Hi - Lo Motel Cafe - Weed, CA

If you like stately mountains and coniferous forest, Northern California is definitely the place for you. This expansive area is home to countless creeks and swimming holes, with broad vistas and shady groves to boot.

Another highlight of the region serves up good food and comfortable lodging to the weary auto-tourist. The sign for this place beckons both night and day, calling the hungry and tired to stop and stay awhile. This time, let's stop in at the Hi - Lo!

Nestled on the Old 99 in the still-small-town of Weed, we find the Hi - Lo Motel Cafe back in the days of Ike:

The fate of many 40's - 50's motels isn't always as pretty as a postcard from the past. Many end up surrounded by chain-link fence, with their pools drained and defaced by local wise-acres.

Having said that, I’m quite pleased to report that the Hi - Lo lives on, even though Mt. Shasta was 'Obscured By Clouds' during this recent visit:

The grounds were well kept and the restaurant was bustling. And guess what? The M-O-T-E-L and C-A-F-E letters in the classic sign still light up in sequence, although it's hard to tell on such a bright sunny day:

Maybe next time we'll try one of their Refreshing Root Beer Floats.


Thanks for visiting. See you next time...

Norwalk Car Wash - Firestone Blvd

Here we find a near-cousin of the Slauson Car Wash. Perhaps it was built using the same plans? Those fins appear to be very similar…

The good news about this wash-n-shine is that it looks to be as popular and well maintained as it ever was during its heyday:

Nearby are the shuttered remains of an old Van De Kamps restaurant (note the distinct former-Windmill tower) that had evolved into a Norm’s at some point:

Since Norm’s is closed, let’s have a bite at Douglas Burgers, where they Char-Broil the patties and also serve up Breakfast, Pastrami, and of course Burritos and Tacos.

From what I can find online, it appears that this place has been serving up some awesome (if fatty) food for quite some time:

That’s all for now, see you down the road…

Pacific Car Wash & Bob's Big Boy

At the risk of being typecast, I hereby present another installment in the 'SoCal Classic Car Wash' series: Pacific Car Wash

Located at 12050 Beach Blvd in Stanton, California, it looks like the Pacific has seen a lot of classic autos pass through it's gates over the years. Thankfully, most of it's 60's stylings remain, but I'm guessing that the large sign used to be a bit more 'grand':

And just for good measure, here's a shot of the former Bob's Big Boy on Harbor Blvd near Disneyland. This place was vacant for a while a few years back; I'm glad that Coco's picked it up and didn't change the look:

Happy travels until next time...

Slauson Car Wash

If only to show that I'm still around, here's a nice 'drive-by' shot of the Slauson Car Wash at 3615 West Slauson Avenue, Los Angeles:

The Slauson is just one of many fantastic 50's/60's style car washes scattered throughout the LA region.

I passed by after a stop at Simply Wholesome, which is housed in the former Googie landmark 'The Wich Stand' coffee shop & lounge.

Thanks for stopping by, I'll try to be back with a real post in the near future...