Birthday party

I wasn’t at the Santa Monica Pier today for Route 66’s 84th birthday party.

But the Voice of Santa Monica was there, shooting a lot of photos for its Flickr pool. You’re bound to see some roadies you recognize, including Ken “The Landrunner” Turmel and 66-to-Cali owner Dan Rice.

And I’m pretty sure this image is of the Gumpathon runners, who finished their cross-country journey at the Pier on Thursday morning. The run was to raise money to help wounded or ill soldiers and their families.

I’ll post more information as soon as I can get it …

UPDATE: Here are dozens of photos from the event shot by the California Route 66 Museum.

UPDATE2: Here’s a report from 66-to-Cali owner Dan Rice and a few photos from the event. First, his report:

Anyhow, the day has come and gone and it was amazing … Even the USC marching band came out for it!

After a two- month run across the whole country in which they criss-crossed Route 66 for the last half, a dedicated group of military veteran runners made it to the Santa Monica Pier in true Forrest Gump fashion, and ended their “Gumpathon” journey on our stage.  It was quite inspiring to see a man with no legs and only one arm show the determination through prosthetics to run the entire country to raise money for injured veterans.  The Gumpathon folks are ecstatic that we included them in our festivities, and although a mix-up with their PR folks hurt our event a little, they really enjoyed being able to celebrate the day with us.  From the feedback I’m getting, everybody in the Route 66 community enjoyed having them there too, so I guess at the end of the day, no harm, no foul, and it made for a more fun time.

My book launch for “End of the Trail” was also a big success, and the feedback we’re getting from folks who’ve already read it is phenomenal.  Sales & PR with my publisher, The Way Things Are Publications, are going really, really well, and with that brings a lot more stuff to do!  The critics love it, the readers are loving it, and the exposure that Route 66 will get by being included in the more general message of traumatic brain injury and the decline of American manufacturing should be good as well.  We’ll reach a whole new demographic than might normally be attracted to Route 66.  Definitely the road will benefit, and I hope so will the USA!  If I can help reach the returning Iraq War veterans who’ve been affected by TBI in the way I was (and TBI is already being called the hallmark injury of this war), then definitely we will have done a good thing for our country.  In my opinion, the old “Support our Troops!” rally shouldn’t end when our troops come back home.  If anything, that’s really just the beginning.  So to show that Route 66 is supportive of them just ties our road’s patriotism to the country even further.

As far as Route 66’s birthday went, the event itself was much bigger than last year’s simple resurrection of the “End of the Trail” sign …  After two months of work, Jim Harris (the Santa Monica Pier historian) and I were ecstatic to meet onstage with Field Representative Kara Seward from Sen. Fran Pavley’s office to receive a Member’s Resolution that declared Nov. 11 “Route 66 Day” in Santa Monica … what an honor that was!  We did a little work to make it happen, but wow, what a payoff!

Route 66 got to enjoy a killer car show that included a 110-mile car cruise across the state to the pier in 100 of the coolest vintage vehicles we could find.  We also had three panel discussions that the crowd seemed to enjoy as well.  The “Route 66 in California” Panel was a hit, largely due to 80-year-old Chick Kirk’s impassioned love for Route 66, which she displays everyday at the California Route 66 Museum in Victorville, Calif.  Our “Authors & Artists” panel seemed to intrigue a new element of folks who may not have been Route 66 fans before, and our “Route 66 Icons” panel discussion was a neat chance to hear from Route 66 personalities like Bob “Crocodile” Lile of Amarillo, Sandra Myers of the famous “Standing on the Corner” store in Winslow, Ariz., and Ken “The Landrunner” Turmel of Oklahoma.  Having each of these people on the pier showed everyone why Route 66 is so much more than just 2,448 miles of concrete road.

I want to say an extra great big thank-you to Darleen Bitter for helping with the Car Cruise and Car Show, Ken Turmel for helping so much with promotions, Route 66 documentarian and Emmy winner Joe Frederick for moderating all those panel discussions, and Jim Harris at the pier for helping us put the whole thing together.  If you get a chance to give any of these folks a pat on the back, please do … if it wasn’t for them, this thing would have never happened.  A lot of people are giving me the credit for organizing it, just like they did last year with the “End of the Trail” Sign, but I never could have done anything if it wasn’t for the help of a great team.  What a great family we have to pull such a great day off.  Even though the crazy wind affected our turnout somewhat, it wasn’t enough to stop our good time.

Lastly, almost everybody in attendance said the day was a lot of fun for them.  It seems that more than anything, people felt like it was a family reunion and enjoyed seeing each other again.  I know I did.

Here are Rice’s photos from the event: