Posts in the category "Road Trip":

Since 1922, this teapot-shaped gas station has been a fixture on a highway near Zillah, WA. Built as a comment on the Teapot Dome scandal , the service station was in operation through the 1980s, but has been boarded up since then.

No longer on “the” main highway, the classic roadside attraction was in danger of fading away. But, luckily, the City of Zillah stepped forward to save the teapot.

Thanks to individual donations, grants and a loan, the teapot was picked up and moved recently to a new site right in town. Repair and restoration is underway, with a ribbon cutting scheduled for mid-May.

Zillah's teapot has a new home

Zillah's teapot is getting a makeover

When the teapot is completed, it will serve as welcome center for visitors stopping in town.

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Travel between Yakima and Sunnyside, Washington on Interstate 82 and you’ll come upon a turnout for the town of Zillah, home to a 15-foot-tall teapot complete with sheet metal handle and concrete spout.

It’s a classic 1920s bit of roadside architecture that for many years served up gas to motorists and a history lesson to everyone.

The story goes that Jack Ainsworth decided to build the teapot after a night of drinking moonshine and playing cards. Ainsworth and his buddies were appalled over the outcome of President Warren G. Harding’s decision a year earlier to transfer the control of naval oil reserves at Teapot Dome, Wyoming and Elk Hills, California from the Navy to the Department of the Interior.

It seems that the then Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, had leased those oil fields to two businessmen who had given him what ultimately were deemed to be illegal ‘loans.’

Investigations ensued, fines were paid, folks ended up in jail, and the oil fields reverted to government control in 1927.

Ainsworth built the Teapot Dome Gas Station to poke fun at the whole situation
while the trials were underway and, until it ceased commercial operation in the early 1990s, the station was said to be one of the oldest functioning gas stations in the United States.

Even though it was boarded up and forlorn-looking on the edge of town, the teapot  had a spot  on the National Register of Historic Places.

Now it’s going to have a place of honor in Zillah’s tiny downtown.

The city of Zillah raised funds to purchase, re-locate and re-purpose the teapot as an information booth and last week, minus its spout and its shingles, the teapot was packed up and trucked into town.

When it is all put back together, repaired and refurbished, the Teapot Dome Gas Station, along with its old “Gas” sign and outhouse, will sit next to the Civic Center in Zillah, WA.

Could there be any better excuse for a road trip?

Categories: Road Trip
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Three very short, very sweet videos that will indeed make you want to move, eat and learn.

“3 guys, 44 days, 11 countries, 18 flights, 38 thousand miles, an exploding volcano, 2 cameras and almost a terabyte of footage…” Commissioned by STA Travel Australia.

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Sometimes you need to leave the airport and get on the highway.

Here are a few more photos from the Route 66 slide show I put together for Bing Travel.

Legendary and large, the Big Texan Steak Ranch is a restaurant and motel complex (for people and horses) best known for its steak dinner challenge. Finish off a 72-ounce steak and a baked potato, salad, dinner roll and shrimp cocktail in an hour – and it’s free. Formerly on Route 66, The Big Texan is now on Interstate 40, just east of Amarillo, Texas.

Of course you wear a seat belt and never text while driving. But no matter your faith – or your driving skills –extra protection on the road can’t hurt. That’s the idea behind the Shrine of Our Lady of the Highways, which has been watching over travelers since 1959.

The shrine is in Raymond, IL. Litchfield, 16 miles south, is home to the Ariston Café, which may be the oldest Route 66 restaurant.

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Here’s a sneak peek at the Route 66 slide show I had a little too much fun putting together for Bing travel.

Seat belts on?

The Gemini Giant is the official greeter at the Launching Pad Restaurant in Wilmington, about 60 miles southwest of Chicago. A former fiberglass “muffler man” statue designed to show off an oversized automotive part, the Gemini Giant now wears a pointy space helmet and holds up a rocket ship advertising the restaurant’s name.

The Fanning 66 Outpost is a general store with a taxidermy shop, archery range and wide-range of Route 66 souvenirs. Out front, and impossible to miss at a smidge over 42 feet tall and 20 feet wide, is what the Guinness World Records has declared to be the World’s Largest Rocking Chair.

Hugh Davis built this smiling, 80-foot long blue whale in 1974 as an anniversary present for his wife, Zelta and, not long after, the whale became Catoosa, Oklahoma’s most popular public attraction. The creature fell into disrepair in the 1990s, but it’s been rescued and revived by the Catoosa community.

I’ll circle back with some more kicks from Route 66, but in the meantime, there are lots more photos – and links – back on the Route 66 slide show on Bing.

Categories: family travel, Fun Stuff, Road Trip
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