The Minor League Inland Empire 66ers, At the California End of #route66

San Bernardino’s baseball team is named for Route 66.

by Rich Watson 

Before its west coast endpoint, one of the California stops along Route 66 is San Bernardino. Among other things, SB has held a four-day event since 1990 called Route 66 Rendezvous, a classic car show which makes the downtown streets resemble American Graffiti.

Another aspect of SB’s association with the highway is their minor league baseball team, the Inland Empire 66ers.

#route66: An Eagles Song Is Remembered In The Arizona Town It Made Famous

Take it easy in Winslow’s corner plaza. It’s such a fine sight to see.

by Rich Watson 

Route 66, on its way west to California, passes through a small town in Arizona called Winslow. Its regional airport was designed by Charles Lindbergh and the first Native American woman elected to Congress came from Winslow.

Chances are you’ve heard of the town, though, thanks to a song from the seventies by one of rock and roll’s greatest bands: the Eagles.

#route66: The El Rancho Hotel Was the Headquarters For the Movie “Ace In the Hole”

This Hollywood hotspot was the base for a notable film by a legendary writer-director.

by Rich Watson 

Funny bit of trivia about Gallup, New Mexico: Route 66 passes through it, but so does another highway which used to be called Highway 666. In 2003 the New Mexico governor got the name changed because of the satanic associations with the 666 number.

You’ll find no demons, however, at Gallup’s most notable lodging: the El Rancho Hotel.

Only the ghosts of old Hollywood.

The #route66 Art Installation “Cadillac Ranch” and the Culture of Cadillac Cars

The row of cars embedded in the Texas panhandle symbolize America’s love of Cadillacs.

by Rich Watson 

In Amarillo, Texas, amidst a wide and barren patch of dirt along Route 66, a row of ten Cadillac cars are half buried in the earth. 

The area isn’t a parking lot, nor is it a junkyard. The cars are painted haphazardly in all sorts of colors and they remind you of ostriches with their heads in the sand.

It’s art.

Rock Cafe, The #route66 Restaurant That Survived a Tornado

Have lunch at the Oklahoma restaurant that endured disastrous weather and provided inspiration for a movie.

by Rich Watson 

Oklahoma, according to Wikipedia, lies between a semi-arid zone, a humid continental one and a humid subtropical one. This means weather can get weird in a hurry. The biggest weather problem people have there is with tornadoes.

The staff of the Rock Cafe, on Route 66 in Stroud, OK, know about tornadoes. They survived one that nearly wiped the town out.

#route66: When In Illinois, Look Out For the Gemini Giant

One of the first major landmarks on the Mother Road is this space-age statue, a relic from a time when such monuments were popular.

by Rich Watson 

He stands thirty feet tall. He wears a bullet-shaped helmet and a blue-green jumpsuit. And he holds a miniature rocket in his hands. 

A movie superhero? Nope, he’s the Gemini Giant—one of many so-called “muffler men” across the country over the years and one of a number that remain along Route 66.