Los Angeles Pen Show Adventure

Pendemonium's Annual LA Pen Show Adventure

For the past three years, we have added a few days into our journey to the Los Angeles Pen Show and traveled throughout the southwest, mostly along the Mother Road, Route 66. We scour the antique shops for old pens and inkwells, visit time honored old tourist traps along Route 66 and try not to get too lost in the process. As long as the digital camera and the computer & phone lines are functioning, we'll be posting some photos about our LA Pen Show Adventures here, along with some photos from the show itself. Click here to view the 2003 Los Angeles Pen Show Photo Gallery.

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This page last updated 2/23/04

This snow in Fort Madison is beautiful, but time to head to the warm west (we hope!)

Mr. Waldmire has done some wonderful sketches of landmarks along Route 66, we always grab some of his detailed postcards along the way to send to our pen friends. Drop me an email with your mailing address if you'd like one and we'll drop you a line from the road.

This is the beautiful courthouse in Bloomfield, Iowa. Yes, this is pen related! Bloomfield, if you recall was the home of WA Sheaffer's first jewelry store before he moved to Fort Madison. Nice little town. We even found a few pens here!

Don't let anyone ever tell you there aren't nice vintage pens(or inkwells or even strange funky extra long pencils!) out there in the antique mall wilds!

We decided to take a short cut to Tucumcari via Kansas this year, definitely a byway! This is the Big Well, World's Largest Hand Dug Well in Greensburg, KS - that's what the billboards say and that's what the water tower says! Frank took the photo from the steps of an antique mall we were visiting, we didn't make it to the well itself!

On our new route across Kansas, we found places to antique were pretty slim, one of those toss ups ... cut 300 miles off the jaunt to LA or stop a lot .... only one day, so we chose the shortcut this time. Still, the two places we did stop at brought us some more fun finds. The fancy compass was made by the Eagle Pencil Company.

This is the Cimaron railroad bridge east of Liberal, KS. Quite a feat when it was built in the 1930s, it was the longest span of it's type for many years.

Tucumcari, New Mexico is one of my favorite Route 66 towns, they have a number of well kept buildings and just a lot of fun places to stop at. This sign is on the west edge of town. Note the wheels and the pavement in the base of the sign and the red lights and fins in the sign itself, the essence of Route 66 in it's hey day.

When we stopped in Santa Rosa last night, it was cloudy, but the time we went to leave for dinner, the snow had started. Those rarely accurate weather people said it would end by morning and we'd have a clear day on the road. Yeah, right! Still snowing in the AM. I-40 closed east of Santa Rosa, advising us to stay off west of Santa Rosa. Decided to trudge forward and see how far we could get, haven't used the 4WD a lot this winter - it definitely got a workout. These photos were taken between Santa Rosa and Albuquerque,. About 25 mi west of Albuquerque, the sun finally came out, the snow stopped and you would never had known the weather had been bad! Love the mountains :-) Definitely don't recommend starting your morning out like this.

This village almost seems camoflauged by the snow. Very pretty. And I can't believe the photo came out - Frank took this one through the car window while we cruising down the highway.

These twin arrows are at a new, but nice gas and curio stop. The original Twin Arrows are starting to look pretty bad and the gas stop and curio shop are now closed. I think it would be nice to buy it and resurrect it, but Frank gave me that raised eyebrow look, so we'll save that idea for another time.

When the timing is right, we always stop at The Jackrabbit. One of the more famous tourist stops on the Mother Road and still in it's original location on old Route 66, just off off the newer Interstate 40. There is ALWAYS lots of cool stuff I can't live without here and if you're ever passing through, do stop. Fun things to look through and the owner is one of the nicest women you'll ever run into. The Jackrabbit is about 20 miles east of Winslow.

The bad news about today, was because we were slowed down so much by the snow, no stops to hunt for pens :-( Tis ok, there's always tomorrow!

Snow capped mountains south of Flagstaff, Arizona, beautiful scenery here.

The high desert approaching the Arizona-California state line.

Kingman, Arizona is the home of the Arizona Route 66 Association and one of the nicest sections of restored Route 66 we've driven on.

The Powerhouse in Kingman, Arizona was originally the powerhouse for Kingman, now a tourist info center and Route 66 Museum and Gift Shop. Great exhibits here of past times on The Mother Road including a remarkable Studebaker. Definitely worth the stop.

If you have time after visiting The Powerhouse, walk across the street to Mr Dz Diner for a bite to eat.

Saturday morning at the LA Pen Show. Saturday is an informal trading day in LA. Lots of juggling for table space which is first come-first serve, and a nice relaxed atmosphere, even though people are scurrying around buying-selling-trading. This is the 10th year we've been to the LA Pen Show, always pleasant and Boris and Julia Rice make sure everything goes smoothly.

There was a live demo of Maki-e all day Saturday and continuing into Sunday. I believe this is a first for a pen show!

