American Road magazine Volume X, Number 1

G Pinball Route G American Road’s Sports Stops G Ten Pin Alley AMERICAN ROAD

VOLUME X NUMBER 1

SPRING

US $4.95 CAN $4.95

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VOLUME X • NUMBER 1 • SPRING 2012

American Road Magazine • PO Box 46519 • Mt. Clemens, Michigan • 48046 • Phone (877) 285-5434 • Fax (877) 285-5434 • www.americanroadmagazine.com

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22 The Pinball Route

Chasing the Silver Ball from New Jersey to Baltimore

Editor’s Rambler “Ball Bearings”

Pinball machines reflect American history. Nowhere can the game and its cultural record be better appreciated than along the Pinball Route—a 225-mile excursion through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland that is the second entry in our AMERICAN ROAD® ORIGINALS Series. • TERRI COOK

40 American Road’s Sport Stops

18 Sites Across North America Famed for Their Games From the International Hockey Hall of Fame at Kingston, Ontario, to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, we visit eighteen sites around North America that bring out the kid in everyone. • ENSEMBLE

60 Ten Pin Alley

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Write-of-Way Letters from Our Readers.

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Who’s Driving? Contest

10 Friends in the Fast Lane: Road Event Retrospect Where There’s Hope, There’s a Watermelon. Hot Wheels Heat Up the 2012 Detroit Auto Show. Minnesota Stacks Up at Mall of America.

12 Memory Motel

Ace Motel, Belle Fourche, South Dakota. • FOSTER BRAUN

Bowling from Milwaukee to Arlington One Lane at a Time In 2008, the United States Bowling Congress moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Arlington, Texas. We bowl our way across the Midwest to see the museum’s new digs. • MANYA KACZKOWSKI

14 Tunnel Vision: News Around the Road Low ‘n Slow Chimayó. From the Land of Big Bunyans. Here Comes the Quaker. Save a Buck on US 1. Indiana Loves Its Lincoln. Walking the War of 1812.

16 American Road Sweepstakes 34 Think Big!

World’s Biggest Baseball Bat, Louisville, Kentucky. • ERIKA NELSON

36 Drive the Old Spanish Trail

“Hank Aaron’s Home Field”

Travelers to Mobile, Alabama, should pay a visit to Hank Aaron’s boyhood home—now a museum. • ROBERT KLARA

56 Route 66 Kicks!

“Playtime”

Good roads led to longer family trips. Toy companies developed travel-themed games to cash in on the vacation-by-car craze. • JERRY MCCLANAHAN

74 Our National Road

“Kissing the Golden Brick”

Pucker up! And plant a wet one on the gold-plated paving brick embedded at the start-finish line of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. • FOSTER BRAUN

80 One to 101

“A Little Golf in D.C.”

Nestled in the shadow of some of the most recognized monuments in America, lies one of the nation’s oldest miniature golf courses. • MARK A. VERNARELLI

“Ole’s Big Game”

See Ole’s world-famous collection of animal mounts—some two hundred specimens—in the tiny town of Paxton, Nebraska. • CRAIG & LIZ LARCOM

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Ball Park Restaurant, Street, Maryland. • LYNN MILLER

86 Inspection Station Arcopedico Legendary Classic Shoe. Diners of the Capital District. Death Valley Photographer’s Guide. Servo: Great Australian Service Stations. Wish You Were Here: Classic Florida Motel and Restaurant Advertising. The Road to Somewhere: An American Memoir.

94 Advertiser Index 95 Park Place Your Curbside Calendar.

96 John Claar’s Hitching Post Road Gifts & Souvenirs.

90 Thinkin’ Lincoln

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85 Diner Days

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98 American Crossroad Puzzle “Sports Model.”

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THOMAS ARTHUR REPP Executive Editor & Art Director REBECCA REPP General Manager JILLIAN GURNEY ROBERT KLARA Editors

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attended my first baseball game at age six. There I sat—a peanut snacking on Cracker Jack—captivated by every pitch, swing, and slide.

Well I remember that warm spring day—and the scene as I saw it from my seat deep in the bleachers. The stadium stood on Trumbull Street at Michigan Avenue—Tiger Stadium—the home of the Detroit Tigers. My uncle brought me to the ballpark to acquaint me with the wide world of sports. Mine was to be a baptism by baseball—an education in innings—a rite of passage right through right field.

Bug-eyed I watched the bunts and line drives. The decisive moment occurred late in the game, when the distant crack of the bat sent a fly ball sailing my way. On the grass in front of me, the center fielder backed up, loomed large, leapt high, and snatched the streaking missile from the sky. I can still hear the clap of the ball meeting glove. And I can see the number slapped across the back of the fielder who made the big play—bold and blocky 24.

