100 Years of Route 66 w/ Valerie Bromann

A century on the odometer and still full of surprises—Route 66 turns 100, and we’re hitting the Mother Road with a guide who knows every neon sign, diner counter, and roadside oddity by heart. We welcome back Val Broman of Silly America to share her audacious project: a new Route 66 video every single day this year. From Illinois to California, she’s surfacing icons and deep cuts, proving there’s far more than 365 stories hidden along 2,400 miles of asphalt.

We trade favorites and discover fresh stops that deserve a pin on your map. Think a boom in muffler men across the route, a throwback breakfast at College Street Cafe in Springfield, a retro-chic stay at Motel Safari in Tucumcari, the folk-art wonderland of OK County 66, and the serene glow of Elmer’s Bottle Tree Ranch in California. We also talk about the dance between nostalgia and new energy—restored service stations, fresh selfie landmarks, and neon parks reviving Main Street after dark.

For travelers who want to plan smarter, Val built Route66Roadmap.com, a free tool that organizes attractions by state and type: roadside attractions, diners, motels, museums, and shopping. You can bookmark stops, shape an itinerary, and prioritize the experiences that matter to you. Geocachers will love how neatly it pairs with Adventure Lab routes and virtuals at famous corners and whales. Whether you’re eyeing a weekend segment or the full Chicago-to-Santa Monica run, you’ll leave with a strategy that mixes history, quirky wonders, and perfect photo ops.

Join us for a centennial celebration that doubles as a practical playbook. Subscribe, share this with your favorite road tripper, and leave a review so more travelers can find these hidden gems. Which Route 66 stop would you choose first?

route66roadmap.com

Route 66 Instagram

Silly America Instagram

Transcript

Cold Open And Show Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Do you love to travel?

SPEAKER_03 0:02

Do you love road trips?

SPEAKER_00 0:03

We gotta start over.

SPEAKER_03 0:05

Okay, leaving three, two, one, go.

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Do you love to travel?

SPEAKER_03 0:18

Do you love road trips?

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Do you love finding hidden treasures in towns all over the USA? Hi, I'm Joshua.

SPEAKER_03 0:23

And I'm Craig. Welcome to Treasures about Town. It's a podcast that explores unique and charming towns scattered throughout the United States.

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Guided by our love for location-based games like geocaching, join us as we venture to some of the country's most intriguing destinations, uncovering hidden gems and local secrets along the way.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

On today's episode, Josh, we're going back. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 0:41

We're going back to get our kicks, get our kicks on Route 66! Get our kicks on Route 66. There you go.

SPEAKER_03 0:50

I can't sing it. You can, mate. We all know that you're the voice. I'm the accent. You're the voice of this podcast. I'm the singing voice. You're the head. Exactly. But in saying that, Josh, we when we say we're going back to get our kicks on Route 66, what are you referring to going back? What do you mean?

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Well, you know, we've talked about Route 66 a lot on this podcast. We've talked about the Adventure Lab series. We had Scott, GSM times two. That's right. And then we've talked two years ago, we talked to a woman from Silly America, Val, who she's all about, we talked about all the big things. And so she loves those things, but she also loves the mother road. She loves Route 66. And she probably knows more about Route 66 than anybody I know.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

So just to just to let everyone an idea as well, this is what uh comes to mind. Whenever I hear Val and her Celia America on Instagram as well, she's the the young lady who always dresses up in the same theme and takes photos with the actual big things, you know, like the red polka dot dress, for instance, with the woman in a red polka dot dress, like you know, that sort of thing too. Yeah, she's that one.

SPEAKER_00 1:57

Oh, yeah, she plans her outfits for Route 66. So when she's on her road trips, she literally like has several different outfits as she goes to each location. But today, again, it's been a couple years. We're gonna have Val Broman back on the show, but this time we're very specifically gonna talk about Route 66 because it's the hundred-year centennial anniversary of Route 66 this year. It started in 1926 and uh it is 2026 now.

SPEAKER_03 2:33

Yes, yes, yes. Well, I and I recently did some Route 66 of my own, Josh, too. Remember, and uh uh that was in my Nevada trip as well. Yes, went through Oatman, Arizona. Um, got some great photos of uh the big old Route 66 on the actual bitumen or the pavement, whatever you want to call it, the roadway. Um yes, and great. Oh, I I love I love a good Route 66, and let's be honest, Route 66, it's the old, it's the old route as well, not the new stuff. The new stuff goes alongside and sometimes well away from it, right? You know, uh but this is the old, this is like the one lane each way, Route 66.

SPEAKER_00 3:10

Yeah, it's the mother road.

Upgrades And Delays

SPEAKER_03 3:11

Yes, the mother road.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

But before we get to Route 66, here we go. We need to talk about our upgrades and delays. Cue the sound.

SPEAKER_03 3:22

Okay, they're happy with the sound, Josh. You like that sound. You and you you love the cue the sound bit too, don't you?

SPEAKER_00 3:28

Well, you know what it does? It brings texture to our podcast instead of just like us talking, it brings a little, you know, a little something, something. A digital texture. Yeah, a little digital, a little dig text.

SPEAKER_03 3:40

Dig text. I like it. Well, do you want to start off then speaking of uh texture, Josh? You can start off because I mean I think one of yours should be that you got a new haircut.

SPEAKER_00 3:49

Well, yeah, that happens every five weeks. That's not really too special. But thank you. Do you think it looked nice?

SPEAKER_03 3:54

It looks it looks good. It looks it makes you look younger. I mean, you got highlights. Did you do highlights in there or something?

SPEAKER_00 4:00

No, I would never do something like that.

SPEAKER_03 4:02

It looks a little bit blonder than normal.

SPEAKER_00 4:04

Yeah, I would never I would never do something like that. This is all natural. I will say it's all natural and blonde right out of bottle.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

I will say, I will say though, Josh, I did watch your uh last week's episode on uh on YouTube. And it's back when you had your beard. I do miss your beard, Josh. I miss I miss the grunge, Josh. I miss the the rough, the rough and tumble Josh. Now we're back to this pristine-looking Josh.

SPEAKER_00 4:27

Okay. Well, I'll say something. This is a little this is a little tease right here.

SPEAKER_03 4:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

You may, for a specific reason, and you kind of know, I'm not going to tell the listeners because I'm going to keep it kind of on the down low for a little bit because I'll make an announcement. This spring, there may be something that be might I might be doing that might involve me growing a beer back. Oh.

unknown 4:49

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

So I'll just leave it there. There's the teaser. There's the teaser.

SPEAKER_03 4:54

All right, let's get it to your delays and upgrades with that no more teasing.

