The neon sign for the long-closed Road Runner’s Retreat truck stop near Chambless, California, glowed again Saturday night for the first time in about 50 years.
Rhys Martin, president of the Oklahoma Route Association, was one of the people with his camera at the relighting ceremony:
Here’s a reel that shows the sign’s animation of the road runner running.
Another set shows a before-and-after images of the sign:
The owner of Road Runner’s Retreat offered commemorative pins, but they were sold out two weeks before the event.
The sign was repainted in the spring of 2024.
Road Runner’s Retreat in 2023 received a $17,000 cost-share grant from the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program for the third phase of restoring the sign.
It also received a $5,386 cost-share grant from the agency in 2022 to help pay for restoration planning for the sign.
In a spur-of-the-moment decision in 2019, the owner ran some electrical current through the sign on the same night of the relighting ceremony of the iconic Roy’s Motel & Cafe sign in nearby Amboy.
Much to their surprise, parts of the sign glowed again. That started the ball rolling for a full restoration.
Site owner Ryan Anderson has organized regular volunteer cleanups at the site.
Roy and Helen Tull built Road Runner’s Retreat along Route 66 in the early 1960s. The business closed in the mid-1970s after Interstate 40 bypassed the area.
Bill Ross Murphy then purchased the property after it had been closed for some time, intending never to reopen it but to maintain it as much as possible.
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