Just when you think there are no more new avenues to books about Route 66’s history, Peter Dedek finds unexplored backroads and obscure alignments in his “Hip to the Trip: A Cultural History of Route 66″ (169 pages, University of New Mexico Press, $19.95).

Dedek, a professor at Texas State University, diligently researches the history of the Main Street of America and explores its mythology. He deconstructs its rosy nostalgia, yet still seems to be a fan of the road.

I’ve read many books about the history of the road, but Dedek dredged up material I’d never heard before.

For instance, Route 66 tourism campaigns can trace their roots to the railroads in the 19th century that touted the American Southwest as a vacation getaway.

Promotion by railroads, dime novels with western themes, and acts such as Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show provided easterners with a highly  romanticized and often fictional perspective on the formerly “wild” but recently tamed Indians living in a still “untamed” southwestern landscape.

Another thing I learned is that immediately after World War II, the pavement of Route 66 was a mess. Monies that normally went to road maintenance were concentrated on the war effort, and officials looked the other way on overweight trucks because many were hauling military equipment.

Dedek keeps finding historical nuggets like that. With more than 30 pages of footnotes and bibliography, it’s obvious he did a lot of work on this project.

He also tackles the “postmodern nostalgia” that’s part of Route 66. Many writers describe the Mother Road’s heyday of the 1950s in flowery terms as a more innocent, uncomplicated time. But that era was beset by racism, the Cold War, McCarthyism, the stirrings of the sexual revolution and a highway that was so dangerous that it was referred to as “Bloody 66.” Such debunking is needed. Yet Dedek is not mean-spirited. I get the impression he still gets a kick out of Route 66 and the nostalgia it generates.

Dedek concludes with the chapter “Saving the Mythic Ruins,” in which he examines preservation avenues for the Mother Road. It should provide food for thought for 66ers who want to keep their road around for future generations.

Although Dedek takes a largely academic approach, “Hip to the Trip” avoids the stuffy, elitist stench that permeates other books of its ilk. It’s well-written, well-reasoned, and will spark thought in the most seasoned roadie.

Highly recommended.

Rory Schepisi, who’s busy trying to get her Boot Hill Saloon & Grill open in Vega, Texas, won a contest in “The Next Food Network Star” TV series in that the dish she created appears on the July issue of Bon Appetit magazine.

The dish is called Rory’s Ribs with Grilled Corn, Cantaloupe and Fresh Herb Salad. The magazine cover image and recipe can be found here.

Video clips from the cover challenge are here.

A few days ago, we reported about the Mule Trading Post near Rolla, Mo., restoring a an animated hillbilly sign that waves its arms. Ace Jackalope took a brief video of the sign to show you what it looks like in action:

Also, Ace took a short video of the main animated neon sign at the Mule:

Now, this is what we call hands-on restoration.

According to this story in the Mohave Daily News, artist and sculptor Dan Lutzick has been hired as project manager for the restoration of El Garces, a former Harvey House, in Needles, Calif. And he’s not just dropping by the site every week or so:

In April, Lutzick and his two dogs set up camp, literally, in a travel trailer on site, allowing the artist to remain close to his subject. Seeing himself as an upper manager wielding a sledge hammer, he intends to work personally with consultants, subcontractors and others on every aspect of development. He needs to get his hands dirty to do that, he said. This is more than a job to Lutzick; it’s a drive to preserve a work of art and make it functional once again.

Alan Affeldt, who oversaw the restoration of another Harvey House, La Posada in Winslow, Ariz., is also a main investor in the El Garces project.

The article says that they hope to open the old railroad depot, hotel and restaurant again by Dec. 22, 2008. But Lutzick is reportedly committed to staying until April 2010 to make sure the project is done.

This is an interesting idea: an apparel company in Portland, Ore., scours the country for cool graphics from now-defunct 1930s to ’60s roadside businesses and puts them on T-shirts.

Vintage Roadside not only helps preserves the memory of a long-gone motel or restaurant on a T-shirt, but its site also provides a brief history of each business. The company says it gets information for these summaries from local historical societies.

It sounds like the proprietors are hardcore roadies. From the site’s “About” page:

Over the past decade we’ve spent a lot of time exploring old highways and small towns practicing our own version of archaeology — stopping at boarded up businesses to take pictures of old signage, collecting stories from local historical societies, and tracking down mom and pop memorabilia from the 1930s – early 1960s. We’ve also happily paid admission to any roadside attraction we could find with an interesting story to tell … although we have to confess a particular weakness for paper mache dinosaurs and miniature buildings.

