Maybe so. This seems to go against the conventional wisdom that gasoline prices will keep inching upward.

But an report last week by the Christian Science Monitor indicates that the price at the pump may fall modestly in the fast-coming year.

Even if the winter is somewhat colder, the energy markets may have a greater supply of oil next year. Through much of this year, OPEC production has been about 1 million barrels per day lower than expected, says John Felmy, chief economist at the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group in Washington. But he adds, “I have heard that Saudi Arabia is now pumping an extra 400,000 barrels of oil per day, so we’ll have to see if that continues.”

In fact, supply could outstrip demand next year, says Kevin Lindemer, an energy analyst at Global Insight in Lexington, Mass. This year, oil production was about 85 million barrels per day, barely enough to satisfy demand of about 85.7 million barrels per day. “Next year, we’re probably closer to supplies of 87 million or 88 million barrels per day,” he estimates.

Some of the new supply will come from Saudi Arabia, which is opening up another oil field, says Antoine Halff, an energy analyst at Fimat USA, an energy trading company in New York. “We see more production coming onstream next year, more rebuilding of spare capacity that will put some flexibility into the system,” he says.

Spare capacity will also come from non-OPEC sources, says Mueller. “There are a number of big projects coming onstream in the US Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Russia, and Kazakhstan,” he says.

Energy supplies will be further augmented by an increase in biofuels. In 2007, EIA estimates, ethanol has been equal to 4.3 percent of the total gasoline pool. “We should be ramping up to 9 billion gallons of biofuels, up from 6 [billion] to 7 billion gallons right now,” says Mr. Felmy.

Those are compelling reasons on why prices should slide. Obviously, this scenario would be good for Route 66 businesses, which see a modest impact when fuel prices rise.

However, the Nervous Nellies in the markets tend to overreact to anything in the world stage. If the Middle East continues to be unstable, prices could ignore all those sensible reasons to drop the price of oil.

Yeah, I know … John Mellencamp’s from Indiana, which isn’t one of the Route 66 states.

But he was born and raised in a small town, and his 1985 hit song by the same name (back when he still partly used his John Cougar stage name) captures the humility and pride of small-town people better than any I can think of. He gets the feel right.

And since Route 66 is frequently described as the world’s longest small town,” Mellencamp’s tune seems appropriate here.

Owen Adams of the Sunday Mirror in London tells about his trip on Route 66 with other Britons in a coach.

A few things are left out in the article, including Kansas. But the piece is generous in length, and strikes a decidedly positive tone about the Mother Road.

Adams also plugs Archer Direct, which is offering 16-day packages on Route 66 for the reasonable price of about $2,500, flights included.

Located just off Route 66 near Lebanon, Mo., is the I-44 Raceway, which caters mostly to stock-car racing. The 2008 season for the 3/8-mile oval track will be its 25th, reports WhoWon.com.

A good mix of weekly shows and special events for 2008 will find the weekly shows featuring UMP Late Models, USRA A-Modifieds, Factory Stocks, Bombers, B-Mods and Rookies highlighting regular action, while Superstocks and 305 Winged Sprints will be on the card for limited appearances

The Special events for 2008 will feature the popular traveling USMTS Modifieds making 2 appearances as they will help on the season opener on March 29th along with a return appearance on Aug.9th.

For open-wheeled Sprint Car fans,the Central Missouri based Winged Outlaw Warriors will make an appearance on May 17th to show just how fast the clay oval truly is.

There’s more, including a full tentative schedule, here. The racetrack’s site is here.

A traveler stopped by the Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, Texas.

What’s always been cool about this strange piece of artwork is it’s not in a stuffy museum with armed guards making sure you don’t touch it. Here, snow and rain falls on it. You can touch it, spray-paint it and even let your little dogs take a pee on it.

Incidentally, the song is “It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)” by R.E.M.

About 18 months ago, we passed on the news that a local group was trying to raise $5 million to renovate the historic Rialto Square Theatre of Joliet, Ill., which is saddled between lanes of Route 66 and is a stone’s throw from the Lincoln Highway.

The Joliet Herald News reports that the fundraising continues, but the group has already started the restoration.

Some projects will accent the ancient themes of the Rialto’s grandeur. Other projects are adding a digital edge to the theater’s hidden inner workings, ushering in 21st-century production technology.

David Kump strolls through the archway leading into the theater’s column-lined rotunda. The Rialto official points out rolls of new carpet that soon will line the grand staircases sweeping gracefully upward to the north and south of the archway.

However, visitors must remember that in this renovation, everything old is new again. The new carpet design — replacing a solid maroon color — is black, gold and light burgundy with a pattern that reprises the original carpet design of 1926.

