Warren, Ohio (Hometown of Dave Grohl)

We visited Warren, Ohio in the fall of 2017. We wanted to go check out Dave Grohl Alley. David Grohl, founder of the Foo Fighters and former drummer of Nirvana, was born in Warren. The town named an alley for him, turned it into an outdoor David Grohl gallery, and later added the World's Largest Drumsticks. 

We recorded a little video while we were there. Narrated by the Roadmaster himself:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytEwooDsoPY&feature=youtu.be

If you visit, don't forget to check out the little historic downtown section of Warren Ohio. We spent several hours walking around and admiring the history!

Celebrity Grave Sites

Added to our July points of interest

Desert Memorial Park

69738-69742 Ramon Rd, Cathedral City, CA 92234

Grave sites of Frank Sinatra and Sonny Bono

Forest Lawn Memorial Park

1712 S Glendale Ave, Glendale, CA 91205

Grave site of Ronnie James Dio

Mountain View Cemetery 

570 East Highland Avenue 
San Bernardino, San Bernardino County, California, 92404

Grave site of Randy Rhodes

Sunset Hills Memorial Park  

24000 Waalew Rd, Apple Valley, CA 92307

Grave site of Roy Rogers and Dale Evans

Clowns, Aliens, Joshua Trees, Palm Trees,...Oh My!

We normally don't make reservations ahead of time for places to stay before we go on these big road trips but we didn't want to miss out on these nothing short of cool places during our western adventure! 

The Clown Motel in Tonopah, Nevada. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yYXPCeOup8&t=86s

The Joshua Tree Inn, Joshua Tree, California

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESSCyHtJg68

Atomic Inn, Beatty, Nevada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6dO7DsrGiMU

The Amargosa Opera House in Death Valley Junction, California

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZkGm8O2ZiM

Fender's River Road Resort, Needles California

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y89kQfJzwyM (by our Route 66 friend KC Keefer!)

Christmas In July

Another ghost town added to our July adventure. The once-festive town of Santa Claus, Arizona is now run by rattlesnakes. 

Santa Claus was founded in 1937 by an eccentric realtor named Nina Talbot who moved from California to Arizona. She hoped to create a resort town in the Arizona desert, and, inexplicably, gave her destination town a Christmas theme, naming it "Santa Claus, Arizona". Her plan was for the holiday-themed attractions to bring people to the town, and, weirdly enough, her idea worked... for awhile, anyways.

Fourteen miles (23 km) northwest of Kingman, Arizona, along U.S. Route 93 between mile markers 57 and 58, immediately north of Hermit Drive and just south of Grasshopper Junction, Arizona.

There was a post office, which meant every December, visitors could send their kids letters postmarked from Santa Claus. There also was the Santa Claus Inn (later known as the Christmas Tree Inn), a restaurant described as one of the finest in the region. And, of course, visiting kids could meet Santa every day of the year. The town's proximity to Historic Route 66 helped keep it alive.

By the 1970s, business was dwindling and the town was falling into disrepair. In the late 1980s, a visiting writer described padlocked, dilapidated buildings and a run-down gift shop. The last of Santa Claus' businesses closed in 1995.

The Harmony Motel and U2 in Twentynine Palms, California

Harmony Motel 34.13482, -116.11004 71161 Twentynine Palms Highway, Twentynine Palms, CA 92277 www.harmonymotel.com 760-367-3351 

Attention U2 Rock Band Fans. Did you know that Joshua Tree, one of U2’s most famous albums, reflects in the heritage of the Harmony Motel, located in 29 Palms at the doorstep to Joshua Tree National Park? Well, now you know! 

 

     In 2003, this motel was neglected and found its way to be listed on eBay! Now owned by Ash and lovingly restored to the glamour of the 1950s complete with the restored motel signage which found its way on the original U2 band cover for the Joshua Tree album.

      In December 1987, the band stopped and stayed at Harmony Motel while on a road trip through the California desert to take photos for its album cover. According to the designer of the album sleeve, Steve Averill, the band wanted to capture the part of the United States where "nature and industrialization meet". The Harmony Motel hosted The Band for an evening and room #4 was where the gang convened for meetings to plan their shoot. 

     If you stay at Harmony Motel in 29 Palms, you will be part of rock history. Try and recreate the amazing album cover art and photography by visiting where U2 explored locally for the Joshua Tree album art and stay at our quaint, quirky, AND historic motel! Book directly at www.harmonymotel.com. 

  

The city is located in the Mojave Desert in Southern California. It lies on the northern side of the Joshua Tree National Park and includes one of the entrances to the park, at the Oasis of Mara.

Rhyolite, Nevada

Founded in 1904 and dead by 1916, Rhyolite was one of several short lived boom-towns from the late Gold Rush era. People were drawn to the desert on the edge of Death Valley by the promise of gold found amongst quartz in local mines, and by 1906 the town had all the promising indicators of permanence with largest population in the area. 

 

According to the US National Park Service: "The town immediately boomed with buildings springing up everywhere. One building was 3 stories tall and cost $90,000 to build. A stock exchange and Board of Trade were formed. The red light district drew women from as far away as San Francisco. There were hotels, stores, a school for 250 children, an ice plant, two electric plants, foundries and machine shops and even a miner’s union hospital." 

 

But in 1907, the US financial markets were rocked by a panic that saw closures of banks, businesses, and mines. Rhyolite began to falter. The mine closed in 1911. In 1916, the lights went out forever. Since then it has featured in several Westerns. In 1925 Paramount Pictures restored the bottle house for the film The Air Mail, and it was restored again more recently by locals. 

