Tag: sightseeing

Southwest Road Trip Days 7 and 8: The Shady Dell in Bisbee, AZ

We left Phoenix and headed southeast for the part of the trip that would prove correct the old mantra, “Save the best for last”. Our final destination was the old copper mining town of Bisbee. This neat little town is notable for its unique Victorian architecture (not what you’d expect near the border with Mexico) and hilly terrain. Quite a few hippies migrated here from San Francisco in the 1970s once being a hippie was no longer in vogue. As such, Bisbee is full of art, music, and neat shops.

We didn’t spend all that much time in the town itself though. Why not? Quite simply, once we checked into The Shady Dell, we didn’t want to leave!

What is the Shady Dell? It’s the most unbelievable recreation of a 1950s-era RV park with a bunch of vintage travel trailers that have been lovingly restored down to every last detail. Ours was the 33-foot 1951 Spartan Mansion. I don’t even know where to start! So I’ll try to let the pictures speak for themselves.

Here’s the living room:

The ancient TV functioned flawlessly – and was wired to a hidden DVD player for watching any of the old movies that were thoughtfully provided.

There was an old record player that worked too! Several old records are in the trailer for your listening pleasure.

All the details were tended to – real vintage records to play and a real coffee percolator in the little kitchen!
 

This is the dining nook – on which sat a vintage radio that not only worked, but was tuned into the Shady Dell’s own radio frequency, to which an iPod filled with 50s music and commercials played around the clock!

Super cute bedroom….

Check out Carrie’s short video tour of the Mansion!

Truly amazing, isn’t it? But the grounds themselves are equally amazing. Dot’s Diner is on site, and it’s an actual prefab 1950s diner that originally stood at the corner of Ventura Blvd. and Topanga Canyon in LA. The burger patties were handmade and some of the best we’ve had in a long time. Super friendly folks inside, too!

And look at the rest of the Shady Dell! Beautiful trailer after beautiful trailer, each with a little green lawn and chairs and in some case, white picket fences.

How fitting is it that the end of our retro road trip, inspired by the great family road trips of yesteryear, was spent in the exact sort of vintage trailer from that time period? And as people would do in a more relaxed yesteryear, we just kicked back and relaxed in the trailer, really only leaving to eat. And what occupied our time in the trailer? Scrabble!

After the second night, we checked out with a heavy heart. We certainly didn’t want to leave – we truly fell in love with the place. But as we began our nine hour journey back to Long Beach, we knew that this road trip had been one of the best trips we’ve ever taken. We certainly feel inspired to take many more road trips; America is such a huge place with countless things to see and experience.

We just can’t wait to get on the road again.

Southwest Road Trip Day 6: Arcosanti, Alice Cooperstown, and Taliesin West

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After Holbrook, our travels took us out of Northern Arizona for good and southward into the Phoenix area for some classic Ed and Carrie city slickin’. Leave it us to fit that into this fairly rustic trip!

Actually, the Phoenix area served as one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s two home bases, so there are definitely some architecturally significant things here. Heading south into Phoenix, we stopped off at Arcosanti, a vision of a future community designed by Paolo Soleri, a onetime student of Wright, and under construction since 1970.

It’s supposed to explore alternatives to urban sprawl and minimize impact on its natural surroundings. We didn’t have time to wait until the next scheduled tour (they don’t let you wander the grounds) so we unfortunately didn’t get to see most of it. Too bad, as its 1970’s vision-of-the-future look is intriguing! Here’s the visitor center building and us enjoying a cup of coffee within its circular windows.

Next, it was off to lunch. We drove straight into downtown Phoenix to eat at Cooperstown, Alice Cooper’s sports bar and restaurant. Sports bars aren’t usually where you’ll find us, but as this was Alice Cooper’s sports bar, we had to see – and eat – it for ourselves.

I’d say it’s like Hard Rock Cafe meets ESPN Zone. But the place doesn’t take itself seriously, and this is what makes Cooperstown pretty funny. I mean, check these out!