Survivor Idol Hunt Story

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Delays and upgrades. So my delay and upgrade are connected. You know, both you and I are fans of this uh show Survivor. Oh, yeah. And if you don't know, this is uh this season, couple weeks, is the uh season premiere of season 50. 50, 5-0 5-0 assist season 50 of Survivor uh year 25. They have two seasons a year. And as a part of season 50, they are doing a special idol hunt where they're hiding. I'm putting in quotes, they're hiding a hidden immunity idol in every state in the United States. Oh, and the moment I heard that, Craig, I'm like, oh my gosh, are you kidding me? This is perfect for a geocacher. And if you find they said this, this is what they said originally. Yeah. If you find the hidden immunity idol in your state, you have a chance to be go to the reunion and finale of Survivor, which is happening in May. So there'll be 50 winners, one from each state. So as a geocacher, of course, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is geocaching. I just this is made for me. This is made for you and I, Craig. But then as it as the information was revealing itself, it wasn't necessarily like a geocache hunt.

SPEAKER_03 6:19

Oh, what a what happened?

SPEAKER_00 6:21

This is the delay. This is a delay. This is the delay. I thought it was gonna be like a geocache hunt, but it's actually people have the ability, multiple people can find it. Oh there's a clue on Instagram, and that clue takes you to another clue, which takes you to a location where there is a uh whole crew, about five people from CBS that have set up a set with the hidden immunity idol. And basically, you have to get in line and get your picture with the hidden immunity idol, and then there's a QR code that you scan, and that's kind of your entry, and it's connected to locations to prove that you were there. So the downside, Craig, was that it wasn't a geocache hidden immunity idol. That was a little bit of a disappointment. Upgrade was that I went, I went with my friend, and it was a lot of fun. There were, but there were it was the final location in Minnesota was at the Mall of America.

SPEAKER_03 7:16

I was gonna say it'd have to be the Mall of America Minnesota.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

Right in the middle of Nickelodeon Universe, right in the middle. And if you don't know, there's a there's an amusement park in the middle of the mall. It was in the middle of that. And here's the thing we got there early, and I'm proud to say we were the first geocachers. That's for sure. There were there, we we were like number 15 out of Craig. There were over a thousand people there. Wow, like there were so many people behind us. Um, so my chances of winning are very slim, but it was a good time. Yeah, we we were bonding, bonding over Survivor, and then everybody that was there, especially in the front where we were, were like diehards. So um, that was a lot of fun. It was just kind of fun to hang out and uh wait in line with a bunch of survivor fans. That was my upgrade of the week.

Bamarama Prep And Digital Detox

SPEAKER_03 8:04

And the delay, I like it, I like it. Well, mine Josh, my my mine have kind of connected as well. And the first and foremost, my delay itself is that I've just been flat out, Josh. Actual flat out, busy, busy, busy in the lead up to Bamarama. So as this podcast goes uh goes live, Bamarama has already started. The actual lead up events have started because the lead up events start on the February the 13th, go all the way through until the 21st, which is the actual uh mega event on the 21st itself. So so many lead up events, getting so ready, getting everything together. I got all the banners sorted as well. I I was in the print shop today, Josh, for three and a half hours in the print shop printing out like the the programs and the and the name tags and all those little maps and the bingo, geocaching bingo, all those things. So just very, very busy. And so I knew that was gonna come up. And so what did I do a few weeks ago? I booked myself and uh and my good friend as well, a weekend escape, a weekend getaway, Josh. Yes, and it's it's what they call, I think they call it postcard cabins here in Alabama, and what it is is these small little cabins nestled in woods where you don't see or do anything except for just the cabins alone. And to the best part about it as well is that you actually are technically you're offline, there's no Wi-Fi, there's hardly any service there as well. You may get a phone call in or out, that's about it. But otherwise, they they've got a box on the table as you walk in for your phones, and they say your phone lockbox. So they want you to put your phones, your devices in this little lockbox and close it and say no phones for the entire time you're here.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Did you actually do that? Yes, good for you.

SPEAKER_03 9:44

We we brought books, you see, so we actually had some books and entertainment. I I I did a little puzzle book, Josh. Okay, I know, right? I know. But you know, you cook yourself some dinner, there's a fireplace out the front, it comes complete every day with new s'mores, some firewood and uh and and stuff like that too, along with like all your uh just your little things, your coffee and tea and hot chocolates and all that sort of thing as well. So mate, yeah, a little a little weekend escape and literally unplug from your devices, it does feel extremely, extremely good to reset. I'll say that.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

That sounds absolutely delightful. That is a real upgrade.

SPEAKER_03 10:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

Especially with all you have coming up, and boy, you got a lot of you're like basically two weeks of events that you are a part of. Yeah, um, that is a lot of work. And if anybody's been a part of uh a committee that leading a geocaching bag event, they know how much work it is. Oh, yeah. And so yeah, you got a lot of work ahead of you. And I'm actually surprised that you were able to find some time to record the podcast.

SPEAKER_03 10:49

We had to, we had to, Josh, because I knew that was gonna fall right in the middle of it, and I thought I I can't do it in but in between time. So we got it a little bit beforehand, even to the point, Josh, where I'm using good old Tuesday. Yes, the big van Tuesday. She's coming on because unlike other mega events, Josh, you know the swag packs and stuff as well, where you pick up your swag pack at the uh normally that it's the day before because that's the side event. Because they've got like 10 days of side events, these swag bags are gonna be in my van for 10 days, going from side event to side event to side event.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

So yeah. It's a good use for your van since it's not really on the road right now so much.

SPEAKER_03 11:24

Yeah, not as much it is, but uh yeah, good use of the van. Um she's gonna be packed full. Uh I've got like all this speakers, I've got all my battery packs, I've got my microphones, not too, because you know, we've got to have some sort of audio out there as well in the world for all the side events and also the mega as well. So all that stuff is going inside Tuesday, and uh, she'll be traveling around um Orange Beach and Gulf Shores, Alberta, that sort of area, Baldwin County in total.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

So beautiful area which I have experienced myself. And uh I hope you do get to have some fun and that it's not just all work for you.

SPEAKER_03 12:00

Uh it won't be as fun as what it was when you I was with you, Josh. I'll say that. Because I mean, let's be honest, if you want to see that video, it's a great it's a lot of fun. I have never giggled like a child. I giggled like a child, Josh, when we're on those on those go-karts, remember? Oh, those go-karts around. And I was I was watching you spin out and spin out and spin out, and I'm just flying past you going, Josh, I you know, some things I am better than you at. So not many, but some.

