Throwback Thursday - Shamrock TX

Shamrock TX 2024

Shamrock TX Murals 2017

November 2012 - Shamrock TX
March 2013 - Shamrock TX

We drove through Shamrock on our west and east bound trips IN 2012-2013.

Shamrock got its name from the first postmaster of the town; an Irish immigrant named George Nickle, in 1893.

The Tower Station and U-Drop Inn Café is located along historic Route 66 in Shamrock. Built in 1936 by J. M. Tindall and R. C. Lewis at the cost of $23,000, this gem of a building got its start in the dust when John Nunn drew his idea for the station on the ground with an old nail.

With its Art Deco detailing and two towers, the building was designed and constructed to be three separate structures. The first was the Tower Conoco Station, named for the dominating four-sided obelisk rising from the flat roof and topped by a metal tulip. The second was the U-Drop Inn Café, which got its name from a local schooolboy's winning entry in a naming contest. The third structure was supposed to be a retail store that instead became an overflow seating area for the café. The Tower Station was the first commercial business located on the newly designated Route 66 in Shamrock, and is one of the most imposing and architecturally creative buildings along the length of the road. 

Until about the late 1970s, the Tower Station and U-Drop Inn Café was light brick with green glazed tiles. Now refurbished with light pink concrete highlighted by green paint, it still looks much the same as it did during the heyday of the Mother Road. The towering spire above the service station still spells out C-O-N-O-C-O, a reminder of the booming business that the Tower Station and U-Drop Inn Café once saw.

Throwback Thursday - Santa Rosa NM Part 2

Santa Rosa NM - Motel Signs

March 2013 - Santa Rosa NM

We'll go with an automotive Route 66 theme this week.

Santa Rosa was connected by railroad to Chicago, El Paso, and the world at large in the early 1900s.

Santa Rosa's stretch of U.S. Route 66 is part of film history. When John Steinbeck's epic novel, The Grapes of Wrath, was made into a movie, director John Ford used Santa Rosa for the memorable train scene. Tom Joad (Henry Fonda) watches a freight train steam over the Pecos River railroad bridge, into the sunset. It was also one of shooting scenes for Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw starring Lynda Carter in the titular role.

The town was the childhood home of author Rudolfo Anaya, and is the basis for the fictional town of Guadalupe in his autobiographical novel Bless Me, Ultima.

The remains of the Rio Pecos Ranch Truck Terminal. This truck stop featured a cafe at one time, and was crammed with big rigs. You can just see in the broken neon on the sign, the truck driver’s faint Howdy, which no doubt drew folks in with its friendly wave.

The terminal opened around 1955 but has been abandoned for many years and the gas pumps are long gone. In 2003 the city of Santa Rosa expressed an interest in reloacting this sign and replacing the white plastic portion with a "Welcome to Santa Rosa" message board. The owner of the sign wanted too much money and the project ell through.

Not the posts are rotting and no one is sure how much longer it can support the sign.

2008 Palm Springs and Route 66

 1991 Palm Springs 

1996 March Palm Springs and San Diego

1997 Palm Springs and Coastal Drive to SF

2000 Palm Desert Ramona San Diego Tijuana LA

2003 Los Angeles Palm Springs Death Valley CA

2004 Palm Springs CA Lake Havasu AZ Las Vegas NV Los Angeles CA

November 2008 - Palm Springs CA

We were certainly busy on this trip. We flew into LA and drove to Palm Springs.

Leaving LA.

I-10 to Palm Springs. It is about 100 miles from LA to PS.

A sure sign you are getting close to Palm Springs.

We stayed at Oasis.

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Downtown Palm Springs

Sonny Bono - Bono, the late singer turned mayor and Republican congressman who was once famously married to singer Cher, previously lived in the Crestview Drive home that was built in 1940 by the Gillette razor family. The property, known as the "Sonny Bono Estate," is a 15-acre, gated compound.

A member of the Republican Party, Bono served as the 16th mayor of Palm Springs, California, from 1988 to 1992, and served as the U.S. representative for California's 44th district from 1995 until his death in 1998.

We always stop to say hello to Lucy!

Driving around town.

CAFFE ITALIA Serving domestic and Italian wines, delicious Northern Italia food, and music by our talented singing staff.

El Paseo Drive Palm Desert

Einstein

Desert Memorial Park is a cemetery in Cathedral City, near Palm Springs. Opening in 1956 and receiving its first interment in 1957.

                                Sonny Bono                                                    Frank Sinatra

                     William Powell                                                      Diana Powell

                                  Betty Hutton                                   James Patterson The General

Mesquite Golf

# 4 Par 3

#14

Palm to Pines - This scenic driving tour climbs from the desert through the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains, before descending again to the desert. The route passes through a series of areas preserved for animal habitat, ranging from desert oasis to snow-capped mountains, and parts of the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument and San Bernardino National Forest. Drivers can pull off the winding and often steep road at a number of pulloffs or lookout points, each with habitat ranging from forested mountainsides with pine, oak and fir, to a reservoir, to arid brush- and cactus-covered stretches -- not to mention sweeping views of mountains and valleys.

We went from sea level to 6000 ft above sea level.

We did a number of day trips along Route 66.

2008 Bottle Farm

2008 Rancho Cucamonga

2008 Holbrook AZ

2008 San Bernadino CA

2008 Fontana CA

2008 Barstow and Victorville CA