Travels on the Mother Road, Route 66: Part 7b, Twin Arrows, Arizona (2019)

Dear readers, we are back to Route 66, the Mother Road. On my 2019 western trip, I revisited some Route 66 towns that I passed through in 2017 and checked out some spots that I totally missed before. I will continue the trek from west to east as before, and will number the locations in the same pattern as before, for example, with Part 7 being Arizona.

Twin Arrows is an abandoned rest stop, trading post and gas station just east of Flagstaff. It is distinguished by a pair of steel arrows sticking out of the ground. As noted in the Route 66 Adventure Handbook (fourth ed.) "This is the type of feature which so distinguishes the old highway's attractions from today's cookie-cutter copies." It is a pity no one has tried to revive this rest stop, but possibly Flagstaff is too short a distance to the west, and travelers would just head into town if they needed gasoline or snacks.

The original Twin Arrows, near Flagstaff, Arizona (Kodak Ektar 25 film, Yashica Electro 35CC camera, polarizer)

As you can see, there is not much left to the place. Fortunately, in this dry climate, the arrows will not corrode for years. Maybe one day they can find a new home in front of a museum or similar attraction.

Most of these views are digital files from a Moto G5 mobile phone.

Standby for more 2019 Route 66 updates. For a quick stop in Seligman, Arizona, during this 2019 trip, click this link.

Small Towns in the Texas Panhandle: Chillicothe (Panhandle 2019-03)

28 Mar 2020 Coronavirus note

Dear Readers, the United States is undergoing an almost unique medical and leadership crisis. Over a century ago, we endured another pandemic, the flu. Read The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry to see how the world coped with the 1918-1919 influenza outbreak. This may have killed over 50 million people, many of whom were in India, where the total number of deaths will never be known.

I wrote these Texas articles several months ago. I will keep posting them with the hope that they help take your minds, if only temporarily, off the virus news. Conditions will get better.

Heading west in the Panhandle

Heading northwest out of Wichita Falls, you enter the big prairie country, with seemingly endless farms and lonely country farm roads. US 287 does pass through an occasional town, most of which, I assume, were built during the railroad era of the late-1800s.

Chillicothe looked interesting and I pulled off for a rest. It is in Hardeman County, Texas, and had a population of only 707 at the 2010 census. The BNSF trains thunder through town on a regular basis.

Full Stop! Was it possible? The Turquoise Coffee Shop at 901 S. 2nd Street. Nice place, friendly baristas, and good coffee.

These two lonely early-20th century commercial stores caught my eye. I wonder what they once sold? They are on FM (Farm-to-Market) 91, which leads north out to the fields beyond the railroad tracks.

Heading west out of town, I saw an old farm house bravely standing up to the elements. How sad.

Big farm country, Chillicothe, Texas (Moto G5 digital image)

The square photographs are from Kodak Tri-X 400 film, exposed with a Hasselblad 501CM camera. Praus Productions in Rochester, NY, developed the film in Xtol developer. The rectangle frame of the two square shops is Fuji Acros 100 film from a Yashica Electro 35CC camera.

In the next article, the journey west continues!

Small Towns in the Texas Panhandle with Ektar 25 film (Panhandle 2019-01)

Introduction

The Texas Panhandle is the land of big skies, big farms, big men and women, enormous pickup trucks, and fading towns and farm houses. The Panhandle is the northern rectangle of the state, bordered by Oklahoma and New Mexico and northwest of the Dallas/Fort Worth metropolis. Most people drive through in a hurry, but the area offers a wealth of photographic topics. The famous Route 66 crosses the northern Panhandle (type "Route 66" in the search box to see posts on this topic).

Highway US 287 takes you from Dallas to Amarillo and passes through a number of small towns. These were bustling and active up through the mid-20th century but today are slowly fading. I drove east on US 287 in 2017, and numerous abandoned farm houses caught my eye. I promised to return and record them before they disappeared. For a trip west in September of 2019, I loaded my Hasselblad medium-format camera and Tri-X film into my camera bag, but at the last minute added my little Yashica Electro 35CC rangefinder camera with one of my remaining rolls of discontinued Kodak Ektar 25. Long-term readers may recall that I have experimented with Ektar 25 before and concluded that it is well past its prime. Of course, I ignored my own advice and decided to use it for this trip.

Future articles will include black and white photographs from many of these towns. 

In the Panhandle

For my September 2019 road trip, I took my time, stayed in seedy motels long past their prime, and enjoyed warm summery weather (and almost stepped on a rattlesnake in my sandals). A month later, an ice storm was threatening and I drove back east in a hurry to keep ahead of the sleet. We will start in Quanah, a town west of Wichita Falls and proceed northwest on US 287. Click any picture to see it enlarged to 1600 pixels wide (there is plenty of interesting detail).

Dinner at eight, Quanah, Texas

A bit fast-food-like, but OK. The staff were very friendly. Breakfast the next morning was great.

Repair shop and Cadillac, Spur 133, Quanah, Texas. The Cadillac was in surprisingly good condition.

