April 2013 Meeting to be held at Pietro’s Restaurant in St. Louis

The Route 66 Association of Missouri will meet on April 13, 2013 at Pietro’s Restaurant in St. Louis, 3801 Watson Road.

Luch will be served at 12:00 PM with the general meeting following. Author Joe Sonderman will be our guest speaker, presenting a slide show about Route 66 in the St. Louis area. There will be a board meeting at 10:00 am.

For more information, directions, and a form for reserving lunch, please download the
April 2013 Meeting Notice. You must reserve lunch by April 4, 2013.

Route 66 Association of Missouri’s 23rd Annual Motor Tour, September 6, 7 and 8 2013

The Route 66 Association of Missouri will be “Rockin’ to the Devil and Rollin to the Saints” on its 23rd Annual Motor Tour. This Years tour will be held September 6th 7th and 8th. The tour will start in Carthage, MO and will end at Orchard Park in St. Clair, MO.

Tour registration begins on Friday, September 6, at 4:00 p.m. at the Econo Lodge, located at 1441 W. Central Ave. in Carthage, MO, where a block of rooms has been set aside for tour goers. Tour Goers can register on Friday night until 10:00 p.m. There will also be information on activities and things to do in Carthage available at registration.

On Saturday, September 7, tour registration will resume at 8:00 a.m. at the Econo Lodge in Carthage, and the tour will depart at 8:15 a.m. (after the pre-tour meeting) from the Econo Lodge. On Saturday, tour goers will have the opportunity to make stops between Carthage and the midpoint destination outside Devil’s Elbow, MO. A Guide detailing places to look for on the way will be provided at registration. Among the places tour goers will be able to visit along the way will include Spencer, MO, Gay Parita, Halltown Mercantile, and the Greene County Museum. There will also be information about other suggested stops provided at registration.

The Saturday night midpoint destination will be the Montis Inn, located at the intersection of CR Z (Route 66) and SR 28 just north of Devil’s Elbow. A block of rooms has been set aside for tour goers at the Montis Inn . Saturday night’s dinner will be held at the Waynesville City Park, where we will be able to enjoy the excellent Bar-B-Que prepared by Sweetwater BBQ. There will be a silent auction and information about Sunday provided at the dinner.

On Sunday after the 8:00 a.m. nondenominational worship service, tour goers will proceed from the Montis Inn Eastward to St. Clair. Again, a Guide detailing places to look for on the way will be provided at registration. The tour will conclude with a lunch catered by Jim’s Country Catering, at Orchard Park just off Route 66 in St. Clair. Additional information on any planned stops or activities along the way will be made available at registration.

For more information and/or to obtain a registration flyer, contact Debbie Rhew (573)-433-9812; dprhew@windstream.net, or Kip Welborn, 314-776-7385, rudkip@sbcglobal.net, or download it here: 2013 Motor Tour Registration.

Here’s hoping that you can join us on this year’s Motor Tour!

Boots Motel in Carthage, MO Seeks Volunteers for Roof Work

It’s crunch time!  The Boots Motel is looking for volunteers to help remove the gable roofs so the flat roof can be reinstated.  Saturday, March 23, and Sunday, March 24, have been selected as the days for the roof removal, with rain dates the following weekend.  The new flat roof must be completed by April 26, or we have to return the grant to the National Park Service.  We are in special need of volunteers with roof removing experience and their own tools who can get up on top of the gable roofs and remove the shingles.  We also need volunteers who can climb up a ladder to the underside of the roof and take down the sheathing and trusses from the inside.  This is a little less scary than climbing on top of the roof because you can stand on the existing flat roof to remove the sheathing and trusses.  Finally, we need people who can manage the debris on the ground, remove nails, gather up shingles, put stuff in dumpsters and sweep.  Currently, we have three “ground crew” volunteers and two “under the roof” volunteers.  We can offer all our volunteers two free nights at the Boots (one of them will be Saturday night, the other one of your choice), plus breakfast on Saturday and lunch and supper (probably pizza and hot dogs) on Saturday and Sunday.  If you are interested in returning this historic icon to its historic appearance, call 417-310-2989 to volunteer, or e-mail us at bootsmotel@hotmail.com.

4th Annual Route 66 Race to the Rocker to be held March 23, 2013 in Cuba, MO

Race to the Rocker, Cuba, MO

Route 66 Grant Season Now Open

From Kaisa Barthuli of the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program:

“The National Park Service Route 66 Corridor Program is pleased to announce that the program’s 2013 Cost-Share Grant Season is now open. Applications will be accepted between now and March 29th, 2013. More information is
available at: www.cr.nps.gov/rt66/grnts.

