Golden State Sojourn

Early on Easter Morning, Samantha and I boarded a flight to Ontario. Not Canada, mind you, but Ontario, California. The annual Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership meeting was being held in nearby Claremont the first week of April and we decided to make a little vacation out of the trip. Sam and I hadn’t visited southern CA together before so it was a nice opportunity to see some new spots and revisit…

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Total Eclipse of the AR

I’ve been looking forward to the 2024 Solar Eclipse for YEARS. In fact, I made a calendar reminder in 2017 after the last local eclipse (89% coverage in Tulsa) because I really wanted to experience totality. I even set a reminder one year out so I could start looking for lodging because I knew it would attract a sea of humanity. Well, life got busy. Samantha and I talked about going down and…

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Checking in on 66 - Miami to Tulsa

I don’t write for fun as much as I used to. Or take as many photos…unless you count our dog, Rex. I can’t mention Rex without posting a photo of him. That would be cruel! With the Centennial of Route 66 less than two years away, it’s actually already here in many ways. I have so many plates spinning at the same time that I’m starting to lose track. But this morning, I woke up before sunrise and…

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On the Rocks

Buying myself something close to Christmas is a foolish endeavor, but sometimes I come across an item that I just gotta have – and that I can afford during the whirlwind of gift-buying season! Still, I won’t buy just ANY Route 66 tchotchke. When I first met Michael Wallis years ago and told him I had fallen in love with the highway, he gave me a prophetic warning. “You’ll end up collecting…

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A Flamingo & the Desert

My favorite part about Route 66 culture is meeting the people that make it what it is. Business owners, local residents, fellow travelers. Being involved with the Oklahoma Route 66 Association gives me many opportunities to connect with folks whose life history has been intertwined with the road; these histories (much like the ones I captured in Lost Restaurants of Tulsa) hold a special place for…

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Limitations

A trip west on Oklahoma Route 66 turns into a weekend of reflection and appreciation.

Route 66 has completely overtaken my life. That’s not a complaint; it’s just a fact. Ever since the Executive Director of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association stepped down last fall I’ve been pulling double-duty. Most of the time it’s fine; sometimes it’s overwhelming. But it’s all getting done and things are continuing to move forward. This past weekend, we had our quarterly meeting in Canute, a…

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Interestingly, the owners of the old Saratoga are interested in totally rebuilding that iconic neon sign for their Wings of Freedom facility. I hope it happens!

Originally opened as the Saratoga Motor Hotel, America’s Value Inn sign was replaced in 2017. By 2018, the motel closed and became abandoned. It partially burned down in February 2020. Located on the former Route 66 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

A White Knight Comes Home

More than seven years ago, I was wandering my Uncle Andy’s property in Barnsdall with my mother when I came across an old restaurant sign. I piqued my curiosity, as I’d always had a fascination with brands and logos, but my aunt and uncle didn’t have a lot of information about it aside from the fact it came from the closed movie theater in town. I did a little research when I got home, but, I…

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A Change is Gonna Come

Resharing a post from 2012, when I took Mom to see The Wall performed live in Tulsa.

This is a reshare of something I wrote elsewhere in anticipation of Mother’s Day in 2012. I wanted to make sure it was captured forever, so I am re-publishing it here. Aside from a few minor edits, it’s as I wrote it over a decade ago. This Sunday will be the fourth Mother’s Day we celebrate in her memory. Miss you, Mom! Mom and I at the concert This past Saturday, I finally made good on my…

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New Beginnings

On The Road Again It’s refreshing when I wake up ready for a road trip these days. My world has been very busy as of late – as President of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association, my calendar typically stays pretty full with various meetings and engagements. That workload has increased dramatically since our Executive Director stepped down in September. It’s good work, I’m learning a lot…but at the…

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I've never got the hang of this place.

A New Store

Steven Chbosky wrote, “I am both happy and sad at the same time, and I’m still trying to figure out how that could be.”  There are words in the English language we use to define such an emotional place.  Ambivalence.  Bittersweet.  They hardly do justice to the actual emotion; I think those moments are some of the most important we can experience on our journey through this world. I found myself…

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Good Medicine

A weekend trip to Medicine Park and the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in Oklahoma

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West Coast Wander - Part Four

Our last day on the road after our week-long stay in California

The morning after the wedding in Mill Valley, we hit the road again – only this time without the four-hour head start we had on the way out. We also took a different route since the time was roughly the same: through Sacramento and Truckee, into Nevada and Utah and Wyoming before Colorado and Kansas. It would be more time in states neither of us had explored very much and I’m always game for a…

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West Coast Wander - Part Three

West Coast Wander – Part Three

As the day of the wedding approached, we relocated from our Airbnb in Oakland to one in Tiburon, much closer to the wedding site in Mill Valley, California. The view of Richardson Bay Our second Airbnb had a REMARKABLE view of Richardson Bay – but, again, no air conditioning in the middle of a brutal heat wave. The place was also western-facing and it was unbearable in the afternoon. There’s…

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West Coast Wander - Part Two

West Coast Wander – Part Two

I love getting to be part of any project my wife puts her mind to. She’s creative, passionate, and positive and that combination yields a great deal of interesting results. For her friend Kelechi’s wedding, she was in charge of putting together the reception. Over the course of our week in California, we had crafting days and walk-throughs and the actual ceremony itself – but we still had a…

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