Enter Route 66 And Guest Intro

Val’s Updates: Book And Roadmap Site

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Speaking of that, we need we need to plan a trip where we can um not worry about you know planning anything. Of course, we can maybe make a video, but um where we can hang out and have fun. But it is now time. It's now time to join the mother road. Today, we are welcoming back Craig, someone who is truly a champion for all things weird, wonderful, wild, big things in America. We have with us Val Broman, and she's the founder of Silly America, which is a platform dedicated to celebrating roadside attractions and kitchen landmarks, these places, Craig, where that you say we have to stop. You have to stop, you have to stop. And this year, Craig, to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Route 66, she's taking on a huge challenge. And as creator, video creators, Craig, we can relate to this. Yeah, she is releasing a Route 66 video featuring something in Route 66 every day this year. No, yes, and so please let's welcome back Val Broman. Val, welcome back to the show. Hey, thank you. It's so good to be back. Yes, it's been like almost not quite, not quite two years since we talked to you. We actually, we the first time we talked to you, you were like one of our first few guests. Remember that, Craig?

SPEAKER_04 13:52

We were just getting regarded. So yeah, I was first right at the beginning there.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Yeah, so hopefully our interviewing skills have improved.

SPEAKER_04 14:02

I don't know if mine have, but my uh guest skills have fun. We'll see.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

Well, Val, uh, thanks for being on the show. Can you just kind of before we get kind of get into this amazing thing that you're doing this year to celebrate the centennial of the Mother Road, can you just kind of tell us like what you've been up to over the last few years? I remember the last time we had you on, you had a uh a journal, a road trip journal that you were talking about. What have you been up to the last couple years?

SPEAKER_04 14:30

Yeah, in the last few years, um I released my book, my road trip journal and activity book, and that is great. And um I love seeing people, you know, traveling with it and uh having all the fun on their road trips. Um I've been continuing with Silly America and posting as many um fun roadside attractions as I can. Um and I've also uh launched a new website called Route 66 Roadmap, which is a Route 66 travel planning website that people can use to find all the fun things on Route 66.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Oh, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_03 15:03

And just just for the listeners out there too, because this is an audio-only podcast. Well, Valerie, they're your cats are there in the background.

SPEAKER_04 15:10

Yeah, it's sorry, the um uh it's actually just cats. It's just cats. I'm sorry, I um they have they're uh they're fighting right now. I have to do it.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

The hero case. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt, but I will all hear the background. So I loved it. I loved it. They're very cute. Um sorry, Josh, what were you saying?

The 365-Day Route 66 Video Challenge

SPEAKER_00 15:32

Well, we were talking about what Valerie's been up to the last few years. I was saying she's now and I'm really curious about this. She's created a new resource, a new website that helps people in their planning of when they do uh Route 666. So that's that's really exciting. We need to talk about that. Yeah, but let's first let's talk about this challenge that you have before your before yourself, before yourself, this challenge that you're doing of highlighting a different part of Route 66 via video every day in 2026. What went into the decision process to do this?

SPEAKER_04 16:08

Um, yeah, I mean, I love Route 66. I've been traveling a lot on Route 66. Um, through all of it, I love finding both the roadside attractions and the, you know, museums, the hotels, the uh restaurants. There's just so many really fun things to see that you you could probably go years with uh with talking about them. Um but because it's a centennial, I really wanted to find a way to celebrate it every day of this 100th year affair. Um, especially since like I'm not a full-time traveler. I'm not, I would love to be, you know, constantly out of place every day. But since I'm not, I wanted to find a way to like celebrate all these things while not necessarily traveling it every single day.

SPEAKER_00 16:52

But you do such a great job batch shooting. I know when you go on your road trip, you get a lot of content. And I know last time, yes, last time we talked to you, like, and I walk I follow your social media, you are a planner. And Craig, we talked about this earlier. She not only plans her destinations, but she plans her outfits to match her destinations, which is just awesome.

SPEAKER_03 17:13

Are you still planning all your outfits, uh, Val?

SPEAKER_04 17:16

I I do. I I try to I try to match as much as possible. It makes fun content.

SPEAKER_03 17:22

See, in in a world, in a world of AI at the moment as well, like you know, it's and I personally think, and Josh, I do believe you're the same as me, and that is it's gone too far with all this AI stuff and people making AI things on their Facebook pages and all this sort of thing, whatever. The old school roots, Valerie. You going back and you actually making, or not making, but you're dressing up the same and actually getting the same photos, so you don't have to do any editing of any photos or any video whatsoever. But I will say, Valerie, you you said before, you're not full-time on the you know van lifer. You know, I'll be honest with you, I've been a full-time van lifer recently as well, for the last 12 months or so, 18 months. Loved it. Absolutely loved it. But my question is though, if you're doing this whole the Route 66, are you actually gonna go from start to finish in that whole year? Like what if if what do we expect? If I'm gonna follow you on Instagram, for instance, what am I gonna expect for the next year of watching your videos every single day? The whole Route 66?

Planning, Batch Filming, And Outfit Strategy

SPEAKER_04 18:16

Um, definitely not the whole Route 66 because I have a spreadsheet of about 1600 stuffs of just that I've compiled of the stuff. Like I haven't been, I have not been to all 1600. I've been to about 500 or so. Um, but um the I couldn't cover it all in a year. But you're gonna get a really good taste of like I'm trying to mix it up between, you know, the big stuff that everybody's heard about, like blue whale katusa, and then you know, random stuff that you might not have known about. Like there's like these uh wayside exhibits in Illinois that give you a little more information on places. Um I'm trying to kind of mix it up between all kinds of different things that people can find.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

When I heard you were doing this, the first thing I thought, and this just tells you how ignorant I am. I've been on Route 66, of course. I haven't been on the whole thing.

SPEAKER_03 19:03

But I was like, And Josh, you haven't done the blue while. You haven't done the blue.

SPEAKER_00 19:06

I know.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

You bought the ball.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

We talked about that last time, Val. We did Oh, I need to get there. Anyway, um, my first reaction as kind of a Route 66 newbie is that wait a minute, there's actually 365 things to feature on Route 66, and now you're saying there's 1600?

SPEAKER_04 19:26

There's there's definitely, yeah, there's definitely more than that 1600. Those are just the ones like I I spend a lot of time researching and trying to find uh stuff to see. So there's a lot out there that you can see. I mean, it goes across eight different states and about more than 2400 miles. So there are plenty of things to see.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

Well, that is a lot of planning. Can you tell us a little bit how you're planning this whole the release of these videos? I'm I'm really curious as a video creator, like are you batch shooting these? Are you are you just are you just getting up every day and this is the one I'm gonna feature today? Tell us a little bit about your planning and and um and maybe also like how you're deciding which attack string attraction gets featured when.

