Here’s a story about the creation of the “Route 66 Greatest Hits Map” by Dave Brackney and photographer Todd Masinter. The map pays tribute to the 80th anniversary of Route 66, according to the Pasadena Star-News.
“The face we are putting forward here is not the face of one-size-fits-all corporate America, with Targets, Wal-Marts and McDonald’s,” said Brackney, 46, who set out last May with Masinter to document the current state of the 2,448-mile Route 66.
“This is the America of John Wayne, lonely cafes, Lucy and Desi and swimming holes,” Brackney added.
The pair left from Chicago in May, riding in a 2005 Ford Mustang and taking 20 days to reach Route 66’s terminus in Santa Monica.
Like Delgadillo, other interesting Route 66 denizens included Harley and Annabelle
Russell of Erick, Okla., who bill themselves as the Mediocre Music Makers, and Donna Fenton, a very friendly waitress who served Brackney stacks of flapjacks and bacon and eggs at Lou Mitchell’s Restaurant in Chicago.
Her smiling face, along with plates of food, adorns the map’s colorful cover.
“I remember the waitress calling us `darlin,’ `hon’ and `babe,”‘ he said. “After the deep-dish pizza in Chicago the night before and that breakfast, I felt like I needed to go to confession afterward.”
Several spots along the route are featured for the first time on the map: Sandhills Curiosity Shop, the Galena Museum and the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum, among others.
The map is available at AAA offices.