A reader pointed this out a few days ago: Overstock.com is taking orders for a Pixar "Cars" bookmark that contains a film strip of what appears to be a scene from the original teaser trailer. It's scheduled to be shipped in April.

I find it a bit curious it's being sold on Overstock.com — especially for an item that's not even out. Maybe they're assuming it will be overstocked. Maybe presales were slow.

The same bookmark also is listed at Amazon.com under two prices: one for $18.71, the other for $4.95.

So you "Cars" collectors now can claim that Route 66 News helped save you money.

The J.H. Hawes Grain Elevator Museum in the wonderful Route 66 town of Atlanta, Ill., is making improvements so that visitors can tour the museum without a volunteer needing to be present, reports the Bloomington Pantagraph.

The $25,000 cost for the improvements already has been raised by Hawes' descendants, said Bill Thomas, a volunteer.

To help continue to update the site, the museum will hold its annual spaghetti dinner from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday at the Atlanta Firehouse.

"The dinner is a fund-raiser to assist with the continuing restoration of Illinois' only wooden grain elevator listed on the National Register of Historic buildings," said Thomas. "The elevator was built in 1904 and is one Atlanta's leading tourist attractions."

Last year, part of the Stater Bros. Route 66 Rendezvous in San Bernardino, Calif., was in the National Orange Show Events Center.

This year, the Rendezvous will be held in downtown only, reports the San Bernardino County Sun.

Popular demand was cited as the reason.

Last September, a car show and other attractions were held at the events center, which was included in the Rendezvous' cruise route.

Steve Henthorn, president of the visitors bureau, said the overwhelming feedback from those who participated in and attended the Rendezvous was that it should be held in one location: downtown.

"When it's all said and done, people love to be downtown," he said. "It's hot and it's slow-moving, and that's where the action is. That's where the tradition is, and that's where the nostalgia is."

What's more, he said, is the fact that people like a free ride.

"We heard a lot of complaints about having to pay $5," Henthorn said of the fee the events center charged for its portion of the Rendezvous.

Jack Brown, chairman of the board and CEO of Stater Bros. Markets, agreed.

"The success has been that it's free, it's for the family, and it's home is downtown San Bernardino," he said.

The Rendezvous is by far the biggest tourist draw to San Bernardino. It roped in more than 500,000 participants over a four-day period in 2005.

The inductees are the Willie Anderson Trucking Co. of Lexington, the now-closed Berghoff restaurant in Chicago, Scottie's roadhouse restaurant in Hamel, and former state trooper Leland Storm, reports the Bloomington Pantagraph. 

Marilyn and Durell Pritchard also were given the special ambassodor's award.

Anderson’s company, which once operated 26 trucks, started in the late 1930s as a family-owned trucking company. Anderson closed the business in 1988, but still drives his own truck.

Over the years, Anderson hauled pumpkins for Libby’s in Morton and often took Route 66 to Chicago while hauling cattle.

"There were only a few places to stop," he said. "You stopped when you were really hungry, unlike now when you can stop almost everywhere. It’s a lot different now."

Anderson and his wife, Edna Marie, own a shop in Lexington along the now-decommissioned highway. The renovated gas station has memorabilia from the highway and other items.

The Berghoff Restaurant, located on Adams Street in downtown Chicago, was among the first of thousands of restaurants along the road that became Route 66. The German restaurant was the first place to get a liquor license after Chicago did away with Prohibition.

The restaurant closed earlier this year.

Leland Storm, a retired state trooper, often patrolled Route 66 in the Litchfield area in southern Illinois. He often helped motorists and treated people like they were family.

Scottie's in Hamel, formerly the Tourist Haven, was a dining and eating stop for motorists. It opened in 1937 and is still operated as a restaurant today.

The Pritchards, who could not be reached for comment, are charter members of the association and have been influential in the development of the association’s museum and hall of fame in Pontiac. Marilyn Pritchard is the curator of the museum.

The induction ceremony will be in June during the association's annual motor tour. 

Eckleburg & Grumblecake have added two new reviews of Albuquerque restaurants on their I8Route66 Web site: Bandido Hideout (7.0 rating out of 10) and El Taco Tote (8.0 rating).

The city of Fontana, Calif., is jumping on board a bit late, but I'm glad to see it says it will try to revitalize its portion of Route 66.

According to the San Bernardino County Sun:

City leaders are trying to celebrate Fontana's Route 66 ties through streetscape, such as fountains, a park, signs, monuments, decorative street lights, landscaped medians and possibly an arched entryway.

Council members are in Washington today to hit up legislators for $75,000 in funding to preserve the heritage of the Mother Road.