Old Versus New Route 66

SPEAKER_04 20:09

Yeah. Um, so yeah, I am definitely a planner when it comes to both road trips and uh content. Um so I I started a trusty spreadsheet for this with uh 365 rows uh and the date for each one. Um and I kind of started um, you know, obviously there's certain things that I wanted to feature at certain times, like the very first one was the begin sign in Chicago. And you can probably guess what's gonna be the very last one and what's going to be a very middle point. Um, and then there's certain things like um, you know, holidays, like on St. Patrick's Day, I want to feature something from Shamrock, Texas, because it's, you know, it's a very appropriate thing to do. Um, but then like for everything else, I'm trying to kind of evenly split it up. So I have like um I I'm trying to go through like, you know, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas every day. Uh it doesn't quite get that because like Kansas is only 13 miles, so there's only so many of those. So like I'm not completely sticking to that, but I'm trying to, you know, showcase some all the different sites. Um and in terms of filming, um, I am batched trying to batch content these. Um I part of the reason I'm doing this is um kind of a challenge to create more content because I am not a video person at all. I'm much more of a photographer. Um, and like I always have big plans to take content on road trips, and then I come back and I'm like trying to edit a video and it's like 30 seconds of terrible footage that I took. Um so uh I'm trying to get more comfortable in front of the camera, but um I had a couple weeks off of work in December. So I sat down and like uh filmed the first uh, you know, month and a half. Oh it's now a month and a half later, and I am not that bad anymore. Um, but I am kind of batch content. Get and um fun exclusive here is that even if I do batch content them, I will go and change my outfit in between each time to make it trade all the time.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

That's how you fool people.

SPEAKER_03 22:11

That's right. It's not what you know, it's what you can prove in court. Um absolutely. So you are you are you are batch editing and you are filming in advance. Um, roughly how far are you actually filming in advance? You said you film so much in one or two weeks or whatever.

SPEAKER_04 22:28

Yeah, I filmed a lot when yeah, I was um off of work for two weeks, so I had some time to like really sit and start. Um right now I'm about two weeks ahead of myself, so not quite that, but um uh I did. I feel like I batched, I filmed a lot, and then I was like, I can take a break, and then realized, oh no, I've gotta get back to that.

SPEAKER_03 22:50

And I will say, Valerie, uh, and this is coming from Josh and myself as well. The more you get in front of a camera, the more you start talking on camera as well, then the easier it actually gets. Um, I say that to everyone. People say to me, they say, you know, Craig, how can you actually talk and not stumble over your words or get nervous? I go, just do it. Just start it and just do it. Because at the same time, Valerie, people want to actually see your growth as a person, as a as a personality as well. They want to see the January 1st, Valerie, like, oh, nervous and stumbling a little bit. Come December 25th or 26th, and like she's absolutely perfect nailing, and she could be an anchor at a news radio station, you know what I mean? So they want to see the growth of you as well. So absolutely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 23:33

And we know why you don't have time on the road um to take videos because you're just changing outfits all the time.

SPEAKER_04 23:41

That but yeah, but I also I travel by myself most of the time. So I'm driving, I'm navigating, I'm taking pictures, and it just it gets to be a lot to do a lot. And so I always have such high hopes to take a lot of content, and then I I don't.

Six Underrated Route 66 Stops

SPEAKER_03 23:57

Can you imagine though, Valerie? I mean, you said you know you draw you do everything because you're solo. Um, but but it have you found any geocaches along the route as well when you're doing it too?

SPEAKER_04 24:06

I I have not where uh do you know any good ones on Route 66 or something like that? There's a lot, there's a lot.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

The whale the whale of the whale is a really good one. That's a really problem. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 24:19

Do you know I know that they are currently renovating the whale. Do you know if that affects it at all? If there's no dug it up or something.

SPEAKER_03 24:28

Yeah, no. The uh the whale one is actually it's kind of separate from the whale. It's a nice big amateur can. And it's near the uh near like a like a visitor center or something like that. Uh near a building next to the whale.

SPEAKER_04 24:38

So look at that.

SPEAKER_03 24:40

I'm giving spoilers, Josh.

SPEAKER_00 24:41

There you go. That's okay.

SPEAKER_04 24:43

So about maybe by next one, I'll go look for it. I'll go look for some on the next one.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

And if you need to take a picture and post it on your social media and send it to me. Um I think we talked about this two years ago. And we I think we probably challenged Dirk Craig. We probably challenged.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

We did. We did, Josh. We did fail.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

Failure of Valerie.

SPEAKER_03 25:02

And just season one, episode four, we had Valerie. Season four back episode four. Go back that far. That's three years.

SPEAKER_00 25:13

And we talked about, I believe we talked about big things. We were very focused on world's largest types of stuff, which I absolutely love, as you know if you've listened to this podcast. Uh, but speaking of like a variety of things to cover, um, for example, today you featured a Route 66 statue. Um, I think I've seen you feature some um motels or hotels, um museums. What are the different types of kind of things that what's the span of like different different types of things you would feature on Route 66?

SPEAKER_04 25:46

Yeah, oh, there's so many things. Yeah, there's plenty of roadside attractions. There's definitely uh Route 66 is known for having some great diners, great uh motels, and a lot of those diners and motels have really amazing neon signs too, uh, which is uh a lot of people love traveling it to see all that neon. Um, there's a lot of gift shops, there's a lot of um uh just random signs, there's statues, there's all kinds of different things that people can go and see. Uh, there's also a lot of like old service stations. So, like, you know, you can they most of them don't um have gas anymore, but you can go and pretend that you're driving in the past and stop on those.

SPEAKER_03 26:25

And with it with your car, Valerie, you don't you don't have one of those old school cars, you know, you know, so it kind of does look out of place a little bit with the old school cars.

SPEAKER_04 26:33

I have a Toyota Corolla. It's not that exciting.

SPEAKER_03 26:36

Reliable.

SPEAKER_04 26:37

Maybe someday I'd love to drive in like a nice old car or something, maybe someday.

SPEAKER_03 26:42

But you with your planning as well, Valerie, you said before, like uh when you when you find a place, when you find a location, you say, you know, you know, I'm gonna do this location, I'm gonna feature this particular location, do you go ahead as well and do some sort of research about the history of it, etc., as well? And is that the sort of in other words, how do you actually decide what sort of story that you're gonna tell for every single viewer in each video every day?