One of the shirts Vintage Roadside is selling is for the B&B Rancho along Route 66 in Rialto, Calif. Here’s what Vintage says about the B&B:

If you happened to be traveling the western stretch of Route 66 in the 1950s, you would have found yourself passing through Rialto, California. Although this stretch of Route 66, known as Foothill Blvd. as it passes through Rialto, Rancho Cucamonga, and Pomona still had a few of its famous orange and lemon groves at the time, the real attraction for the savvy traveler was a night or two at The Wigwam Motel and dinner at The B & B Rancho.

Located at the corner of Foothill and Riverside, just a mile west of The Wigwam Motel, the B & B was in a perfect location to catch the eye of hungry motorists. The B & B was a place where you could take time to relax from the road and slow things down for an hour or two over a great meal. 

The B & B was owned and operated by Bob and Betty Lasher who are still remembered fondly for their good food and wonderful service. The location has long since passed through numerous owners and business names.

If you have any additional information or stories regarding the B & B Rancho or The Bobette Liquor store we’d love to hear from you. Click here to send us a note.

Vintage has 14 T-shirts for sale at this time, and in an e-mail, the company says it hopes it will have new Route 66 offerings soon.

Vintage Roadside is happy to hear from people for stories and suggestions. If it’s looking for more Route 66 material of departed businesses, may I suggest Pop Hicks in Clinton, Okla., or the Club Cafe in Santa Rosa, N.M.?

A reporter from KVII-TV in Amarillo participates in the Texas Old Route 66 Association’s self-guided passport program that is scheduled to run up to the start of the National Route 66 Festival in Clinton, Okla. The linked page also includes a video.

You can pick up a passport at one of these locations: MidPoint Cafe (Adrian); Oldham County Chamber of Commerce, Roark Hardware, Boot Hill Saloon and Grill, or Hickory Inn (all in Vega); Fort Amarillo RV Resort, Cattlemen’s Cafe, or Golden Light Cafe (all in Amarillo); Devil’s Rope Museum, (McLean); U-Drop Inn (Shamrock). You get it stamped at the unique Route 66 sites listed. The fee is $5. Prizes for participants will be awarded at the festival. The more stamps you have, the greater your chances are to win. For more information, call 806-267-2828.

The historic Aztec Hotel in Monrovia, Calif., is set to have a bunch of renovations in the coming weeks, including the renaming of its Elephant Bar, reported the Pasadena Star-News.

The building has an extensive Mayan theme, and the work done will better reflect that. The hotel is receiving a $50,000 grant from the California Route 66 Preservation Foundation to help in the effort.

Stucco will be taken off to reveal original storefronts, which were decorated with leaded stained glass windows. The hotel lobby will be restored and made larger. A wall dividing the bar from the lobby will be taken down.

The building has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976.

The Aztec actually dates to a year before Route 66 was commissioned. And one of the reasons Route 66 also was moved from Huntington to Foothill Boulevard was because of the Aztec.

The Aztec Hotel’s Web site is here.

The Daily Oklahoman has a good overview about big changes in the offing for Miami, Okla., which once was tepid to Route 66 but now seems to have jumped onto the Mother Road bandwagon.

The city has applied for a bunch of grants for streetscape improvements, shoring up historic properties and better signs to direct travelers down the Mother Road. The town’s business district seems to be improving, and the article also gives a shout-out to Waylan’s Ku-Ku, a Route 66 landmark restaurant.

The Lincoln (Ill.) Courier reported that the back portion of The Mill, a dilapidated former restaurant on Route 66 in Lincoln, was torn down Monday for safety reasons and as part of a renovation program.

The part of the Mill that was saved includes the original 1929 section, shaped like a Dutch windmill, and the post World War II addition, originally an Army barracks in Camp Ellis in Havana.

The restaurant and bar dates to the earliest years of route 66, in the late 1920s and early ’30s. The establishment was famous for its schnitzels and its unique decor. It closed in 1996.

The Mill eventually will be converted into a Route 66 museum.

About once a month, I receive an e-newsletter from the fun folks at RoadsideAmerica.com. Reports from the site’s editors and correspondents are always irreverent, but informative.

The latest edition has a story about longtime Route 66 attraction Meteor Crater, which is east of Flagstaff, Ariz.  And I learned several things about it that I didn’t know before:

• That scientists once considered that big hole in the Arizona desert an extinct volcano, not the remnants of a meteor impact.
• The Meteor Crater site is not owned by the state or federal government, but privately.
• The site displays a 1,400-pound piece of the meteor, which is relatively puny compared to the gigantic rock that had to have struck the site and created that 4,000-foot-wide hole.

Meteor Crater’s official Web site is here.