Big footprint

SAN JON — It’s footwear worthy for King Kong if he’d been a Jimmy Buffett fan.

Along the main drag of Route 66 in this eastern Quay County village sits a 40-foot-long behemoth under construction that aims to lay claim as the world’s largest flip-flop.

It’s the brainchild of Jumah Culhane and wife Caryn Grzegorek, who in a few weeks will open a flip-flop-themed gift shop called Fun-Key Junk Emporium at the site of a long-closed gas station.

Jumah said in a phone interview he and his wife, last based in South Carolina, decided to embark on a road trip a few years ago during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“As we’re doing Route 66, we found free camping here in San Jon,” he recalled. “It was a nice little quiet village. We went ahead and finished Route 66, did it in reverse, stopped in San Jon again, really kind of fell in love with the area.

“Once we returned home, we started looking for properties that we could rehabilitate, either a gas station or an old hotel or motel. And we found one just happened to be for sale here in San Jon.”

Culhane said the gas station building — he believes it to be a former Exxon or Texaco — was too far one to rehabilitate. He said they will install a portable building that will house their Fun-Key Emporium. They want to open it about Nov. 1. For now, many of their products are on Etsy.

In the past year, they also spent much of their time building the framework of the giant flip-flop they hope will draw tourists and potential customers.

He said Steve Kent of SS Kent Construction donated the equipment to lift the 40-by-15-foot wooden skeleton of the structure into place last week.

Grzegorek said the scale of the project became apparent when it was erected.

“Once they stood it up, it’s huge!” she said.

Culhane said he hopes to have the big flip-flop finished by spring.

“The hardest part was getting the bones set up,” he said. “It’ll be much, much more rapid to finish it.

“I want to use old tire treads for the sole in theme with the Route 66,” he added. “And then the front part, we’re going to have our big toe loop and strap, and stucco it so it can be painted in case we want to do something for breast cancer awareness. We can paint it pink or certain other colors. We can have fun with it.”

At the site Thursday, Culhane emplaned how he would obtain 5-inch-thick tow rope from the Great Lakes for the toe loop.

He said he also would use about 5,000 bricks from the long-defunct schoolhouse in Bard for a walkway around the shop and flip-flop, along with their collection of antiques and memorabilia.

Culhane said once the big flip-flop is finished, Grzegorek will submit the paperwork so it might be listed in the Guinness Book of World Records.

“We’re just trying to spark a little more life here into San Jon because this really is a passover village for people that are traveling (Route) 66,” he said. “They’ll hit Cadillac Ranch, Midpoint Cafe and blaze right past San Jon into  Tucumcari. And 66 actually goes right through San Jon. Let’s just put this up and see what happens.”