SPEAKER_04 27:03

Yeah, um, it kind of depends on the on what I'm featuring. Like some things, like we talked about that, um, the sculpture that I talked about, which is like a big 66 sculpture, it's kind of newer. There isn't too much history to it. So, like some of those are just kind of like, here's some facts. Um, and some things like like the blue whale, like um, you know, some of these old motels and stuff, like they go back a hundred years, some are more than a hundred years. So they have a lot of history to them, and there's a lot of stuff to tell, and they're trying to, you know, get it all in in three minutes or less. Um, and then there's some things like um that I have more of a maybe personal story too. Like I talked about, there's this one section of Route 66 called the Arizona Sidewinder, which is a short drive through the mountains with like a lot of little turns to it. Um and I was terrified of driving it. So like sometimes I sit care more of a like kind of the personal story. So it really kind of depends on what the attraction is that I'm uh talking about.

SPEAKER_03 28:03

See, and I love that as well, Josh, with uh with Route 66. Like you got the old 66 and you got the kind of new 66. I mean, Valerie, I've just uh done some of the 66 uh recently as well. And uh I went through um in uh Flagstaff, Arizona, um, and then Flagstaff, and what's the one just uh just west of Flagstaff? I can't think of the Kingman, Kingman, Arizona as well. Uh so I was got through Kingman and I went into the visitor center there, and they've got the new brand new Route 66 where you can park the car underneath the sign and get a photo of that. But the best part, Josh, ready for this? Because I know you I know you've sold me before you talk about the dog. You and the Goliath, that's right. There's got a they've got there's got a dog park next to it, and it's got a little dog version of this Route 66 side. But then, but then you drive half an hour, keep going west, and drive half an hour west towards Oatman, Arizona, and you're on the old, like the sidewinder sort of areas, and it's literally, yeah, the road's crumbling away, the old signs are there, there's some some neon or whatever too, and then there's donkeys all over the road as well. So you've got the old and the new, Valerie. What do you prefer in terms of your your storylines at the same time as your personal preference? Do you like the old or the new?

SPEAKER_04 29:15

I mean, I like it all. Like, I definitely love the the history, the old school, like going to a motel that's been around for 50, 70 years and staying there, seeing the neon lights still going, um, seeing some of these roadside attractions that have been there forever. Um, it's really amazing to see. But I really love the new two because it's especially it means that they're that other people want to see this road continue to stay relevant. Um, like especially with the Route 66 Centennial this year, you're seeing a lot of these new selfie signs being put up where you can go and take pictures at different locations. There's a lot of new new roadside attractions. There's a lot of like redevelopment, a lot of new mufflerment, a lot of new things coming up. So it's really, it's really cool to see that kind of old and new. So I love them both. I love them both equally.

SPEAKER_00 30:07

Craig, I don't know if we talked about this, but remember when we went to Uranus, uh, Missouri? You remember that? How could we forget, right? I know. Well, we missed something because after we left, yeah, um, Valerie posted something about the the neons, this new neon sign thing. Oh and it was it had just been released. And I was like, it was like literally like in the town, just outside or whatever the town that we were staying in. Yeah, yeah. Valerie, you know what I'm talking about?

SPEAKER_04 30:40

Yeah, that's the um Route 66 Neon Park in St. Robert, Missouri. Um, they just um launched it last year. I think like I remember that because I think you were there like a week or two before they like officially did the first lighting and stuff. So they took all these old signs from Missouri, Route 66, that like were either in private collections or they were like just somewhere um and they took them all, they restored them all, put them up, and now every night you can go and see them glowing all in one place. It's really cool.

Building The Route 66 Roadmap Tool

SPEAKER_03 31:10

I I will say I think I think they they did actually move it too far away because I would have liked more light in Uranus just saying, but oh boy. There it is. You went there, Josh, not me. You went there, mate, not me. So Josh, should we should we should we just should we pump? Should we pump Valerie now for for those six things? We want we want six words from that.

SPEAKER_00 31:30

We're gonna challenge you, Valerie. Challenge. We're gonna challenge you. Route 66, 100 years. We're we're challenging you to share with us six lesser known Route 66 attractions that deserve way more love. Like you, you you you got the spreadsheet. Yeah, I'm hoping you go you went through all 1600 plus six of them. We don't we you know it would have been made sense to do 66, but then we don't have that kind of time. Um that would take a while. Um, and so here's the here's the challenge. We I want to know sixth lesser known. We'll we'll have a conversation about each one. Um, where is it? What do you what makes it special and why should people stop there? Are you up? Are you up for the challenge, Melanie?

SPEAKER_04 32:14

I think so. Uh it's a little hard because like I feel like there's things that like I I do a lot of stuff, so I feel like everything, everyone knows everything, but like then I find out like nobody knows any of these places. Like a lot of people don't know a lot of these places. So um I have so yeah, I I think I have some to show.

SPEAKER_00 32:33

Okay, give us number one. What's number one?

SPEAKER_04 32:35

Yeah. So I for number one, I'm just gonna kind of start with a kind of category and break it down. Okay. Um, because one of my favorite types of roadside attraction is the muffler man, which are these big fiberglass men that uh were created in the 60s and 70s to um showcase different businesses. Um and for a long time on Route 66, there were like some really well-known ones, like there's the Gemini Giant in uh in Illinois, there's the hot dog man, and even like newer ones like Buck Adams. But over the last few years, like these have exploded across Route 66. Like just uh this year or last year, um, there's two new ones in Granite City, Illinois. Like there's now like six in Tulsa, there's a bunch in Atlanta, Illinois, and there's just a ton of these muffler men that are just growing and growing across the route. So I think people know about the big ones, but they might not know about some of these new ones and these smaller ones that are popping up. And I think people should seek them all out.

SPEAKER_03 33:39

And Josh, what you you've actually had your photo taken with one of these as well in Uranus.

SPEAKER_00 33:45

Is that one of the muffler man or the the mayor of Uranus? Is he a muffler man?

SPEAKER_04 33:50

That's a muffler man. So there's two different types. There's ones that were original to the 60s and 70s, um, and then there's um a guy out of um Virginia, um Mark Klein, who creates new ones. And so the one in Uranus is a new one that's been created.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 34:06

Um, so there's kind of a mix on there that some of them are these new ones that they're creating, and some of them are refurbished old ones. Like one of the ones that just came up in Tulsa is an older one that um that had has been brought back to life. Um, while there's other ones that are brand new.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

You know what I love about that, Craig? You know, as geocachers, we love checking off boxes. Oh, yeah. We love finding them all. Uh gotta catch them all kind of thing. So I'm hoping, Valerie, somewhere you've got a list, a checklist, a checklist that people can can find all of them.

SPEAKER_04 34:46

I do have a full list of uh of those. And I found like over the last year I've had to keep going back and editing it because they keep popping up new ones. So uh hopefully there'll be even more some new ones in the future.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

All right. Craig?

