Roadside Attraction - Photos

I am at the point of working on the roof of the house for my diorama, but this week I only had time to do some experiments on making the roof.  As the house is old and the paint is peeling, it needs a roof to match that age.  I want to make a tin roof, but one that shows dirt and rust.  I performed a few experiments, but only one really looked anything like what I had in mind.  I'm going to do some more experiments.  I will post all of the results on Wednesday.  So, in the mean time, I thought you might enjoy some of my photos of a road side attraction. 

In our travels, we came across a restaurant named Pink Cadillac Diner.  If you say Pink Cadillac to me, I say Springsteen.  However, if you say Pink Cadillac to some people they say something else.  They say.......Elvis??????  Yes.  Apparently Elvis' first touring car was a 1954 pink Cadillac.  So there is some connection.  And I think he might have used the words "pink Cadillac" in one of his songs. 


Anyway, we are driving down on Route 11 just past Natural Bridge Virginia, and the first thing you see is an old 1951 pink Cadillac.  Up the road from that is the Pink Cadillac Restaurant.  There is a statue of King Kong holding a bi-plane in the other.  Obviously this is a replica from the first King Kong movie.  So you know we have to check this out. 

The diner has an Elvis room.  Photos of Elvis everywhere and every sort of collectible.  One wall is covered in wallpaper showing 1951 Cadillacs in pastels of pink, blue, and green.  I'm guessing that this must have been wallpaper made for a dealership because I don't think that many people would have wanted it for their living room.  The other two rooms also have Elvis memorabilia, except not as much.

One of the other rooms was set up as a 1950's style soda fountain.  You could sit at the stools at the bar and order a milk shake or a sundae.  They also had some tables.  The rest rooms were off this area.  They were labeled Lucy and Ricky with a lot of hearts around the names.  Yes, that Lucy and Ricky.   This diner is about the 1950s and they were the hottest couple on television then. 

I looked on the internet to see if I could find any information on how long the diner had been there.  It did not say when they moved to Natural Bridge area.  I know it has been several years, but I don't know how much longer beyond that. 

All in all, it is an homage to the American Road Trip in the big touring cars.  Before the general public took to air travel, the way to vacation was to take to the road.  You can still see the old hotels along the way, although many of them have fallen on hard times after the building of the interstates.  But it was the family vacation and adventure of the times.  This place is a little time capsule of how things used to be.