Road Trip Memories

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Road Trip Memories Travel blog encompassing road trips, camping and RVing, US Highways and two lane roads, other travel & road trip related posts.

It was pretty cool to eat at the first Texas Roadhouse earlier this week and share that experience with you all (https:/...
09/26/2026

It was pretty cool to eat at the first Texas Roadhouse earlier this week and share that experience with you all (https://www.facebook.com/share/18XpZoZuWN/?mibextid=wwXIfr). But today might rank a notch higher. We’re spending the next few days with friends that live in Latitude Margaritaville near Hilton Head, South Carolina. Instead of blasting down there on the interstate, we decided we wanted to make it a 2-day driving adventure on the 2-lanes, with Asheville, North Carolina as our overnight stop.

Taking US 150 out of Louisville and picking up US 25 in Mount Vernon, Kentucky, we soon found ourselves in Corbin, Kentucky and HAD to visit the Sanders Cafe And Museum, home of the first what is now KFC - Kentucky Fried Chicken.

First opened in 1940 with the cafe, gas station, and motor court, the cafe is all that stands today, with a functioning KFC and free museum featuring a plethora of memorabilia including original kitchen equipment, advertising materials, a diorama of how the location looked in its beginning, a recreated room of the motor court and a lot more. Best part? The museum is FREE.

Next time you’re in southeast Kentucky, do yourself a favor and stop by for a little bit of deep fried goodness and take in a big part of American restaurant history. Sanders Cafe & Museum is located at 688 US 25W in Corbin, Kentucky.

🛣️ Road Trip Memories — The Road ReportSeptember 26, 2026 | News from America’s old roads📰 New & current🌉 A Route 66 bri...
09/26/2026

🛣️ Road Trip Memories — The Road Report

September 26, 2026 | News from America’s old roads

📰 New & current

🌉 A Route 66 bridge gets its own birthday party today. San Bernardino is celebrating both the Route 66 Centennial and the one-year anniversary of the reopening of the historic Mt. Vernon Bridge with a block party on the bridge. More than 2,000 people are expected, with classic cars displayed across the span.

🎨 Today belongs to the Lincoln Highway, too. Mount Vernon, Iowa is holding its 20th annual Lincoln Highway Arts Festival today in its Main Street district. Artists, demonstrations, music, food and family activities take over the community along the historic highway.

🎶 Albuquerque is celebrating Route 66 in two very different ways today. The Route 66 Visitor Center hosts a free Centennial concert featuring New Mexico Music Hall of Fame alumni, while the South Valley Library presents “Route 66 Connected,” a free program examining historic roadside places as a living legacy—including the cultural and ethnic stories they preserve.

🚘 Lots of chrome on the Mother Road today. Oklahoma City’s historic 1931 Route 66 Beltline hosts the free Cruisin’ the Mother Road Centennial car show on Western Avenue. Sapulpa has its Centennial car show and Cars screening at the Tee P*e Drive-In, while Springfield, Illinois continues its International Route 66 Mother Road Festival through Sunday.

💃 And here’s the wonderfully unexpected one: downtown Albuquerque hosts Fiesta Flamenca Burqueña this weekend, including a free outdoor festival today and a Sunday performance in a historic Route 66 venue. It’s a nice reminder that the old highways aren’t only about cars and neon—they also run directly through living communities and cultures.

📚 Road History

One of today’s most interesting themes is the idea of a roadside place as a “living legacy.” Historic highways weren’t created simply by pavement and route numbers; their identity came from the motels, garages, restaurants, signs, communities and people travelers encountered along them. That’s why saving an old service station or neon sign can matter just as much as preserving the roadway itself.

🛣️ Road Trip Memories — The Road ReportSeptember 25, 2026 | News from America’s old roads📰 New & current🎬 Route 66 docum...
09/25/2026

🛣️ Road Trip Memories — The Road Report

September 25, 2026 | News from America’s old roads

📰 New & current

🎬 Route 66 documentary reaches Texas tonight. John Paget’s Route 66: The Main Street of America has its Texas premiere tonight at the Globe-News Center in Amarillo, with a reception, screening and live Q&A with Paget. The Centennial documentary focuses on the people and communities preserving and revitalizing the Mother Road.

We attended the screening earlier this month in Normal, Illinois and are fans of John’s early Route 66 documentaries. We highly recommend attending the centennial documentary screening!