Attack of the giant chickens, Rustic Relics, Quanah, Texas

Even the chickens in Texas are big. Rusty Relics, Quanah, Texas

Nash Metropolitan automobile, US 287 east of Childress

No lunch any more, Estelline, Texas

This cute little building in Estelline may have been a Valentine Diner. Mr. Arthur Valentine formed Valentine Manufacturing Company in Wichita, Kansas, in 1947 to build small lunch buildings. He sold many to veterans who wanted to start their own businesses in the booming post-war years. The Kansas Historical Society has an interesting history. I photographed another Valentine Diner in Chandler, Oklahoma, in 2017.

Commercial building, 704 Cleveland St., Estelline, Texas

Abandoned farmhouse near Memphis, Texas

Benitez Tire, Hedley, Texas

Taqueria Tijuana, Hedley, Texas

Lonely farmhouse near Clarendon

Abandoned house near Goodnight

The largest number of these abandoned farmhouses are between Childress and Amarillo. It is sad that the families who once lived in these homes moved out. Do they now live in towns? Did the old folks die and their kids moved to sophisticated cities? There may be more derelict houses like these on side roads, but it is possible that they typically clustered along the rail corridor, which is now followed by US 287. I will later post black and white film photographs of these lonely farmhouses.

Gas station, Claude, Texas

My last stop on Route 287 was in Claude at an odd little gas station with zinc or zinc-coated steel roof shingles. These shingles were popular early in the 20th century because they looked like clay tiles but were lighter and cheaper. I photographed this station in 2017 with a digital camera (Panhandle article no. 01).

Santa Rosa

Oops, wrong state. But the dusk light in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, was sublime. 

Rio Pecos Truck Terminal

Summary

Texas is fun for a photographer. The people are friendly and travel is easy. The roads are in good condition and there are plenty of gasoline stations along the way. But beware, other than fast food offal, the Panhandle is a rough place for food outside of Amarillo and Wichita Falls. It is even more of a coffee desert. Take a thermos and brew your own. Also, watch out for rattlesnakes.

Techical Notes

I took these photographs with a Yashica Electro 35CC camera with a fixed 35mm ƒ/1.8 Color-Yashinon DX lens. This is a handy compact camera with an excellent 6-element lens and a genuine rangefinder. “Color” was the advertising buzzword in the 1970s and 1980s. Today, it would be “digital.” I suppose some people are fooled. I scanned the film at 3,600 dpi with a Plustek 7600i film scanner using Silverfast Ai software to control the unit. I saved the scans as 16-bit TIFF files. Silverfast does not have an Ektar 25 profile, but the Royal Gold 1000 profile worked reasonably well. The colors were off, and I sometimes used the grey dropper to select a grey area on the frame as a reference. Some of the colors are slightly odd, but it suits the subject matter (and if I wanted boring perfection, I could use a digital camera or mobile phone). A few frames needed some cleaning or scratch removal; Pixelmator 3.8.8 has one of the best healing tools that I have tried. To resize for this article, I used an old version of ACDSee Pro 2.5 running under Windows XP.

On the Way Out West: East Texas (B&W film)

Introduction

Road trip! In August/September of 2019, I drove to Flagstaff, Arizona. This is serious mileage from Vicksburg, and I wanted to take my time, explore rural America on the way, and take photographs. I packed a Hasselblad medium format kit as well as my little Yashica Electro 35CC 35mm camera.

I headed west across Louisiana and then northwest across east Texas. My goal was to bypass the Dallas/Fort Worth urban area. The traffic there is so bad anytime of day and night, I wanted to totally avoid that mess. My first destination was Denison.

This is the first of many heading-out-west articles. In this article, I will show a few frames from east Texas. In future updates, I will continue to Denison, then west to Wichita Falls, and then northwest on US 287 towards Amarillo. This will form a "Texas Panhandle" series. Once you reach Amarillo, you are back on the Mother Road, Route 66. I will add some more articles to my 2016 and 2017 series on Route 66. To see these older articles, type "Route 66" in the search box.

Many people try to cross Texas as quickly as possible, but really there is a lot of rewarding photographic subject matter; just take your time and stop when you see something interesting.

OK, so I packed a lot of junk, including a tripod, hiking equipment, Polartec, tools, and more. Cameras, day pack, and munchies stayed in the body of the car. I put film in an insulated cooler bag.

Mineola

On the first day, I drove west quickly across Louisiana and crossed into Texas. I stopped in Mineola, a small town just off I-20.

Mineola looked busy with a lot of traffic. I saw only a few interesting sights, and after a few photographs, pushed on.

Emory

In Emory, I stopped at Pott's Feed Store for a snack and restroom. I met a cow. The proprietors said they would be glad to put some foam on the top of my car and tie the cow up there. Then she could make the trip to Flagstaff and keep me company. Maybe next time. In case I made a big mistake in not picking up a friendly chicken, I saw some similar ones further west in Quanah, Texas.

Sherman

Finally, some real Texas BBQ at the Cackle & Oink in Sherman, just south of Denison. It's nice to get into BBQ country again. I usually look for the locally-owned places and avoid the chains.