…

Route 66-themed amenities, such as street signs that look like license plates, would be added as Foothill Boulevard is improved with lighting, curbs and gutters and new development.

City crews are already working to spruce up the street at Almeria and Tokay avenues with landscaped medians and decorative light poles.

Local artist Damon Lindsey finished the mural on the northeast corner of Second and E streets in San Bernardino, Calif., that pays homage to Route 66, reports the San Bernardino County Sun.

Alas, I have been unable to find any images of the mural. There is this short description:

The 1930s theme includes a trolley car, the California Theatre and women wearing floppy hats.

If anyone runs across this mural, can you please e-mail the image to me?

Flea of the One Good Thing blog writes about her love of Route 66:

I've been waiting impatiently for the kids to get old enough to dump them off, kicking and sobbing, at summer camp for two full weeks, weeks that I can spend driving endlessly west and cooing over cheap roadside attractions and makeshift shacks with old women behind rotted counters selling jam and grapes on what are now frontage roads.

"Mommy! Please come get me! I hate it here and I want to come home!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, kids! Mommy's in Galena, Kansas. I'll see you in 12 days, probably."

It's just that Route 66 gives me so much happiness, and never ever stops.

There's much more, including recollections of Funks Grove Maple Sirup in Illinois, singing  kitchen staffers at a hotel restaurant in Tulsa, and the overwrought sounds of Kate Smith singing at Meramec Caverns in Missouri. (And yes, Flea's experience in the caverns hilariously matched our own.)

As other bloggers say, read the whole thing. 

The $20: Lush Ladies blog on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Web site weighs in about the Cruisin' Rte 66 bar at 7895 Watson Road (old Route 66). It used to be known as George's Route 66 Bar and Grill, but it's best-known for the big neon martini glass at the front of the building (which, regrettably, I can't seem to find any photos of it).

Maybe Fred Friction and his dearly departed Frederick's Music Lounge can find a new home here. 

The Gallup Independent has the photo above with the following information:

Star Light: Hinckley Signs employees Danny Ellis, Gilbert Mexican, Dan Rudisill and Tamend Brown dismantle the star-shaped sphere after removing it from the top of the Downtown Plaza sign Monday in Gallup. The old sign, which is motorized and lit with neon lights, is being shipped to Albuquerque to be restored and is schedule to be completed in June. [Photo by Jeff Jones/Independent]

This sign is called a rotosphere, which is festooned with neon and rotates. There's another one on Route 66 at the Moriarty, N.M., at the El Comedor restaurant. When restored, the Gallup rotosphere should look like the picture below. The Downtown Plaza is a block off of Route 66, and when this rotosphere is fixed, it should be easily visible.
The El Comedor and eight other neon signs on New Mexico's Route 66 were restored by this fabulous program.

Guest blogger Don Pizzolato gives his opinion of the Albuquerque Destination Master Plan to the Duke City Fix. He deserves kudos for reading all 114 pages of it.

You can download the plan here. He initially was critical of it, but now says it is sound overall.

Two items of interest:

Nob Hill: “Rich in Route 66 lore and is a great collection of boutique shops and dining.” “Solid local constituency.” “Doesn’t provide a reason to get on an airplane to Albuquerque but it will enrich the visitor experience.”

Route 66 (Central Avenue): “An interesting attraction that has limited appeal and fails to show off the best of what Albuquerque has to share with visitors.” “May, in fact, serve to perpetuate a negative image of the destination by channeling visitors to parts of the city that have not seen adequate reinvestment.”

To the last part: Feh. If I travel down Route 66, I want to see America in all its beauty — and warts. If you just like seeing landscape that's clean and antiseptic, you're not a very interesting person. As for "limited appeal," let's see whether that opinion still holds after Pixar's "Cars" movie comes out.

It's also worth reading the comments about Pizzolato's post.

Actuacine.net has posted the French version of the Pixar "Cars" movie poster. I've posted it here, but I'd go to the Web site to see it in its enlarged version. In it, you can see the Route 66 shield and the town of Radiator Springs in the distance on the right.

This is a brief item from the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat:

Lewis & Clark (College) will offer its annual Variety Show at 7:30 p.m. April 7 and 3 p.m. April 8 on the Hatheway Stage. The show will feature a tribute to Route 66. The concert choir and Limited Edition will perform, as well as the Jazz Band and guest artists. Veterans are admitted free of charge; all other tickets are $10, $5 for students….

