Nasty wind gusts Sunday afternoon knocked off part of the decorative scrollwork of the main sign of the Rialto Square Theatre, located on Route 66 in Joliet, Ill., reported the Herald-News.

Fortunately, no one was hurt when the sign chunk came crashing down, although an adjacent street was closed. Workers were already busy repairing the sign Monday. Click on the newspaper link above for plenty of photos from the scene.

It appears to be a mix of both, actually.

Richard Etchells recently posted these photos on the Route 66 yahoogroup of what appear to be harvesters planted into the ground at an angle. This is a few miles south of Route 66 near Amarillo, Texas. It appears to be a homage to the “tractor tippin’” scene in the movie “Cars” and a tribute to Cadillac Ranch off Route 66 west of Amarillo.

Etchells tells me its on the north side of the road of FM Road 1151, just east of FM Road 1258 (map is here). He isn’t positive on the location, nor does he know who the landowner is. I didn’t find anything about it on Roadside America, either.

I guess all of that flat ground inspires people in the Panhandle to do eccentric things: You have Cadillac Ranch, Bug Ranch and the Big Cross, all within a 25-mile radius or so.

UPDATE 4/26/07: Crocodile Lile, president of the Texas Old Route 66 Association, tracked down the owner of the Combine Ranch and is writing a story about it in the next issue of Route 66 Pulse.

A recent banquet in Commerce, Okla., to raise money for a statue and other attractions paying tribute to native son and Baseball Hall-of-Famer Mickey Mantle cleared about $12,000 in profit, reported the Miami (Okla.) News-Record.

More than 350 people attended the event. I’m certain the appearance of Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins drew a crowd.

The Mickey Mantle Trust Authority also received $75,000 from the Oklahoma Centennial Commission.

The article also provides some details about the Mickey Mantle proposals for Commerce:

The trust voted to earmark the $75,000 for expenses specifically related to a statue of Mantle that is to be placed at the front entrance to five Little League baseball fields on Route 66 in Commerce. [...]

The five fields are part of the first phase of a project that architect Tom Ernst recently completed as a final master plan. A museum, gift shop, batting cages and parking areas with a main entrance are also planned in the first portion of the project.

Other phases include a replica of a 1956 Yankee Stadium, kitchen, banquet room, plaza, children’s playground and jogging trail.

The Mantle family has to approve the plans before they proceed. Mantle died of cancer in 1995.

I’ve posted a few dozen versions of “Route 66″ on this Web site.

But this is the first I’ve posted by the composer of “Route 66″ himself, Bobby Troup. Here he is in 1964, showing his jazz chops on piano during a segment of “The Julie London Show.”

The Ambler’s Texaco Station in the Route 66 town of Dwight, Ill., has been restored to its 1940s appearance, reports the Morris (Ill.) Daily Herald.

Part of the restoration was covered by a cost-share grant from the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program. A plaque from the National Park Service commemorating the restoration will be dedicated at 2 p.m. today.

Here’s a recent photo of Ambler’s Texaco Station.

UPDATE 4/25/07: The Pontiac Daily Leader has a story about the restoration, along with a photo.