Afterward, we headed off to nearby Scottsdale to see Taliesin West, Frank Lloyd Wright’s winter home and studio. One of the most influential architects of the last century, Frank Lloyd Wright’s work and principles continue to influence and inspire architecture today. Construction on Taliesin West began in the 1930s, which shows just how visionary Wright was.

The living room was my favorite part of the house:

Imagine working in that studio!

Definitely encapsulates a lot of Wright’s out-of-the-box way of thinking:

This was definitely one the trip’s highs up to that point – we can’t help it, but we love this stuff! The day ended with a first class dinner at Asia de Cuba, the restaurant at the Mondrian hotel. It was for sure quite a contrast with the prior night in Holbrook, to say the least!

Southwest Road Trip Day 5: Painted Desert, Petrified Forest & Route 66

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Leaving Sedona was bittersweet for us – we were anxious to see more of the kitschy Americana ahead that we had planned for the trip, but Sedona ended up being so majestic that it was hard to tear away from the laid-back vibe there! But it was time to go, and this day it was back to Route 66 for awhile, where we’d end up in the furthest eastern destination of the trip – Holbrook, AZ – where we’d finally sleep in a teepee at The Wigwam Motel!

Route 66 Roadside Town #5: WINSLOW
First things first, we had to make a brief stop to pay homage to the town mentioned in The Eagles’ song, Take It Easy …

“Well, I’m a standing on a corner, in Winslow, Arizona
And such a fine sight to see …”

So as you can see in the photo, we aren’t the only ones to go to Winslow for this specific reason … :)  Unfortunately, this is about it for Winslow.  Aside from the eagle cleverly perched from the painted window sill above, and the reflection of the flatbed truck painted on the wall … that’s about all there is to do there!

PAINTED DESERT/PETRIFIED FOREST

We kept driving on east to get to the Painted Desert & Petrified Forest. When we arrived, it was apparent that this was quite the stop back in the late 50s/early 60s … Neutra-esque buildings in the National Park and the visitor center made of brick just oozed the boom and enthusiasm of the road-trippers during the middle of the century. It was definitely something we had trouble capturing ourselves, being novice photographers – but we sure did try, though! Eventually, we told ourselves  that we won’t obsess about trying to capture the moment, and instead just absorb it. Here are a few shots:

Route 66 Roadside Town #6: HOLBROOK

So, there was a lot of hype when it came to Holbrook – afterall, this was where we’d be staying at The Wigwam Motel! You can’t get more road trip kitsch than sleeping in a cement teepee, so we were pretty excited. So what if all the Yelp reviews said the guy running things these days is a weird Norman Bates type, or that one guest had a drunk Navajo indian knock on their door in the middle of the night asking for change  – it didn’t really matter to us, as long as we could get a reservation!  So off we went to see what was in store for us!


Things looked pretty good at the beginning – they had old cars parked outside to make it look like the old days, and the teepees looked really fun and cartoonish in person! (This was ours, #10)

Even though the hotel manager was just as weird as expected, we were still a little creeped out, but we decided to have a look inside to see what it looked like. We know you have been waiting, so here is the completely UN-authentic, average and extremely drab interior in all its glory!

No matter, we weren’t there for the interior, just the experience, so we kept our spirits high.  However, as sad as we are to say these words out loud – Holbrook is one freaky town!!! Unfortunately, Holbrook is the prime example of how these Route 66 towns completely died after the freeways were built.  This sad little town, which was once bustling with activity and enthusiasm due to The Mother Road, has been forgotten.  Modern times are harsh in Holbrook – things are so dreary and unkempt that the deterioration is unforgiving on these huge pockets of kitsch.  The people of the town are clearly struggling.  We won’t go into too much detail, but we’ll just say we have a number of stories about various individuals we saw in town.  Strange Rangers! The only way I can even describe it is that being in Holbrook was like being in a David Lynch movie.

