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Updated: February 05 2012
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With Posturepedic pillowtop mattresses, HDTVs and free wi-fi, it's easy to discern that the Talley's understand how to keep the spirit of Route 66 alive while serving today's customers' needs.
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Tucumcari is on old Route 66, so they have a lot of these type of 'old school' motels. Some of them looked run-down, others were completely closed, but others were being brought back to their Route 66 livelihood. Motel Safari is definitely one motel roaring back to it's Route 66 glory days!
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and found our time capsule for the night, the Motel Safari. I parted the thin veil that separates the past from the present when entering the lobby and in an instant memories from a childhood spent cruising U.S. 66 filled my mind and stayed with me throughout the evening.
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If I weren't so madly in love with the Swallow's spectacular neon, the Safari might well supplant it as my favorite Route 66 motel; it's just as clean, just as comfortable, and you know a girl who decorated her living room with Danish modern tables and a knockoff of an Eero Aarnio ball chair has to love a Googie building full of mid-century furniture. Very cool.
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Flickering neon along Tucumcari's six miles of 66 makes it look like a mini Las Vegas at night. Motel Safari was memorable: The 1959 motel's rooms have been refurbished with luxurious pillow-top mattresses and flat-screen televisions. More than two dozen murals dot the town, including the Safari's "Tucumcari Tonight!" tour bus. Many curio shops, motels and restaurants that thrived in the 1940s-50s remain.
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When you see the hotel sign with a camel on it, you've arrived. After a long day of driving, the Sealy Posturepedic mattresses offer welcome respite. Pricier modern hotels around the country should hang their pillow-tops in shame for charging 3 to 5 times to do what the Motel Safari does -- and only half as well.
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author John Heitmann writes: "It had to be a car-friendly place, since a 1964 Galaxie is parked near the office. I must say this place did not disappoint. - and perhaps the world's most comfortable bed!"
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Showcased on new site: Route 66 World.com "Motel Safari"
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I am showcasing the Motel Safari in Tucumcari, New Mexico for two reasons:
1) It is a historic motel that has just about stayed close to character as you will find (plus internet and a flat screen TV!!)
2) These folks saw the importance in preserving the motel, as well as many other stops along the route, for thousands of travelers and future generations.
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Here's a nice little video shot from one of our guests from overseas, now posted on youtube.com! Thanks Wolfgang and Marion, we appreciate you sharing with everyone and we hope to see you both again soon. Note: the sign had just been damaged from 70 mph wind gusts in a storm at the time, and has since been repaired. Their footage of some of our town's wall murals at the end, are fabulous!
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Chamber executive director Bob Beaulieu said the idea was hatched on Saturday morning when a group of volunteers painted the gas station next to the chamber of commerce. The original goal was simply to give the building a two-tone paint job, but Beaulieu said volunteer Richard Talley, who co-owns Motel Safari, had a different idea.
"As we were nearing the end, Richard came up with the thought of, 'Why don't we paint it like the old Whiting Brothers (gas station)?' Then we stopped all of the two-tone thoughts and said, 'Yeah, let's work on that.' Then I called the owner and got permission to work on that, and they said yes."
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Although the motel is over 50 years old it has had only three owners until Smalltown America acquired the motel in late 2007. All the guestroom art work are productions of original photo archives from the local area's history dating even before the Mother Road's existence. One of the photos was taken looking East down Route 66 in 1959, just before the motel was built. Most of the furniture in the guest rooms are original from the day the motel was built and were custom made on site during construction.
Two wall murals have been added by local artist Doug Quarles. One of Elvis arriving to check in, standing by a 1959 Cadillac, complete with tail fins. The other of a 1950's Flxible Clipper Santa Fe Trailways tour bus with TUCUMCARI TONITE as its destination.
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The latest over at: Brandland USA "Motel Safari"
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Restored American motels keep popping up, a witness to the American need to preserve some of the more interesting parts of the American roadside, especially on Route 66.
Here, is the Safari Motel in Tucumcari. Tell the kids it's the sort of roadside attraction from Pixar's Cars. The hotel is apparently owned by Richard Talley, president of Smalltown America, a company he set up to buy and run motels along Route 66.
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Talley is president of Smalltown America, whose goal is to buy, renovate and reopen some of the motels along the route. His first project was the Motel Safari in Tucumari, NM, a 23-room structure built in the 1950s.
"There are still a lot of families and highway traffic that come through town, that love the old hotels but don't want to be on a 50-year-old mattress with the springs popping through it," he says.
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Smalltown America is set to open its first refurbished Route 66 motel, the Motel Safari in Tucumcari, N.M., on Feb. 18. It bought the motel on Dec. 7 and extensively remodeled it.
"We try to reuse as much of the old furnishings as possible to maintain its original image in history, but we don't sacrifice on quality," Talley said of the 23-room motel, which dates to at least the 1950s. "For instance, Motel Safari will have 32-inch flat panel LCD TVs, high-speed Internet, Sealy Posturepedic pillow-top mattresses, and the works. But the desk furniture, the chairs, the vanities, will be the same. Everything that we can keep, we do."
The company seeks to revamp old Route 66 motels, boost their value, and use the equity to help buy another old motel.
Talley said Smalltown America originally envisioned acquiring 100 old motel properties on historic highways all across America, not just on Route 66. But, over time, he decided that Route 66 was better because it had "more exposure." He considered old motels on Highway 101 on the West Coast, but decided it was too risky at this time to delve into "million-dollar properties." He decided there were better values in small towns on the Mother Road.
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I've often longed for the days that preceded me, when lodges with names like the Hiway Host and the Come On Inn could be counted on to provide a clean shower and a pleasant night's rest without the peeling ceilings and questionable sounds coming from the room next door.
Well, someone's finally turning back the clock. Smalltown America Inns, Lodges and Motels has launched an effort to buy up classic roadside motor courts and restore them to their former glory, with a few modern amenities thrown in.
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Built in 1959, the Motel Safari was recently renovated by an entrepreneur, who started Smalltown America last year with the goal of preserving historic motels on Route 66. "Eventually we'd like to renovate one Route 66 motel from every state," Talley says. The Motel Safari, which reopened on Feb. 18, was updated with brand-new amenities while maintaining a retro feel, he says. Additionally, the renovation went green by incorporating low burning water heaters, reducing water use, and utilizing low voltage electrics.
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Do you remember driving Route 66? Wish you did? While some of the Mom and Pop motels are still in operation, many are not. Wish you could have stayed in some of the amazing motels along the way?
Actually, you can, the Motel Safari was recently purchased by a company called, yep, you guessed it, Smalltown America. And, the company aims to restore vintage Route 66 motels.
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