A Tribute to Bob Waldmire by Ken Turmel

LEGENDARY ROUTE 66

A Tribute to Bob Waldmire

By Ken "The Land Runner" Turmel

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Greetings Fellow Route 66'ers and those of you who are personal friends of my dear and close roadie buddy, Bob Waldmire. It pained me dearly to hear the most unfortunate news that Bob passed on December 16, 2009.

Bob and Me

Bob and I spent many days together. We both had a common thread of interest in capturing the beauty and history along the Mother Road. Bob, with his nature observant pen and ink drawings, and I, with photography and collecting postmarks. His were artwork masterpieces and mine were historical documents, yet both our works were displayed side by side on many walls along Route 66. We both had fallen in love with the highway long before we had met each other, yet when we first shook hands we were instantly brothers, as if we had known each other since childhood. It seemed that we were just two little boys playing in the same sandbox that stretched from Chicago to Los Angeles.

Bob Waldmire and his VW van, by Ken Turmel

We chuckled and laughed together often every time that one of us found a road treasure that the other never saw before -- kind of like a scavenger hunt along the Mother Road. We always shared each idea that popped into our heads in hopes that we could find a way to cherish that idea, or what Bob referred to as a "new find." We went as far as making plans for an artwork collaboration together in which, we were going to combine the expertise of his "bird's eye view" drawings in pen and ink along with my photography and the collection of postmarks from various historic locations. What were we going to call this new artwork? BobKenArt, of course.

We knew from the start that this idea was going to top the charts in popularity, yet, we never seemed to be able to find the time to complete our magical collaboration, for each of us suddenly and unexpectedly fell head over heels with a new love. He, with an unbridled desire to design and build his own eco-friendly dream paradise homestead located in a lone remote section of the Chiricahua Mountains in southeast Arizona, and I, with a rekindled passion for motorcycles which, began a participation as a lead guide bike rider touring foreigners along Route 66. Over the years we both grew apart, not spiritually nor mentally, but in the physical sense of being so many miles away from each other. He being tucked away nice and cozy at his homestead site nestled in the desert mountain foothills, while I was always away on the move being a motor horse vagabond along the road. It's like we traded places with each other in order for us to reach our own personal goals. It was strange indeed. So, off we both went in a search to recapture and nourish the dreams of our youth. Bob and I had spent so many great times together that it would take several weeks and many chapters for me to share them all. But, it only makes sense for me to briefly share my story describing the first few days that I had spent with Bob and the last few days as well.

It Begins in Hackberry, Arizona

It was a cold and blustering day early on in our new found brotherhood when I pulled into the gravel drive of his General Store in Hackberry, Arizona. I had already been there a number of times before and he had already graced the Route 66 PostmarkArt with his signature along with the inked stamp of his General Store. My previous initial visits with Bob were of fairly short durations due to my tight traveling schedule going from post office to post office gathering postmarks onto the Route 66 commemoration document. This visit, in particular, was different though. With temperatures well below freezing and a thick dusting of fresh snow upon the ground, I came upon Bob outside in front of his store. He was squatting down low doing something unfamiliar to me, while dressed only in side pocket shorts, unlaced combat style boots and wearing only a bathrobe for covering. Holy cow, I thought to my self out loud, he must be freezing his ass off out here! As I unsaddled down from Ol' Betsy and was approaching Bob from behind, he never turned around, diligently poking a spatula at something that was inside some sort of shiny box-like contraption.

The Hackberry General Store, Kathy Weiser, December, 2004.

Hey Bob! Whatcha doing out here in the snow? He turned around smiling as if he already knew that I was going to ask him that question. "Hi Ken", he replied, "I'm out here baking a homemade veggie pizza in my solar oven! Want some? It should be done in ten or fifteen minutes or so." Well, of course Bob! What the heck, it sounded good and I was hungry. I never had pizza baked outside like this before. What is this crazy looking thing?, I asked. Bob replied, "This is my solar oven. Come here close and feel how hot it gets. Look at that thermometer inside... it's almost 200 degrees inside there even though there is a 20 degree wind chill here outside." Wow! That is remarkable, Bob! I had never ever seen anything like this before. Bob was always coming up new inventions and odd things to show me. From a gizmo to heat water from the sunlight, to a water saving sink built atop of his toilet tank. Everything had a special purpose for saving money and energy for Bob. Incredible fellow indeed!

After the man hugs and our usual catching up on news chit chat, we went inside and enjoyed the pizza along with some slices of his special fruitcake made with only Bob's specially approved "healthy vegetarian" ingredients, of which included some roasted hemp seeds. You heard right... hemp seeds! This is awesome fruitcake Bob but what the f... then he interrupted with a comment saying, "Just gotta have that delicious hemp seed 'crunch' inside my fruitcakes." That was Bob for ya! We broke into a hearty laugh. After the unusual, yet, wonderfully tasty lunch, Bob poured a couple glasses of his homemade brew herbal sun tea, then whipped out his hand crafted tree branch smoking pipe and loaded it up with his special blend of herb while saying, "Come on Ken let's do a bowl or two while I show you some of my new projects that I've been working on." Once again Bob made me smile as he did his usual head bopping with his shit eating grin on. Go ahead man, fire it up! It wasn't long after that when we both stumbled off all squint-eyed and smiles to his newly constructed Plexiglas lean-to hothouse for a showing of all the plants and vegetables that were growing in there. The edible ones that is.

Continued Next Page

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From the Rocky Mountain General Store

Route 66 Signs For All Eight States - Collect all the shields of the eight states along the Mother Road. These metal signs are silk screened on solid metal and have hemmed edges. Ready for hanging from pre-drilled holes in the corners. Put it up in your bar, dorm room, game room, kitchen, garage, patio or anywhere you'd like! Makes a GREAT gift for your family and friends! Measures approximately 11"x11" Collect all eight states!!