By Pauline Masson –
There are 36 dots on the Route 66 Diving Map between Chicago, Illinois and Santa Monica, California where trekkers can stop for fuel, food, fun, rest, collectibles or car trouble. So how would we get them to stop in Pacific – which can boast one of the best preserved stretches of the original road in six states?
This is the burning question as we prepare for the upcoming 2026 centennial birthday of the Mother Road when it is estimated that tens of thousands of motorists will make the 2,440 mile trip, just for nostalgia.
This blog is a follow-up of a post in May when a pair of South Carolina motorists halted their trip for five months in our town for an engine rebuild by our legendary Model A mechanic, Palmer Lawson. The pair returned October 25 to pick up the repaired Model A and completed their trip. They stopped here on the way home on November 6.
Motorists who take this popular cross country trip do best if they buy a book that guides them to the sections of the original Mother Road that are still intact. That’s what Joe Lamothe and Dennis Liu did and it was the last in the list of reasons to stop, ’car trouble,’ that brought them to Pacific.
Lamothe and Liu, on what they publicized as Joe and Dennis’ Excellent Adventure, were driving Joe’s 1930 Model A, the car closely associated with the birth of Rt 66. They slipped past Pacific but as the reached Cuba, Missouri the engine was making a troubling sound.
At the McDonald’s there, a fellow Model A owner named Harold Selby sauntered over for a visit where he learned about the engine trouble.
“You just drove past one of the best Model A mechanics in the U.S.” Selby told the travelers.
The pair backtracked to Pacific where Lawson agreed to rebuild the engine. The pair left their prized car with Lawson and returned to South Carolina. That was June 22. On October 25, they picked up the rebuilt car and headed west. They stopped here on their way home on November 6.
The trip, they said was inspired by the 1960 TV show Route 66, where actors Martin Milner and George Maharis, drifted from town to town in a spiffy Chevrolet Corvette.
Lamothe and Liu paid tribute to each of the towns where they stopped, posting each overnight stop on a hand-lettered sign on the Model A’s trunk – Chicago; Springfield, IL; Cuba, MO; Pacific, MO; Lebanon, MO; Claremore, OK; Edmond OK; Shamrock, TX; Tucumcari, NM; Grants, NM; Flagstaff, ARIZ; Ludlow, CA and Santa Monica.
Their travel book guided them along the Interstate to the stretches of the original Rt 66 alignment that still exist – like Pacific. In California, none of the original road has been maintained they took I-40, the closest alignment to the old Rt 66, from the Arizona border to Santa Monica, the end of the original Rt 66.
They liked every stop along the way, whether for overnight lodging, fuel or refreshments.
“Some places are captured in time, like the original Rt 66,” Liu said. “In some towns, Rt 66 is their main economy. Service stations, restaurants, hotels and stores all say, this is the place to experience Rt. 66.”
Liu took hundreds of pictures of the Model A in picturesque places. One shows the Model A in front the giant sign at the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Oklahoma. Another captures the Model A in front of the Big Texan Ranch steakhouse in Amarillo, Texas, home of the 72 oz steak challenge.
If diners can consume a 72-ounce steak dinner, with shrimp cocktail, baked potato, salad, with roll, butter, and of course the 72oz Steak, in one hour, they eat free.
To date, 10,117 diners have completed the challenge and won, while 90,201 have attempted and did not make it. The owner posts photos of the successful challengers on the wall.
“One was a lady that did’t weigh 125 pounds,” Liu said. “She ate two of the 72 oz steaks.”
But of all the places they visited and photographed, the State of Missouri left the most lasting impression
In one Missouri encounter, they were following directions to the original route in the Route 66 book. The crossed over a dam and found themselves on a steep country road. They navigated to the bottom of the hill and stopped to re-check the map in the book. A pick-up truck passed their stalled car, pulled in front and stopped. The driver got out and approached the driver’s side of the car.
“You guys trying to find Rt 66?” he asked. “I could tell you how to get there but it’s easier if I just show you,” he said. “Follow me.”
The friendly folks in Pacific, they said, are just typical of people all across Missouri.
“This is definitely a place worth visiting,” they said.
That’s what we want to hear.
Liu’s final photo shows the Model A in front of the Santa Monica Yacht Harbor
I am very aware of route 66 lore, since I grew up just off Rt 66 near the famous (infamous) Coral Courts Motel. My parents had an ice cream shop that sold to locals and tourist alike.Yes there is much money to be made from nostalgia, but Pacific is bound and determined to go forth with all their eggs in one questionable basket, the Red Cedar Project.
There are many more locations around town that still exist from the early Rt.66 era. All though most have been heavily made over, their locations should be documented, maybe through old photos, and be promoted as ‘ selfie photo ops’. These s ‘selfie ops’ are one of the BIG DRAWS emphasized by our Tourism Director in her Rad Cedar operations plan , the Rt.66 sign outside and the restored Red Cedar Inn sign inside.
Surely our local businesses can do much better than these two poor examples of our towns Rt. 66 history. There are many blank walls around town that could be decorated by local school classes with Rt.66 themed murals and would be much better photo locations. Take a ride down to Cuba MO and look around.
Remember , the more places in town that they stop, the more money thy will spend.
I see her ‘ one stop shop’ as a looser for the community with most of the profits , if any, from Red Cedar being frittered away by the City.