We’re only halfway through January and it’s been a whirlwind. That is not a surprising fact to my peers in the Route 66 world, as we’ve all been building towards 2026 for some time now. In fact, when I was elected President of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association in 2019 that’s the first conversation my predecessor had with me. In short: “It’s coming, get ready.” Well, Here It Is!
The year started with an opening reception for Faces of the Mother Road, a photography exhibit featuring vintage photos captured in Afton, Oklahoma between 1913-1949. Here’s that whole story and there are some INCREDIBLE photos in this show, which I’m hoping gets the opportunity to travel along the Mother Road this year. I also participated in a panel discussion at the debut of OETA’s Route 66: The First 100 Years episode. Then, barely a week into 2026, I helped welcome the first Route 66 Centennial caravan to Tulsa.
The Drive Home VII was organized by America’s Automotive Trust and it consisted of nine vehicles cruising from Santa Monica to Chicago and continuing on to Michigan for the Detroit Auto Show – the ‘home’ of The Drive Home. They had a pretty aggressive schedule, traversing Route 66 in only ten days, but they stopped in Tulsa at Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios where a crowd was waiting. It was a little surreal to see the national Centennial logo on the side of a vehicle when I’d only seen it on web banners and letterhead for the past few years. There it was, in the real world! The drivers and organizers were super friendly and it was a pleasure to get some time to visit with them, some of which had never been to Oklahoma before.
Two days after that welcome, I returned to Arizona to give a talk about Route 66 and, as always, checked in with a few friends and colleagues while I was in the neighborhood. My talk was in Lake Havasu City and I flew into Phoenix so I could see a little bit of the country I hadn’t seen before. Through sheer luck of timing, I drove through Quartzsite at the same time some friends from Seligman were set up for a gem show. AO Coffee Company just finished working on a coffee wagon (made possible in part by a grant from the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership) and I wanted to see it first-hand…while also enjoying some of the best coffee served on (or off!) the Mother Road. They were set up next to Sebastiaan and Anna Marie from the Aztec Motel and we had a great chat together!
Beyond my unexpected meeting, Quartzsite was already on my radar because of their town cemetery. It is the final resting place of a man named Hi Jolly. Born in the Ottoman Empire in 1828, Jolly emigrated to America when he was 28 years old – his Islamic name Hadji Ali getting Americanized upon entry. He was recruited by the US Army (and then-Secretary of War Jefferson Davis) to revolutionize transport across the American West…using camels. It was remarkably successful, but didn’t last long.
The United States Camel Corps was sidelined by the Civil War and other military priorities. The animals were sold at auction, with the bones of one camel eventually ending up at the Smithsonian. Hi Jolly died in 1902 and had become a prominent local citizen. He is buried with the ashes of “Old Topsy”, the last camel that had been part of the Army experiment, and the entire graveyard was named after him.
Further up the highway, I stopped in Poston, AZ. This was the site of America’s largest Japanese-American internment camps during World War II. It housed nearly 20,000 Americans over its three years of operation and was the third-largest “city” in Arizona at one point. It is in the middle of the Colorado River Indian Reservation and was built there over the objections of the tribal council. At one time, 71,000 acres here held hundreds of barracks, a hospital, offices, and staff/guard housing. Today there are multiple historic markers and a tall column next to the highway that reminds us of what can happen when fear and a bent ideology is allowed to override rights and civil liberties. It’s definitely a contrast to the tribute to a Syrian immigrant I’d just visited in Quartzsite.
I’d never been to Lake Havasu City before and it was a lovely little town. Their centerpiece is the London Bridge, which isn’t just a clever name. It’s literally a bridge from the 1830s that was built over the River Thames in London. It was purchased in the 1960s by an American developer, who transferred the exterior masonry and incorporated into this new bridge. Lake Havasu is also home to the Xscapers Bash, an annual gathering of boondockers and RV enthusiasts that sought out a speaker to talk about the Route 66 Centennial. I had fun learning about a totally different world of people and sharing a little history with an enthusiastic crowd!
I kept busy on the rest of my visit to the area, taking the time to see the Parker Dam and part of the Bill Williams National Wildlife Refuge before returning to Route 66. I checked in with folks in Kingman and Seligman, very pleased to see more progress even since my last visit in November. I stayed in Prescott for the first time and even got in a quick visit in at Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin West before catching a flight home. I’ve been chipping away at the dozens of emails that had piled up in my absence ever since.
One final happening of note: at the very end of 2025, I had a tremendous surprise. On the morning of December 31st, I started my normal routine. Made a cup of coffee, went into my home office, an started filtering through email and news. I received a Google News alert that a new article had been posted that had both “Route 66” and “Oklahoma” in it: 2026 Tulsan of the Year. It was me. I’d been interviewed in November for an article that I was told was about the Centennial in general…but those rascals at TulsaPeople snuck one by me.
I was gobsmacked. I went in to tell Samantha, who was still getting ready for work, and I couldn’t quite get the words out. She thought someone had died or something! All of this to say: I am so tremendously honored for this recognition, but it’s not just mine. So many people across Route 66 have been working so hard to get ready for this year. We’re a big family in so many ways and I’m lucky to be a piece of the puzzle. And thank goodness – because as you can see, we’re off and running!
Today, January 18th, marks fifteen years since Dad passed away. I still get the urge to call him and share good news, though I don’t think I’d ever even said the words Route 66 when he was still here. In March, it will be six years since we lost Mom. I still want to call her and tell her that I arrived safely whenever I take a trip. Time goes by so fast.
I’m talking to myself more than anyone reading this right now, but make sure you take time for yourself, to relax, to just BE in a place, and enjoy it. It’s going to be a great year, but nothing is greater than sharing it with those you love.
Rhys' Pieces 