As the week winds down it is with great anticipation we look toward the weekend. On Saturday there is the big Route 66 gathering in Flagstaff as well as the book signing at Barnes & Noble. It will be great to be able to put a face with the folks met through the Yahoo Route 66 egroup and seeing this legendary highway in this context, with lots of people cruising, taking in the sites, and savoring the adventure is like seeing it during its glory days in the 1950s.

In recent weeks the Route 66 Association of Kingman has lost a bit of its momentum and as a result the enthusiasm and excitement was waning. The current economic situation that manifested with the president of the association loosing his job, me having to postpone or cancel my planned Route 66 adventure, and other issues didn’t help.

With last nights planning session that all changed. The associations plan to line Kingman from west to east with murals depicting the areas rich history hit high gear with submission of a stunning proposal for a mural that chronicles the history of the Hualapai people from the beginning to the modern era as represented by the Grand Canyon Skywalk.

This is quite timely as we will be meeting with the director of Grand canyon West on Monday to solicit donations for the mural program. This will be followed by a meeting with the Hualapai tribal council in a couple of weeks to ensure accuracy of what is portrayed as well as to avoid offense and to get their endorsement.

An unrelated topic further reignited the optimism. The project manager for a major developer that builds malls, planned communities and such informed us that Kingman is the only one of 56 projects that is not on hold.

Then we learned that next weeks street drags and block party, one block north or Route 66, will be covered by the Speed Channel and ESPN. Wow!

Posting will be a bit tight for through the weekend as we will be in Flagstaff. So, after we return and relieve our son, who we are leaving in charge of the house and cats, I will post photos of the event as well as details.