Martels take nostalgic trek down Route 66

BY Ron Martel

Last year at this time, Leigh and I were planning a trip to cruise the Greek Islands during this past month of June. The pandemic changed all that, along with closing the movie theaters for our weekly Friday Flyer Reel People Movie Reviews. Redecorating our home was long overdue, but after a few months, we were ready for a break. So, we decided to venture out on a road trip.

While working with a gentleman named Jim Ross on a business transaction, I learned he was a writer/researcher and his wife Shellee Graham was a photographer. They were co-authors of multiple publications, including “Route 66 Sightings,” one of the more popular publications on the Historic Mother Road. They had also created a book of color postcards called “Roadside USA,” as well as a photographic website of the famous highway.

Route 66 had been of interest to us for some time. While raising our daughters, we had crisscrossed the country in our motorhome, driving through 42 states, including the entire distance of the original Route 66, from Chicago to Los Angeles. But that trip had us using exclusively the modern interstate highway system.

Therefore, Leigh and I concluded we needed to get our kicks on Route 66. We had hoped to learn more about the past through this historic icon of a bygone era. After all, it ran through the heart of our nation in more ways than one. Sadly, the Route 66 designation was decommissioned when the interstate system was built in the late 1950s through the early 1990s. Small towns were bypassed and some towns along the old Route 66 were lost forever.

Prior to our departure, we learned a little more from these avid Route 66 enthusiasts and authorities. Jim and Shellee were so very accommodating, informative and meticulous.

“Years ago, after I started receiving a few calls on this topic,” Jim said, “it suddenly occurred to me that I had unwittingly become something of an authority on the subject.”

Our road trip included seeing dozens of restored motels and diners, driving over the Continental Divide, stopping at Cadillac Ranch, where ten Caddies are partially buried nose down into the desert for no apparent reason.

We saw the huge 2nd Amendment Cowboy, the giant Cross of Our Lord from 20 miles away, some marvelously-restored Conoco and Phillips service stations from the 1920s and the world’s largest pop bottle. We slept at one of the first Conrad Hilton Hotels and finally found ourselves standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona.

What topped it off was Jim and Shellee inviting us into their home in Arcadia, Oklahoma, which is modeled after a 1929 Phillips Service Station from the old Mother Road. It’s no surprise that the short bypass they live on is from the original Route 66 highway. It has now been added to the National Register of Historic Places.

Everything inside their home consists of the Route 66 theme, displaying the weird, wonderful and obscure, which happens to be the subtitle of one of their Route 66 books. In one of the bungalows behind their home is a workshop where Jim and Shellee restore neon signs from days past. In what they call their Neon Garden, they were kind enough to show us their fascinating products as well as their currently active projects. This was such a special treat.

Ron and Leigh Martel pause along the side of the Route 66 road to take in the nostalgia of a classic bygone era. The Canyon Lake couple visited many historic sites and visited with acclaimed Route 66 authors and experts Jim Ross and Shellee Graham.

Individually and together, Jim and Shellee have devoted decades to photographing, charting and mapping this Historic Road and its web of intricate routings. Like many of us senior citizens, Jim and Shellee’s early connection to the highway centered on the 1960s’ television show, “Route 66” with Martin Milner and George Maharis (later replaced by Glenn Corbett).

They have each recognized the value of the highway as both a cultural icon and tangible link to the past for millions of Americans, whether it was an escape from the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl of the Southern Plains or the post-WWII migration west. This highway became so much more than just another road between here and there. Some people were escaping from a life of despair. This was a path of hope and a bridge to a brighter tomorrow. This phenomenon was wonderfully depicted in the earnestly poignant “Grapes of Wrath” (1940) as well as the entertaining Disney animated feature, “Cars” (2006).

Looking like this gas station was pulled right out of the Disney “Cars” animated movie, the Conoco station is one of several restored service stations Ron and Leigh Martel visited during their Route 66 journey last month.

Then, once settled in California or wherever, these migrants would retrace their steps to visit loved ones left behind and/or to visit what once was. In 1946, jazz singer/musician Bobby Troup wrote an upbeat ditty about his trip out west, simply calling it “Route 66.” It has since been recorded hundreds of times by various artists, including Nat King Cole, Chuck Berry, the Stones, Asleep at the Wheel, Manhattan Transfer and even Perry Como. If you think about it, there’s a reason they don’t write songs about the 605 Freeway.

For those unfamiliar with this route, Troup’s song describes it pretty well. “It winds from Chicago to L.A. It goes to St. Louie; Joplin, Missouri, Oklahoma City looks oh so pretty. You’ll see Amarillo; Gallup, New Mexico. Flagstaff, Arizona, don’t forget Winonna, Kingman, Barstow and San Bernardino.” To so many, it’s more of a mantra than a song.

Jim, who has been involved with this highway a little longer than Shellee, has been recognized with the Steinbeck Award and is in the OK Route 66 Hall of Fame. His articles and images have appeared in a wide range of publications and media productions. They also publish under their own imprint, “Ghost Town Press,” a name chosen to symbolize towns that had withered and died in the aftermath of the bypasses.

For us, this was a very different kind of vacation. Sure, there were some curious things to see, but it is all deeply steeped in Americana. This is not so much a story of a road as it is a story of people; people that struggled on so many levels and found a way to survive and even thrive. You can actually feel it as you drive through each little town.

We thank people like Jim and Shellee for ensuring these important stories are not forgotten.

“We find it particularly rewarding to help keep the record straight and to continue spreading the gospel of Route 66,” Jim said and then concluded, “Wherever the path leads, it is safe to say that we will never wander far from the two-lane highways of yesteryear.”