Standing on the corner in Winslow, Arizona

Next time you find yourself traveling through Arizona on I-40, consider making a stop in Winslow, between Flagstaff and the New Mexico border, where you can visit the Standin' on the Corner Park. This location memorializes the corner mentioned in the second verse of Jackson Browne's song, Take it Easy, made famous by the Eagles:

Well, I'm a standing on a corner
in Winslow, Arizona
and such a fine sight to see
It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford
Slowin' down to take a look at me

"The corner" is located at North Kinsley Avenue and West 2nd Street (which is also an eastbound section of Route 66) in downtown Winslow.

A surprisingly large number of people visit "the corner" year round, and it seems that musicians enjoy going to this site to play songs by the Eagles on their guitars. Because there are several restaurants nearby, you can also enjoy a lunch or dinner break.

I was able to park my 28-foot Class A in a nearby residential area and then just walked about 3 blocks to the location. For travelers in larger RVs, you could park at the local Wal-Mart and drive your tow vehicle into town. 

Plenty to see and do on Tennessee side of Smoky Mountains National Park

There are lots of great reasons why the Great Smoky Mountains National Park is America’s most visited park, including beautiful views, more than 800 miles of maintained hiking trails, fishing, and wildlife viewing. And the Cades Cove area on the Tennessee side of the park offers all of these activities and more.

Black Bear

In addition to the wonders of the park itself, the towns of Gatlinburg and Townsend are within an hour’s drive of Cades Cove. Visitors of all ages enjoy a wide range of activities and attractions such as river tubing, horseback riding, the Tuckaleechee Caverns, the Little River Railroad museum, and Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies.

And it (almost) goes without saying that a bike or car ride around the beautiful 11-mile Cades Cove loop is a wonderful way to start or end your day. Wildlife seems to be most active before 10AM and about an hour before dark, so be sure to keep an eye out for whitetail deer, wild turkey, black bear, and coyote!

Abram Falls

There are private campgrounds in nearby Townsend that can accommodate RVs of all sizes and offer a full line-up of amenities such as full hooks, laundry facilities, and WiFi. For those who prefer a more rustic setting, the Cades Cove national park campground has sites that can accommodate motor homes up to 40 feet and camper trailers up to 35 feet. Although there are no hookups, you can run your generator (B loop) and a well-located dump station is available. The Cades Cove campground is also serviced by a general store and a bike rental facility.  Although there is no cellular phone coverage up in the Cades Cove area, a pay phone is available at the general store.

In my opinion, the best times to go to Cades Cove are in the Spring (April to May) and in the Fall (October). During these timeframes the weather is cool, the foliage is beautiful, and the animals are active. If your RV travels must be scheduled around school vacations, try to visit Cades Cove as early in the summer as possible to avoid the peak crowd of summer visitors. Cades Cove is a very popular area so play it safe and make campground arrangements ahead of time. Both the Cades Cove national park campground and nearby private campgrounds take reservations. 

Here are some web sites to help you plan a visit to Cades Cove:

• http://www.nps.gov/grsm/planyourvisit/cadescove.htm
• http://www.smokymountains.org/
• http://www.gatlinburg.com/default.asp

Oregon's Collier Memorial Park Logging Museum

Oregon's  Collier Memorial State Park is said to have the state's finest logging museum.

Located on U.S. Route 97, north of Klamath Falls, visitors can see "rare and antique logging equipment dating to the 1880s. Railroad buffs will enjoy learning about the role the railroad played in logging."

It is easy to imagine the rugged loggers and "the immense task of moving raw timber with innovation and brute force."

According to the logging museum website, it "houses some of the most interesting, rare and representative logging artifacts in the world. The museum provides a window through time, demonstrating the evolution of (the state's) Eastside logging practices and technology that played a major role in the development of this region and its culture."


The pioneer village gives insight into how families once lived in this challenging environment. (We RVers know what it's like to make a home in small spaces; however, raising children in these tiny communities would be a test of anyone's resolve.)

The park and free museum are located just north of Chiloquin, Oregon, near the conjunction of Spring Creek and the Williamson River in a beautiful setting of towering Ponderosa pine trees. 

The park is open April through Oct. 31. If you miss it this season, definitely put this fascinating living museum on your agenda in the spring for the 18th annual Living History Day in June 2012.

For more insight into staying at the campground click on RV Wheel Life's posting on Collier Memorial State Park
 
For more information:
Collier Memorial State Park and Logging Museum
46000 Hwy 97 N., Chiloquin, OR 97624
(541)783-2471, (800) 551-6949
URL: www.collierloggingmuseum.org

Photos: Monster-sized pieces of equipment used in the early days of logging; Jimmy Smith reading about a homesteader's cabin; Inside the cabin. Click on images to enlarge. (Julianne Crane)

James Dean Memorial, near fatal crash site where California Routes 41 and 46 meet

A little more than 56 years ago, cultural icon James Dean died tragically in a head-on traffic accident on Sept. 30, 1955.  Dean, only 24-years-old at the time of his death, had starred in just three major feature films--but had captured the angst-ridden feel of the Beat Generation.  He was the first actor to receive a posthumous Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for his performance as a loner in East of Eden (1955). He remains the only actor to have received two posthumous acting nominations, the second was for the surly ranch hand in Giant (1956) (See photo at left.)  In between those two films he starred as the misunderstood teenager in Rebel Without a Cause (1955).  Dean's iconic appeal has been attributed to "the public's need for someone to stand up for the disenfranchised young of the era." To this day, James Dean fame is legendary and his estate earns millions. 

Another reason Dean remains such an iconic figure is because his life ended so abruptly one early autumn afternoon where two rural highways meet in Southern California northwest of Bakersfield.  The young star, who enjoyed racing cars, had recently acquired a Porsche 550 Spyder, one of only 90 manufactured. On this particular September day, Dean and his mechanic Rolf Wütherich were heading to a sports car race at Salinas, California. According to reports, "Dean was driving west on U.S. Route 466 (later State Route 46) east of Cholame, San Luis Obispo County, when a black-and-white 1950 Ford Custom Tudor coupe, driven from the opposite direction by 23-year-old Cal Poly student moved to take the fork onto State Route 41 and crossed into Dean's lane. The two cars hit almost head-on." 

It is said that Dean (who was driving within the speed limit) received massive injuries after being thrown from his car and died soon after the crash. His mechanic survived but suffered multiple injuries including a broken jaw. The college student "received a gashed forehead and bruised nose and was not cited by police for the accident. He was interviewed by the Tulare Advance-Register newspaper immediately following the crash, saying that he had not seen Dean's car approaching," according to Wikipedia.

The James Dean Memorial (pictured at left) is located a short distance from the crash site. A stylized sculpture composed of concrete and stainless steel surrounds a 'tree of heaven' outside the Cholame, Calif., post office. The sculpture was made in Japan in 1977 and the entire project was sponsored by Seita Ohnishi. 

The location of the actual crash site, the intersection of Highways 41 and 46 was dedicated the James Dean Memorial Highway in September 2005. 

The memorial is in Cholame, Calif., on State Route 46 about 25 miles east of Paso Robles on U. S. Route 101, and 37 miles west of Interstate 5.

Photos: Wikipedia

Finney Lake an ideal stopover on the way to your snowbird destination

The snowbird migration is about to begin with RVers from the Pacific Northwest working their way through the Los Angeles basin south to San Diego then turning east on I-8 toward the Southwestern deserts.

Most of the I-8 freeway flyers miss tiny Finney Lake, 25 miles north of El Centro on SR 111, which is used mostly by local fishermen. But it has two of the ingredients that are difficult to find in the desert: a bird refuge that has lakeshore camping. Except for the cacophony of birds, it is a quiet spot and an ideal stop over for a few days on the way to your snowbird destination.

Finney Lake is a major resting place on the Pacific Flyway for migratory birds and an ideal and protected habitat for nesting birds. Non-motorized boats for fishing or birdwatching can be launched from lakeshore campsites or from the boat launch.

An adjacent off-limit pond during nesting season has crags and snags crammed full of Great and Snowy Egrets, Great Blue Herons, and a scattering of Cattle Egrets and Cormorants. Around the lake raucous Yellow-headed and Red-winged Blackbirds vie for the best spots, shy Soras poke through the shoreline reeds, Northern Shovelers  and Green-winged Teals (photo) feed on the lake’s delectable water plants, and squadrons of White-faced Ibis fly in at dusk.

There are a few miles of level dikes to walk, bike, and bird watch and a public dump station and water fill are within a quarter mile--and it’s all free. Just sign in, kick back in your camp chair, and spend your time adding to your bird list and enjoying the sunsets.