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.

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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.


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MERRY CHRISTMAS from OldRoutes.com

and a Happy and Safe New Year of enjoying Old Routes!

Tucumcari via France

The Route 66 song got its kicks while skipping right by Tucumcari, New Mexico. I guess Bobby Troup couldn’t get every Route 66 city in his song. Even so, Tucumcari, New Mexico was an oasis for US 66 travelers near the Texas-New Mexico border.
In 1901 the railroad came and Tucumcari was born. In 1926 the road in and out of town was numbered US 66.
The city has some of the more famous hotel signs along old 66. The neon 1939 Blue Swallow Motel is a favorite with “refrigerated air.” The artistic rendition of Route 66 and the tailfin-lights of a car is certainly worth seeing as is the historic train station. You can click on the pictures for a bigger view.
Like most old routes cities, they were bypassed by a newer highway. France 24 TV News recently did a story on the downturn of the Tucumcari’s economy and you can see it here. It’s interesting to see the European view on 66’s demise. If you didn’t know better, the story could make you think that 66 was bypassed last month.
Tucumcari was named for Tucumcari Mountain to the southeast of town. This mountain was the inspiration for Radiator Springs Mountain in the movie, “Cars”. You may have seen real life pictures of the area if you watched the TV show, “Rawhide”. The star of Rawhide, Clint Eastwood, returned to film a scene for the movie, “For a Few Dollars More”.
It’s easy to find old 66 here as they have renamed it Route 66 Boulevard.

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Links
City of Tucumcari
Tucumcari in song, movies and TV
Tucumcari Chamber of Commerce site with more visitor information