Day 3: October 9, 2026
Conference Day 1
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As they did at Thursday's reception, Cheryl Eicher Jett and Angela Wolfgram made some brief comments to begin a day of presentations on Friday. Then Evan Stern stepped into his role of event MC.
With photographs, drawings based on photographs, and drawings based on memories and imagination, Jerry McClanahan delivered a seriously entertaining "To the Centennial and Beyond" keynote address. McJerry's talents are unique and so are his memories, but lots of those memories line up pretty well with some belonging to quite a few audience members.
These are the presentations that filled the conference's first day. Amanda Bryden and Erika Holst their their big oral history project in "Building Bridges: Oral History and the Future of Route 66" with Evan Stern guiding the conversation just a bit. A video greeting from author Jim Hinckley in Arizona followed the lunch break. Todd Bringuet, Scott Bringuet, and Ryan Swaar of the Ace Sign Company talked about "The Making of the Route 66 Experience" and shared some company history too. Scott and Todd's father, Dennis, had been our guide at the company's museum yesterday.

Cheryl Eicher Jett spoke of some of the women in her latest book, "Aprons Away: Women's Work on Route 66", then took part in "Route 66 in Perspective: A Conversation with Ken Busby". Ken is the Executive Director of the Route 66 Alliance in Tulsa, OK.

During one of the breaks, I slipped over to the book room to have McJerry sign the copy of his "EZ66 Guide For Travelers" which I'd recently picked up at the Wagon Wheel in Missouri. While there, I also snapped a picture of author Beth Bacon. I reviewed Beth's latest book, "Route 66 Faces and Places", several weeks ago, but had met her in person just today. The third picture is of podcaster Anyhony Arno's display of Route 66 memorabilia.
Many conference attendees were staying at the conference hotel and a shuttle bus was provided from there to the night's scheduled activity. Don and I were staying elsewhere. There was plenty of time between the last presentation and the bus's scheduled arrival for use to make a couple of stops on the way. The first was at the site of Bill Shea's gas station. Almost all of the items that Bill had filled the station with were sold off after his death, but Randy Pickett bought the station itself, and an effort has been made to at least partially recreate the station's previous appearance.
We also stopped at the Route 66 Experience at the state fairgrounds. We will be back here tomorrow evening to see the signs lit. Although Don and I had both been here in the daytime, this was a good chance to refresh our memories and it was my first time seeing the big Cozy Dog, a recent addition.
Candle light walks are held annually at Lincoln's New Salem over multiple weekends each autumn. They are clearly well attended, and today's perfect weather undoubtedly bumped attendance a bit extra. Neither Don nor I were up for walking the farther reaches of the park, and we perhaps foolishly left before all of the candles were lit, but we still enjoyed the visit and the music.
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