Way back in 1925 young Allan Odell pitched this great sales idea to his father, Clinton. Use small, wooden roadside signs to pitch their product, Burma-Shave, a brushless shaving cream. Dad wasn't wild about the idea but eventually gave Allan $200 to give it a try.
Didn't take long for sales to soar. Soon Allan and his brother Leonard were putting up signs all over the dang place. At first the signs were pure sales pitch but as the years passed they found their sense of humor extending to safety tips and pure fun. And some good old-fashioned down home wisdom.
At their height of popularity there were 7,000 Burma-Shave signs stretching across America. The familiar white on red signs, grouped by four, fives and sixes, were as much a part of a family trip as irritating your kid brother in the back seat of the car. You'd read first one, then another, anticipating the punch line on number five and the familiar Burma-Shave on the sixth.
The signs cheered many during the Depression and the dark days of World War II. But things began to change in the late Fifties. Cars got faster and superhighways got built to accommodate them. The fun little signs were being replaced by huge billboards.
I copied the information above from a website: http://www.fiftiesweb.com/burma.htm because I wanted to share a little history on an American Icon that I got to see. The Burma-Shave signs. The site reported that “1963 was the last year for new Burma-Shave signs. No more red and white nuggets of roadside wisdom to ease the journey.” But I’m here to tell you that there are some out there along a long stretch of asphalt on Route 66, somewhere in Arizona. Unless I was hallucinating from the sheer number of miles we’ve driven to this point on Day 14, this is what we saw:
It’d be more fun
To go by air
If we could put
These signs up there!
Burma-Shave
He tried to cross
As the fast train neared
But it was for his death
He volunteered.
Burma-Shave
One who drives
When he’s been drinking
Depends on you
To do his thinking
Burma-Shave
If Daisies are
Your favorite flower
Keep pushin up
Those miles per hour
Burma Shave
Cattle crossing
Means go slow
That old bull
Is some cow’s beau
Burma-Shave
You can drive
A mile a minute
But there is
No future in it
Burma-Shave
I’d heard about these signs. It was really cool to see them in person, and it sure broke up that long stretch of road for us. Little pearls of wisdom along the roadway. Besides the Burma-Shave signs, the signs in general along Route 66 were pretty cool…from “Hippies Must Use Side Door” to cool old Greyhound signs, Mobil gas signs from days gone by.
DAY 14 - Pat was bummed when he saw the sign...HIPPIES USE SIDE DOOR!Day 14 found a few of the normal breakdowns. We left from Flagstaff this morning in COLD weather, but it didn’t last long as we made the continual descent down into the warmer part of Arizona and headed across to Laughlin, Nevada. 221 miles today. We had the pleasure giving Jeff Decker a ride in the Team Effie van for a while. We got him to the lunch stop at Mother Lode Harley Davidson in Kingman, Arizona, where he met his crew and continued on. We came up on Bill Nugent with a flat rear tire on his replacement bike. He wasn’t on the Sears today. Effie and Cris were doing fine, just trying to stay cool after the some 50 degree temperature swing as they headed into the desert. Many of the riders have the cool vest that you soak in water and wear to keep cool while riding. Cris borrowed one, and reported it helped a lot.
Toast met back up with us in Kingman today. It was great to have her back on board! We missed her!
The next challenge was Sitgreaves Pass, which is considered the most dangerous part of Route 66. Riders were offered the opportunity to not ride the pass, but everyone gave it a shot. The pass was really twisty and steep – so of course you worry about the braking power on the old bikes coming down the back side of the pass. We started up the pass following some of the bikes, and it seemed like they were enjoying the challenge. For us in the van, the challenge was feeling really big on small roads with no guard rails (we decided this pass would be way more fun on a bike!), and Athena’s fear of no guard rails, along with her motion sickness problem. She gets car sick real easy. So I watched the edges and she just drove. This was a HUGE accomplishment for her. She conquered some fears for sure. And she called her husband Don when we arrived today to tell him how proud he would have been to see her maneuver the van through that pass.
DAY 14 - Athena and I at the top of Sitgreaves Pass. What a ride that was! Athena gets motion sick and has a fear of roads with no guardrails...and conquered ALL of that and then some on this stretch of road. I was really proud of her. A lot of this whole trip was about challenging ourselves and conquering fears.At the bottom of the pass is Oatman, Arizona. Oatman is a fun place to visit - an authentic old western town with burros roaming the streets and gunfights staged on weekends. The burros are tame and can be hand fed. As the story goes, Oatman's "Wild" Burros are the descendants of burros brought there by the miners in the late 1800’s. When the miners no longer needed them, they were turned loose. Each morning they come into town looking for food. They wander the streets and greet the tourists. Burro pellets and carrots are for sale at many of the shops. Shortly before the sunset they will wander back to the hills for the night. We didn’t get to stay there long enough to feed the burros, but definitely they were roaming the streets and climbing the steps into the shops, and greeting the visitors. Strange site really.
DAY 14 - Look at the ASS in this picture. Hahaha. I mean the donkey in the background! I had heard about how the donkeys roam the streets in Oatman, Arizona, but I'd never been there. They do! And they even climb the stairs and go into the stores. It was a crazy thing to see.About 20 miles out of Laughlin we found Rick McMaken, one of the Ruffians, changing his front tire roadside. Thankfully he kept the bike up when the tire deflated, and thankfully he had a spare. That night all of the Ruffians checked and many changed their tires for the last few days of this journey. It was the only time that there was stress and chaos at the Ruffians camp. These guys have been calm, cool, and confident this entire trip, but with a few snags and not the best equipment to get those tires changed in a parking lot, I really felt for them. I walked through camp and offered a good word. Actually I was praying silently over their camp as well. They’ve done so good, I didn’t want to see anything bad happen now.
DAY 14 - #38, Rick of the Ruffians, had a flat front tire right outside of Laughlin. But the Ruffians were ready and were able to change it roadside. Rick finished with perfect score!We did the regular maintenance on Effie, and got to eat together as a team tonight. Got to bed by midnight and slept tight, until about 4 AM when some partiers were playing with the fire alarms. Oh well. I was exhausted so it didn’t take too long to get back to sleep, and added to the adventure of it all!
Couple more days left! Santa Monica, here we come! I haven’t wanted to say much to this point, so as not to jinx us, but I think we will make it across the finish line!
DAY 14 - SOMEWHERE ON HISTORIC ROUTE 66 
DAY 14 - STOPPING FOR A REST ALONG HISTORIC ROUTE 66 
DAY 14 - "YOU ARE HERE" the sign said even though I wasn't really sure where HERE was, but it was a cool place with a cool sign. Somewhere along Route 66 on day 14. 
DAY 14 - Just in case you needed to catch a bus out here in the middle of nowhere, somewhere along Route 66
DAY 14 - Down through Oatman Arizona on Route 66 
DAY 14 - Just getting into Laughlin after a long HOT day. If you were on a new bike and it was smoking like this, you'd be panicked. But on these 95-100 year old bikes, this is a pretty normal scene. Michael Lichter was there to capture the moment also. 
DAY 14 - Effie crosses the finish line at the end of Day 14 in Laughlin, NV after a long hot ride. No major problems today for Team Effie though, so we were pretty thankful for that. Off to get her ready for day 15! 
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