by jimhinckleysamerica | Aug 24, 2009 | Uncategorized
Okay, I have a lot to share and very little time. So, with that said lets dive right in and start with some notes from Kingman as well as great news for those cruising as a group along the old double six.
*photos copyright Jim Hinckley 2009
We have been pouring through our photo files as well as adding to them and considered this photo of ruins in Stockton Hill as the next release in our ghost town series of prints. My thinking is it is to plain, almost sterile. So, we will most likely use one of the shots from last falls adventures into the Cerbat Mountains and the ruins of Cerbat or Mineral Park.
This photo taken in the mountains above Cerbat seems to capture the ghost town element a little better. Any thoughts or suggestions?
I have been pouring through old maps and photos in the research stage of the next book, Ghost Towns of Route 66 and have found some really fascinating as well as overlooked sections of the old highway. This is one of them.
Even fans of the old double six often miss this one. It is Chadwick Drive in Kingman, Arizona. The eastern end of this short leg is directly across from the Quality Inn at the top of El Trovatore Hill.
This quest for information about the lost and forgotten places on Route 66 led to the discovery an amazing website. I have difficulty imagining the amount of work that went into this Route 66 atlas that chronicles every alignment as well as many detours and business routes for that legendary highway.
http://www.stjo66.de/This past winter we had two snow storms that really hinted this long drought in western Arizona was drawing to a close. As it turned out my hopes were quite premature.
Winter was dry, spring wasn’t much better, and for the most part the monsoon season is a bust. I am starting to think we will be hunting jerky instead of deer this year.
The past few days have been like old times. By noon towering thunderheads dominate the eastern horizon and crown the Hualapai Mountains. A few hours later the winds blow, the temperatures plunge ten or even twenty degrees, the dust flies, and then it pours.
The clouds and the dust in the air at sunset make for some interesting photo opportunities. My dearest friend took this photo in the foothills of the Cerbat Mountains above the springs at historic Fort Beale.
If you happen to be cruising Route 66 with a group, or wish to use Kingman for you car clubs gathering, the Route 66 Association of Kingman has made special arrangement with the historic Hotel Brunswick and other motels to provide you with a discount. For more information contact Tim McDonnell, the association president, at
kingmanroute66association@gmail.com.
As a final note Arthur Frommer, the travel writer behind the excellent Frommer’s guide book series, has decided he may not be able to promote Arizona as a tourist destination. Apparently he is rather disturbed by the fact that the folks in that state embrace the constitutional right to bear arms.
So, if you are disappointed by Mr. Frommer’s stance and need a good tour guide for Arizona I suggest Backroads of Arizona. I will even sweeten the deal. If you buy a copy direct from me there will be a discount of 10% and I will sign it.
If you buy it through Amazon.com (information for ordering is in the right column of this blog) I would be pleased to sign it if you motor through Kingman. I could probably throw in a free pass to the Route 66 Museum and the Mohave Museum of History & Arts.
by jimhinckleysamerica | Aug 21, 2009 | Uncategorized
The prospect of penning a travel guide and history of U.S. 6, and possibly landing an agent at the same time really has the imagination in high gear. Both items are something dreamed of for a very long time.
As to U.S. 6, I can’t help but think that Rod Serling, the creator of the legendary television program Twilight Zone would find this highway most fascinating. It crosses the entire country but really goes no where. For most of its length the highway and the communities through which it passes seem suspended in time.
It is the highest US highway crossing Loveland Pass in Colorado at 11,990 feet. In 1952, it became the last US highway to be fully paved.
Before being truncated in the 1960s this was the longest US highway running from Cape Cod to Long Beach in California. Today it is the second longest with the western terminus being Bishop, California.
As it is about 98% intact US 6 is the ultimate escape for those seeking highways that act as portals to an earlier time. Yet it remains an obscure highway.
At its eastern terminus it is a congested, urban nightmare. At the western end it is one of the most desolate highways with one section of almost 175 miles across the vast deserts of Nevada having no services.
In between are stunning natural attractions. Great Basin National Park and the Grand Canyon Pennsylvania, the Lake Erie shore and the Colorado Rockies to name but a few.
Exploring this highway just may be the ultimate adventure for a road trip junkie. That is until I can find a way to explore the Mackenzie Highway or the Pan American Highway or the …
by jimhinckleysamerica | Aug 21, 2009 | Uncategorized
Things have been slow to the point of being creepy around the office as of late. To illustrate this consider that for the past five summers we averaged fifty to sixty out bound trucks per week and about the same number inbound. This past week we had five outbound and four inbound. Welcome to the Great Depression Part II!
This dramatic slow down in business led a friend to ask if I ever get bored. After careful deliberation it dawned on me that boredom is the very least of my concerns. In fact I think the last time boredom was an issue President Carter occupied the White House.