 

Empty hulks of the three story bank, the general store, and smaller buildings remain. Also there is a great looking train station, as well as some other well-preserved ghost town ruins. One of the most well known houses was constructed using hundreds of glass bottles in the walls from bottles from Adolphus Busch products, more familiar now as Budweiser. 

 

Besides the bottle house, there are a number of weird and bizarre works of art strewn around this ghost town. Part of the Goldwell Open Air Museum, several artists have installed permanent sculptures starting in 1984. Probably the most interesting is the 12 life-sized disciples patterned after "The Last Supper", built in 1984 by the Belgian artist Albert Szukalski. They consist of empty flowing robes (made of fiberglass), so they appear to be ghosts. There is also a 20’ tall model of a miner and his Penguin made of metal, and a 20’ tall pixellated version of a nude woman made of pink and yellow cinder blocks. Another fiberglass ghost, the Ghostrider, stands next to his bicycle, ready to go for a ride. 

 

Rhyolite is not too far from Beatty, NV, and if you’re in the area, definitely worth a visit. Also, nearby is the eastern entrance of Titus Canyon, a one-way-only drive into Death Valley. 

 

Know Before You Go Rhyolite is 35 miles from the Furnace Creek Visitor Center on the way to Beatty, Nevada. A paved road heading north (left) from Hwy. 374 will take you to the heart of the the town. Access is by car; extremely hot in the summer; no facilities in Rhyolite, but there is a latrine-style bathroom.   

Bullfrog-Rhyolite Cemetery 36.88235, -116.82914 

Tom Kelly's Bottle House 36.89739, -116.82909 

 

 

One of America’s most peculiar ghost towns, Rhyolite, Nevada is uniquely rich in one thing: bottle houses. Three of these structures made by embedding glass beverage bottles in various kinds of mortar can be found in this long-dead desert town. 

 

A marvel in its own right, the standout among these glass houses was built by a man named Tom Kelly. Like so many others, Kelly had been drawn to the West by the promise of gold. Around the year 1905, Kelly chose Nevada’s Bullfrog Hills as the site where he would finally put down his pan and build a home. In the mining camp of Rhyolite, where the only source of lumber was the ill-suited Joshua tree, Kelly saw construction potential at the bottom of his beer bottle. 

 

With an estimated 50 saloons operating in Rhyolite at the time, Kelly collected 50,000 bottles in less than six months, enough to build a three-room house, complete with a porch and quaint gingerbread trim. Inside, the walls were plastered like a real city home. To miners of the day, this was a castle. 

 

Already approaching 80 years old, Kelly declined to live in the home he’d built, and instead capitalized on the hubbub. Upon its completion in February of 1906, Kelly raffled off the bottle house for $5 per ticket. The house was won by the Bennet family, who lived inside until 1914. By 1920, the boomtown had gone bust, and a mere 20 residents remained in Rhyolite. In 1925, the bottle house got a facelift in the form of a new roof when Paramount Pictures used it for a movie set. It was converted into a museum of sorts after filming. From 1936 until 1954, Lewis Murphy was the Bottle House’s resident caretaker, providing tours for all interested visitors. After his departure, the bottle house’s final inhabitants were Tommy Thompson and his family, including eight children, who lived there until 1969 and added the miniature houses that can still be seen scattered across the lawn to this day. 

 

The Graham Parson's Room at the Joshua Tree Inn

We have our reservation set!

 Joshua Tree Inn and Gram Parsons 34.13446, -116.32691 61259 Twentynine Palms Highway, Joshua Tree, CA 92252 www.joshuatreeinn.com 760-366-1188 

 

 The Inn is laid out in a square horseshoe that provides privacy for all of our guests. All of our eleven rooms are on ground level, facing our desert courtyard and large pool. Our decor is eccentrically eclectic. 

 

The Inn is the site of the legendary Gram Parsons Room, where the beloved and respected musician/ songwriter spent his last hours. Room 8 still offers a quintessential "Cosmic American Experience" to fans of the father of Alt-country rock. On the peach colored wall hangs the same mirror and picture that hung in the room back in 1973. 

Cap Rock and Gram Parsons 33.98911, -116.16378 Joshua Tree State Park, Twentynine Palms, CA 

Cap Rock Nature Trail and a Gram Parsons memorial. 

Gram Parsons was considered a pioneer of the country rock movement of the late 1960’s into the 1970’s until his death on September 19, 1973 at the age of 26.  Though Gram achieved some success in his lifetime, he was never a superstar — but he did influence many bands including The Eagles and The Rolling Stones.  He was a member of two country rock bands, The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers; he later became a solo artist, and often performed with Emmylou Harris. In the years after his death he has become a legend.   

In the late 1960’s, the Joshua Tree National Monument, later to become a National Park, became the hangout for many celebrities and musicians because this out of the way haven was only a few hours drive from Los Angeles.  Gram Parsons was introduced to the Mojave Desert around this time and would frequent the Joshua Tree area on the weekends, often accompanied by his road manager, Phil Kaufman, and Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones; in-fact, some of Gram’s country influence can be heard in music of The Rolling Stones at that time, in the early 1970’s.  Gram loved the Hi-Desert and did many photo shoots in it. He used to hang out at local bars and would often stay at the Joshua Tree Inn.  He would visit the National Monument at night looking at the stars and searching the heavens for UFOs.