We encourage you to spread the word, and contact our office with any questions or to discuss project ideas.”

Past grant recipients include:

Crestwood Bowl

Boots Motel

Wagon Wheel Motel

Luna Cafe

Donut Drive-In

Sunset Motel

Munger Moss Motel

Saratoga Party for ModernSTL Members, Nov. 28, 2012

2nd Anniversary Bowl-A-Rama and annual meeting at Saratoga Lanes, 2725 Sutton Blvd, Maplewood, MO 63143. Wednesday, November 28. Unlimited bowling, shoes and billiards! Snacks provided but feel free to bring your favorite pizza or carryout. This is a members (and plus one) only event, but the non-initiated are welcome to join Modern STL at the door. Maplewood’s historic Saratoga Lanes was established in 1917 and retrofitted with one of the grooviest, most intact 1950s era interiors in the region. Don’t miss out! If you have questions contact modernstlinfo@gmail.com.

Goulash Festival in St. Louis on November 4, 2012

“Saint John Nepomuk Chapel at 12th and Lafayette in Saint Louis will be holding their world-famous Goulash Festival on Suncay, November 4 from 11:00 am – 5:00 pm. Enjoy homemade goulash and noodles or baked chicken with sides, dessert, coffee or tea for just $9.00 for adults and $5.00 for kids. There will be fun and games and tours of our historic church (est. 1854). There’s no Rams game this Sunday so why not join us?”

Act Now to Save the Devil’s Elbow, Missouri Post Office

From Tonya Pike:

“66 Roadies:

I’m going to apologize upfront for the length of this post, but there are several things to tell.  Pursuant to postings on this e-group a couple weeks back, I attended the meeting Friday with the US Postal Service to discuss the fate of the post office in Shelden’s Market at Devils Elbow, Missouri.

There is good news and bad news to report:

First, there apparently has been a change of heart in the US Postal Service since the meetings last year about the Avilla, Missouri post office.  The USPS has finally come to understand that the post offices in these small, rural communities are the lifeblood of the community – and the communities are not going to let them go without a fight.  The USPS has greatly backed down from its planned closure agenda.

The bad news is that the USPS is still having financial issues, and must revamp operations to become more financially-solvent.  This means finding ways to cut costs -   especially in the small, rural post offices.

To that end, a survey has been issued to the citizens of Devils Elbow, offering four solutions for their post office.  The first option is to leave the post office as-is, but reduce the window hours to four hours a day, Monday thru Friday.  Saturday hours would stay the same as they are now.  This is the most favored option, and leaves the greatest amount of postal services in place.  95% of the surveys already filled out had voted for this option.

The second option is do a “discontinuance study” and move all postal operations to roadside delivery.  The delivering postman then would provide most all of the services now offered thru the post office at Shelden’s Market, and no one in Devils Elbow would be able to have a post office box at the store anymore.  This is not a favored option because no one is comfortable leaving money for stamps or money orders in their mailbox, nor does anyone want to sit home all day and wait on the postman to arrive.  Less than 3% of the people filling out the survey already had voted for this option.

The third option is to still do a “discontinuance study” and find a suitable alternative location to move the postal operations too.  Since the post office at Devils Elbow is already located in Shelden’s Market, this option simply makes no sense.  Furthermore, there are only 2 bars and a canoe rental at Devils Elbow, none of which provide any better location for the post office than Shelden’s Market.  No one completing the survey thus far had voted for this option.

The fourth option is to do the “discontinuance study”, close the post office, and move all postal operations to another postal location.  The next closest post office is in St. Robert, Missouri, over seven miles away.  Devils Elbow residents are not fond of this option either.  No one wants to have to drive further from home to do their postal business.  Like option 3, no one thus far had voted for this option either.

This meeting was conducted by Michael R. Darling, Manager of Post Office Operations out of the Springfield, Missouri post office.  Unlike the other meetings I’ve attended in the past year regarding post office closures, this meeting was pretty calm.  Darling even commented at the end at how much he appreciated how professionally the citizens of Devils Elbow conducted themselves, as some of the meetings he’d conducted had turned very ugly.  Well over 80 of the towns 157 postal customers were in attendance at the 4 p.m. meeting.

