The Route 66 Days Festival in Flagstaff, Ariz., started three years ago with just 80 classic cars.

Now, the festival this year expects to have 300 cars, reports the Arizona Daily Sun.

Cars entered in the car show will begin arriving downtown this afternoon. They’ll park overnight in the Wheeler Park parking lot and move downtown early Saturday morning, when a handful of blocks around Heritage Square will be closed to traffic.

“Everything from a 1910 Model A to new cars, Corvettes, PT Cruisers, street rods, restorations, you name it,” Coyle said.

Among the events during the weekend will be a screening of “Cars” on Friday night as part of Movies on the Square. Car show judging is Saturday. The festival closes at 3 p.m. Sunday.

The Bartlett-Carnegie Sapulpa Public Library in Sapulpa, Okla., is marking its 90th birthday on Sept. 15, and to begin the festivities that day will be Route 66 author Michael Wallis, reports the Sapulpa Daily Herald.

Wallis will sign books and answer questions from the public from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in John Frank Hall at the library, which is on Route 66 at 27 W. Dewey Ave.

“Of all the libraries Andrew Carnegie founded in the late 1800s and early 1900s –– 24 of those in Oklahoma –– Sapulpa is fortunate to be one of the eight remaining in the state,” said Ted Fisher, Economic Development Director for the City of Sapulpa.

The Herald also has a separate story about the library’s history, along with vintage photographs.

The Red Hill Coffee Shop along Route 66 in Fontana, Calif., was long a favorite of locals and had been operating since 1987.

But it was forced to close July 3 when an out-of-control truck snapped off a supporting beam of the restaurant. The city condemned the compromised structure.

According to the Fontana Herald News, owner Mary Nickel has been rebuilding, and the Red Hill should be open again by October.

Foral has been a Red Hill regular since 1987. So, how has he coped since the closing? “We’re all bouncing around to other restaurants until Mary opens again,” said Foral.

Nickel is just as anxious as Foral. She’s lithe, wears a ready smile, and moves with the quick step of a waitress. An owner and waitress who loves her job, misses her customers, and wants her cozy coffee shop open again.

She admits the place isn’t fancy. Just 11 red vinyl booths with yellow tablecloths sprinkled with purple, blue and orange flowers. And seven stools that swivel at the counter, so the regulars can turn and greet friends walking through the door.

“We’re this little, tiny greasy spoon,” said Nickel, “not an Applebee’s or Mimi’s.”

The Red Hill once was Baker’s Hamburgers during the 1950s and ’60s, where a local teen or a Route 66 traveler could stop for a 19-cent hamburger.

The most amazing part is, Nickel has continued to pay her staff even throughout the restaurant’s temporary closure.