The owners of Gearhead Curios in downtown Galena, Kansas, on Saturday night threw the switch on the new neon lighting they installed on the gas station building and its Texaco sign out front.
Proprietor Aaron Perry shot a Facebook Live video of the event and provided a brief tour of the Gearhead Curios’ interior:
Just before the relighting, a representative from the Route 66 Association of Missouri gave Perry a check of $4,200 of donations and a matching grant from the organization for his project.
Gearhead Curios also recently installed vintage-style Texaco gas pumps on the property.
Gearhead Curios sold special-edition T-shirts that commemorated the relighting.
The business’ Facebook page also recently posted some before-and-after photos of the station.
Perry in recent days also posted photos of the main Texaco neon sign in its latter stages of production.
Perry last year added a replica of Doc Hudson from the Disney-Pixar animated movie “Cars” to the station, which sits less than a half-mile down old Route 66 from Cars on the Route.
Perry bought the 1939 gas station in fall 2018 so he could sell his “gearhead” artwork (hence the name) and Route 66 souvenirs.
UPDATE 4/26/2021: Here’s a report from one of the local television news stations:
(Screen-capture image from a Jennifer Farrell-Tollison video of the lighting ceremony at Gearhead Curios in Galena, Kansas)
Looks great!
It will be a tough call when traveling, if your schedule does not naturally put you through here after dark, if you should rearrange your schedule to see it, or what…..
Aaron and Kelly, and family, Congratulations! Thank you for add to our 13.2 miles of Kansas Route 66.