🚗 Springfield’s Mother Road Festival begins tonight. The 25th annual International Route 66 Mother Road Festival runs September 25–27 in downtown Springfield, Illinois. Tonight’s traditional cruise sends classic cars down Sixth Street and into downtown; the weekend continues with the car show, entertainment and Centennial activities.

🎨 The Lincoln Highway gets the spotlight Saturday. Mount Vernon, Iowa’s 20th annual Lincoln Highway Arts Festival takes over the town’s Uptown District September 26. The festival is actually staged on the historic Lincoln Highway, with the street closed to traffic for artists, music, demonstrations, food and family activities.

🛣️ A very different kind of National Road event happens Saturday. Wheeling, West Virginia hosts the McSweeney Cup Irish Road Bowling event at Wheeling Park on National Road/US 40. Organizers describe it as the world’s largest Irish road-bowling event. It’s not a highway-history event specifically, but its National Road setting makes it a wonderfully quirky old-road travel story.

🚘 Route 66 car culture continues in Oklahoma. Claremore’s Route 66 Cruisers weekend begins today with a cruise-in and continues Saturday at Claremore Lake with classic, vintage, antique and modified cars and motorcycles.

Amen!
09/25/2026

Amen!

🛣️ THE ROAD REPORTNews from America’s old roads | September 24, 2026There’s a lot happening along America’s historic hig...
09/24/2026

🛣️ THE ROAD REPORT

News from America’s old roads | September 24, 2026

There’s a lot happening along America’s historic highways this week — from preservation work on Route 66 to a celebration where two legendary roads meet.

🔧 Route 66 preservation gets a boost
Fourteen Route 66 preservation and economic-development projects are receiving grants, helping everything from historic neon and roadside businesses to museums and landmarks. Among the projects are restoration work at Atlas Automotive in Tulsa, neon at the Pecos Trail Inn in Santa Fe, archival work at the Ash Fork Route 66 Historic Museum, and continuing preservation at California’s Road Runner’s Retreat. Even several independent automotive businesses along the Mother Road are receiving assistance — an important reminder that Route 66 history isn’t just museums and signs; it’s also the businesses that have served travelers for generations.

🛣️ Where Route 66 meets the Jefferson Highway
Joplin, Missouri recently celebrated one of America’s great historic-road intersections: Route 66 and the Jefferson Highway. The Crossroads Centennial Celebration brought together travelers, historic vehicles, highway organizations and exhibits highlighting an earlier era of automobile travel. It’s a perfect example of how America’s old roads overlap — and how much road-trip history exists beyond any single highway.

🎨 Lincoln Highway weekend in Iowa
This Saturday, Mount Vernon, Iowa celebrates the Lincoln Highway Arts Festival along the historic coast-to-coast road. The downtown highway becomes a pedestrian festival filled with artists, demonstrations, music, food and activities.

🚗 A big Route 66 weekend ahead
The International Route 66 Mother Road Festival returns to Springfield, Illinois September 25–27, while Centennial celebrations are also happening elsewhere along the highway. In Sapulpa, Oklahoma, the restored Tee P*e Drive-In hosts a Centennial car show followed by a screening of Cars — especially fitting as the movie celebrates its 20th anniversary during Route 66’s 100th.

And in Oklahoma City, Saturday’s Cruisin’ the Mother Road car show takes place along the city’s historic 1931 Route 66 alignment.

❤️ Why we love these stories: Route 66 may be celebrating its Centennial, but it’s part of a much larger network of old highways, auto trails, small towns and roadside places that helped create the American road trip.

That’s what The Road Report is about: keeping an eye on the roads, places and people that keep that history alive.

Same roads. New memories.

🛣️ THE ROAD REPORT | September 23, 2026A century-old restaurant, balloons over the Mother Road, and a whole lot happenin...
09/23/2026

🛣️ THE ROAD REPORT | September 23, 2026

A century-old restaurant, balloons over the Mother Road, and a whole lot happening on old pavement this week. Here are a few stories that caught our attention from America’s historic highways.

🍽️ OLDER THAN ROUTE 66 — AND STILL SERVING TRAVELERS

The Ariston Cafe in Litchfield, Illinois, is getting some well-deserved national attention this week.

The Ariston traces its history to 1924 — two years before Route 66 was commissioned — making it the oldest continuously operating restaurant associated with the Mother Road.

Founder Pete Adam originally opened in Carlinville. When Route 66 was realigned away from town, he followed the traffic to Litchfield. The current building opened in 1935, and when Route 66 was later widened and moved behind the restaurant, Adam simply added neon to the back to lure travelers around to the front.

