About that corner in Winslow...

For the most part, Winslow, Arizona, is a route 66 ghost town, bypassed by I-40 in 1977. Riding into and out of town you pass a bunch of boarded-up or simply abandoned motels and cafes, and the main street has a few shops and local government buildings, and not a lot more. There's one terrific hotel, though. La Posada is an old Harvey Railroad hotel in the process of being restored as a labor of love by a group of artist-entrepreneurs; beautiful building, designed by Mary Colter as a fantasy of an old Spanish land baron's hacienda, and a first-rate restaurant that serves elk, quail, venison, and the best breakfast I've had on the road - eggs baked over polenta with a green chile sauce. There's still an Amtrak station attached to the hotel, and a heavily trafficked freight line passes right behind it (actually, it passes what used to be the front when most guests were traveling through on the RR) with about 90 trains a day going by. They've parked some rockers near the tracks, and in the evening you can sit outside with a drink and watch the trains go by, which is what passes for night-life in Winslow.

Aside from the hotel, the main reason to stop in Winslow is to stand on the corner. There's a bronze statue of a generic Jackson Browne type in front of a mural of a low-rise apartment block with a couple embracing in one window, an eagle in another, and a painted girl waving out of a flat-bed Ford. A year or two ago, the building supporting the wall burned down, miraculously leaving the wall intact. They had to put a fence in front of it, though, until they can get it fully stabilized (an ongoing municipal project). To compensate slightly, they've parked a red Ford truck on the block. Across the street on both the western and southern corners are two stores dedicated to selling on-the-corner t-shirts, Route 66 memorabilia, and Eagles' CDs. That's Winslow.

We took pictures of the setting (and some local murals) - and on the way out of town we played the Eagles version of "Take It Easy". We both sang along with big smiles because after all, we had been there and done that.