Thank you for your interest in our e-newsletter!
Welcome to the Route 66 & Mother Road e-Newsletter. We provide a repository of information about the Mother Road, more commonly known as Route 66, as well as other historic roads that used to serve as “Mother” of other roads that we all travel and enjoy.
We invite you to browse through our newsletter website and blog to read through our articles, as well as a smattering of virtual video tours that covers The Road. Check back often as we are constantly adding new content to our e-Newsletter, or sign up and subscribe to be notified when we add new information that may interest you.
Who’s Behind the Route 66 e-Newsletter?
Our newsletter is the brainchild of several people that are passionate about promoting, preserving and idealizing The Road. These people have separate talents and together provide unmatched educational content about Route 66 and all things related.
We all like to use the expression, The Road, because there’s a lot more to historical Route 66 than a highway that crosses half of the United States. In our opinion, Route 66 exemplifies the American culture, landscape, history and its people. But this occurs not only on Route 66, but so many other scenic and historic roads. There were many roads that came before Route 66, such as the National Old Trails Highway that was largely replaced when Route 66 was commissioned in AD 1926.
James “Jim” Conkle
Some people like to refer to Jim as “Mr. Serendipity of Route 66”. Jim is responsible for spearheading the Route 66 e-Newsletter and bringing it to life. Over the past 7 decades, Jim has been involved with Route 66 in one way or another. Naturally, Jim has gained a lot of friends and contacts over that time span. From his contacts, he has gathered together the various talents that work together to bring you quality information about The Road.
Jim claims he has traveled Route 66 about 200 times. You might find that hard to believe. But if you end up talking to him for a while and hear all his stories, you’ll wonder if it might be even more than 200 times.
For a number of years, Jim published the acclaimed Route 66 Pulse Newspaper. You may remember encountering this large-format newspaper available for free at many attractions across the length of Route 66. Many of the stories that were published in the newspaperwill be included in our e-Newsletter for you to enjoy.
As chief cheerleader for the e-Newsletter, Jim acts as both publisher, promoter and editor. He is the central nervous system of this website.
Learn more about Jim and his abilities at the Mother Road Enterprises website.
Cliff & Ilene Bandringa
Cliff, along with his wife Ilene, are the founders of BackRoadsWest.com. For the past 20 years, together, they have been roaming the back roads of the Southwestern USA in search of great scenery to photograph and write about.
Professionally under the name content-smith LLC, Cliff creates training videos and e-Lessons for commercial uses, whereas Ilene is a technical writer. After hours and using the BackRoadsWest.com name, both Cliff & Ilene create on-line travel guides and virtual video tours that visually shows the places they’ve visited. Ilene also sells their photography at her website SnapShotsWest.com.
Cliff’s love of old road history began when he was a child growing up in Burbank, California, in the early 1970s. Before he was old enough to drive, he was fascinated with driving the old roads, mainly Route 66 through Pasadena, and watched the old roads slowly turn to freeways. The communities and the buildings he saw as a child, he now sees as places to cherish and enjoy.
Lennord “Len” Nordmann
Our e-Newsletter wouldn’t be complete without Len’s unique, masterful and thoughtful artwork that focuses on Route 66 and the places it passes through.
As you browse through our e-Newsletter, you’ll see Len’s unique artwork dotting almost every webpage and post. Len’s specialty is drawing maps. Some maps are of a regions, such as an entire State, or could be as small as an attraction, such as his map of the Grand Canyon Caverns in Arizona.
