The Joy Motel is a joyous place indeed! I found it a few years ago when I was on a road trip specifically focused on finding cool roadside attractions – and thought I’d died and gone to heaven! Located in Eureka Springs, Arkansas – it still features 50′s and 60′s inspired rooms! It even has a vintage 1932 swimming pool! They claim to be the “original Motor Motel” of Eureka Springs since 1929! Wow! Kudos to these folks for keeping [...]

Well it’s finally happened! Another one of my favorite local landmarks, the giant ice cream cone at Meredith’s Bread on Route 28 between Woodstock and Kingston is gone. I’m disconsolate! I drive along this route about twice a day and seeing the giant cone always made me smile! I have wanted to paint the local icon for years – and now that it’s gone I’ve committed to making that one of my winter projects. The giant ice cream cone will [...]

We recently returned from a fabulous road trip canvasing Arizona and Southern California, primarily focused on the legendary Route 66! I’ve devoted several blogs to our adventures on #66, and now I’d like to give you an update on the amazing work being done by a group called the Mesa Preservation Foundation. This group did not exist until a cherished animated neon sign at The Starlight Motel on Main Street (the old Apache Trail) smashed to the ground on October [...]

There are some roads that become a big part of your daily life, and for me that is Route 28 right here in Ulster County, New York State. My husband Richard and I have our gourmet take out store and cafe Bistro-to-Go on Route 28 in a fun and funky little strip mall that hosts many other stores with culinary delights. Our neighborhood is populated with a huge Harley Davidson dealership, a great wine store, a cheese store, a handmade [...]

The full name of this wonderful Ulster County Route 28 roadside treasure is “The Reservoir Delicatessen and Dairy”. How many times have I driven by this great sign and said to myself “I have to stop, get a picture and PAINT that sign”? Hundreds, I’m sure!! So one day last summer, I finally did it! Jumped out of the car, snapped a few pics and dashed inside, notebook in hand to find out a little more about the place. One [...]

We’ve owned a home in the Hudson Valley since 1985 (started out as weekenders from New York City) – and there’s almost no landmark as iconic to Kingston as the giant Skytop Steakhouse neon sign that beckons travelers as they’re approaching exit 19 on the New York State Thruway! For a number of years, part of the fun of the sign was that one or two letters would be dark – you were never quite sure what the sign would [...]

When you pull out of Seligman, Route 66 becomes truly “historic Route 66″! From here to Kingman Highway 40 is a beeline passing by the towns of Grand Canyon Caverns, Peach Springs, Truxton,Valentine, Hackberry, and Valle Vista. And sadly, many of these towns weren’t as enterprising as Seligman and have lost a lot of their luster. Traveling on a Sunday in January, most of the shops were closed – so we beat feet realizing we still had a long way [...]

Little did we know (us Route 66 newbies) as we pulled out of Williams to continue our journey on Arizona’s famed Route 66 – that we were headed for #66 Gold!!! But we knew something was up as we slowly approached Seligman. “OMG – stop the car”! There was no reason to drive through this little town – “let’s get out and walk”! One of the first things we saw as we entered the town is the very historic and [...]

As much as we loved Holbrook, we knew we had a lot of ground to cover in one day if we intended to cross the whole state – so we opted to take the Freeway (#40) from Holbrook to Flagstaff, and figured THEN we would drive only on Route 66. Sadly, we were cruising at such a high speed on this very desolate stretch of road and must have been gabbing – we missed the turnoff to Winslow, Arizona (“such [...]

This is the oil painting I did entitled “Sunset at The Wigwam Motel” We started our Route 66 journey 10 days before in Holbrook, Arizona at the Wigwam Motel – and ended it at the Wigwam Motel in San Bernadino, California. Earlier that day we went to the true end of #66 by walking to the end of the Santa Monica Pier! Fabulous! Then we had planned to drive the length of Route 66 from Los Angeles to San Bernadino [...]