Apr. 28: Motor Vu Drive In, Erda UT

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It’s Day 118 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. It took almost three hours to drive from Roosevelt UT through Salt Lake City and over to the Motor Vu Drive In in Erda, on the outskirts of Tooele UT.

According to its web site, the Motor Vu Theaterwas built in 1949 with a maximum capacity of 650 cars, “although we tend to try to keep things below 400 for safety.” The original screen was destroyed by a small tornado in 1993. The drive in has been upgraded to digital projection and uses FM radio sound.

According to a 2008 article in The Salt Lake Tribune, the Motor Vu has been owned by the Bradshaw family since 1962. They were the ones who replaced the screen after that tornado. At the time of the article, the drive-in had “an ancient snack bar with worn tile on the floor, a hot dog cooker on the back counter, a grill for burgers and a snow cone machine. … The women’s bathroom is still called a Powder Room.” Alan Bradshaw told the Tribune that he runs dusk-to-dawn quadruple features on the nights before Memorial Day and Labor Day.

But we’re still a solid month away from Memorial Day. Just like the Echo the night before, the Motor Vu is scheduled to open for the 2017 season on May 5. It was pretty rainy anyway.

Miles Today / Total:  169 / 13093 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 53

Nearby Restaurant: Over in Tooele is a place called American Burgers, and you’ll never guess what it serves: a chicken kabob plate! It seems that in addition to some fine burgers and fries, there’s a fair amount of Greek influence here. I also enjoyed my dinner salad and Mango Bash fruit smoothie.

Where I Virtually Stayed: There are several of my kind of places to stay in Tooele, adjacent to Erda. In the end, I chose the Comfort Inn just off the interstate. My room was big, my bed was comfortable, and breakfast included bacon, eggs, and hash browns. Glad to have something warm in my belly to start off a chilly morning.

Only in Erda: Between Salt Lake City and Erda lies Saltair, sometimes called the cursed resort. According to Wikipedia, Saltair was first built in 1893 on the southern shore of the Great Salt Lake. Meant as a counterpart to Coney Island, it was for a time “the most popular family destination west of New York.” The resort burned in 1925 and 1931, and the lake receded from it in 1933. It was destroyed again by fire in 1970, but in 2005 “several investors from the music industry pooled together to purchase the building and are now holding regular concerts there.”

Next stop: Redwood Drive-in Theatre, West Valley City UT.

Apr. 27: Echo Drive-In, Roosevelt UT

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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.

Apr. 26: Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive In, Minturn CO

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It’s Day 116 of my virtual Drive-In-a-Day Odyssey. It took a little almost three hours to drive down from Fort Collins through the Denver area, across the continental divide in the Eisenhower Tunnel, then on to the Blue Starlite Mini Urban Drive In in Minturn CO.

Minturn, in the Vail Valley, is a pretty small town, but its Little Beach Park got lit up last summer for the latest outpost of the Austin TX-area Blue Starlite franchise. A long, belated article in The Denver Post described owner Josh Frank’s search for a place in Colorado to show movies and Minturn’s economic development director’s response. “This really fits Minturn’s brand,” said Michelle Metteer, “I mean, our mission statement includes the words ‘funky’ and ‘eclectic’ and we want to stay that way. This just worked perfectly.”

They call this the highest drive-in in America, but as I noted a few days ago, the Comanche in Buena Vista is surprisingly about 100 feet higher. Still, both of these places are elevated enough to remind flatland visitors to drink plenty of water to help fight altitude sickness.

The Colorado Blue Starlite is scheduled to open for its 2017 season on June 22. It should be a lot of fun then, but not now, in April.

Miles Today / Total:  165 / 12672 (rounded to the nearest mile)

Movie Showing / Total Active Nights: dark / 53

Nearby Restaurant: The Sticky Fingers Cafe and Bakery is a lovely little place for breakfast and lunch. I think they named the place after folks who eat the cinnamon hot bun without utensils.

Where I Virtually Stayed: It’s sort of an apartment hotel, but the Hotel Minturn fits the bill of being convenient and nice enough to visit. There’s a kitchenette and coffee in every room, and if you didn’t bring any food to cook, it’s not that hard to find breakfast nearby.

Only in Minturn: About halfway between Minturn and Leadville are the ruins of Camp Hale, the training facility for the 10th Mountain Division in World War II. The camp, which housed 15,000 soldiers at its peak, included mess halls, infirmaries, a ski shop, administrative offices, a movie theater, and stables for livestock. From 1959 to 1965, Tibetan guerrillas were secretly trained at Camp Hale by the CIA. In 1965, Camp Hale was dismantled and the land was deeded to the U.S. Forest Service. Since 1974, the area has become a youth development training center.

Next stop: Echo Drive-In, Roosevelt UT.