On Saturday afternoon, I took a walk at downtown Clinton, Okla., to check on the activity during the National Route 66 Festival.

Inside the Frisco Center, Delbert Trew, who won the Route 66 Lifetime Achievement Award with his wife Ruth on Friday, is displaying one of the letters salvaged from “Rattlesnakes — Exit Now” sign near Lela, Texas, that blew down during a storm this spring. Trew is conducting a fundraiser to re-erect the sign behind a historic Phillips 66 gas station in McLean, Texas, by giving away chances for that salvaged letter.

Emily provides a little bit of graffiti for a miniature version of Amarillo’s Cadillac Ranch that was on display at the Frisco Center.

Downtown Clinton had about 200 vehicles entered into the car show.

A vintage Volkswagen Bug is decorated for the festival.

This sports car resembles Lightning McQueen from last summer’s animated hit movie, “Cars.”

In some of those classic-car pictures, crowds at the festival appeared sparse. Actually hundreds of spectators had gathered down the street to watch motorcycle daredevils from CodyElkins.com. These guys zipped their motorcycles up a ramp, flipped their machines sideways and upside-down, and landed safely on another ramp on the other side. It was an impressive — and frightful — sight.

This retro-looking building holds the youth center for the town’s First Christian Church.

The building includes a replica of a Phillips 66 cottage-style service station and other types of memorabilia.

It also contained an exhibit by Oregon photographer Michael Campanelli, who brought his 166 images from Route 66 to town. He said he liked having his exhibits more in small towns. “People come in here and talk about the images. I like that,” he said. “In galleries, people are more stuffy.”

The high temperatures were in the mid-80s, and the sun shone most of the day. Predictably, this snow-cone stand was among the most popular business downtown.

I also saw something I’ve never seen before — water spigots were located about every half-block downtown. I suppose they are used to help hose down the sidewalks, but in this case, one of them helped cool down a Boston terrier.

This water park at the Kiwanis Bonebrake Park in downtown also was popular with the kids.

After sundown and a brief thunderstorm, we watched the local fireworks show from a great vantage point at White Dog Hill. All in all, it was a great way to spend the day.

This article by Steve Lackmeyer of The Daily Oklahoman has a lot to recommend it, including interviews with a bunch of Route 66’s colorful characters (including a man with 54 Route 66-related tattoos) during the National Route 66 Festival in Clinton, Okla.

But this excerpt justifies the faith I’ve had in Clinton (population 8,300) in hosting such a festival, despite it being the smallest host city ever.

Erin Adams, president of the Clinton Chamber of Commerce, reported the festival has been a bonanza to local businesses, packing restaurants and taking every motel room in town and in nearby Weatherford and Elk City.

Adams said the town has gained an appreciation for its place along the old highway, especially since the opening of the state’s Route 66 Museum in 1995.

“This is the biggest thing for us the last 25 years,” Adams said. “This festival has brought a lot of awareness to our local people on how important Route 66 is to our town. It seems the rest of the world is aware, and sometimes our locals are little more oblivious. But this has brought the two together.”

I completely agree with Adams’ assessment. I’ll have more later.

Representatives from Oklahoma took home four of the top six honors during the Will Rogers Awards Evening in the Frisco Center on Friday night at the National Route 66 Festival in Clinton, Okla.

Author and actor Michael Wallis of Tulsa was given the Will Rogers Award, the group that restored the Old Armory in Chandler, Okla., won the big preservation award, cookbook author Marian Clark of Tulsa won Person of the Year, and Route 66 Harley-Davidson in Tulsa earned the business award.

Delbert and Ruth Trew of McLean, Texas, won the Lifetime Achievement Award, and David and Mary Lou Knudson of the National Historic Route 66 Federation, based in Lake Arrowhead, Calif., won the Founders Award.

The Trews seemed surprised to win the Mother Road Lifetime Achievement Award, and Delbert became a little choked up during his acceptance remarks. They have been longtime volunteers and driving forces at the Devils Rope Museum and other Route 66 projects in McLean and their area of the Texas Panhandle. The Trews also recently salvaged the storm-damaged “Rattlesnakes — Exit Now” sign near Lela and seek to restore it and re-erect it near the historic Phillips 66 station in McLean. Delbert Trew also has published several books about Route 66 and Panhandle history, and is a newspaper columnist.

Delbert Trew noted that when the museum started to tout Route 66 back in 1991, “we had to make our own souvenirs. Now look what we’ve got today.”

