I ran behind on getting caught up with news from the Main Street of America on Thursday. So here’s the latest, in small bites:
- Rod Harsh of Visit66.com was shown by the Carthage (Mo.) Press installing new directional signs to help guide travelers down the Mother Road. Many travelers get lost in that part of the state because Route 66 signs are missing or stolen. The effort is part of his Sign the Route initiative.
- Reader Rich Imrie reports that Jack’s Bar-B-Que in Oklahoma City has reopened after a fire gutted it two years ago. Jack’s was listed in previous editions of the “Route 66 Dining and Lodging Guide.” Imrie, a longtime patron, reports: “It was as good as I remembered it. As in the past, the sauce is old-fashioned; that is, it is not sweet. I am sure glad they didn’t switch the sauce to something sweet as you find in the run-of-the-mill bar-b-que places today.”
- The annual Route 66 Parade in Duarte, Calif., named local newspaper editor Larry Wilson as its grand marshal for the event Saturday. It’s refreshing that the Duarte parade chooses grand marshals that are in the community, not celebrity hotshots.
- Helen Louise Avery Berghell, the daughter of Cyrus “The Father of Route 66” Avery, has died in California at age 91. She’s not the last living link to Cyrus, though. Joy Avery, his granddaughter, is very much alive and regularly shows at Route 66 events. Berghell will be buried at Rose Hill Cemetery in Tulsa, presumably near her father’s gravesite.
- Gatehouse News Service has a story about the International Route 66 Mother Road Festival in Springfield, Ill., next weekend.
- The Arbors on Route 66 multi-use development project in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., got the green light. It will replace a strawberry farm. I’m not sure that is an improvement.
- The Japan Times reports that a Trader Vic’s restaurant in Tokyo has created Route 66 American Classic Sandwiches.