Kingman association gets grant to restore sign

The Kingman Route 66 Association announced Monday that it has received a $10,000 matching grant from the city to restore a Packard neon sign (seen in a vintage photo above) at the Old Trails Garage in downtown. The money also will be used to restore an original glass-top gas pump near the garage. The group … Continue reading Kingman association gets grant to restore sign

A pivot point

Chuck Twardy of the Las Vegas Weekly wrote a thoughtful and thought-provoking article about a recent trip down the Mother Road. Using Park Central Square in Springfield, Mo., where Route 66 was essentially born and where a small plaque tells of the lynching of three black men there in 1906, Twardy writes this: Springfield, Missouri, … Continue reading A pivot point

A last of the breed

In my first Route 66 trips, I noticed on dozens of businesses and billboards in eastern New Mexico the signs of  a distinctive lettering by a sign painter. The signs were notable because of their lettering -- often a thick, squat, easily read style that I'd seen nowhere else. Some of the letters were shadowed … Continue reading A last of the breed

Santa Monica Pier swing

The Santa Monica Pier, the symbolic western end of Route 66, will hold concerts July 23 to pay tribute to its former La Monica Ballroom and celebrate the pier's centennial, according to a news release. La Monica Ballroom hosted ballroom dances from 1924 to 1961, when it closed. Entertainers at the July 23 show will … Continue reading Santa Monica Pier swing

Abandoned but not forgotten

The folks who run the Abandoned Oklahoma site take a closer look at the long-defunct Conoco gas station on Route 66 near Arcadia. The station is particularly notable because of its notorious history: Back then, times were very hard and it was difficult to make a living. One day, about the time Al Capone was … Continue reading Abandoned but not forgotten

Two kings

Here's another chapter of "Route 66: A Road Trip on the Bible." This entry covers the first book of Kings. The driver, I suspect, really regrets picking up hitchhikers at this point.

His own Radiator Springs

Inspired by the "Cars" movie, Roy Martinez Jr. of La Habra, Calif., is building a train-model set of the fictional Route 66 town of Radiator Springs. Here are some photos he e-mailed: Martinez says he's spent about 400 hours building the set, and he isn't done. He needs to add detail work, finish Fillmore's building, … Continue reading His own Radiator Springs

“Cars” Web site gets a tune-up

"Cars," the hit Disney-Pixar movie from 2006 that takes place prominently on Route 66, recently gave its Web site an extensive face-lift. (Warning: The site will almost certainly require a high-speed Internet connection.) Above is a screen shot of the site. The new "Cars" site features lots of goodies, including streaming of three excellent short … Continue reading “Cars” Web site gets a tune-up

Tribute to a king

Emily read this Tulsa World article after Michael Jackson's death on Friday. The key passage: Hours after learning of Jackson's death, Paul Yeakey, a Tulsa artist, spray-painted a mural of Jackson on a wall outside a liquor store at 9347 E. 11th St. Eleventh Street in Tulsa is Route 66. She went to the Mad … Continue reading Tribute to a king

This old road

This is a section of a very old alignment of Route 66 that goes through Petrified Forest National Park in eastern Arizona. It was the Mother Road until 1961. An information kiosk right off the park's main road tells about Route 66 through there. But veteran roadies, guided by the no-longer-used telephone poles, can see … Continue reading This old road