“Way to go, Mickey Stanley!” someone crowed in the crowd. And at that instant, I understood the grandeur of the game. I felt the synergy between player, spectator, earth, wind, and wallop that made baseball the great American pastime. I also found my first hero: The acrobatic catch convinced me that Mickey Stanley was the greatest athlete of all time—a conviction to which I clung despite the adverse opinions of my playmates. Pockets fat with baseball cards, cheeks bloated with bubble gum, they showed me portraits of Mickey Mantle, Johnny Bench, Al Kaline, and other swing kings—and swore those players were Topps. But the cardboard faces failed to sway me. I’d seen Stanley in action. I wasn’t wowed by his hits.

I was wowed by his mitts.

Decades later, I remain impressed by players who field with finesse—no matter what turf they tend. As coach of American Road, I’m often approached by authors who make slow pitches, swinging bulky, wooden ideas I’ve seen slung since my days in little league. I don’t need such players on my bench. Give me the ace with the agility of mind and the enthusiasm of spirit to leap higher, reach further, in the chase. Grasp the past. Palm the present. Catch that which is illusive on life’s wide, windy road, and hold it out for all to see.

In this issue of American Road, we literally get to base on balls. We salute games pitched, punted, shot, dribbled, and served—and we start our first round on a roll. “The Pinball Route: Chasing the Silver Ball from New Jersey to Baltimore” launches travelers on a path that celebrates America’s favorite plunger-propelled pastime. “The Pinball Route” represents the second entry in our AMERICAN ROAD® ORIGINALS Series. We hope you find it worthy of replay.

“American Road’s Sport Stops” visits eighteen sports-related sites around North America that define how and why we play. “Ten Pin Alley” chases the US Bowling Congress from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Arlington, Texas, with pride and pins to spare. Between frames, our road departments add extra innings, laps, and rounds: We visit Hank Aaron Stadium, the Indianapolis Speedway, and one of the country’s oldest miniature golf courses, along US Highway 1.

Mickey Stanley retired in 1978. In all, he played fifteen years and 1,516 games for the Detroit Tigers, earned four Golden Glove awards, and won one World Series. “I was never a superstar,” he humbly told Baseball Digest. Perhaps not. But I remember a day when Stanley inspired one kid to reach out and grab life—and that, in itself, was a pretty spectacular play.

LUCIE KRAJCOVA Copy Editor GUY COOK Webmaster FOSTER BRAUN Podcast Host PAMELA CASPER-COBERTH TERRI COOK MANYA KACZKOWSKI CRAIG & LIZ LARCOM CURTIS OSMUN LEEDA TURPIN Roadside Contributors PETER GENOVESE JOE HURLEY JERRY McCLANAHAN ERIKA NELSON MARK A. VERNARELLI Department Editors LYNNE MARIE THOMPSON Fact-Checking STEPHANIE FERNANDEZ MICHAEL GASSMANN Associate Graphic Designers LYNN MILLER DAVE PRESTON Product Reviewers TONY CRAIG AMY C. ELLIOTT Staff Photographers ROBERT C. CLAAR Roadside Consultant TRACY WAWRZYNIAK Circulation LYNETTE NIELSEN Hitching Post Sales JENNIFER & PAT BREMER Online Forum Moderators Advertising Representatives REBECCA REPP becky@americanroadmagazine.com (877) 285-5434 / Ext. 1 Advertising Representative Region 2 SHEILA MARTIN smartin@americanroadmagazine.com (877) 285-5434 / Ext. 4 Advertising Representative Region 1 TRACY WAWRZYNIAK adtraffic@americanroadmagazine.com (877) 285-5434 / Ext. 2 Ad Traffic Coordinator Phone (877) 285-5434 for the representative in your region

®

AMERICAN ROAD (ISSN 1542-4316) is published quarterly

by Mock Turtle Press, LLC. Included in EBSCO Publishing’s products.

Copyright © 2011 by Mock Turtle Press. All rights reserved. Printed in the USA. Printed on recycled paper.

MAIN OFFICE PO Box 46519, Mt. Clemens, MI 48046 (877) 285-5434 americanroad@americanroadmagazine.com HITCHING POST ORDERS PO Box 3168. Lynnwood, WA 98046 (206) 369-5782 lnielsen@americanroadmagazine.com

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Executive Editor

AMERICAN ROAD magazine app available through iTunes Subscription prices: $16.95 per year, US; $29.95, Canada; $42.95, foreign. AMERICAN ROAD does not accept unsolicited materials. Writers query editor@americanroadmagazine.com. We are not responsible for materials lost or damaged in transit. Views and opinions of articles appearing in AMERICAN ROAD do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of AMERICAN ROAD editors or staff.

