The historic Route 66 also known as the ‘mother road’ will celebrate its 84th anniversary at the Santa Monica pier on November 11. Everyone is invited to join in this special birthday celebration which includes meeting several well known Route 66 Artists and authors at the Central Plaza area on the Santa Monica Pier.

Tentative Event Schedule ( Courtesy: Route 66 News)

8:30 to 9 a.m. – Veterans Day recognition ceremony
9 to 9:30 a.m. – Classic car caravan arrives (140 vintage automobiles are scheduled)
9:30 to 10 a.m. – speeches
10 a.m. to 1 p.m. – Authors and artists event
10 a.m. to 4 p.m. – Car show begins
11:11 a.m. – Gumpathon runners finish transcontinental run across the USA
11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. – Interview of Gumpathon finishers
1 to 3 p.m. – Route 66 “Legends” Series begins (onstage interviews with various Route 66 icons)
3 to 4 p.m. – Route 66 car show awards onstage
4 p.m. – Route 66 birthday event concludes

On November 11, 2010, Dan Rice’s newly launched autobiography “End of the Trail” will be also be available for purchase/ book signing at the 84th anniversary celebration of Route 66 at the Santa Monica Pier between 9 am to 12 pm.

End of the Trail is an autobiographical account of Route 66 enthusiast Dan Rice’s eight-year struggle with traumatic brain injury. His Hollywood life and high-paced track to a Ph.D. in Psychology was abruptly derailed in 2002 when he suffered severe brain injuries in a near-fatal car accident. A long and painful road to recovery began only after a desperate period of depression, anger, sadness, insomnia and an increasing inability to understand the world around him. The book, written about the accident and struggle to recovery is told from the vantage point of Route 66, intertwining Rice’s journey to recovery with his lifelong passion for the historic Mother Road that is in its own struggle for survival.

U.S. Route 66 (also known as the Will Rogers Highway after the humorist, and colloquially known as the “Main Street of America” or the “Mother Road”) was a highway in the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926. However, road signs did not go up until the following year.The famous highway originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles, covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km). Read More about Route 66.