Emily and I have been home for a couple of days since the Route 66 Festival ended in Litchfield, Ill. So I’ve had some time to reflect on our unexpected twin killings.
Even when you don’t count our honors, we agreed it was the best awards banquet we’d attended since we started going to these annual gatherings in 2002. The meal was first-rate, the program was crisp, and, most of all, the honorees were highly deserving.
And the honors earned by Swa Frantzen’s Historic66.com, yours truly’s Route66News.com and Emily (who has a considerable presence with multiple Web sites) show how much of a role the Internet has played with the Mother Road’s revival. Without the World Wide Web, I doubt Route 66 would have seen the renaissance it is experiencing today.
My first experience on the Internet with Route 66 was Frantzen’s site, David Williams’ graphic-heavy Route66.com and the Route 66 e-group, back about 2000. Regrettably, Williams lost interest in the site some years ago, was taken over by what he called “hijackers” and appears to be defunct. But the Route 66 e-group, now a yahoogroup, is still going strong with 1,400 members and lively discussions.
Not long after that, Emily and I went on our first big Route 66 trip. It changed our lives. We experienced the tremendous beauty and diversity of our nation. We became more involved with preserving the historical landmarks that remained. And we moved to Oklahoma, which boasts more miles of Route 66 than any other state.
The genesis of Route 66 News came gradually. I saw there didn’t seem to be many people monitoring newspapers and other news outlets across the country for Route 66 articles. Save for an occasional post on the e-group, there wasn’t much firsthand reporting, either. Route 66 Magazine and American Road did yeoman’s work, but it was weeks between printing runs. There was difficult to find news from the Mother Road now.
Also, I grew tired of hearing how Route 66 was a dying road and that nothing was going on there. I knew better. I knew that not only were many of the old businesses hanging on, but new businesses were rising as well. But little did I know how much activity there was until I plunged into building Route 66 News as a media clearinghouse. It surprised me — and others, too.
Route 66 News was never intended to be a blog. But the more I investigated the Internet avenues available, it became clear that blogging — with its ease of writing stories, its archives and its multimedia capabilities — was the way to go. So here we are, in the blogosphere.
I figured Route 66 News would receive its formal accolades in five to 10 years, not in less than three. But it drew a dedicated readership quickly, and a few posts (the “Cars” references come to mind, with more than 100,000 page views) attracted the attention of non-66ers. So it appears my faith has been rewarded.
I received the Person of the Year honor. But, actually, it honors Route 66 News. And you readers are the reason the site is thriving.
Thank you.
Ron and Emily,
Congratulations to both of you on your awards. Both are very well deserved. The people coming to this site may be the reason it’s thriving, but the reason the people keep coming is the fact that the information is accurate, timely, and very informative. Keep up the great work job you do and the preservation work that both of you do. Again, congratulations.
Always interesting in seeing a person’s “Early Days” involvement in Route 66.
It was good to get to meet you and your wife at Shaw’s afterwards. It is always great to actually put a face with the name of someone who has done so much for the Mother Road.
Route 66 News is one of the best things to happen to the road since Cyrus Avery.
Keep up th good work.
About how many hours a day, on average, do you spend with the News?