We walked down to Butterfield, a SUPER kitschy looking restaurant next door to the Wigwam that looked promising, but despite the RAD windows with fake people silhouettes (see below!), it was 100% weird. We’ll chalk it up to yet ANOTHER EXPERIENCE!!!

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We want to leave our last memories of Holbrook on a positive note, so here are a few pics in honor of the real kitschy gems in town. Holbrook – we know you must’ve been quite something back in the day!

(The Twin Arrows Trading Post was just outside of Holbrook – on your way into town from the west.  We passed by it several times, and it was just too cool not to post!)

Southwest Road Trip Day 4: Sedona

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As Sedona represented such a different vibe compared to the last few days, Carrie and I were really curious and eager to see Sedona’s otherworldy rock formations up close and personal. Sedona, aside from its natural beauty, is considered by many in the New Age community to be a spiritually powerful place, with several “vortices” of energy that purportedly exist near these rock formations. No matter what though, this is one seriously breathtaking place to look at.

We started off the morning to check out the Airport Loop Trail, which is said to host a Vortex and was walking distance from our hotel.

This trail definitely humbled me as it was labeled “easy”; the trail was tilted at an angle with huge vertical drops just beyond it…no thank you! But climbing to the top of the hill above the supposed vortex did afford the most spectacular views.

We then headed off in the car to explore other parts of Sedona. We did a short 2 mile hike inside the Red Rock State Park, too. Beyond the park, there was a lot of really indescribable scenery on such a grand scale. For some of them, you really had to leave pavement for quite some ways, but it was definitely worth it!


We’d thought ahead and packed lunches for the trip, so by the time we were hungry and many miles away from any services, we had lunch waiting for us. Roadside picnic!

Our final stop for the day was Cathedral Rock. It’s something, isn’t it!

Upon returning to civilization, we stopped into the local UFO store, filled with all kinds of alien kitsch, including countless pieces of “evidence” proving their existence. We perused the store to the looped recording of the X-Files theme!

A bonus today. We moved to a room with a spectacular view. And a fireplace.

Southwest Road Trip Day 4: East Rim, Desert View Watchtower, Meteor Crater and Flagstaff

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Today we woke up bright and early and said goodbye to The Grand Canyon.  We left the National Park via the East Rim, and boy are we glad we did – the views on the east are really spectacular!

Also on the way out was the historic Desert View Watchtower, which was definitely worth the stop.

You can climb up to the top for really great views and the inside is pretty neat – twisty and Native American inspired.

After leaving the Watchtower, we had a long drive through miles of open nothingness. There were red rocks all around, old shabby Navajo Trading Posts and more picturesque scenery than we could ever describe. It was a quiet drive for the two of us, just trying to take it all in.

However, we lightened things up a bit and headed out to the Meteor Crater – a stop that Ed was especially looking forward to! We had fun checking things out and absorbing the kitsch that goes along with the visitor center there. Here are a few shots:

Ed’s interpretation of the impact!

Say what?

The awesome 80s looking reenactment of the meteor hitting the earth

Happy Ed on site

After leaving the crater, we were headed off to Sedona, where we’ll be staying the next two nights. But we did make a brief stop in Flagstaff for a yummy lunch downtown.  We didn’t get any pics unfortunately, but the downtown area is really cute – very liberal feeling with lots of college students.  It sorta feels like Davis.

The drive to Sedona via Flagstaff was easily the most scenic and magical yet! It is amazing how the landscape changes here in Arizona – earlier that day we were surrounded by canyons and dust, but this route was cloaked in Pine Trees!

This was our first hint we were about to arrive in Sedona:

This is the view we have about 20 steps outside of our hotel:

Tomorrow will be another day of hiking and taking in the great outdoors. So far, this vacation has been VERY different for Ed & I, but we have to admit we sure are being wowed by Mother Nature!

See ya tomorrow!