Note: Since snow covers clues in the winter, I will reveal the final coordinates during the winter and try to remember to hide the coordinates again after snowmelt.
This is another in the Vintage Neon Sign series of caches. This is a simple two-stage multi. It's not very far but you will need a car or bike to get to Stage II. Make observations at Stage I in order to find the coordinates for the final container.
Neon
Neon signs are a reminder of a time gone by, when American families hit the road in their 1950's Impala and stopped along the way, having been lured in to the hotel by the glowing neon sign they spotted from a few miles down the road. Neon signs hit their peak popularity in the 1920s to the 1960s and in those years streets and byways were aglow with bright, attractive neon signs.
Neon was first unveiled by Georges Claude, a French engineer, at the Paris Motor Show in France in 1910. By sending a voltage through the electrodes in a sealed glass tube containing rarified gas, Claude discovered that the tube would give off a “glow discharge.” After realizing its signage and marketing potential, Claude opened the Claude Neon company.
In 1923, Claude brought neon signage to the United States, selling two signs to a Packard car dealership in Los Angeles. The signs were so bright that passersby would stop and stare, as they could see the glow even during the daytime. The neon signage craze spread like wildfire and became a staple in outdoor advertising.
While neon was the original gas used in neon signs, it is only responsible for a few colors, mostly red and orange tones. Argon, doped with a bit of mercury and using phosphorescent coatings on the glass, was the other gas to produce such glowing effects, with colors ranging from blue, to yellow, green, purple and white.
Galaxy Diner
The Galaxy Diner is located in Flagstaff, Arizona on historic Route 66 West. Arizona is home to one of the largest stretches of Route 66, the iconic highway of Americana. The Galaxy Diner, originally opened in 1952, is one of the restaurants that managed to survive on the historic route even after the interstate replaced the 66 highway. There were originally six Galaxy Diners in the franchise, but the one in Flagstaff is the last one to remain open. I like to think the neon sign contributed significantly to its staying power.
The diner is a nostalgic example of the golden age of classic diners on the legendary Route 66 before it was ‘historic.’ The classic diner’s walls are covered in the portraits of Hollywood celebrities from the last century. There are photos of nostalgic film stars such as Lucille Ball, James Dean, Judy Garland, Humphrey Bogart, Marilyn Monroe and John Wayne, to name just a few.
Many of the pictures that have hung on the diner’s walls for years and are actually owned by Will Pillen, who started putting them up after he began working as the diner's manager in 2006. “My mother worked out of Hollywood. She was a model when she was young, so she had her connections and I inherited a lot of it,” Pillen said. “So I slowly put it up - of course, I bought a lot of it too.”
Attracted by the neon sign and Route 66 Americana on display, large buses of tourists often schedule ahead of time to visit the diner between trips to the Grand Canyon or Monument Valley.
Make observations at Stage I to get answers for Stage II. Note: If you are vertically challenged, and you don't have a stepstool in your car, as at all my caches if you can make visual contact with the container you can count that as a find, just please make a note in your log.
N 35° A0.674'
W 111° 42.C73'
A = Count the number of ovals in the front entry door.
B = 8
C = Count the number of wooden stars in the front yard. Multiply by 2.
Checker: Add your answers for A+B+C should equal 15.
FTF: Sally Sedona!