If you missed author Michael Wallis‘ keynote speech at the National Route 66 Festival in Clinton, Okla., last week, you can listen to it on this page.

The QuickTime sound file is about 33 minutes. Rod Harsh at Route66TVonline.com and Visit66.com recorded it.

Harsh also has a bunch of photos from the festival.

I missed the beginning of this event, but Kit-Kat Klocks is celebrating its 75th anniversary with a Route 66 tour, joining with the Great All-American Road Show, from Los Angeles to Chicago.

The tour includes a display of the world’s largest Kit-Kat Klock, which is 75 inches tall (shown above).

The group stopped by Thursday at the Barstow Route 66 Mother Road Museum in Barstow, Calif. Here below is curator Deb Hodkin and All-American Road Show founder Woody Young.

Stops include Kingman and Flagstaff, Ariz.a; Albuquerque, N.M.; Amarillo, Texas; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla.; Springfield, Ill., and ends in Chicago on Sept. 3.

You can follow the tour on its Web site here.

(Photos courtesy of Woody Young.) 

The Arizona Daily Sun in Flagstaff tells about how Malcolm Mackey and others saved a 1911 steam engine locomotive, nicknamed Old Two Spot, that now sits at the town’s historic railroad depot.

“It was kind of the town mascot because it had a whistle that was recognizable,” said Mackey, 80, who still lives in the home where he was born. “The old-time people who are my age or older had a fondness for that old steam engine. It was bought new and brought here. Town drunks turned out for a big celebration, with the bar right across the street.”

Mackey doesn’t take solo credit for saving the old engine.He said he was one of a group of concerned citizens who each put up $10,000 to buy Old Two Spot from Stone Forest Industries for about $45,000. [...]

Stone Forest was the last lumber company to operate in Flagstaff and closed its doors in 1993. The engine was retired on company property in 1966.

“Stone Forest was very unhappy with the city of Flagstaff for its support of the spotted owl; they would not sell to us,” he said. “Through the backdoor, we bought Two Spot and got it moved downtown.” [...]

The locomotive has sat downtown since June 1999, when it was dedicated to “all those who worked in the Flagstaff timber industry over the last 110 years.”

In case you’re wondering, here’s a photo of Old Two Spot.

The Joplin (Mo.) Globe published a story about four women who are refurbishing a former gas station on Route 66 in nearby Galena, Kan., into a tourism center.

On Thursday, a family from Texas with a 1995 Mustang Cobra decked out to resemble Lightning McQueen from the 2006 animated movie “Cars” stopped by to visit and see the 1951 International boom truck that inspired the Mater character in the film. Needless to say, the sight of two real-size “Cars” characters caused a bit of a commotion.

The 4 Women on the Route, the group fixing up the former Little’s Service Station, recently uncovered more history about the site:

Charles said the corner once was the location of the Banks Hotel, but she found a Joplin Globe story from 1933 stating that the hotel had to be removed because it obscured visibility for motorists along Route 66. She said she thinks an old photo of the Little’s Service Station on display in the building dates to the late 1930s or early 1940s.