First, is the fact the job is wholly and completely unpredictable in nature. There are reservations, broken trucks, roadside assistance issues, customer issues, employee issues, and a few dozen other items to keep me occupied.
In recent months unpredictability has become the new normal. I am truly stunned by the number of people who walk in to make a reservation for the following day and are unsure where they are moving to!
On the up side if there are no after hours calls I only work 4.5 days per week. This is tough to get used to as for thirteen of the past twenty years I worked six days per week.
So, with all of this spare time I have found a wide array of projects to keep my busy in my effort to stave off celebrating my 75TH birthday as a greeter at Walmart. If I was ten years old they would most likely medicate me for hyperactivity. With that said here is a quick look in to the world of a starving artist on Route 66.
This morning between 4:30 and 5:00 I dug into some reading from the old testament. Next I answered email correspondence on a number of issues from the ghost towns of Route 66 project to the upcoming book signing in Flagstaff. This was followed with breakfast and several postings on various forums – one on the AACA about automotive museums and the selling of my sons ’78 Olds and another pertaining to the use of Bibles in schools.
At six it was breakfast (oatmeal with wheat germ, flax seed, and molasses) and coffee with my dearest friend. Together we made plans for the coming day, week, and month, talked over old times, worried over the headlines, and laughed as much as possible. To say I am truly a man blessed by God would be an understatement.
Then it was time for the pleasurable and contemplative 2.5 mile bicycle ride to the office. Chaos central might be a better descriptor.
For the weekend I have a number of projects simmering, all of which need my attention. Lets see, there is research and correspondence for the next book, Ghost Towns of Route 66. We also have the research needed to complete a full outline with summary chapter for a travel guide to U.S. 6 for an agent in New York by September 2.
This is a project that I have longed to do for years. U.S. 6 has to be the most fascinating highway in this country. More on that later.
Next we have promotion for the book signing in Flagstaff, September 12, and additional work for the proposed trip east on U.S. 66 in early October.
This little adventure has morphed from a simple and somewhat leisurely drive on the old double six to a full blown business trip. There are interviews, a couple of book signings, and a stop at the Lile Gallery in Amarillo where our prints are currently being sold. In addition there is now some promotional work for the Route 66 Association of Kingman to add to the mix.
We also need to decide what photos will serve as the second release in our limited edition series. These will be taken with us to Flagstaff as Tom Alexander’s shop there is our print facility.
On Saturday evening after work there is a town hall meeting with Senator Trent Franks that we would like to attend. I have this odd feeling it will be little more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic but still …
As I look through my calendar for the next few months it doesn’t appear that boredom will be able to get a toe in the door. In September, I have the book signing in Flagstaff, covering the Kingman Street Drags and block party, hosting a meeting with a Monte Carlo group motoring west on US 66 from Chicago, and our 26TH anniversary.
In addition, I have been asked to handle the Sunday morning service in Peach Springs on September 6TH. This is in addition to writing the next installment for my Independent Thinker column for Cars & Parts magazine and the next chapter in the demise of the auto industry for the Kingman Daily Miner.
In October we have the Route 66 trip. There is also now the possibility I will be conducting services in Supai one Sunday. A trip to Suapi is always an adventure. It is also one that never fails to remind me that fifty is in the rear view mirror and that sixty is at the top of the hill regardless if the mind thinks I am still twenty.
Last but not least are plans for the Adventure Expo in Chicago. This will be immediately followed with the kick off promotions for Ghost Towns of the Southwest.
Welcome to Hinckley’s world where boredom is never welcome!
by jimhinckleysamerica | Aug 19, 2009 | Uncategorized
Well, it would seem that the debacle that is Cash for Clunkers, one of the most amazing sleight of hand tricks seen in recent years, has many facets. Here is a piece from NADA about the problems dealers are having.
‘Clunkers’ Plan Needs a Tuneup
The Department of Transportation … indicated to auto dealers Thursday that it would add staff to address the backlog of unpaid applications for clunker vouchers. But dealers say payments have been slow to arrive. “We’ve got 155 clunkers on the ground and no money in the bank,” says Earl Stewart, owner of the Earl Stewart Toyota dealership in North Palm Beach, Fla. “We’re selling ourselves into a very negative cash-flow situation.” The Transportation Department blames delays in part to dealers submitting incomplete applications. In many instances, the official said, dealers haven’t submitted documentation that the vehicle was insured continuously for a year, as required. In others, dealers failed to write “Junk Automobile” on the title of the trade-in, a step necessary to prevent fraud.Source: The Wall Street JournalEditor’s Note: NADA’s number one priority is to ensure that dealers are paid for pending clunker deals. NADA recognizes that the program must, of course, be rigorous enough to prevent fraud, but also has to be flexible enough that deals can be processed and dealers are reimbursed.
