The Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program announced a few days ago that it is now accepting applications for cost-share grants that will be awarded later this year.

According to an e-mail from deputy program manager Kaisa Barthuli:

Applications may be submitted to the program office until April 11, 2008. Awards will be announced on or before June 13, 2008. Cost-share grant applications are available online here, or may be requested by e-mail at IM_Rt66@nps.gov or phone at (505) 988-6701.

If you have any questions about potential project proposals or the application process, please do not hesitate to contact the program office.

The program is mostly geared to owners of historic Route 66 businesses who need help in shoring up the structure or preserving what they have. The grants can cover up to 50 percent of the cost of the work.

Jim Conkle and others have set a tentative schedule for the 2008 Route 66 Caravan.

According to the caravan Web site, the west-to-east trek starts April 22 in Santa Monica, Calif., and ends June 17-23 at the Route 66 Festival in Litchfield, Ill. The caravan also will hit a few spots on the Mother Road on return west.

The caravan is essentially a partnership with Remy Chevalier, who drove down Route 66 to promote the use of electric vehicles. In addition to Route 66ers, the alliance is also enlisting others who are promoting the use of alternative-fuel vehicles.

Conkle says in an e-mail:

This year’s Caravan will of course include the Corvettes, motorcycles, other classic cars as well as many other vehicles. Vehicles of all types. But the main body of the Caravan on the trip east will be those from the Electric Vehicle Industry.

We will be visiting all the sites from our 2003 Caravan, check out www.cart66pf.org/66caravan/index.htm for more information.

If you would like to be a part of this Caravan please contact us. The dates are filling up so now is the time to get your request in.

At each major stop we will be setting up displays, offering test drives, doing seminars and holding media events.

Plan on joining us for the entire Caravan or on the days we are in your area.

I know Jim Conkle, and was at several stops during the 2003 caravan. It’s a “come one, come all” atmosphere to maximize the fun.

Remy posted a 1-hour, 40-minute film of his Route 66 tour last year:

The Illinois Route 66 Association is taking nominations for the state’s Route 66 Hall of Fame through Feb. 29.

According to this news release in the Morris (Ill.) Daily Herald:

They can be submitted to Route 66 Association of Illinois, Attention Hall of Fame Committee, 110 W. Howard St., Pontiac, Ill. 61764. Deadline for nominations is Feb. 29, 2008.

Induction ceremonies will take place in June 2008.

Hall of Fame honorees include people and businesses that helped Route 66 in Illinois create its special flavor and character from 1926 to 1977, while it was an official U.S. highway.

The 75 members to date are truck drivers, waitresses, farmers, newspaper publisher, auto dealership and several mom and pop businesses, a movie palace, a drive-in theater and the Chain of Rocks Bridge.

Nominations may be submitted regarding anyone or a business that contributed to the great history and heritage on the “Mother Road.”

The nomination should be brief, not more than four pages, fact filled story about the nominee’s history along Route 66 in Illinois. Photos, news clippings and other memorabilia are welcome, but not required.

A list of 1990-2006 Hall of Fame inductees is here. The 2007 inductees are here.

John Stewart, 68, died of a brain aneurism on Saturday. He was best-known as a member of the Kingston Trio and the writer of “Daydream Believer,” a hit single for the Monkees and Anne Murray that was covered by dozens of other artists.

In this obituary from the Associated Press, I learned he had a significant link to Route 66.

He eventually recorded more than 40 solo albums. Others included “The Lonesome Picker Rides Again, “Airdream Believer” and “Rough Sketches,” the latter a collection of songs about the iconic American highway Route 66.

“Rough Sketches” was released in 1997, and the song titles make it obvious of the Mother Road’s inspiration to the project: “Neon Road,” “Cadillac Ranch,” “The Dogs of San Jon,” “Angel Delgadillo” are a few.

Listening to sound samples, Stewart’s voice sounds like a weathered John Mellencamp. The accompaniment is often acoustic and spare.

At the Bloodlines fan site, this is what it said about Stewart’s connection to Route 66:

Q. What is the connection between J.S. and Route 66?

A. J.S. has been traveling the road for several years and documenting his travels in song. Route 66 is often a metaphor for the growth an change of the face of America.

Tom DeLisle reported after Stewart’s death that he’d been ill for some time:

It can now be said that John was told last summer, shortly before Trio Fantasy Camp 8, that he was suffering from the initial stages of Alzheimer’s disease. That news was kept from the public in the hope that his condition would stabilize and allow him to work in the following years until the disease took its eventual toll. Indeed he had stabilized in the time since Camp, and was able to bravely perform several concert shows and do the studio work on his new album.

If there is a blessing in his passing, it is that he will now be spared the true ravages of that awful disease. He will not suffer the gradual personal mental reductions caused by Alzheimer’s, though he had already lost his ability to drive, owing to California law. In fact, one of the new songs on the upcoming album is “I Can’t Drive Anymore,” a typically honest and emotional personal reaction to his situation.

Speaking personally, losing John creates a hole in my soul. I had agonized for months over the Alzheimer’s prognosis. But after talking with many of his friends and family yesterday, I can see that — facing a debilitating future — it was — and this is so hard to say — the right time for him to go. This is what he would have wanted, in light of what he ultimately faced.

Here’s a performance from August of his biggest song:

UPDATE: Dang. I’d nearly forgotten about this song. “Gold,” with Stevie Nicks on backup vocals, was a top 10 hit in 1979: