The Route 66 Casino Hotel in Albuquerque is set for a grand opening on Jan. 10. The casino’s site is here, and the Route 66 connection is played up fairly significantly. The Pueblo of Laguna runs the casino.

The site’ss 2008 Calendar Girls also contains a lot of vintage cars. In the June image, you’ll see Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo.

And here’s a video promoting the grand opening:

The closed Witmor Farms Restaurant on Route 66 in Buckhorn, Mo., is set to be reopened and adjacent land redeveloped, reports the Waynesville Daily Guide.

This tidbit was contained in a story about proposed annexation of the area by Waynesville.

William J. Peach, a car dealer in Rolla, Mo., wants the annexation so the restaurant and land have better access to utilities. He plans to reopen the restaurant, plus redevelop nearby land to build a hotel, 100 homes, and apartments.

Waynesville City Administrator Bruce Harrill told councilmen that Peach and his employees had already begun redevelopment work on the Witmor Farms property, including repainting the roof and repairing the parking lot.

Other commercial projects planned for the site include pharmacies, a laundromat and a small shopping mall, Peach said, many of which will be geared toward an older adult clientele.

“It’s probably a five or 10 year plan,” Peach said. “We’re excited about this and it’s something that we can all be proud of. And maybe as I-44 sort of goes out that way, maybe we can generate the city limits to go even further out that way.”

A photo of Witmor Farms can be seen here. Here’s a postcard image of the restaurant from the 1960s.

David Clark, aka Windy City Road Warrior, knows about Route 66 and other historic roads in Chicago probably more than anyone. He has written a few books about the subject, and he also gives guided tours from time to time.

Clark now has started a blog. Its mission statement is thus:

To wage noble campaigns upon the autoways, railways, waterways, and airways connecting to and from the Windy City, and to give a Chicagoan’s perspective upon transportation issues everywhere.

Clark already has a few posts up, including a 1927 document from American Association of State Highway Officials that describes the newly number national highway system, mileages and the towns they went through.

Clark also announced he has started an archive of articles that were in the Route 66 Federation News, published by the National Historic Route 66 Federation. He said the first article is up, and more will be posted later.

Between Clark and Scott Piotrowski and his careful research of Route 66 in Los Angeles, both ends of the Mother Road are well-covered.