This striking slide show from a French YouTube contributor contains scenes from abandoned mining villages, plus ghost towns along old Route 66, including Glenrio. The song is "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues," by blues master Chris Thomas King.
Category: Towns
Faster fiesta
Brad Carter has created a time-lapse video of the sights from the recent Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta. The fiesta needs to use this guy's work for publicity, pronto. It makes me wanna go. (Hat tip: Duke City Fix.)
A ‘Hero’ in Amboy
I heard a few days ago that the video for Enrique Iglesias' hit song "Hero" was shot in the Route 66 settlement of Amboy, Calif. Sure enough, it is. Check it out: Roy's is featured prominently, as is a church in town. And I was thinking the stone ruins were at Cadiz Summit, on Route … Continue reading A ‘Hero’ in Amboy
Bringing back Broadway
Los Angeles Downtown News Online has posted a long story about the city's attempts to revitalize the historic Broadway district, part of which is old Route 66. Many similar efforts have failed. But because the downtown area is gaining more residents, there's some urgency and hope that a Broadway revival will be for real. For … Continue reading Bringing back Broadway
Tout the route
We've noticed that more cities are taking advantage of the Internet and YouTube in particular in an effort to draw visitors and tourists. Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., is one of them. It has posted a nicely produced three-minute video that briefly explains the history of Route 66 and Rancho Cucamonga's current links to it. The embedding … Continue reading Tout the route
In the dusty mid-section of the Mother Road
Dwayne of New Zealand has posted a couple of more videos from his Route 66 trip. This one takes place in Texas, with prominent visits to the U-Drop Inn in Shamrock and the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo. The next one takes place mostly at the ghost town of Glenrio and eastern New Mexico, … Continue reading In the dusty mid-section of the Mother Road
Senior Hall of Fame inductee has Mother Road connection
One of this year's inductees to the Illinois Seniors Hall of Fame has a connection to Route 66. That inductee is Betty Estes of Pontiac, who founded the town's tourism department and was its first tourism director, according to the Ottawa (Ill.) Times. And then there's this: She also helped develop the Red Carpet Corridor, … Continue reading Senior Hall of Fame inductee has Mother Road connection
DIY festival
Merchants along Sixth Street, aka Route 66, in Amarillo, Texas, have long been waiting for the city to do something about revitalization. They got tired of waiting. The Route 66 Business Association and San Jacinto Christian Academy teamed up to create the first annual Historic Route 66 Fall Festival on Oct. 6, reports The Ranger, … Continue reading DIY festival
A look at Oklahoma City
Lonely Planet focuses its tourism lens at Oklahoma's state capital, with the perspective of a former resident, Robert Reid. Oklahoma City indeed has seen breathtaking changes since the trauma of the terrorist bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in 1995, which is now the site of the Oklahoma City National Memorial. Many of … Continue reading A look at Oklahoma City
An interesting view
Using the recent $300,000 grant for a bicycle trail as a springboard, the Bloomington (Ill.) Pantagraph's editorial board ponders why Route 66 has such an enduring appeal to tourists: What draws these people? Maybe it is John Steinbeck's reference to "The Mother Road" in his novel, "The Grapes of Wrath," or the old "Route 66" … Continue reading An interesting view