Big crowds in LA on Sunday! And busy enough for us that we didn't get away from our tables much, which means not too many photos to show you. Sorry!

Boris Rice annoucing winners of pens and subscriptions to Pen World Magazine late Sunday afternoon.

This is Route 66 between Amboy and Essex, California. For decades, travelers have been putting messages formed of rocks along the berm on the north side of the road. It goes on for miles and miles.

No speed limits, no traffic .... just a long open road. A little ironic is that this stretch of Route 66 is near an air base and if you look up quickly when you hear them, you'll see F16 fighter jets overhead. Somehow the jets and this remote section of road just don't seem to match up!

Note that the hood is DOWN on the truck!!

Signs on this remote California section of Route 66 are far and few inbetween. The Route 66 shield turns up on the road surface instead.

Seligman, Arizona is a popular Route 66 town. We got into town just at dusk, so most everything was already closed, but the General Store was still open and we refilled the tank and stretched our legs for a few minutes. This store is just what you think of when you envision an old fashioned general store, they have everything from nuts and bolts to groceries to fun Route 66 souvenirs.

Williams is a beautiful little town in the Arizona mountains, not far from the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon Railway runs vintage excursion trains out of the depot in Williams to the Grand Canyon.

We always make a stop in Winslow, Arizona. Even though Winslow has been around a long time, it gained some recent fame when the Eagles recorded Standing on a Corner in Winslow, Arizona. If you're passing through Winslow on Route 66, stop on a couple other corners, too. Roadworks has a great selection of Route 66 memorabilia and is in a beautiful restored turn of the century bank building. Diagonal from Roadworks is Dominique's Hallmark which does have greeting cards, but probably ranks as the most untraditional Hallmark store I've ever been in. Fun town.

Not too awfully much left on the old highway in Joseph City anymore, but they have this lovely sign to welcome you as you drive into town from the west.

One day, I am going to plan ahead enough so that we can spend a night in Holbrook at the Wigwam Motel. These have each been beautifully restored and to top it off, there's a period car, in fact, cars that would have crusised Route 66 parked next to each Wigwam. Holbrook is a pretty bustling little city and Route 66 is also the main street through town.

Right on the Arizona-New Mexico state line, next to Route 66 is a great tourist trap nestled up against the rising red rocks. There are teepee trading posts, "animals" posed on the rocks above and every shop has more blankets than anyone will ever need in a lifetime! Not to mention big bins of rocks, racks of mocasins and jewelry galore. Definitely a tourist mecca ;-)

The Route 66 Diner is on old Route 66, now Central Avenue in Albuquerque. Delicious food, attentive service, lots of neon and the walls are filled with mostly original signs and memorabilia from the Mother Road. I've been wanting to stop in and eat here for several years and the timing was never quite right, finally got a chance tonight and was not disappointed.

We've decided that antique shops are far and few inbetween on a good long stretch of the road in Arizona and New Mexico. But now we're in Albuquerque with a pretty long list of antique shops, so tomorrow we're off to hunt pens again!

Albuquerque has one of the nicest city stretches of Route 66 we've come across. Delightful architecture and plenty of neon along the route which is now Central Avenue.

We spent most of the day antiquing our way down Route 66, there are lots of antique malls and shops along here. I mean LOTS! We did take one break for pizza and rest our feet. Dion's came highly recommended to us from one of the shopkeepers and again, we were not disappointed with the food on this journey. There was only one shop we stopped in that didn't have anything pen related, but we enjoyed the mission furniture they had on display. Found nice things at every other stop.


By 4 PM, we had covered all the antique shops we could find and headed to Old Town Albuquerque. We've spent a little time here in the past, a great place to shop for all things New Mexico, the shopkeepers are always friendly. This time, we even got to test taste some new chocolates one shopkeeper had just finished making .... sort of a chocolate nougat flavored with peppermint and banana. I know, this sounds like a horrible concoction, but it was great and I don't even like bananas!


	The photos above are of the oldest church in Albuquerque, very beautiful and nearly 3 centuries old which is pretty old for a structure in the United States! It was nice to have a couple days in the same place and Albuquerque has been most enjoyable, but tomorrow we're on the road again. Just a note to all that you've been most patient with us while we travel back and forth from the LA Pen Show and we really do appreciate it.

The wind was shooshing pretty good when we headed east out of Albuquerque and the further east we went, the stronger it got. Temps dropped, we drove thru a mini snow storm (thankfully very, very short!), now remember this is the same stretch of road we encountered the blizzard on the way to LA, Mother Nature must have recognized us coming through. A quick stop at Cline's Corner and the Road Kill Cafe, Route 66 originals and we found out that last week they ended up with about 8 inches of snow, nice to know what we were trudging through! And today's weather info was that the winds were going to get worse and to be extra careful out on the road. Oh joy!

We blew into Texas only to encounter red dust storms, this was a first for us. Gives you a whole new appreciation for the Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Dust storms are not fun, fortunately the ones we drove through were short lived. The bad news about the dust storms was that we were so busy paying attention to the road, that we missed the Cadillac Ranch just west of Amarillo. Rest assured you would have loved the photos of the Cadillacs painted in wild colors and sticking about 3/4 out of the ground all in a neat little row, quite a site to behold.

What we did see just west of Amarillo was the electronic traffic message sign saying that Interstate 40 was closed 20 miles east of Amarillo. Good time to head into town on Route 66, have a bite to eat, check out the antique malls and find out if the traffic sign was being truthful. A very accommodating woman at the first antique shop we stopped at got on the phone to get to the bottom of the traffic sign message.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a sign malfunction, there was a range fire east of town and traffic was being diverted around the fire. So we had a nice little tour of the Texas high plains, it was a pretty round about route around the range fire. We later found out more about the fire. It was caused by a semi that had a flat tire and a spark touched off about 2000 acres of range. Sounds like were bypassing the small range fire though, south of us near Lubbock, the fires and smoke were so bad several multi car accidents occurred with sadly, some injuries. We made it to Shamrock, Texas just west of the Oklahoma line and called it a night.

In spite of all this wind, dust and smoke excitement in Texas, we turned up a few nice things in Amarillo. The little black thing in the front of the photo is a Sengbusch porcelain moistener, never seen one in black before, only white.

Before leaving Shamrock, we stopped to admire the U Drop Inn service station and cafe. When we were here a couple years ago, the U-Drop Inn was under renovation, even then it was a great example of art deco architecture. Now that it is finished, it is absolutely stunning. The U-Drop Inn originally opened in 1936. A contest was held to name the new establishment with the winner getting $5, a large sum during depression times. U-Drop Inn was submitted by a local 8 year old boy.



Oh, did I mention the wind was still blowing? Not quite as strongly, but strong enough that Frank had problems steadying the camera to take the photo above of the huge Route 66 National Museum sign. Here we are in Elk City, Oklahoma home of the National Route 66 Museum. The folks here have done an excellent job with the museum, very well done. Walking through it is like a walk through all the different eras of Route 66. As you walk through, motion triggers a very pleasant narrative about that era. See the funky looking truck above? Well, I had never seen one, but it is a vintage RV. I love this thing, I think it would be the perfect vehicle to have traveling pen shows in, there were even built in cupboards along the sides that could hold plenty of ink and pens!

Elk City, in addition to the museum had a big antique mall. We also found shops worth stopping at in Clinton, Weatherford and El Reno. Again, luck was with us because we found pens, pencils, ink bottles and other goodies at every stop. We always have to make a decision as we approach Oklahoma City whether to stay on the Mother Road heading northeast to St Louis which is our last jump off to head due north to Iowa or to leave Route 66 here and start heading north. Since we like the Victorian town of Guthrie, also the first capital of Oklahoma, we left Route 66 for this trip.



We spent a little time in downtown Guthrie, Oklahoma this morning, a quaint town about 30 miles north of Oklahoma City right off of Interstate 35. The entire downtown area is on the National Historic Register and there is some pretty amazing architecture. Many times these buildings are torn down or "modernized" so badly over the years, there's no hope left for them, but Guthrie has managed to keep most of their downtown buildings close to original, no small feat. Photos above are of 2 of the more prominent buildings downtown, plus one art deco sign for an antique mall. (yep, found things at this antique mall, too!) Aside from the morning time in downtown Guthrie which is full on antique shops, we made a couple stops in Kansas at shops we hadn't been to before. Desk sets aplenty, which sort of surprised up, but we're not complaining!

Our travel goal today was to get to Kansas City to pick up our friend Cyndie's car that was being serviced and drive it back to Fort Madison. Nice, huh?

We rolled into Fort Madison late Sunday with both cars , made a few stops along Iowa Highway 2, a state scenic byway that just happens to be the way home once we cut off the interstate. Fort Madison is rather off the beaten track, which is one of the reasons we chose to move here, but also not the easiest to get to from major roads. Highway 2 takes you across the bottom of southern Iowa, rolling hills, some Amish communities that haven't changed in the last century and into Van Buren county which has several towns on the National Historic Register. We stopped to grab a bite to eat in Bonaparte at Bonaparte's Retreat, a restaurant in a restored old mill that never disappoints. A quick visit to one of the antique shops yielded a nice Parker 51 and then it was time to drive the last 20 miles of our LA Pen Show Adventure ... we put on 3,768 miles on this trip over 13 days, it was time to come home!

Here's the pen stuff, well most of it that wil have to be sorted, cleaned and repaired before we put it up for sale. We'll work on getting everything unpacked from the LA Pen Show, attempt to get organized and get everyone's orders out that came in while we were away. Thanks for you patience while we were away. We hope you enjoyed this little travelogue as much as we enjoyed putting it together.