Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Lounge Chair Road Trip No. 6: East on Highway 50 to Fred's Place

 Good morning, Tina here.

Today we are going to take a Lounge Chair Road Trip East on Highway 50 to Fred's Place. This place was once a very busy spot, a good place to stop before or after going to Wright's Lake. Get gas, groceries, eat a meal, spend the night. Now it is just a large area off the roadway where CalTrans might store gravel and other necessities.


Before Fred's Place there was a hotel called Champlain House. I haven't found any photos of that place.


You can tell by the amount of postcards that this was a popular spot,


One of the postcards has a note on the back from the owner, mentioning that they have just added rooms, as you can tell by the dormer windows on the building on the right below.


It is hard to believe this is all gone.


I would love to be able to look around inside the rooms and visit the store.



I wonder if the large boulder above is still there?


Maybe we could sit in the bar and have a hot toddy or mulled wine and watch it snow.


It's really coming down out there. Brrrr!


Love those old cars!


The old gas pumps are really interesting, probably gone to scrap years ago.


Linen postcards were very popular at one time, they allowed the black and white photos to be colorized,


Fewer buildings in the card above, this is one of the older shots.


 No dormers on the hotel on the right below.


Although there is no snow in the picture above, it makes me feel very cold.


Fred was one heck of a busy guy!


We will end our road trip with an advertisement from an early 1950's Highway 50 Wagon Train program.


I think I will dig into an Italian dinner, can't beat that price!

We will be going on another Road Trip soon, so come back and travel with us!

4 comments:

lorlore said...

Very nice roadtrip, thanks so much!!!!!

Heidi Ann said...

What a great collection of postcards!
It is sad that so many great old places like that are gone.
I love your Lounge Chair Road Trips.
Do you know when it was torn down or whatever?

Thimblelina said...

Love the long dresses and big hats the ladies are wearing in the card with the boulder. Pretty sure I was born too late.

Thanks for the trip back.

Mary

FOS said...

Why does CalTrans still tell people that chains are required on Hwy 50 from Fred’s place to Meyers when no on knows where Fred’s Place is anymore?