Notes from the road

Ultramarathoner Phil Rosenstein is running the entire length of Route 66 — and beyond — for charity.

He started a little more than two weeks ago in Santa Monica, Calif., and has already made it near the Arizona-New Mexico border. After completing his Mother Road trek to Chicago, he plans to keep going all the way to Atlantic City, N.J.

The money he’s raising during his trip will be given to the Mario Lemieux Foundation for cancer research and assistance. If anyone wishes to help, he’s asking for anyone along Route 66 to put him up for a night as he passes through to help keep his travel costs low.

He’s giving updates on his trip to the Route 66 yahoogroup when he’s able.

• A southwest Missouri television station is reporting that new Route 66 signs will soon be put up in Webb City. Good. It’s needed.
• The San Gabriel Valley Tribune has a story about Elmer Long and his Bottletree Farm on Route 66 near Oro Grande, Calif.
• It’s not on Route 66, but it’s still a significant loss for Springfield, Ill. — the state plans to close the century-old Dana-Thomas House. The home, designed by famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright, is the victim of budget cuts. The home will be shuttered to visitors in October.
• In storage at Maxey’s Cycles in Oklahoma City is a new 1965 Honda Dream motorcycle, still in its packing crate. The Daily Oklahoman reports that Jim Maxey, founder of the Route 66 business, had planned to give it away in a promotion but never did. He died in 2005, and his son doesn’t have the heart to unpack it.
• Roadie Richard C. Moeur took a big road trip this year across a sizable chunk of the United States, including Route 66. Much of his musings and photos are on a Web site here. The Route 66 section is here.