Electric Route 66

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

In April 2022, We were given the opportunity to visit Marine Corps Logistics Base Barstow along with a small group from the California Historic Route 66 Association . MCLB Barstow has long been off-limits to the general public, but it is accessible by special arrangement. The base is home to a small section of Route 66 now known as Joseph L. Boll Avenue, and in 2021 the road's Route 66 history was highlighted with unique signage and Route 66/Marine Corps road stencils, and a wonderful new monument.      The entrance sign at MCLB Barstow, with new Route 66 USMC logo and historical plaque.   Our host and escort for the day was Rob Jackson of the Public Affairs office, who was extremely gracious and patient with our car caravan of Route 66 enthusiasts, showing us around to several sites within the base, and leading a cruise off the main road through some other areas, including base housing.   Rob Jackson of the Public Affairs office explains the itinerary to our group. The grave o

 Just a short post this time about a couple of upcoming events on Route 66 in Arizona. Firstly, This coming Saturday, April 23 is the date for Kingman's first-ever Drive Electric Earth Day event. It's being held at the Kingman Powerhouse Visitor Center. Drive Electric Earth Day is a nationwide series of events held each April around Earth Day (April 22), by the same folks who organize Drive Electric Week events each September. This Historic Electric Vehicle Foundation is the primary host of the Kingman event, and as such will include free admission to their Route 66 EV Museum inside the Powerhouse for everyone who attends! It's a great chance to see some very rare vehicles inside the museum, as well as a showcase of modern EVs outside, where owners will be showing off their cars and answering questions from the public. We will be there with The Blue Spirit. If you have an EV you'd like to show (plug-in hybrids included!), please register here. It's free for both r

Today's dashcam video upload comes from the lovely Route 66 state of Oklahoma. We traveled here in October 2021, and several times we forgot to record our car's dashcam as we went! But we did remember to catch a section featuring the William H. Murray Bridge. Crossing the William H. Murray Bridge, also known as Pony Bridge, westbound This famous Route 66 bridge crosses the Canadian River a few miles west of El Reno, OK. It's often called the Pony Bridge, because it boasts a whopping 38 pairs of camelback pony trusses. Now part of US Highway 281, it was completed in 1933 and opened the following year as part of a new alignment of US 66, bypassing the towns of Calumet and Geary on the original, unpaved, 1926 alignment of Route 66. The 1933 alignment of Route 66 west of El Reno, OK     A view from the west end of Pony Bridge This bridge was Oklahoma Federal Aid Project No. 164-H We didn't have a ton of time to get back home from Oklahoma on this trip, so we stayed on the 1

Hello again everyone, I hope you're all doing well. This post takes us back to Kingman, Arizona.   The Powerhouse in Kingman, Arizona   As mentioned in my previous post, new superchargers have opened at the historic Powerhouse Visitor Center in Kingman, Arizona. We took The Blue Spirit down to Kingman along with a wonderful contingent of owners from the Tesla Owners Club of Las Vegas , and together with Kingman locals and visitors we completely filled all 16 superchargers for their inauguration. Many thanks go to Kingman Economic Development for spearheading this project, and for hosting an event for the opening, including some cool raffle prizes!   New superchargers, filled with Teslas for the event   We also took this occasion to reveal a new light show on our car! Back in December, Tesla sent a major update to their vehicles, which included the option on almost all Teslas to play a light show, a treat previously reserved only for the Model X. They also made it possible for own

Happy New Year, everyone!     I have news on some new chargers soon going live on Route 66 in Kingman, Arizona. First, a little background. In 2014, Tesla opened 6 superchargers in Kingman just a few blocks from Route 66. These are some of the oldest Tesla Superchargers outside California, and by current standards they are rather slow, with a maximum output of 120 kW. Kingman gets a lot of travelers to and from California on I-40, as well as people traveling between the Phoenix area and Las Vegas. The Kingman superchargers get very busy pretty often, and Tesla even added four 'urban style' 72 kW chargers to help with the load.   A solution to this I-40 bottleneck has finally arrived in the form of 16 brand new 250 kW superchargers, opening this weekend! The best part is that these chargers are located at the Powerhouse Visitor Center directly on Route 66, at 120 W. Andy Devine Avenue. The Powerhouse is a historic building that once provided electric power to the Kingman area.