Geocaching Tie-Ins And Trip Planning

SPEAKER_03 35:01

Yes, that was a good one. That was a good one. And um, Josh, I've gone down a little rabbit hole myself. I'm looking up these ones. Um yeah, I I looked at the Gemini one as well. He's he's he's actually holding, he's got like an old school space helmet on, and he's holding like a launching pad rocket in his hand. So predominantly these muffler men, Josh, they're actually holding something uh where their right hand is facing upwards and the left hand is facing downwards, and they're predominantly holding something uh in most cases. You know, one's holding an axe, for instance, another one's holding, you know, a muffler or a pipe. Uh and this one's just so happens to be holding uh a rocket or a bomb or something. So there you go.

SPEAKER_00 35:38

Very good. You know what, Craig? We're getting ideas for our March Madness uh I know our roadside attraction march madness, which is happening next uh next month. So these are these are these could be entries, Craig.

SPEAKER_03 35:49

Absolutely, absolutely. So Valerie number two.

SPEAKER_00 35:53

Number two.

SPEAKER_04 35:55

All right, number two, number two. Um there are a lot of really great diners and restaurants across Route 66, because like you know, I love uh giant roadside attractions, but I love to eat just as much. So I love seeking out those. Um and one of my favorite is a diner called College Street Cafe in Springfield, Missouri. Um, it's just this kind of a small little restaurant, uh red and white on the um outside, and they have a really affordable um early bird special. Love it. It's like six dollars for you know, like everything you want out of a plate. Um and the people there um are just like so friendly. Like I walked in, um, they're like, hey, welcome, come take a seat. Um and the last time I was there, some random couple actually just paid for my breakfast out of nowhere. So it just um it just was a very fun, beautiful, nice place to be. So um I think it's a great little cafe that I think people should check out and spiritually.

SPEAKER_00 36:54

I'm looking at pictures right now.

SPEAKER_03 36:56

Me too.

SPEAKER_00 36:56

It is so it is so cute. It's just adorable.

SPEAKER_02 37:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:01

Uh red and white checkered. And there's there's a a little, not a little, well, not a little old lady, but there's a little lady uh behind the counter and looks like she's making some pies. This is this is adorable.

SPEAKER_03 37:14

See, Josh, when I see an old school cafe like this too, you always know it's old school cafe when they've got the Coca-Cola sign with the old school Coca-Cola logo, and then it's like a Coca-Cola clock as well, you know, that sort of thing, too. Like they don't make things like they used to, Josh.

SPEAKER_00 37:28

Yes, this is just a cute little building, too. It really is. All right, good one. Yeah, I like the variety here, Valerie. This is good.

SPEAKER_04 37:35

Yeah, I was trying to like I was trying to find a variety of things.

SPEAKER_00 37:39

I love it. Smart. All right, what's number three? Next up, number three.

Where To Follow Val And Closing

SPEAKER_04 37:42

All right, so speaking of variety then, uh, I think one of the most well-known motels on Route 66 is called the Blue Swallow Motel in um Chukumcare, New Mexico, and it's got this beautiful, um, beautiful uh neon sign that um I think most people would recognize. If you think of a Route 66, you'd probably see that. Um, but right across the street, there's another really cool hotel. Um, and that is called Motel Safari. Um and it's a really it's kind of more of that like kind of retro vibe with like the GUI architecture and um that and they're they are renovated really nice and it's a really nice place to stay. And um, and so I think like if you're looking for to stay in uh Tucum Carrie, like Blue Swallow is amazing, but if that no vacancy sign is on, um that's another great place there to stay as well.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

Looking at pictures here. This is so this is so Route 66.

SPEAKER_03 38:40

It's classic Route 66, like cool. I love I love these old school signs, Josh, as well, when they say things like you know, squeaky, clean, comfy beds and uh Route 66 radio on hand, color TV. Yeah, color TV is the best. Color TV is the best.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

They used to add like free HBO.

SPEAKER_04 39:00

Yeah, uh the the blue swallow one says um 100% refrigerated air, I think. You get your refrigerated air.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

Um Val, this will be kind of fun if for you to know. One of my patrons, uh his name is Rich. Uh, I think it's Rich Havlick. He recently, I think, retired and he went down, he loves Route 66. He went and bought a hotel. He bought a motel on Route 66. This is his like retirement plan. And he's a really Craig, I don't know if you know this, he's a really prolific geocacher. And so he's going to make one of the rooms, one of the rooms a geocache.

SPEAKER_03 39:39

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

That's amazing. We need to have him on, Craig.

SPEAKER_03 39:44

We do, and then we need to stay there, Josh.

SPEAKER_00 39:47

Oh, yes, for sure. And I think he's gonna make it, I think his plan is to make it like kind of like an escape room kind of a hotel room. Yeah. Um doesn't that sound cool? Valerie, that might be your first geocache. Would that be cool if that was your first geocache?

SPEAKER_04 40:00

I guess. Uh I'll check it out definitely.

SPEAKER_00 40:04

It checks the boxes for Valerie, for sure. All right. All right, we're going into number four.

SPEAKER_04 40:12

All right, number four is one of my favorite, just like what is this roadside attractions? And that is um in Lincoln, Illinois. It is the Abraham Lincoln Watermelon Monument. Um, and it is just a metal slice of watermelon that's dedicated to Abraham Lincoln. Um, because Lincoln, Illinois, I think it was the first city named after Lincoln that before he was president. And at one point he like christened it with a watermelon. And um, so they they have this little like watermelon. Um, I think in Lincoln, Illinois, you can also find like another uh giant um covered wagon that's like again a book of world records giant wagon with a Lincoln on it, and that's a really popular one. But this one's kind of a little more like I don't know if everybody knows that you can also go see a watermelon.

SPEAKER_00 41:04

Oh my gosh. Again, Josh. That's really random. That's so random.

SPEAKER_03 41:10

And and it's one of those things where we talk about the the big things in America, uh, Valerie, as well. But this one here is not actually that big. If you didn't know it was there, you wouldn't know what it's about. I mean, there is there is like a historical market nearby and stuff as well that talks about it. It talks about the history behind it as well, like on a on a plaque. But it literally is the size of a piece of watermelon, like sitting on a block of concrete.

SPEAKER_00 41:34

Yeah, it's not even like big, it's like actual size of a watermelon.

SPEAKER_03 41:37

Yeah, like an actual watermelon. So wow.

unknown 41:40

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

Val, is this in the same place where I think you featured on one of your videos recently of the Abraham Lincoln and the stagecoach? Is that the same? Is that the same city?