There’s a lot more — including pictures — of information that the article gives. To get a sense of the work ahead, go read the whole thing.

(Hat tip: Lynn “Lulu” Bagdon)

Another story today about the Round Barn of Arcadia, Okla. This one’s by Ted Landphair of the Voice of America.

According to his report, there are 1,000 round barns left in America. They were built up until the 1920s. Given the advantages of such a structure, it makes you wonder why farmers quit building them:

Carpenters discovered that they required less stone or wood than rectangular barns, thus saving on costs. Because their roofs are supported by the one circular wall, there are no columns needed. So there’s more room for livestock or hay. And Midwesterners learned that high winds — even tornadoes — that would pulverize an ordinary barn often glance off a round one.

And I wasn’t aware of this problem during the Round Barn’s restoration:

Slowly it began to bulge and slump to the east, until a group of citizens bought it and fixed it up. They pounded telephone poles into the ground all around the barn, wrapped heavy guy wires around them and the barn, and pulled until the old red barn was upright again. That caused the roof to collapse, but they built a new one.

I’ve seen many photos of the collapsed roof, but didn’t know about the structure leaning. That makes me appreciate the group’s restoration even more.

Here’s an audio file of the report:

Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader columnist Sarah Overstreet tells the sad tale of Dr. C.C. Moore’s Veterinary Clinic in downtown Springfield, which occupied a corner of Route 66 since 1929 and is about to close.

Dr. Tedd Hamaker is moving from his current location, which has only a few parking spaces and little room for boarding animals.

Hamaker will pack the Route 66 souvenirs he’s bought, some people brought him “because I was trying to build this as a business on historic 66,” and mementos that Moore left in the hospital, including old vet textbooks and the name plate from his desk. He has sold the clinic to a nonveterinarian, Cy Betzler, who says he doesn’t know what he will do with the building yet. [...]
Hamaker is building a clinic in Galloway, on its own site, and is proud not to be in a strip mall. He expressly didn’t seek out another veterinarian to buy the St. Louis Street hospital. “I couldn’t look another veterinarian in the eye and say, ‘Well, you only have three parking spaces, you can’t expand. … It would be like telling someone who wanted to start a restaurant, ‘But you’ll only have one table.’” [...]

Layers of paint cover the woodwork, even though freshly painted and perfectly fine. The original old lavatories still stand, and there are cute touches of things as they were back when: a medicine cabinet whose door is held shut with a rubber band and paper clip; Moore’s old medicines, syringes and equipment such as the “Stethetron,” which even Hamaker doesn’t know how was used, except it was some kind of new-fangled stethoscope Moore picked up along the way — from the looks of it, in the ’50s. The sign which told customers there was extra parking available at the Texaco station to the west, when there was one. The old safe.

Like so much of central Springfield now, Hamaker is landlocked. We like to go to strip malls where parking is easy, or at least there are some handicapped spaces near the businesses we’re going to — unlike in downtown Springfield. So, another dear landmark fades into the sunset.

“I understand how people feel about it — this was their veterinary hospital,” Hamaker reflects. “It’s another reality of life, like the great vacant lot where you used to play stickball, and now it’s a supercenter.”

When POPS in Arcadia, Okla., opened this summer, it not only offered hundreds of types of soft drinks, but commissioned one of its own. It’s called Round Barn Root Beer, a nod to the Round Barn a few hundred yards east on Route 66.

To many people’s surprise, Round Barn Root Beer is the No. 2 seller at POPS, reports the Daily Oklahoman.

To date, more than 7,500 bottles of Round Barn Root Beer have been sold just at POPS. A Florida restaurateur has even contacted Doepke about selling the soda in the Sunshine State.

“It’s been fantastic,” Doepke said. “It’s No. 2 on our sales list, right behind Route 66 Root Beer.” [...]

“We wanted to give a nod to our neighbors down the road,” Doepke said. “With this being Arcadia and being on Route 66, it’s just another way to do a tribute.” [...]

POPS now is preparing to add keg-fed fountains for Round Barn Root Beer.

Round Barn Route Beer was created by Huebert Brewing Co. in nearby Oklahoma City.

What’s the No. 1 seller at POPS? It’s Route 66 Root Beer.

The Blue Whale site on Route 66 near Catoosa, Okla. (map here) was pretty messed up by this month’s historic ice storm. So the Oklahoma Route 66 Association historic preservation committee has set up an emergency work day there on New Year’s Day.

Fallen tree limbs are all over, including one that cracked a concrete picnic table there. The dangling limbs have also created a somewhat hazardous situation for many tourists who might stop there. Fortunately, it looks like the whale itself sustained little to no damage.

