Traffic at Route 66 News jumped to record levels today, fueled mostly by a link from the Wigwam Motel in Rialto, Calif. The motel showed how its teepee design inspired the Cozy Cone Motel in the animated hit movie, “Cars.”

That link to here has existed for nearly 10 months, so I was flummoxed on why the traffic surge was suddenly occurring now.

We think we tracked down the reason. My in-laws report that MSN featured Top 10 Offbeat Hotels on its homepage today. A Wigwam Motel is on the list and is linked.

Note that I said a Wigwam Motel. The MSN article about the Wigwam Motel is about the one in Holbrook, Ariz. However, the link with the article goes to the Wigwam in Rialto.

Oops.

Make sure you check those links before sending stories online, kids.

Both motels, by the way, are recommended for stays during your Route 66 traveling.

In case anyone’s wondering, Route 66 News averages about 50,000 page views a month. In recent months, it’s ranged between 1,400 and 2,000 views per day. Today, it’s surpassed the 3,000 mark.

For the second time in a month, a class ring that was found years ago at the Blue Whale of Catoosa, Okla., was returned to its rightful owner, according to the Tulsa World.

The ring was was stolen from the owner’s house in the burglary in the 1980s. It either was pawned to someone else who later lost it at the Blue Whale, or the burglar lost it at the Route 66 landmark.

The ring was returned to Randal Wise, who graduated from Warsaw High School in Indiana in 1975.

“It has a lot more value now because of what it represents,” Wise said. “It just floors me … somebody would go through all that effort to return it.” [...]

“It reminds me of what might have happened in the small town I grew up in,” he said. “It’s not something you see much anymore.”

This story in the Lincoln (Ill.) Courier tells about a situation that’s common even in prosperous towns along the Mother Road — a business district that is indeed busy, but still has a lot of vacancies.

One of those vacancies is The Tropics restaurant:

Tropics co-owner Tami Goodrich of Lincoln said last week she and two brothers continue to look for a tenant or buyer since the famed restaurant on Old Route 66 at Woodlawn Road closed a few years ago.

There have been inquiries, but …

Here’s a nice photo of The Tropics’ cool neon sign. Here are images of a 1960 menu from the restaurant.

Part of the problem, the article reports, is that many of the empty properties aren’t easily adaptable for reuse. So they sit.