• Ken Turmel of Postmarkart fame reports that the Oklahoma highway department has begun replacing Oklahoma Highway 66 signs. New signs are being erected to celebrate the state's centennial next year. The new sign is pictured above.
• Scott Piotrowski reports that the Evergreen Motel in Duarte, Calif., has been torn down, apparently with little warning.
• And those who seek lodging along Route 66 in Vega, Texas, while the Vega Motel is closed indefinitely can use the once-maligned Bonanza Motel. Linda Drake of the Oldham County Chamber of Commerce reports that the Bonanza has new owners who've cleaned the place up, made repairs and are excited about operating a business on the Mother Road. Here's an old postcard image of the Bonanza. 

Peter Hannaford of American Spectator spends much of his column praising the interstate highway system and its homogeneity (I'm not kidding).

He also writes about Route 66:

Along the way, much is made of the old Highway 66, the Route 66 of song (as in "You'll Get Your Kicks on Route 66"). This went from Chicago to Los Angeles. Interstate-40 more-or-less follows its route from Oklahoma City to Barstow. Every now and then there is a white-on-brown historical sign noting that Highway 66 is just off the Interstate to the left or right. We sampled it in the California desert at Newberry Springs. It is a few hundred yards of concrete paving. Very romantic. In truth, the old 66 was largely two-lane and slow going. The towns it went through featured seedy taverns, tired motels, and forgettable food. Not the stuff of legend.

I especially love the "forgettable food" part. Does American Spectator usually have writers that are this uninformed? 

I know that Route 66 fans include some model-train nuts and railroad aficionados.

Well, here's something for you.

Ernie Bockli of the Sun 'N' Sand Model Railroad Club in Scottsdale, Ariz., says his club has commissioned a limited-edition set of eight model-train boxcars. Seven of the cars show the entire length of Route 66 when the cars are all lined up correctly. The last car shows Route 66 in its entirety, with state boundaries. The boxcars can be viewed here.

The set originally came out in August. But Bockli told me that the sudden death of a club member who was in charge of the project put sales on hold for a while. Bockli says the club is about halfway through its run of 205 sets.

To order the set, e-mail the club here for more information.

I wonder whether Ollie's Station restaurant in Tulsa knows about this. 

The Did You Know? blog today features the history, facts and figures about Route 66. It's a pretty good overview, except for this one item:

Route 66 was also the popular truck route because it was mostly flat.

Well, no. I would never describe much of Missouri, parts of eastern Oklahoma, much of New Mexico and Arizona and a good chunk of California as "flat." The reason truck drivers favored Route 66 over, say, U.S. 40 was because the Mother Road's more southern route saw generally milder weather during the winter.

The Desert Dispatch in the high desert area of Southern California has this little item:

Route 66 Mother Road Museum offers scholarship

BARSTOW –
Students attending Barstow Community College may apply for a $250
scholarship. Applicants must demonstrate an active interest in
preservation and promotion of Route 66. Further requirements and
application are available at the Barstow Community College, 2700
Barstow Road, Barstow or 252-2411, Ext. 7309. Deadline is April 15.

For more information, contact the Route 66 Mother Road Museum at 255-1890, www.route66museum.org, or 681 N. First Avenue.

It sounds like a good idea for other colleges up and down Route 66 to pick up this program and help their local communities and the Mother Road.

MSNBC.com has picked up the story about the proposal to redevelop the historic Horn Oil Co. property in Albuquerque. The story is here.

The University of Tulsa football team is holding its annual spring practice game at 1 p.m. April 1. It's going to have more than a sports atmosphere though, according to the university's athletic site.

In the spirit of Route 66, on which the historic Skelly Stadium stands, fans are encouraged to join the festivities of the "Spring
Cruisin' Festival". For the second straight year, the festival will
feature a classic and collector car showcase on display in the Donald
W. Reynolds Center parking lot beginning at 11 a.m.

Car Clubs scheduled to be in attendance include: Military vehicles, Corvette Restorers Club, Antique Car Club, Tulsa Wheels,
Metropolitan Club, Studibaker Club, Green Country Corvette Club,
Classic Chevrolet Club, Tulsa Vette Set and Green Country Classic
Mustangs.

The Golden Hurricane football team will take the field at 1 p.m. for the Annual Spring Game. Fans will be able to meet the team and get autographs following the game. Season tickets for the 2006 football campaign will be available to purchase at the Reynolds Center Ticket
Office.

Fans can get their "Kicks on Route 66" and enjoy an All-American good time with classic cars and great food, fun and
football. There will be inflatable games for kids.

There is no admission charge to the game or the Classic Car Showcase.

For more information to participate in the Classic Car Showcase, call 918-631-3208. Drive-ups are welcome.