Photo by Chris1982 via Cinema Treasures

It’s Day 117 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. I beat the afternoon, late-April snow, but it took a little a solid four and a half hours to drive from the Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive In in Minturn CO to the Echo Drive-In in Roosevelt UT.

According to a 2010 article in The Salt Lake Tribune, the Echo was owned by Richard and Wilma Snow and started in 1958. That might be off by a year or two. A couple of months ago, the folks at the Basin in Mount Pleasant UT told me that the Echo already existed when they moved the Basin out of Roosevelt. Normally, I’d check my reference books, but the Echo is another of those stealth drive-ins; it never appeared in any drive-in list in any edition of the International Motion Picture Almanac.

Commenters on a 2013 article in the Tribune noted that the Echo has the largest screen in the state and Utah’s first digital projector.

It was a Thursday night, and I was off by eight days. The Echo will open for the 2017 season on May 5.

Miles Today / Total:  252 / 12924 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 53

Nearby Restaurant: I got to watch them fling the dough at Mama Lia’s Pizza. That got me ready for my “veggi” pizza stacked with freshly sliced vegetables. There were even a few games around to keep me distracted while I waited for my fresh pie.

Where I Virtually Stayed: Just outside of town, still on US 40, I found the Comfort Inn Ballard-Roosevelt. My bed was clean and comfortable, there was a fridge in the room, I had an indoor pool if I wanted to swim, and there was sausage and fruit with breakfast. It’s all good.

Only in Roosevelt: According to Roadside America, a giant statue of a Native American with a headdress sits on Main Street Roosevelt. He is seated in front of a nail salon, but the building previously housed the Moqui Indian Trading Post. The statue was built out of cement by Darrell Gardner in the early 1970s.

Next stop: Motor Vu Drive In, Erda UT.