The Shady Dell & Modern Optic

This is a Road Trip

I am hoping on my next landmark birthday – when you jump a decade and your new age ends in a zero – to gather up a group of my family and friends and caravan across the state border into Bisbee, AZ.  That is where The Shady Dell Airstream Motel is.  And all of the “rooms” are actually separate, vintage, aluminum travel trailers.  With their own little front yards and metal motel chairs.  They seem like the most perfect backdrop for a road trip with friends and kin.

The interiors are authentic with blonde wood or aluminum details. The radios play music from the 50’s with lots of the Rat Pack.  Dot’s Diner (a landmark in LA and then moved to Shady Dell after it closed in 1999) is the hub for visitors to enjoy fine diner-dining. You get a real percolator (remember how the little glass button on top would bubble with perking coffee? I can still remember the song that kept rhythm to the bubbling for Maxwell House Coffee’s TV jingle) in your kitsch-y kitchen. I have only read about it, but from other’s reviews – it does not disappoint in any way.

The Shady Dell

1 Douglas Road  Bisbee, AZ

This is A Little Find

On the topic of Airstreams… this artist, Leslie Ross-Robertson, has been on my favorites list for a very long time.  I discovered her work in LA at Hennessey + Ingall book store – a store specializing in architecture and design. Her company is called Modern Optic.  When I am near H + I, I make a point of getting a new stash of her greeting cards.  I send them often, people love them, and I have a personal collection that I keep and enjoy.  They are absolutely frame-able.   This image is called Mobile Highlife #164.

I hope to do some more Airstream research for Vacancy at the Design Motel.  It is an iconic design with fun written all over it. I have actually looked into getting a Bambi Teardrop and converting it to an office on the side of my front yard.  I would never want to leave.

Come back often…

Bonnie

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 The Welcome Post, January 7, 2011, shows a road map of what will be included in future  posts by way of The Arty Adventure Highway.