Wallis, author of the best-selling “Route 66: The Mother Road” and voice of the Sheriff of Radiator Springs in last summer’s animated movie “Cars,” was chosen for the Will Rogers Award by the Will Rogers family. Chuck Rogers, who is Will Rogers’ grandson, was the presenter. Wallis, also the winner of the annual banquet’s Steinbeck Award years ago, admitted he had mixed emotions about receiving the award. “This belongs to a lot of people other than me,” he said.

The Old Armory Restorers group of Chandler received the Cyrus Avery Award for preservation for rehabbing the Old Armory. The stone National Guard building, a Works Progress Administration project in the 1930s, now contains a Route 66 interpretive center, local history museum and a multipurpose room for banquets and receptions.

Clark turned her knowledge of Route 66 diners and cuisine into three books and numerous magazine and newspaper articles. It also helped garner her the Mother Road Person of the Year Award.

Route 66 Harley-Davidson of Tulsa, owned by Larry and Pat Wofford, is a motorcycle dealership, but also contains a Route 66 memorabilia museum and a popular 1950s-style diner. “Route 66 runs through the heart,” Larry Wofford said upon receiving his Mother Road Route 66 Business Award.

The Knudsons’ National Historic Route 66 Federation has organized national Route 66 events, publishes a quarterly magazine and a Dining and Lodging Guide, and has become a general clearinghouse for Mother Road information. The Knudsons were not present to receive the award. Previous Steinbeck Award winners Jim Ross and Shellee Graham accepted the award on their behalf.

Also, Nora Mansfield, a waitress at the now-defunct Pop Hicks restaurant in Clinton from 1955 to 1982, was honored for being a longtime “Route 66 ambassador.”

The board of directors for the First National Bank of Shamrock, Texas, also were honored for donating the historic U-Drop Inn gas station to the city. The deteriorating building eventually was restored and now houses the Chamber of Commerce and other offices.

It also was announced that the 2008 National Route 66 Festival will be June 18-22 in Litchfield, Ill.

It was looking grim Friday morning before the scheduled start of the preservation project for the closed Ray’s Motel in Clinton, Okla., as part of activities with the National Route 66 Festival. Heavy rain had fallen, and according to radar, a storm system appeared parked over Clinton.

However, shortly before the project’s 11 a.m. start, the rain lessened, the sun broke through the clouds, and nearly 15 volunteers throughout the day came to scrape peeling paint from the stucco walls of Ray’s.

Here is Michael Taylor of the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program getting into the act. He shows that preservation is more than just pushing papers.

The preservation project continues from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Most of the activity those days will center around painting the building.

A fellow by the name of R.E. Humbertson was revealed as the person in 1957 who guessed closest to Tulsa’s 2007 population, and so he gets the rusted 1957 Plymouth Belvedere that was taken out of a vault last week, reported the Tulsa World.

It is possible Humbertson is still alive; he would be 85 years old today. However, other than the fact he was born in Cumberland, Md., little is known about him.

Humbertson or his heirs have five years to claim the vehicle. It is hoped that more will be known about him later.

UPDATE: There’s a fascinating bunch of reader comments with the World’s story that strongly indicate the R.E. Humbertson is Raymond Humbertson, who died nearly three decades ago. The intriguing thing is that this Humbertson’s wife is dead, and he apparently had no children.

If this speculation is true, this adds a whole bunch of new questions about who gets the Belvedere.

You often hear the summer adage that “it’s so hot, you can fry an egg on the sidewalk.”

Every Fourth of July for the past 17 years, the Route 66 town of Oatman, Ariz., proves that old adage true. The old mining town nestled in the parched Black Mountains will hold its Oatman Sidewalk Egg Fry, at noon of course, reports the Mohave Daily News.

The “fry” lures happy cookers who can use magnifying glasses, solar panels, aluminum foil - anything but direct fire - to fry an egg. The Gunfighters of Oatman will shoot off their pistols at noon to get things running. The eggs are provided, by the way.

Blue Mountain even has an e-card commemorating the event.

Just make sure the wild burros that roam the street don’t mess with your egg-frying contraption.

Vince Scott bought the Boots Motel in Carthage, Mo., a few years ago with the sole purpose of quickly selling it again to Walgreens for a quick buck.

However, Route 66 preservationists protested the impending deal, and Walgreens moved to greener pastures.

Scott still has the motel, and admits the 1930s landmark could be a significant tourist attraction. But he says to the Carthage Press that he’s not the one to take advantage of that.

Moral of the story: Don’t buy a property, expecting to make a quick buck on resale, when the property is historic and opposition of “redevelopment” is almost certain.

And don’t whine if you’re too short-sighted to take advantage of historical motel that’s tailor-made for a growing audience of Route 66ers, history-lovers and kitsch fans.

