After our long day touring we were looking forward to
getting some rest. I promised Himself
that this time we wouldn’t be sleeping in a “junk yard” (http://teri-gonewalkabout2.blogspot.com/2011/05/southern-adventure-our-next-lodging-was.html
). Nope, we didn’t sleep in a shack…
…we slept in a wigwam!!
The look on his face was priceless!
And it just kept getting better!
The room was small but adequate. A bed, chair, dressing table and stool, and a
TV on a stand.
Himself got a kick out of the ceiling. Said he felt like he was in a spider
web. LOL
Wigwam, sweet wigwam.
The
Wigwam Motels, (http://www.wigwamvillage.com/
) also known as the "Wigwam Villages", is a motel chain in the United
States in which the rooms are built in the form of tipis, mistakenly referred
to as wigwams. It originally had seven different locations: two locations in
Kentucky, a location in Alabama, another location in Florida, one in Arizona,
one in Louisiana, and another one in California. They are very distinctive
historic landmarks. Two of the three surviving motels are located on historic
U.S. Route 66, in Holbrook, Arizona and on the city boundary between Rialto and
San Bernardino, California.
Frank
A. Redford applied for a patent on the ornamental design of the building on
December 17, 1935, and was granted design patent 98,617 on February 18, 1936.
Seven Wigwam Villages were built between 1933 and 1949.
Wigwam
village #2 was built in 1937 a few miles south of the original wigwam village
#1, but on US-31W in Cave City. It was built consisting of 15 wigwams used as
guest rooms and a much bigger concrete and steel central structure that
originally served as a restaurant. The 15 wigwams are arranged in a semi circle
around a common area with playground and recreation area. Each wigwam has a
paved pad to accommodate one car.
The
diameter at the base of each tipi is 14 feet (4.3 m), they are 32 feet (9.8 m)
in height. Behind the main room of each unit is a small bathroom with sink,
toilet, and shower. In 2008, the rooms contain the original restored hickory
furniture, cable TV and a window mounted air conditioner. There are no
telephones to maintain the original atmosphere of the motel, though there is
internet access. The restaurant is no longer in operation, but the motel is
still open and welcoming guests.
Wigwam
village #2 is close to Mammoth Cave National Park and listed in the National
Register of Historic Places. The motel is located on 601 North Dixie Hwy, Cave
City, Kentucky. ~~ Wikipedia ~~
Directly behind our ‘wigwam’ was the pavilion. So we pulled out our brand-new Kingsman grill
and fired it up for a cook-out.
Cooking up our ‘foil
potatoes’ and some home canned green beans I bought from an Amish lady at a
roadside stand. So good!
Himself enjoying supper: grilled steak, green beans,…
… and cheesy foil potatoes.
And nothing is more “Americana” than an apple pie for
dessert!
Soon it was time to get some sleep so we would be ready for the next day's travels.
Thank you so much for posting this, Teri. I had the pleasure of staying in one of those wigwam hotels when I was growing up and your post brought back memories! My dad was big on road trips and I remember one night "all of us kids" (as we referred to ourselves) were getting restless after mile after mile of blacktop stretched before us, cramped in the backseat. To liven things up, Dad pulled into the wigwam hotel. Whoo-hoo, what fun!
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