The City of Joliet, Ill., found a unique way to kick off its Joliet Kicks on Route 66 tourism campaign. It has placed fiberglass replica gas pumps at various historical landmarks, complete with informational placards, reports the Joliet Herald News. The story contains a photo of a Texaco gas pump in front of the Rialto … Continue reading Don’t use them for a fill-up
Category: Towns
An interesting idea
The Urban Land Institute gave the city of San Bernardino, Calif., some suggestions on how to revitalize its downtown. The suggestions ran the gamut of more green spaces, denser development and mixed use of residential, retail and office development, among other ideas. Not all of the city's aldermen agreed, and provided the San Bernardino County … Continue reading An interesting idea
Mural City
KETC-TV in St. Louis produced a good segment about the Route 66 town of Cuba, Mo., and its dozen murals. The remarkable thing is the murals aren't simply decorative. They represent real events and real people. Listen to the man get emotional as he tells about the Cuba men who went off to war, and … Continue reading Mural City
Hard times
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.
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