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G ON OUR WINDSHIELD: A neon bowling pin sizzles inside the International Bowling Museum & Hall of Fame at Arlington, Texas. Photo by Manya Kaczkowski. OPPOSITE PAGE: During the 1960s, Transogram’s Route 66 Travel Game took fun for a ride. Photo by Jerry McClanahan.

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Belle Fourche, South Dakota

BY FOSTER BRAUN

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ack in the Badland’s wild and woolly days, hiding an ace up one’s sleeve could cost a gambler his life. But in modern times, holding a high card close to one’s heart might just make a traveler’s vacation. When motorists pull off US Highway 85 at Belle Fourche, South Dakota—and circle up to the Ace Motel—catching a good night’s sleep looks like a sure bet.

This western South Dakota town has served as a way station for generations of weary travelers—from the French trappers who named it “beautiful fork” to 1876 fortune hunters who headed toward the Black Hills with visions of gold glittering in their dreams. By 1895, Belle Fourche became best known as a welcome sight for weary cowpokes—like John Wayne in the 1972 movie The Cowboys—as they reached the largest livestock-shipping center in the world.

The story of the Ace Motel began nearly a half-century later. After World War II, innkeeper Tom Gay decided that a new breed of highplains drifter—the traveling salesman—deserved a clean, comfortable place to park his dusty boots for the night. So Gay built a fourteenunit motor lodge along US 85 not far from the confluence of the Belle Fourche and Red Water Rivers. Tom proudly named his inn the Gay Motel—unaware that history would deal a controversial hand to that gentle term. The Gay’s name was changed to the Ace Motel in the 1960s.

During the intervening years, the little motel was passed from owner to owner like an unlucky charm. Then, in 1986, Merle and Viola Royer decided to gamble their life savings on the place. With the help of their grown children, the Royers’ purchased and modernized the Ace, and built upon the solid foundation Mr. Gay had laid.

The Royers spent the next twenty years sheltering travelers headed toward Mount Rushmore, the crusty old cowtown of Deadwood, and Devils Tower National Monument. Around the turn of the new century, their daughter, Vicki, came home to help run the business.

Vicki was there in 2005 when Mom and Pop Royer decided that the time had arrived to cash in their chips and retire. She knew something about long odds and standing pat on a good hand. For years, Vicki had worked in the gaming industry—she even dealt for the World Series of Poker in 2004. So she decided to continue operating the little motel that her parents had worked so long and hard to polish and bank her future on the little gem.

Nowadays, Vicki Royer is betting that the next gold rush to enliven Belle Fourche will involve the black gold from the oil sands of North Dakota. Huge deposits of oil have been discovered in the area— enough to usher in a new breed of fortune hunter. Like generations of travelers before them, the new pioneers will need a clean and classy place to hang their hats at the end of the day. Odds say many of them will stay at the Ace, where comfort and first-class hospitality have always been in the cards. G

Ace Motel • 109 6th Avenue • Belle Fourche, South Dakota 57717 • (605) 892-2612 • acemotelinbelle.com • Photos courtesy Ace Motel.

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PINBALL ROUTE CHASING THE SILVER BALL FROM NEW JERSEY TO BALTIMORE

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hen the results of the vote were tallied, Fiorello Henry LaGuardia grew ecstatic. For the mayor of New York City, the time for celebration had arrived.

Monochrome photographs show the “Little Flower”— as Big Apple citizens affectionately called LaGuardia— on that victorious day. Standing slightly over five feet in height, much shorter than the startled onlookers, the mayor sports a flamboyant white suit and close-cropped black hair. He grins triumphantly, leaning forward with arms outstretched, as he shoves a careening pinball machine toward the pavement.

BY T E R R I CO O K

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AMERICAN ROAD’S

18 SITES ACROSS NORTH AMERICA FAMED FOR THEIR GAMES ARv10n1pages39-50(ensemble)two.indd 40

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International Hockey Hall of Fame 277 York Street Kingston, Ontario K7L 4V6 ihhof.com

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n a word, Kingston, Ontario, felt pucked.

No less of an authority than Captain James T. Sutherland had proclaimed Kingston the Birthplace of Organized Hockey—and that great grizzled frost giant knew a thing or two about the ice sport.

Sutherland cut his cold teeth as a defenseman in the Dominion of Canada’s first official hockey league. He became a coach for the Kingston Frontenacs, won a blizzard of trophies, and helped found the Ontario Hockey Association Memorial Cup. So when Sutherland identified a hockey game played in 1886 as the world’s first—a sticky little fracas fought with a square puck between Queen’s University and the Royal Military College on the frozen waters of Kingston Harbour—fans listened. And that’s why the National Hockey League threw its support behind the creation of a Hockey Hall of Fame at Kingston in 1943.

