The El Reno Tribune reports that attendance at the 19th annual El Reno Burger Day in El Reno, Okla., was at least its second-biggest ever, with 25,000 roaming the festival area on Saturday.
Look out for next year, though:

“Next year is the 20th anniversary, so we are going to do that even bigger,” she said. “We are going to start planning that now. We are talking about Burger Day quilts, we are talking about NASCAR for the car show. We are going to do it big because our 20th anniversary is a big milestone.”

A storm struck the Route 66 town of El Reno, Okla., on Tuesday, causing damage around the southern part of the city, reports the El Reno Tribune.

I talked to a spokeswoman at the El Reno Chamber of Commerce, and they were not aware of damage to historical buildings, including the downtown area. The Tribune reported:

El Reno Fire Chief Kent Lagaly said the town’s major businesses barely avoided a direct hit from the storm. It could have been much worse if the storm had taken a slightly different path. Just as fortunate were the residents of two mobile home parks that barely avoided the brunt of the storm.

Among the businesses that suffered damage was a Ford dealership and a VFW hall. Losses to the dealership along is expected to be $1 million.

There was just one person hurt — a trucker whose big rig was blown over by the winds on nearby Interstate 40. He was hospitalized.

The Tribune also has a photo gallery of the damage.

Matt Land, who was driving on much of Route 66 with a propane-powered lawn mower built by his employer, Dixie Chopper, is supposed to finish his 2,000-mile trek from Indiana to California this morning, reports the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinal.

He was hoping to meet with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, but the guv has already made it know that he’ll be too busy. The propane mower is significant to the environmentally conscious Golden State because it pollutes less.

In the desert, he faced blowing sand and a strong headwind. In the Rocky Mountains, his riding mower hugged the edge of a switchback road that climbed thousands of feet.

“I was going up the edge of the mountains, there’s no guardrail, and when I looked over the edge there was about a 400-foot drop,” Land recalled.

In Phoenix, he was caught in rush-hour traffic and had several close encounters with cars. Most drivers were surprised to see a lawn mower traveling at 30 mph.

“They had no idea I was closing the gap in traffic so quickly . . . When doing something like this, you really get the feeling of what it’s like to be a hood ornament,” Land said. [...]

In his daily blog, a week into the trip, Land wrote:

“The days are beginning to take a toll on my 44-year-old body. There were sections of the road yesterday that were pretty rough. I probably haven’t drank enough water or eaten enough. If anyone knows how to stop leg cramps, I would appreciate … that knowledge.”

Alas, Land encountered little luck meeting with politicians during his trip, although he did have an audience with Texas Gov. Rick Perry.

But Land isn’t bitter about it; in fact, he offered advice for prospective politicians:

“If the politicians of this country really want to get back in touch with what Americans want, I will loan them my lawn mower and they can drive across America. They will get the opportunity to talk with a lot of good people,” Land said.