These photographs are from Fuji Acros 100 film exposed in my Yashica Electro 35CC camera with a 35mm ƒ/1.8 Color Yashinon-DX lens. I scanned the negatives with a Plustek 7600i film scanner, controlled with Silverfast Ai software.

Winter Sunshine Interlude: Getsemaní, Cartagena (Colombia 02)

Introduction

Dear Readers, it is February while I write this. Many of you northern hemisphere readers are in the gloom and snow. What could be more cheerful than a few days in the sunshine? It does not get much more cheerful than Cartagena.

Cartagena is a port city on the northern coast of Colombia facing the Caribbean Sea. During the colonial era, it was known as Cartagena de Indias. It was founded in 1533, and therefore is one of the oldest European settlement cities in the western hemisphere. Today, it is a major seaport and a tourist center.

My previous stay in Cartagena was in 1981, when I drilled for the marine geotechnical company (another life). My wife and I decided it was time for another visit. Oh oh, now it is a big city. What happened to the empty beaches? Where did those condos come from? Where did the bumper-to-bumper traffic come from? Regardless, the old colonial city has been preserved, and there are no cheesy modern skyscrapers in the walled old town.

On the move, Calle 25 (Ektar 100 film, Yashica Electro 35CC camera)

Just waiting, Calle 25

Room with a view, Calle 25, from the Allure Chocolat hotel

Getsemaní

We stayed at the Allure Chocolat in the Getsemaní district, at Calle del Arsenal Calle 24 # 8B-58. Nice place! It was a bit (OK, much) higher grade than the hotels I usually occupy. According to Wikipedia, "Once a district characterized by crime, Getsemani, just south of the ancient walled fortress, has become "Cartagena's hippest neighborhood and one of Latin America's newest hotspots", with plazas that were once the scene of drug dealing being reclaimed and old buildings being turned into boutique hotels."

Listening to the boom box, Calle 29

On Calle 29 (Kodak Ektar 100 film, Yashica Electro 35CC camera)

I suppose it is a hip neighborhood. Does the wall art prove that?

The Black Parrot at Carrera 10b - very trendy at night

In the picture, Calle 27 (Moto G5 digital file)

Calle 27

Statue of Pedro Romero, dedicated to the Lanceros de Getsemani, Plaza de la Trinidad, Getsemani 

Some parts of Getsemaní reminded me of Greek villages on the islands, kissed by the sun and with brilliant, pure colors. Or possibly think of Cuban vibe but with far better food and toilets. This area had a comfortable feel with no obvious security issues. I also took black and white film photographs, but here color rules.

The cheerful ladies at Café del Mural made me an excellent espresso. Pretty girls, coffee, excellent restaurants, the sun-baked Caribbean; what could be better for a January or February escape from the cold and a Trump-cursed USA?

Return to the Village in the City: Anafiotika (Pláka), Athens (Greece 2019-02)

Dear Readers, this is Part 2 of my summer series. Even if you are surrounded by snowdrifts, you can take a mental journey to the sun and the Mediterranean.

Every time I visit Athens, I like to check out the Anafiotika district, the cluster of tiny village-like houses percheded below the east slope of the Acropolis. It can be considered part of the Pláka (Πλάκα), but the Pláka is larger, encompassing more commercial and archaeological parts of the city. Anafiotika retains its 1800s Cycladic architecture in the form of little whitewashed houses in a tumble of narrow lanes and alleys. It is an oasis of peace in the bustling and noisy urban mess that comprises modern Athens.

This is a telephoto picture taken from Lykavittos Hill (also known as Mount Lycabettus) showing the Acropolis and Faleron Bay in the distance. The Anafiotika is the cluster of small houses just under the Parthenon.

In the Anafiotica (Moto G5 digital file)

The narrow alleys are fun to negotiate. They are popular with tourists working their way from the new Acropolis Museum towards the Pláka, often on their way to find a good lunch.

Doors are a popular but now a cliche photographic topic. Somewhere in the house, we have a book titled Greek Doors.

Graffiti and old windows are also pretty interesting.

The next time you visit Athens, make time to visit Anafiotika and the Pláka in general. In my opinion, Athens in August of 2019 looked cleaner and more cheerful than in 2016 and 2018. After ten years of economic austerity, political turmoil, and inundation by refugees from Middle East war zones, Greece may have turned a corner and be on the path to recovery. Tourism has increased, the locals are welcoming, and prices are low compared to northern European countries. The police seem to have controlled the refugees in the Monasteraki area, but I can't comment on crime.

I photographed the Pláka area in 2012 and 2013, and my dad photographed Athens and the Pláka in 1953 (click the links).

The 2019 photographs are from Kodak Ektar 100 film taken with a Yashica Electro 35CC camera with a fixed 35mm ƒ/1.8 Color-Yashinon lens. I scanned the negatives on a Plustek 7600i film scanner. This roll was disappointing, and some frames displayed odd colors. Low-contrast settings looked best.