It wasn’t a pleasant afternoon or evening in the St. Louis region for Route 66 travelers — or for any travelers, for that matter.
Two to four inches of rain fell in a short time Wednesday afternoon, causing flash flooding in low-lying areas, according to various media reports. That included several feet of water at Interstates 64-55-70 in East St. Louis, snarling traffic.
Flooding also kept motorists from accessing the McKinley Bridge, an early alignment of Route 66, in north St. Louis.
Lightning also struck an unused corner of the City Museum in St. Louis. It knocked some bricks loose, but there were no injuries and no fire.
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READY TO CRUISE: About 40 people were signed up as of Monday for this weekend’s New Mexico Route 66 Motor Tour, starting in Tucumcari, according to the Quay County Sun. That doesn’t sounds like a lot, but it’s a first-time event, and the number will almost certainly swell as the weekend approaches. You can even join in on the first day of the tour Friday. The tour ends in Gallup on Sunday.
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BEER THIRTY: If you’re traveling through Joliet, Ill., during a typically hot mid-August, you’d do a lot worse to wet your whistle than the Craft & Import Beer Tasting Event on the rooftop of the Joliet Area Historical Museum & Route 66 Visitors Center. The 4-8 p.m. Aug. 14 event will feature a surprise guest speaker, brewery collections to view, free gifts, free food, and more. The museum said that Route 66ers greatly enjoyed the event last year. Registration is here.
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POP LIFE: Lien Velghe of Belgium and a cameraman will be traveling Route 66 starting Friday to make a documentary for MTV Europe. She said she wants to “experience and investigate the great rock era of the ’60s-70s, and to follow my dream, which has always been to make this trip, and for which MTV Europe is giving me this chance! … The goal of the program is to encourage young people to rediscover classic rock and its icons, particulary the ’60s and ”70s era.” She’ll be on the road for a month. A blog about the project is here.
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ROAD PHOTOS: Photographer David Schwartz is holding a “Pics on Route 66” solo show at Lake Farm Park Visitor’s Center in Kirtland, Ohio, through Aug. 15. While you’re at it, make sure you order his excellent 2011 calendar.
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A DOG’S LIFE: A post at the ohmidog! blog, a site devoted to dog owners, talks about the increasingly fragile Route 66 landscape of Tucumcari, N.M.
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CALL OF THE WILD: The Keepers of the Wild Nature Park exotic animal sanctuary north of Kingman, Ariz., off Route 66 is offering $5 the admission price to all residents of Mohave County through Sept. 30, according to the Mohave Daily News.
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EASY RIDING: Big Think posted an overview of the Dennis Hopper photography and paintings retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. The late actor and director boasted two significant links to Route 66 — his famed “Double Standard” photo of a corner of Route 66 in Los Angeles, and his film “Easy Rider,” portions which were shot on Route 66 in the desert Southwest.
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BUSINESS-FRIENDLY: We’ve mentioned this before, but it’s worth telling again about the Route 66 business directory at Carolyn Hasenfratz’s John’s Modern Cabins News site. Historic Route 66 businesses can put their information on it for free.
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