SPEAKER_04 41:50

Yeah, it's in the same town. So yeah, you will uh find both of those and go check them out. There's a lot of a lot of Lincoln-related attractions in that area.

SPEAKER_00 41:59

Wow. So a watermelon monument dedicated to Abraham Lincoln. That's that's a rant, that's random. That's good. And uh, you know what, Craig? I've never heard of it. That that could be an entry for roadside attraction march madness for sure, just out of the sheer randomness of it.

SPEAKER_03 42:17

This is true. Number five, Valerie.

SPEAKER_04 42:21

All right, number five. Um, so in Arcadia, Oklahoma, I think there's a few places that people really know about. There's the Pops Soda Ranch, which has a giant uh lit-up soda bottle and like a bunch of random sodas. Um, and there's Arcadia Round Barn, which uh a lot of people know about. Um but there's also another attraction called OK County 66, um, also John's place. And it's a little harder to find, like as you're driving, like the entrance you can't really see as well. And it's a little further off the road. So driving by, you might miss it. But this guy like turned his property into just a love letter to Route 66. He created all these miniature versions of different uh attractions. So you'll find like a little blue whale, you'll find little um cars from like Cadillac Ranch, you'll find um like twin arrows and stuff. So he recreated all this stuff. Um, you can find kind of like little mini versions of Route 66 all in one place.

SPEAKER_03 43:16

Little little aliens too, Josh, I see.

SPEAKER_00 43:19

Yes, it's so funny because I looked it up, Valerie, and what came up at your website? And it's standing in front of it, uh in a dress, but it certainly matches the attraction. Um yeah, I love these, gosh, I love these quirky little places where like you can tell that have slowly been built over the years, almost like like folk art, and then they open it up for the for the public to see. I love these kind of places. Yep. And there's like a car coming out of the building. Did you mention that?

SPEAKER_04 43:49

Like Oh no, yeah, yeah, there's a car that's up there, and um, and then there's like a kind of museum inside too, with all kinds of different things.

SPEAKER_00 43:57

Wow. Okay. That's That's an that's a whole nother like categor category. It's it's not a statue, it's just like a a place that's random.

SPEAKER_03 44:07

It's not really a would it be museum? Would it be like class as a maybe, maybe like a route sixty six but an unofficial route sixty six museum? Because if John is the one creating, he's a caretaker and curator of this, you know. If he tries to do everything on a smaller scale, then technically class as a museum, you know. Uh you know, could be a a man-made museum.

SPEAKER_00 44:29

Yes, I like it.

SPEAKER_03 44:30

All right. Last last one, Valerie, number six. Number six.

SPEAKER_04 44:33

All right, um, number six. So uh I feel like this one, it might be a little bit more well known, but I also feel like one, it's in California, which people don't people tend to forget about California except for like the end. And it's also, I think, one of my absolute favorite places that people just don't talk about enough. And that is um Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch in California. And it is um this man created this kind of forest of trees made out of different colored bottles, like blue and green bottles and stuff. You can kind of walk through it. It's such like a beautiful, serene moment in the middle of like the chaos of driving in California. Um, and it is just one of my absolute favorite places, and I don't think um it gets cocked about quite enough. So I I think it qualifies as uh not as well known.

SPEAKER_03 45:25

It this Josh, this definitely qualifies in my mind looking at photos. This uh oh wow Valerie, you've come through with the goods for this one, I tell you. You've saved it to me, you say the best of the last.

SPEAKER_00 45:36

Yeah, it's very colorful. It kind of reminds me of uh Craig that on roadside attraction March Madness was the win the windmills place where it was like all those like random windmills going that were going in all different directions in the middle of the town square or whatever. Yeah, obviously these bottles don't move, but it has that same kind of thing. Um and of course, yes, there's pictures of you on the internet. Um Valerie, you pop up on all this stuff, you have been everywhere. In the words of uh John or Johnny Cash, you've been everywhere, at least on Route 66.

SPEAKER_04 46:12

I try, I try.

SPEAKER_03 46:14

I love it. Thank you so much, Valerie. That that that was fair, yeah. To me, as I said, the last one, the Elma's Elmer's bottle tree ranch. That's that's number one for me, Josh. What do you think?

SPEAKER_00 46:24

Yeah, I think if if I had to choose any of these, I think I that would be my number one. Yeah, based on the pictures, it really is cool. That's great, Valerie. You she met the challenge. Congratulations. Well, well done. I knew you would I knew if anybody could do it, it'd be you. Um tell us a little bit about this project that you just brought up, about uh sort of this guide, this uh this website dedicated to Route 66, and like how can people use it? What is it? Give us a little bit more information about this.

SPEAKER_04 46:53

Yeah, definitely. So yeah, I've been um posting on websites and on social media under Silly America for so long, and I love visiting roadside attractions, but I always kind of felt like it was more inspirational, like you can see cool places and stuff, but I really wanted to kind of work on something that somebody could actually use to plan a trip like I do. Um, so I um I'd been planning spending a lot of time traveling Route 66, and it's a great, you know, it's definitely a road trip with a set route. There's beginning and end, so it's a great place to kind of start and create something. Um, so I built uh route66roadmap.com and it has um right now about 450 different Route 66 attractions, and I'm gonna keep growing it till it's all 1600 plus. Um but you can go, I have them sorted out so like you can go to the website and you can you know explore things by the type of attraction, by the state, um, and you can even create an account so you can bookmark things and stuff, so you can kind of create like a little mini itinerary for yourself to remember everything that you want to visit.

SPEAKER_00 47:59

Wow, that's a really great tool.

SPEAKER_03 48:02

It just goes to show with technology. Okay, so here we go. Valerie, we spoke to you what, two, two and a half years ago, and you just featured then uh when we we spoke about a book that you were doing as well. And so, you know, we promoted the the book that you have, and now you've gone from book to digital version. Um root66roadmap.com. Of course, links are gonna be in the description as well. But I see it it it looks really well planned out. Did you do this like the whole thing? Wow, wow. I like it. I like it.

SPEAKER_00 48:31

Josh, have you seen the have you seen the the actual website? I'm pulling it up right now. Yeah, you do such you have a great uh eye for aesthetics. Uh this is this is a beautiful website. I'm really excited to like just go through it and just kind of explore it. And and I really think it's neat that you're giving people a tool. Yeah, it's one thing to like, you know, you're posting pictures on Silly America, but it's like yeah, it's kind of like where is she now? Sort of thing, where this is a little bit more of something that people could be like, oh go through it and go, oh, we gotta stop there, we gotta stop there. That's really neat.