The work day starts at 9 a.m. and continues until the job is done or until sundown. Bring your gloves, chain saws, pole saws or other equipment that would be useful for tree-trimming. Those who help can haul away the bigger pieces for next year’s firewood. The smaller branches will be piled up for disposal later.

Soft drinks and homemade cookies will be provided. Participants also will be given a chance to win Jim Ross‘ book, “Oklahoma Route 66,” and a set of “Here It Is!” maps.

If Route 66 News looks a little different in the next week or so, it’s not because of technical difficulties.

WordPress.com added an option on Christmas Day that allows its blogs to have snow floating across the computer screen.

I added it during a “why the heck not?” moment. Enjoy the wintry look while it lasts — it’s supposed to stop Jan. 2.

There was wistful news out of Tulsa Town this week regarding two Route 66 restaurants.

First, the owners of Halim & Mimi’s, a Lebanese restaurant on the 11th Street alignment of Route 66, are retiring after nearly 30 years in the business, reports the Tulsa World. The restaurant will reopen on Jan. 2 with new owners but will have the same food.

Halim and Mimi Abufadil emigrated to the United States from their native Lebanon during the 1970s when that country was wracked by civil war. Halim & Mimi’s isn’t well-known to roadies except for the most devoted. But locals — especially from the nearby University of Tulsa — flock to it at lunchtime.

Also in the World, longtime Ike’s Chili owner William Johnson died at age 84. He ran the business, which has a location on the Admiral Place alignment of Route 66, for more than 50 years. He retired in 2005.

He wasn’t the original owner, however. Ike’s Chili was reputedly started in 1908 — about a year after Oklahoma became a state. William Johnson was a great-nephew of founder Ike Johnson.

Ike’s Chili continues to thrive in two locations in Tulsa. They are run by William’s son, William Zurn Johnson.

Beverly’s Pancake Corner, which has occupied a corner on Route 66 in Oklahoma City for decades, is moving a few blocks down the street, reports the Daily Oklahoman.

Beverly’s, which is at 2115 Northwest Expressway, is moving to Midland Center at 3315 Northwest Expressway. The old site is reportedly making way for a Talbot’s women’s clothing store.

Louis Dakil Auctioneers will sell the contents of the diner and adjacent former furniture store at 10 a.m. Jan. 3. Dakil said the building will be razed to make room for new development at the prime intersection near Penn Square Mall.

Masoudy said she’s packing up all the Beverly’s atmosphere she can, and has a design scheme worked out to try to recreate the ambiance that has made Beverly’s both a local neighborhood eatery and a destination since 1956. [...]

The first Beverly’s opened in 1921. Beverly Osborne and his wife, Rubye, came up with “Chicken in the Rough” — fried chicken served only with a biscuit and honey — and it became an icon of Route 66. The Osbornes franchised their specialty nationally.

“Osborne once said it started when he and his wife were eating fried chicken while traveling west in a Ford Model T on Route 66,” Max Nichols wrote in May in a monthly column from the Oklahoma Historical Society. “This is really chicken in the rough,” his wife said. It stuck.

Masoudy said the transition from a seasoned diner to a new space won’t be too rough. The new location will have a shiny counter, a window to the kitchen and other features and fixtures of an old-time diner.

“I’m making it a ’60s look,” she said. “I’m trying to make it homey — like Beverly’s.”

There’s no word on whether the restaurant’s famed neon sign is making the trip, also.

LA Weekly has revealed its Top 10 Dishes of 2007, and The Donut Man on Route 66 in Glendora has made the cut.

And, holy cow, the strawberry doughnut sounds good:

Have you ever seen a strawberry doughnut from the Donut Man? It is an iceberg of a doughnut, a flattened spheroid big enough to use as a Pilates cushion, split in two and filled to order with fresh strawberries, although only in season. The fruit is moistened with a translucent gel that lubricates even the occasional white-shouldered berry with a mantle of slippery sweetness, oozing from the sides, turning the bottom of the pasteboard box into a sugary miasma in the unlikely event that the doughnuts actually make it home. The tawny pastry itself is only lightly sweetened, dense and slightly crunchy at the outside, like most good doughnuts, with a vaguely oily nuttiness and an almost substantial chew. It is the only doughnut I have ever seen that is routinely served with a plastic knife and fork. It is worth every penny of the $2.50 it costs. It is worth waiting for spring. 915 E. Route 66, Glendora, (626) 335-9111.

And the Grub in L.A. blog has a picture of this creation.