The Packard reference in today’s post is two fold in nature. One is the work underway to expand Afton Station, Afton, Oklahoma, a rapidly rising star in the modern icons of Route 66. The stunning collection of vintage Packard’s housed here is but one reason this place sits high on my list of “must see” stops on our proposed Route 66 tour in October.
The second reference is in regards to Packard, and other auto manufactures, during the Great Depression. With the luxury of hindsight it becomes relatively easy to see the demise of Packard, and Studebaker, during the 1950s was resultant of an inability to fully recover from the effects of the depression.
Albert Erskine, a brilliant businessman with a long track record of successes, failed to see the prosperity of the 1920s as an illusion based on easy credit. He was not alone in this and many automobile manufacturers took advantage of the loose fiscal policies of the time to utilize credit for huge expansion projects.
At Studebaker this expansion also included restructuring in an effort to capture a larger share of the rapidly dwindling consumer market. This included a merger acquisition of Pierce Arrow and the introduction of a lower priced companion car, the Erskine.
The venture ended badly. Constricting credit markets, collapsing sales, and massive unemployment sent the company into a tailspin. Erskine, facing debilitating health issues as well as the prospect that his decisions had brought Studebaker, a company with a history that dated to the 1850s, to the very precipice committed suicide.
Packard suffered through the worst of the depression before succumbing to the hemorrhage of cash. In the late 1930s they abandoned their traditional position as a preeminent builder of luxury cars to offer the lower priced 110 series.
The 110 was, in its own right, a well built automobile. However, it was a dramatic departure from the traditional Packard focus and as a result the name was forever tarnished.
Now, a little something about Route 66. Would there be any interest, say next fall, in a Kingman to Kingman cruise?
The concept is kind of unique in that it is not a overly structured event. IN fact, the only established events would be the first day in Kingman, Kansas, and the last day in Kingman, Arizona.
Registered participants would receive a signed copy of Route 66 Backroads, discounts or free passes to museums along the route, discounts at participating motels, and other little perks. The cruise would celebrate the adventure of the two lane, first west on US 54 and then on Route 66/I40.
Ideas, thoughts or suggestions are always appreciated.
by jimhinckleysamerica | Aug 16, 2009 | Uncategorized
The August edition of Chillin’ on Beale Street is history. To say the very least it left me eagerly anticipating the September version, the Kingman Street Drags and a massive block party afterwards.
In June, Chillin’ on Beale Street attracted enough attention to fill a full city block with cars and activities. Last night there were two full blocks of vintage, classic, and custom vehicles as well as almost four blocks of activities.
This collection of vintage military vehicles hints at the diversity of automotive history on display last evening. Other highlights included a nice 1925 Chevy coupe, a late 1950s Harley Davidson, and a beautiful Nash Metropolitan in yellow and white with a for sale sign.
At the far east end of the Beale Street festivities we had a first class bluegrass band. At the other we had a DJ cranking out the hits from the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, and even the 1990s.
Then there was the farmers market and games such as valve cover racing. With temperatures in the high 70s and the slightest of breezes it was a delightful evening for the whole family.
Here is a little Route 66 trivia for you. These little shops were originally cabins at a tourist camp on Route 66 out near Hyde park. Then they were relocated to Kingman and operated as a motel. They were moved to this location to make room for the Holiday Inn Express.
For us the best part of the event was sharing a sidewalk table in front of Beale Street Brews & Gallery with some very dear and very old friends. Suffice to say this coffee shop has excellent coffee’s and espressos
As we sat and talked the night away crowds ebbed and flowed, acquaintances and old friends stopped to talk, and cars cruised past. It was though we had a front row seat to the most delightful and raucous parade, an endless stream of colorful hot rods, vintage classics, thundering motorcycles, laughing families, and young lovers savoring the pulsating excitement hand in hand. What a wonderful evening!
It is my sincere hope that is truly the beginning of a new era in Kingman. If this is what we have to look forward to then we may have to postpone thoughts of trying Alaska for a year or two!
We have been pouring through our photo files as well as adding to them and considered this photo of ruins in Stockton Hill as the next release in our ghost town series of prints. My thinking is it is to plain, almost sterile. So, we will most likely use one of the shots from last falls adventures into the Cerbat Mountains and the ruins of Cerbat or Mineral Park.
This quest for information about the lost and forgotten places on Route 66 led to the discovery an amazing website. I have difficulty imagining the amount of work that went into this Route 66 atlas that chronicles every alignment as well as many detours and business routes for that legendary highway. http://www.stjo66.de/
