Electric Route 66

Happy New Year, everyone! I took a little break in December for the holidays; I hope everyone had a good December and that your new year is going well so far. To get back into the swing of things, I have posted a pretty short dashcam video this time. It comes from our road trip to Illinois in October 2022. We had a great first half of the trip, but the second half was cut short by covid, so I didn't get as many dashcam videos as I had wanted, but I will still be sharing quite a few this year. To begin 2023, this dashcam comes from Springfield, Illinois. Our good friend and fellow roadie Penny was guest driver this time. She showed us around a number of Route 66 alignments in Springfield, which has a lot of Route 66 to offer.   The Cozy Dog Drive In is one of the many Route 66 attractions in Springfield, IL The dashcam footage I've uploaded this time is a section of Old Chatham Road, inside Lick Creek Wildlife Preserve. The old road has a dead end in this area, with a 1919 brid

With the Christmas season upon us, and so many businesses clamoring for our gifting dollars, I would like to shout out for all the Route 66 businesses who deserve to be supported with our Christmas shopping. Winter is the off-season for Route 66, so for many small businesses on the Route, getting a sales boost in December is a great help to get through this down period for visitors.   If you live near Route 66, I encourage you to head down to one of your local Route 66 businesses to see what they have on offer for your gift-giving. And if you don't live near Route 66, there is still a way you can help! Listed below are many Route 66 businesses and attractions that you can support through their online stores. Spread that Christmas cheer around and get some cool & unique Route 66 gifts for your loved ones! If you know of another Route 66 store with online shopping that you think should be included, email me and I will add it to the list!   The Jack Rabbit Trading Post is a world

To celebrate the upcoming Drive Electric Week , I have uploaded a super short special edition of Electric Route 66 Dashcam. This one is just 30 seconds and features the Musical Highway in New Mexico! But first, I need to tell you about National Drive Electric Week. This nationwide effort by the Electric Vehicle Association , Plug In America , the Sierra Club , and EV Hybrid Noire spans two weekends and the weekdays in between, and includes hundreds of events where attendees can learn about EVs from actual owners, and see many models of EVs in person. Below is a listing of Drive Electric Week events that will be happening on or near Route 66! We will be attending two events in person: in Las Vegas, NV we will have both of our EVs, The Blue Spirit and Sparky Sparky Boom Car; and we'll be in Kingman, AZ in The Blue Spirit. Stop by and say hello! Wilmette, Illinois: St. John's Lutheran Church, 1235 Wilmette Avenue Saturday, September 24   Aurora, Illinois: Fox Valley Mall, 195 Fox

Electric Route 66 Dashcam is revisiting California for this edition. This video comes from the same day as my previous post. In this instance, we begin our trip from Antique Station in Oro Grande, and then proceed south to Victorville on Route 66. Scroll to the bottom for the embedded video, or take your time with some photos first!   We visited Oro Grande during their yearly festival, Oro Grande Days Oro Grande Days includes a car show with some amazing vintage vehicles. Antique Station is in a very large building containing many antique vendors.     Along this stretch of 66, one of the interesting sights is Rockfield Bridge , a historic road bridge dating to 1930 that has an interesting offset truss structure. We always love to drive across neat bridges like this one. The Rockfield Bridge, north of Victorville Another notable part of this drive that I've included in the dashcam footage is Turner Road. A very short piece of this road was originally used as Route 66 in its earlies

This edition of Electric Route 66 Dashcam brings us back to southern California from our trip there in April 2022. We took a drive all the way through downtown Victorville headed eastbound. The video begins on Mariposa Road, a tiny bit of which was actually Route 66 before the I-15 freeway came through. This has been configured to an intersection in modern times, so we take a right turn to get onto 7th Street to head for downtown. The lovely horse-topped sign for the New Corral Motel is visible in the rear-facing passenger-side camera at 3:12, and at about 3:52 in the video after we pass Victor St., we get a brief glimpse of Apollo Restaurant , a great local burger joint.   At the heart of Victorville we pass under a wonderful overhead 'arch' for Old Town, complete with Route 66 shields. 7th Street then comes to a quick end, and we take a left turn onto D Street just as Route 66 did. Shortly after our turn you may spot the California Route 66 Museum on the left. It's a gr

Despite a lack of posts in June, I do still exist! As proof, I offer you a newly-minted pair of videos from the Route 66 city of Barstow, California. These were both recorded in April, 2022. The first video is quite short due to a technical glitch that left me with a bad file, but the second video is over 10 minutes, and documents the entire drive from Barstow to Lenwood.   Both of these videos feature a drive across the historic First Avenue Bridge, which was built in 1930 to cross over a rail yard, with nearly 20 sets of tracks running beneath it. The bridge is overall in poor condition, and is slated to be replaced soon by an entirely new structure in a slightly different location, after which the old bridge will be demolished. The first video begins in downtown Barstow on Main Street (Route 66), then quickly turns north on First Avenue. The ending point for the first video is a parking lot at Casa Del Desierto , a former Harvey House and railroad depot which now houses some Barstow