SPEAKER_03 49:07

One thing I like, one thing I like about sorry Josh is that uh in here you've got like you know, road 66 attractions by state. So you've got Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, but then you've got by type. So an actual if if I'm a person, I'm I'm like, I don't mean it doesn't matter where I am, but I want to focus on museums, for instance. You've got roadside attractions, you've got museums, accommodation, dining, shopping, like all that is in there separately by type, Josh, as well.

SPEAKER_00 49:29

Yes, that's great. And then you have looks like you have special blog posts dedicated to different ones too.

SPEAKER_03 49:36

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 49:36

I've seen the original McDonald's and museum. I didn't know it was a museum. That's cool.

SPEAKER_03 49:41

And and Josh, you know our listeners, most of them are geocaching people sort of style, and we love our planning. Road trip planning is on there as well with everything when it comes to road trip, with maps, where to stay, inspiration, history, landmarks, a lot, Josh. So you can actually do your own road trip planning on this too. So get out, have a look at it. Road route66roadmap.com. As I said, links are in the description, and uh and have a play around and and thank Valerie for what she does to the uh to the community in general.

SPEAKER_00 50:09

It's a free resource, right, Valerie? Yes. That's amazing. Yes, you can that's amazing.

SPEAKER_03 50:15

Surely, Valerie, you've got to monetize this somehow, somewhere, because you've done a lot of things.

SPEAKER_04 50:20

Um I I actually do sell my 1600 uh spreadsheet with 1600 stocks too. So it's the 400 that's on there too. There's a um on the website, there's a spot for uh the Route 66 uh road trip planning toolkit, which is the spreadsheet that I actually use to plan all my road trips. So I'm planning a bunch of road trips this year, and it's actually the way that I plan it out. So you can get all of those in a spreadsheet.

SPEAKER_03 50:46

What I'm gonna say, Josh, is if you're gonna use this uh at all, you have to, you have to purchase that spreadsheet as a minimum. Um, because there's a lot of work's going to this uh this website, Valerie. It's a beautiful looking website too. So absolutely gorgeous.

SPEAKER_00 51:00

And we know we've done a show about um Valerie, there is uh a certain kind of geocache called Adventure Labs. And so these are these are actually these are actually virtual locations where you go to the location and it'll ask you a question about the location, and then you put the answer in, and then when you get the answer right, it gets a you get a fine for your geocaching account. And there's there's it's all along Route 66. So there's a lot of geocachers out there, a lot of people that are geocachers listening to our show that um want to plan a trip like this, but then this is like this will give you more like okay, where do I stop? Especially if you have a limited amount of time. Yeah, it's like how you're like, how do I prioritize where I want to stop? Um, so this is a great resource for that as well.

SPEAKER_03 51:41

Josh, and I see so many, so many places just on the even the front page, Josh too, uh in Arizona. They've got you know Winslow, Arizona standing on the corner where we stood that time, Josh, as well, and took photos on the corner there as well. It's a virtual cache right there. On that corner is an actual virtual cache too. So yeah, uh there is the the whale there, Josh 2, in Oklahoma is on there. So if you haven't seen the whale, Josh, then at least see it online. I'm rubbing, I'm rubbing it in, mate. I'm rubbing it in.

SPEAKER_00 52:09

Um, Valerie, before we go, is there anything else you would like to share? And and of course, you please share everywhere people can find you, of course. But is there anything else that you would like to talk about? We've talked about your book, which is uh a journal for road trips. We've talked about this new website. Of course, there's Silly America. Is there anything else you people should know about that you're working on or doing?

SPEAKER_04 52:30

Um, just you know, it's the Route 66 Centennial. I'm gonna be traveling a lot. I hope everybody else is. And even if they can't um travel Route 66 this year, there's you know, at least a hundred more years of it to go, hopefully. So um plan the road trips there. Um and if you want to follow along with me, um I'm on Instagram at both Silly America and Route 66 Roadmap. Um, and then I'm on TikTok and YouTube as road triproadmap. Um, and then you can find sillyamerica.com or root sixty sixroadmap.com.

SPEAKER_00 53:03

Very cool. And if there's any year to follow Valerie, this is the year. Oh, yeah. Every day, Craig, there's something new. And it's really, it's very educational. Like she really goes into depth about the history of it. Really well done. I commend you. I wish you luck because you know, as it goes with people that are trying to post consistent content, life sometimes gets in the way. So I really hope, I really hope you can stay ahead of it and uh and get something out every single day. I hope so too.

SPEAKER_03 53:32

And and I will say, Valerie, safe travels in your travel. Travel safely, please. Uh, you know, and and we want to see all the content, you know. And as you said before, if you if people are sitting back and they can't be out there seeing it, at least they can live vicariously through your travels too. So absolutely safe, safe travels to you, Valerie.

SPEAKER_00 53:48

Yes, Valerie, thank you so much for being on our show. You are one of our favorite guests, and we will have you on again. I mean, we could we could we could talk every week every time to Valerie. I mean, she she is the she is the the knowledge, she's the library for our show.

SPEAKER_03 54:04

Well, Josh, we may we may or may not like leak something to our patrons very, very soon in the next week or two. Maybe uh we may may leak something to them, to the patrons. Uh Josh, if if the patrons want to be in that that link, do they want to be leaked to something, then how can people join up and become a patron, Josh?

SPEAKER_00 54:21

Yes, they can get golden nuggets. Like we got a real golden nugget last time. And uh please consider supporting us. If you enjoy our podcast, help us create even better content, have great guests like Valerie, more golden nuggets, as Craig is currently showing on the screen right now. Um, no commercials. This podcast is completely listener supported. So please consider joining us at our Patreon site, which is at patreon.com backslash treasures of our town.

SPEAKER_03 54:49

Otherwise, Josh, how can everyone else in the world uh contact us if they wish to contact us from there?

SPEAKER_00 54:54

Yes, feel free to reach out to us at treasures of our town podcast at gmail.com, or you can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, X, and our Buzz Sprouts site.

SPEAKER_03 55:03

But before we go over today, Josh, I think Valerie, I think she's very proud of her website, isn't she?

SPEAKER_00 55:08

Oh my gosh, she's so proud of like proud of her town. I mean, I think you Valerie, you live in Texas, right? You live in Texas, I I do live in Texas, yeah. So even though, you know, I I bet even though she travels the world and travels Route 66, I bet she's also proud of her own town, don't you think? And that's a rare thing these days. You're welcome. Thank you so much, Craig.

SPEAKER_03 55:28

I know, Josh. So that's it for our show today. Please subscribe, rate review on your favorite podcast game. And as always, Josh.

SPEAKER_00 55:34

May your travels always lead you to the most unexpected and amazing hidden gems on Route 66 and beyond. See you next time, everybody. Thanks, Val. Thank you, Val.