Initially, plans skated along smoothly: By 1945, the organization began inducting players into its Hall of Fame to be. Then— in 1958—Kingston’s cool plans hit the skids: High costs delayed construction of a proper museum, and the National Hockey League withdrew its support for the project. Officials instead embraced the idea of constructing a Hockey Hall of Fame at Toronto, home to the venerated Toronto Maple Leafs.

The blow hit Kingston in its civic heart.

Suddenly, its citizens felt they were in a faceoff fighting for very heritage. Even after the Canadian Hockey Hall of Fame opened in Toronto during the summer of 1961, the scrappy community refused to surrender.

And, so, in 1965, Kingston opened its own shrine to pucks and sticks—the International Hockey Hall of Fame—leaving Ontario with two shrines to the fastest game on ice.

THINK RINK: Hockey fans take to the ice at Kingston, Ontario—the Birthplace of Organized Hockey.

Kingston’s hall has since expanded substantially to better compete with its Toronto counterpart. Its rooms house a sizeable International Exhibit—filled with artifacts such as the Olympic Gold Medal won by the Toronto Granites in 1924—and an extensive tribute to Donald Stewart “Grapes” Cherry, the local-boy-turned-colorfulsportscaster known for his loud lounge suits and fierce Canadian pride. The Original Six Collection is a remarkable study in sweaters, sticks, and photos that honors the National Hockey League’s initial six teams—the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York

Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs—and the stars of hockey’s golden age.

In fact, Kingston has taken to touting its museum as the Original Hockey Hall of Fame. The facility’s second floor houses the James T. Sutherland Lounge in honor of the ice king who first identified Kingston as the Birthplace of Modern Hockey. Each February, old-style hockey is played at a rink on the city’s Market Square to commemorate that first game of 1886—and tell anyone who would think to rob Kingston of its sporty birthright to go stick it.

—THOMAS ARTHUR REPP

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9 (1) International Hockey Hall of Fame (2) Pro Football Hall of Fame (3) World’s Largest Shuttlecocks (4) Fifth Avenue of Golf (5) International Frisbee Hall of Fame (6) Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame (7) National Museum of Roller Skating (8) Negro Leagues Baseball Museum (9) St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club (10) National Marbles Hall of Fame (11) Babe Ruth’s Grave (12) Antique Billiard Museum (13) International Tennis Hall of Fame (14) PING (15) World’s Largest Chess Set (16) Hammerin’ Harmon’s Red Chair (15) World of Checkers Museum (16) National Baseball Hall of Fame

AMERICAN ROAD

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BOWLING FROM MILWAUKEE TO ARLINGTON ONE LANE AT A TIME

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he pins crash and tumble—all ten of ‘em—and I do a little happy dance, then spin around, and high-five Jerry, my husband.

“Whoo-hoo!” I say, grinning.

We’re deep in the Heartland—somewhere

between Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and Arlington, Texas—at an eight-lane bowling alley in a tiny town, and I’m gaining a deep appreciation for a classic American pastime.

In 2008, when the United States Bowling Congress moved from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Arlington, Texas, bowlers in the Badger State succumbed to shock.

Arlington? Texas?

The move didn’t seem to make sense. After all, Milwaukee is Bowling Central—ten-pin paradise—the historical heart of the hard-rolling, blue-collar sport. Before the USBC left town, Milwaukee had been home to the organization that regulates America’s greatest indoor game for years.

Texas, on the other hand, is cattle and oil country, right? What could a land of tumbleweeds and ten-gallon hats offer the game of ten pins—or any game, for that matter, that requires shoes instead of spurs?

We decided to find out—and travel from Milwaukee to the new USBC headquarters deep in the heart of the Lone Star State. In fact, we decided to bowl our way there, rolling through Illinois, Missouri, and Oklahoma—and hopefully throwing a few strikes along the way.

We discovered truly old-fashioned alleys , few and far between, owned and operated as labors of love. We visited new establishments such as the Pin-Up and The Highball—fun and funky venues that breathe new life into bowling nostalgia. Above all, we learned that Texas is big enough to hold the USBC in science and in spirit.

Like Rockin’ Ray Miller’s polka song says: “Grab your balls, we’re goin’ bowling!”

BY M A N YA K A C Z KO W S K I

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9 8 (1) Holler House (2) Metro Bowl (3) Pin-Up Bowl (4) Cabool Bowl (5) Hillbilly Bowl (6) Bowling Ball Man (7) Watonga Lanes (8) The Highball (9) US Bowling Congress /International Bowling Museum

WITH ADDITIONS BY THOMAS ARTHUR REPP AMERICAN ROAD

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