Unlike a year ago, it is now up to Mr. Darling, not the Devils Elbow post office staff, to make recommendations as to what is to happen to the post office at Devils Elbow after this meeting with the community.  He will develop a “Post Plan” that will detail what he believes should happen to the post office.  He stated that it was his desire to leave as much intact as possible, wherever possible.

I raised the point that cutting the hours of operation at Devils Elbow could create a hardship for Route 66 tourists/tour groups that stop there and post mail, as not all of them might be coming thru during the proposed noon to 4 p.m. weekly hours.  Just like a year ago at the Avilla meeting, I felt that Mr. Darling was caught a bit off-guard when residents of Devils Elbow echoed my sentiments and told him how often they knew that foreign tourists used the post office there.

Mr. Darling went on to say that his “Post Plan” for the Devils Elbow Post Office is not cut in stone, and that public sentiment can sway what happens.  And folks, this is where we come in, and we need to be heard loud and strong.

Unlike a year ago at Avilla, the survey that was sent out to all Devils Elbow residents can be filled out by anyone, not just residents of Devils Elbow.  But the kicker is we have seven (7) days to fill this form out and mail it in.

DOWNLOAD SURVEY

When you print this one page survey out, fill in your mailing address at the top, and then chose option 1, which is the best option for leaving the Devils Elbow post office as intact as possible.  Then at the bottom, where it says, “Additional Comments”, please make a brief statement that you do not want to see operations at Devils Elbow altered, that it provides a special experience for Route 66 travelers and that reducing its hours could potentially limit that experience.

These forms are to be mailed to the postmaster at Stockton, Missouri who is tabulating everything for Mr. Darling for the more than 400 post offices he is responsible for.  Remember that time is of the essence here and when you have the form complete, please mail it to:

Melissa Vest Postmaster, Stockton 406 East Street Stockton, MO  65785-9998 USA

IF YOU ARE IN A FOREIGN COUNTRY, WE ESPECIALLY NEED YOUR HELP!!  Obviously, if you mail the form from a foreign country, it probably won’t reach the Stockton postmaster in 7 days.  However, your input is STILL very important and much needed!!  If we can prove that this post office is valuable to those of you outside the USA, there is a small chance that Mr. Darling might rule to leave it as-is, with no alteration in hours.  But he must hear from those of you outside the USA to know that you do exist, you have used that post office or been in Shelden’s Market, and don’t want to see it closed.  Closure of the post office could potentially mean the end of Shelden’s Market as traffic to the post office creates a lot of Shelden’s business traffic.

I was assured, that even if the forms from a foreign country arrive late, there will still be a record they arrived and where they came from.  Getting forms from every roadie we can in the USA is important, but getting ones from those of you in foreign countries gives extra leverage to the argument that the Devils Elbow post office must be left open as-is because of the unique experience it affords on Route 66, particularly for non-Americans.

The Route 66 community came thru a year ago for the Avilla community in their quest to keep their post office open.  I’m told they received a large number of letters from Route 66′ers and that it did have a positive influence on their operations.  They are still open, and as far as I know, operating as always.  This time, I’m not asking for 4 letters sent to 4 different places (as was the case with Avilla), just one survey form sent to one person.  So please everyone, take 10 minutes to do this.  If you have ever been to Devils Elbow and been in Shelden’s Market you know what a special place it is.  This is your chance to be heard and help have a voice in something that, to lose it, could spell death for a whole Route 66 community.  Thank you for your help!!

Tonya Pike”

Show the Love! Campagin to Save Our Historic Route 66 Meramec River Bridge

The Route 66 Meramec River Bridge is located in the Route 66 State Park near Eureka, MO. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009, it has not experienced any major alterations since its construction nearly 80 years ago. However, the bridge has fallen into disrepair. Due to safety, the bridge was closed by the Missouri Department of Transportation (MoDOT), the owner of the bridge, to all traffic. MoDOT had made the initial decision to demolish the bridge but has since partnered with a broad coalition of stakeholders working to preserve the bridge. MoDOT and its preservation partners are now seeking a new owner and funding to save the bridge from demolition by MODOT’s new deadline of December 2016.

More information on how to join this effort: http://meramecriverrt66bridge.greatriv.com

The Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, Missouri is having a “Show & Tell” Party on Oct 19th

It may be something you— Drive, Ride, Eat, Drink, Wear, Write, Sing, Buy or Make.

Halloween is coming and there may be a few mysterious things going on ! What really is in Wilber’s Trunk? Will Joyce’s ghost make a visit? Maybe a new Neon Sign Lighting!

There will be a Bonfire of course! Starting around 5:30… BYOB and a lawn chair.