Happy New Year!

courtesy AARoads Shield Gallery
Make your own Shield at the AARoads Shield Generator

Saving an 1887 bridge in Texas

As a fan of Old Routes, it’s great to see an old bridge saved and preserved. For a century old bridge in Texas to still be used, even though only for Pedestrians, is a real bonus. Go here to check out the story of the 1887 built bridge in New Braunfels, Texas.

View Larger Map

Links

More photos of the Faust St Bridge
Faust St bridgebuilder the King Bridge Company
Other Historic Whipple Truss bridges in the US
Six Bridges : The Legacy of Othmar H. Ammann
Backroads of the Texas Hill Country: Your Guide to the Most Scenic Adventures
Texas Road Trip (Chisholm Trail Series)

Route 66: America’s First Main Street

This Route 66 book can be hard to find, but if you can find a copy, it’s a nice casual read. The author, Spencer Crump, takes you on a historical road trip. It has the feel of a personal scrapbook or journal with his historical musings on the road and events of the early 66 era of the 20s and 30s.

Crump includes a variety of period postcards, photos and ads to give you a better feel of the time. It’s hard to imagine hotels for a buck a night, 5-cent hamburgers and 22-cent gasoline, but the visual proof is there. There’s even something that gas stations had called, “Service with a Smile”.

Other than the cover, it’s all black and white, which does well with the historical feel of the book. Indeed, it is more than a 66 picture book. One of the real highlights for the road geek or old route fan is copies of Vintage maps from the Automobile Club of Southern California.

Buy the book Route 66 - America's First Main Street
Check out the curios at the Old Routes Souvenir Shop

Copyright 2009 - All the World Travel LLC and Dan Smith

Route 66 Re-Signed in Missouri

Carthage Missouri has a brand new set of Route 66 signs to guide travelers along the Mother Road. Many feel getting Route 66 re-signed will help bring interest to the old route as well as tourist dollars to the interstate bypassed cities.

Follow this link to the Carthage Press story.

And more links to other sites about 66 in Missouri.
More on the 66 Missouri Byway
The longtime proponent of Route 66 is Bring Back Route 66
66 history in the Missouri Ozarks
Missouri 66 Books and Guides

The Rock Cafe is Rocks Back to Life

It’s been a popular Route 66 stop since 1939 and a year after fire gutted everything but its stone walls, The Rock Café in Stroud Oklahoma has reopened. The café was named for its walls made of rock removed to build Route 66 between Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
Owner Dawn Welch has kept busy cleaning up the restaurant, considering her own cooking TV show and writing a cookbook called Dollars to Donuts.
More about the Rock Café on OldRoutes.com
And other Links
Story about reopening with video from NewsOK.com
Rock Cafe's Blog
Owner Looks Back on year from news9.com.
Buy Dawn Welch's book, Dollars to Donuts.


View Larger Map