“Sixty-six a highway speaks
Of deserts dry
Of cool green valleys
Gold and silver veins
Of the shining cities …”

– “Heartland,” from U2’s “Rattle and Hum” album. That was a period in which U2 was inspired by America’s landscape, including the Route 66 country of the Mojave Desert.

On a related note, the famed Joshua tree that appeared in the artwork of the band’s breakthrough 1987 album, “The Joshua Tree,” died about 2000. The cause of the tree’s death probably was old age.

This is one of Tom Petty’s biggest hits, and it takes place in the Route 66 country of Los Angeles.

… on this holiday.

Here’s a truck-driving song, although not a usual one.

If you’ve clicked on it, you’ve probably already figured out the music is by this fellow.

Emily recently renovated a couple of Route 66 sites she owns — Route66Food.com and SpringBreak66.com. Route 66 Food is a guide to restaurants, and Spring Break 66 is an online resource for college students considering a trip on the Main Street of America.

Both were moved to WordPress.com. Here’s her explanation on the Route 66 yahoogroup on why:

Spring Break 66 likely will not receive tons of updates, as it’s pretty stable, but the blog format is A.) free, and B.) easier to update than a standard Web site. I’ll probably post travel tips and whatnot on there from time to time.

Route 66 Food should improve dramatically with the new format, as it is now manned by a team of reviewers whose names will be familiar to y’all: Mike Ward, Ron Warnick, and Kip Welborn will all be contributing restaurant reviews to the blog. I’m still ironing out some techie-type stuff there to get the non-WordPress junkies set up with WordPress IDs. I am still in need of some assistance in the form of additional reviewers, so if you are on 66 often and are interested in helping, please e-mail me … and let me know. I am particularly in need of volunteers in Illinois, Texas, New Mexico, and California, but I will also be accepting guest reviews from folks in other locales, so don’t let geography deter you from volunteering.

If you have ideas to add to the Spring Break site, please e-mail me those as well. My e-mail address is sundayjohn66 (at) mac (dot) com.

Many Route 66 aficionados are, to put it gently, a little long in the tooth. So many of them fret about whether there will be enough young people interested in the Mother Road to keep it viable in the future.

That’s why many roadies rejoiced at the 2006 release of Disney-Pixar’s animated movie, “Cars,” which introduced Route 66 to millions of kids.

Roadies have reason to celebrate again with the publication of a comic book, “Dinosaurs Across Route 66″ (32 pages, $3.95). It was created by California artist and literacy advocate Phil Yeh, whose previous comic, “Dinosaurs Across America,” has sold almost 200,000 copies. So Yeh already has a sizable audience that can be informed about the Mother Road.

In “Dinosaurs Across Route 66,” the ever-patient Mrs. Mills drives a flying convertible west on or above the Mother Road. Accompanying her is Patrick Rabbit, an oaf on a “fact-free diet” who has no motivation to read or learn or aspire to anything except host a television show and become famous.

Every so often, the duo comes across a “magical time hole” where they can go back to another era and visit figures such as Abraham Lincoln or see defunct Route 66 landmarks such as the Trails Restaurant in Duarte, Calif. They also meet the “Dinosaurs Across America” crew, who escaped extinction by learning to read and building a flying time machine.

Here are a few excerpts from the comic. Here’s the U-Drop Inn in Shamrock, Texas:

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The Wigwam Motel in Rialto, Calif.:

And the Ed Galloway’s giant totem pole near Foyil, Okla.:

It’s surprising how much history and detail about Route 66 that Yeh packed into those 32 black-and-white pages. For instance, the Joliet Historical Museum, Odell Station, the Illinois State Museum in Springfield and Ambler’s Station in Dwight, Ill., are all mentioned in one panel.

In another scene at the Old Chain of Rocks Bridge near St. Louis, billboards for the St. Louis Car Museum, Shea’s Gas Station Museum in Springfield, Ill., and the Dixie Truckers Home in McLean, Ill., are seen. So Route 66ers may consider using a magnifying glass to spot all the Mother Road references in “Dinosaurs Across Route 66.”

It seems strange at first blush to introduce such an obnoxious character such as Patrick Rabbit into the story. But Rabbit is so willfully ignorant, he acts as reverse psychology for readers. Children don’t want to become the obvious dolt he is, so they’ll be more likely to read and research the historical figures sprinkled throughout “Dinosaurs Across Route 66.”

And if those kids have their curiosity piqued enough to request a Route 66 road trip with their parents, that’s good, too.

Recommended, especially for kids age 8 and up.

This isn’t so much a video as a blurry concert photo of Hank Williams with his version of “Lost Highway” playing in the background.

But, really, this timeless music is all you need.