The formation of a new, national Route 66 organization was proposed during the Route 66 Summit on Thursday at the National Route 66 Festival in Clinton, Okla.

The organization would be similar to the old U.S. Highway 66 Association, which operated from 1927 to 1976, and the current-day Lincoln Highway Association, which has a paid executive director, office staff and representation from all the member states.

Michael Wallis, author of the best-selling “Route 66: The Mother Road,” advocated an “active, national organization governing the whole road with equal representation from each state on the highway.”

Forming a new national organization has taken on new urgency because the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program sunsets in 2010. Also, the National Historic Route 66 Federation has scaled back its activities, and one of its co-founders is in poor health.

Referring to the late national Route 66 boosters Jack and Gladys Cutberth of Clinton, Wallis said “we owe it to these people, the highway and the people eking out a living. … and we owe it to ourselves … to preserve this road.”

During the discussion, it was suggested that members not only include the road’s beloved mom-and-pop businesses, but also corporations, on a tiered membership-fee system. Some of that money would be funneled to Route 66 associations in the eight states.

Most attendees were strongly in support of a new national 66 group, including Swa Frantzen of Historic66.com. The Belgium resident said the many Europeans who travel the road would find it easier to use one Route 66 association as a clearinghouse for information. “It needs coordination,” he said.

Michael Taylor of the Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program advocated such a group, and said it would be a natural progression after the corridor program ends. He also noted that federal funding is available for start-up costs for such programs, and cited the Scenic Byways program as an example.

After the general discussion, a smaller group of members of the Route 66 state associations met with Wallis and Pam Lewis, Scenic Byways manager of the University of Oklahoma Outreach, to draft a proposal that will be sent to all the state associations for their consideration. A neutral Web site also will be set up so Route 66 advocates can exchange ideas about the proposal.

After the smaller meeting adjourned, Wallis said he was encouraged by the reaction to the idea for a national Route 66 organization.

“I was approached by people who were very enthusiastic,” he said. “We went a lot further than I anticipated, and I’m an optimistic guy.”

I got this e-mail today from Ramona Kiewert, co-owner of the Bent Door in Adrian, Texas, on how progress has been with th old Route 66 business:

The Music is playing and the Plane’s flying at The Bent Door. Progress has been good this summer so far; the office area has now been painted as well as the souvenir area. The ceiling is in the process of being painted and the outside has one coat paint. We are waiting for a day when the wind is calm so we can finish the outside. So when you come out our way stop by and look inside. We are still making trips back and forth from East Texas to the Panhandle. Hoping to get more done each time we are there. Our June date has come and gone and our work goes on.

We have had a lot of visitors this month […]. Meeting everyone and hearing their stories, to know that there is so much interest in The Bent Door has been a blessing. After 60 years The Bent Door is now the official name, and our web site is www.bentdoor.wordpress.com. Thanks for all the encouragement from around the world. May God bless everyone, Roy & Ramona Kiewert and family.

The plane is an illustration of a plane with an animated propeller that was long part of the Bent Door’s decor. And a jukebox was used for many of a Saturday night dance at the restaurant/dance hall before the days of the interstate and the bypass.

(Photo courtesy of Ramona Kiewert.)

The White Dog Hill restaurant east of Clinton, Okla., is distributing a flier for attendees at the National Route 66 Festival in town. The top of the leaflet says:

Come for the food … Stay for the view.

It is truth in advertising. The White Dog Hill, formerly the Clinton Country Club decades ago, is perched on a hill about three miles east of Clinton, just a quarter-mile or so north of Route 66. It provides a gorgeous view of the setting sun, the city of Clinton below, and of the rolling hills, intense blue skies and puffy clouds all around it.

The steakhouse isn’t quite ready for prime time yet, but it is opening for desserts only from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, the week of the festival. Owner Nelson King and the chef, Jason Dodson, said they hope to open the establishment for good around the Fourth of July holiday.

The interior allows for much natural lighting, and the wooden furniture, textured brick, stucco walls, and exposed wooden rafters accentuate the effect.

And the strawberry shortcake we had was refreshing on a warm, windy Oklahoma day.

The affable King regaled us with stories about his dogs Hamilton and the namesake White Dog, straight-line winds that damaged the roof of the building months ago, and about a Cheyenne Indian who blessed the property at a time when King was having troubles with the property.

Yet the star of White Dog Hill is the scenery around it. I could easily imagine myself, cold beer in hand, relaxing in one of the Adirondack chairs and watching the sun set. It’s that gorgeous of a setting.

(White Dog Hill is three miles east of Clinton, Okla., on the north outer road off exit 69 of Interstate 40. The phone number is 580-323-6922.)