More than a century after the business began, travelers are still pulling off old 66 to eat there.

That’s living roadside history.

🎈 BALLOONS OVER ROUTE 66 — STARTING TODAY

The Centennial Route 66 Balloon Festival opens today in Arcadia, Oklahoma, and continues through Sunday.

More than a dozen hot-air balloons are expected, along with balloon glows, tethered rides, helicopter rides, kites, music, food and vendors.

And this isn’t just a festival that happens to have “Route 66” in its name. It’s in Arcadia — meaning you can make a day of the Round Barn, POPS and old Route 66 while you’re there.

🚗 SPRINGFIELD GOES ALL-IN ON THE MOTHER ROAD THIS WEEKEND

The 25th International Route 66 Mother Road Festival rolls into downtown Springfield, Illinois, September 25–27.

The weekend starts early with a FREE Thursday-night pre-party at Route 66 Motorheads. Friday brings the big City Nights Cruise, while Saturday includes the downtown car show, live music, a burnout competition, kids’ Power Wheels races and — because apparently eating a Cozy Dog normally isn’t competitive enough — a Major League Eating Cozy Dog Eating Championship.

Spectator admission is FREE.

🛣️ AND IN OKLAHOMA CITY, AN OLD ALIGNMENT GETS ITS TURN

Saturday’s free “Cruisin’ the Mother Road” celebration takes over Western Avenue between NW 41st and 45th.

Why there?

Because Western Avenue was part of Oklahoma City’s 1931 Route 66 Beltline alignment.

OKC actually contains more than 51 miles of documented Route 66 alignments, and the city has installed more than 200 Route 66 signs helping travelers retrace them.

Saturday puts classic cars back on one of those old pieces of pavement.

Four places. Four very different Route 66 stories.

One road turning 100.

The road is still out there. Go find it. 🚗🛣️

I’ll admit, we aren’t Texas Roadhouse regulars. Matter of fact, I don’t know when the last time we ate at one. That said...
09/22/2026

I’ll admit, we aren’t Texas Roadhouse regulars. Matter of fact, I don’t know when the last time we ate at one.

That said, I’m a sucker for nostalgia, history, and any reason to eat. It wasn’t until the past few weeks that I learned not only is Texas Roadhouse’s headquarters across the Ohio River in Louisville, but their very first restaurant that opened in 1993 is still open across from Louisville in Clarksville, Indiana. You read that right. Not Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, or even Amarillo. Clarksville, Indiana….inside a shopping mall. With over 600 locations nationwide and over $4 billion in annual sales, Texas Roadhouse is the king of the ranch.

Since we moved to the Kentuckiana region in southern Indiana 2 years ago, I always knew there was a Texas Roadhouse in Clarksville, but had no idea of its significance as being the very first one. Not only did I need to get here, but I had to before this location closes and is replaced by a 10,000 square foot stand alone location one exit north on I-65 at Veteran’s Parkway. That location will open in November and the original will serve its last sirloin, cactus blossom, and fresh roll with honey cinnamon spread and be entrusted to the history books.

The staff here at the Texas Roadhouse in Clarksville location was outstanding during my visit. My hostess Cathie was quite happy to hear this was my first visit and even happier when I told her I wanted to get here before they closed. My server, Tyler, sold me on the chips & queso to go along with my chili and ice cold sweet ice tea and lemonade.

If you’re a fan of Texas Roadhouse, give the OG location a visit before the doors close forever at 757 Lewis & Clark Parkway in Clarksville, Indiana.

Giant rubber ducky!
09/14/2026

Giant rubber ducky!

Vintage Texaco, Vevay, Indiana.
09/14/2026

Vintage Texaco, Vevay, Indiana.

If you like fighter jets, you need to follow the journey of an F-14A Tomcat as it makes its way from Pensacola, FL to Pu...
09/14/2026

If you like fighter jets, you need to follow the journey of an F-14A Tomcat as it makes its way from Pensacola, FL to Pueblo, CO this week. I got word it was parked at a nearby Love’s in southern Indiana Sunday before it continued on its journey early this morning up I-65 in Indiana.

It was a sight to behold! It was not hard to hear Kenny Loggins’ “Danger Zone” in my head as I was checking out the same type of fighter they used in the original Top Gun from 1986.

Give the Worldwide Aircraft Recovery page a follow and follow along their journey to its new home at the Pueblo Weisbrod Aircraft Museum in the coming days.

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