, pillows, etc. to continue the theme. They gave me the Marilyn Monroe room--what could be better?
Although my original reason for choosing Winslow as my first stop was a meal at the Posada Inn--either dinner or breakfast--I was a)too tired to take myself out for an elegant meal and b)not all that hungry--with enough food in the cooler--the thai crab fried rice, etc. to tide me over--so I took a bath in the very pink room, availed myself of the flat screen tv and soon fell asleep.
The next morning, I decided to forego breakfast at the Posada Inn as well--I'd had several fine breakfasts there on previous trips. Here's that site in case you missed its first mention on July 14:
Turquoise Room
My friend Nancy, whom I'd met when I worked on the Obama campaign in Las Vegas, New Mexico, was now living in Santa Fe--and I"d made plans to have a late New Mexican lunch with her before heading further east--to get me within striking distance of Wichita--so I couldn't linger that long in Winslow.
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| The Corner |
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| Louisville Women in Winslow |
Rather than stopping for breakfast I found The Standin' on the Corner Park. I'd somehow missed it on previous visits--though it is right in the center of town--but this time I drove right to it. Four visiting women from Louisville showed up, delighted to be there. According to a New York article that happened to have been lying unread in the back-seat of my car, this tiny park with its statue of an unidentified musician standin on the corner in Winslow Arizona has become a tourist draw.
Poking about I found an older NYTimes article from the Travel Section with lots of details:
Escape to Winslow
And--if you still want more--and need proof that the NYT repeats stories as often as possible here's the article that was in my car:
more on winslow
After much photo taking and filling up with gas, I left Winslow for my next meal in Santa Fe.
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