Day 10: November 10, 2016 Conference Time Comment via blog

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Like me, several Route 66 people are staying at the Saga Motor Hotel in Pasadena. The International Route 66 Festival's home is downtown in the Palace Theater. The consensus is that public transportation is the most sensible way to travel between the two but on the festival's first day, only two people planned to make the trip via the Metro. I was one and Debyjo from Joliet, Illinois, was the other. Being totally unfamiliar with the system, we were quite fortunate and appreciative that Los Angeleno Ian Bowen volunteered to be our guide. Ian's not just another commuter. He produced the map of Route 66 in Greater Los Angeles that is currently being distributed by the California Historic Route 66 Association. He helped us buy our passes and get on the right trains and off at the right stops while I got pictures of none of it. The picture I did get is of Ian on the left and Debbyjo on the right approaching the Palace Theater on Broadway. The next intersection, marked by a vertical red Burlington sign, is 7th Street, the original western terminus of Route 66.

I didn't get pictures of all of the morning's speakers but I did get many. Starting things off is Scott Piotrowski of Highway Journeys. Highway Journeys is a non-profit corporation organized by Scott to organize this conference and to promote Route 66 and other historic highways in the Los Angeles area. The next picture is of Doran Sanchez from the Bureau of Land Management, then Frank Norris from the National Park Service, Bill Thomas from The Road Ahead Initiative, Julie Grau from the Los Angeles Tourism & Convention Board, and Jane Laraman from the Desert Discovery Center in Barstow.

Lunch was at the recently reopened Clifton's Cafeteria where I managed to grab just a couple of pictures. The food was great.

I snapped these pictures of the Palace Theater on my return from lunch. It opened in 1911 as the Orpheum, a name that can still be seen in the concrete above the neon. The name was changed to the Broadway Palace in 1926.

I think I actually got all of the afternoon's speakers. That's Dr. Nick Gerlich from A&M University West Texas, Katie Burbank from Yelp, Dr. Mark C. Childs from the University of New Mexico Albuquerque, Jessica W. McLean from the City of Los Angeles, and author Jim Hinckley from Kingman, Arizona.

Jim Hinckley would be giving a different and longer presentation later in the evening and the break between the afternoon sessions and Jim's evening presentation gave me a chance to snap photos of the lit up Palace...

...as well as some of the other neon lights on Broadway.

I'm including this dim and blurry picture to mark a bit of history. As is well known, many have been quite unhappy with Donald Trump's victory in Tuesday's election and large protests have occurred in several cities including Los Angeles. Following the day's last presentation, I accepted a friend's offer of a ride to the motel. As we attempted to enter the CA-110 expressway, our path was blocked by the line of police in the photo because protesters had previous made their way onto the expressway.

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