Jim Conkle (center) makes a pitch for the Route 66 National Monument to Sen. Feinstein and other officials.

Jim Conkle of the fledgling Route 66 Alliance sent me some photos of him making a pitch to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), her staff and other officials near Amboy Crater, just off Route 66 near Amboy, Calif., to designate a Route 66 National Monument along 70 miles of Southern California’s Mojave Desert.

Conkle also wrote this in an e-mail:

I can tell you that they all left knowing more about and a better appreciation of Route 66. The senator’s husband, Richard C. Blum, a very well-off investment banker, among other business ventures, and I hit it off.

Senator Feinstein asked me if I would be willing to come to DC to help lobby for this project, I of course said YES.

Now the hard work of getting all the stake holders as well as all the politicians to agree.

Having known Conkle for a long time, it’s easy to be swayed by his enthusiasm for the Mother Road. You’d be hard-pressed to find a better pitchman for a Route 66 project.

Route 66 in that area is caught between two interests: a Marine base that wants to expand its acreage and alternative-power companies that want to use the area, mainly for solar electricity. Conkle (a Marine, I might add) said in an earlier message that he aims to find a compromise with those parties.