March 2026.
Albuquerque, New Mexico.

It is the 100th anniversary of the Mother Road, Route 66—the legendary highway that “winds from Chicago to L.A.” Bobby Troup wrote the song “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” in 1946. Coincidentally, that same year, a small gas station called Sam’s Sixty Six Service opened on a downtown Albuquerque lot. It later expanded into a full‑service garage and continued operating until 1987, two years after Route 66 was officially decommissioned. With the centennial of Route 66 approaching, it’s neat to see how the diner keeps that history alive. Today, visitors can still see many of its original elements; for example, one whole section of the dining room occupies what was once the garage bay.

During a family visit to Albuquerque, we drove down Central Avenue—an original stretch of Route 66—to stop at the diner. Tom and Christy Willis, longtime Albuquerque residents, purchased and reimagined the property. In 1995, they oversaw a complete rebuild after a catastrophic fire, ensuring the diner remained both a local fixture and a destination for travelers. The business remains family-owned and operated, preserving the original atmosphere.

Next door, a wall of signs displays vintage road and advertising signs from the highway’s busier years. I had trouble getting a clean shot of the display because the place was extremely busy—people stopped to study the signs, lingered long, and new visitors walked up just as others were leaving. After dinner, I finally caught a moment when the wall was clear and photographed it without anyone in the way.

As we walked back to our car, we noticed several car bumpers rising vertically from the small rock garden near the restaurant’s employee entrance. The display made me smile when I spotted the sign—whoever Jim is, he’s cultivated a fine crop of bumpers in his garden.

Walking inside, my first impression was unmistakably that of a 1950s diner. The long counter is lined with classic blue-upholstered stools, though on the day of our visit, most people gravitated toward the booths in the front area or the tables in the former garage bay.

Highlighted by 1950s memorabilia on the walls, the large bay still hides a lift from the original garage buried beneath the tiles. High on the wall above the window, a shelf displays a collection of Giant PEZ dispensers—one of the two PEZ collections found throughout the restaurant.

We enjoyed our 1950s‑era comfort food in a booth across from the other dispenser collection. Unlike the giant dispensers in the adjacent room, these were fully functional—featuring the original style of character heads paired with the fruit‑flavored candy that helped move PEZ from adult mints to several decades of kid‑friendly popularity.

The large 8‑ to 12‑inch (20-30 cm) Giant PEZ dispensers are sometimes nicknamed “PEZ safes” by collectors because the candy is stored in the base, even though the head isn’t mechanically connected. Their popularity surged in the 1980s—right around the time the 66 Diner opened (1987)—but today they’re more of a collector’s hobby or a nostalgic novelty.

When we left the diner, we enjoyed another trip down Route 66—Central Avenue—on our way back to our “loft” for the evening. The drive is a mini–road trip all its own, lined with tributes to the Mother Road and 1950s‑era signage, much of it original but repainted or repurposed for the businesses it now represents. While many celebrations occurred in April to mark the assignment of the Route 66 number, the official federal designation followed in November. With that anniversary coming up, it was a perfect excuse to stop by one of Albuquerque’s original Route 66 landmarks.

About the photos: This post could easily have been a “Cellpic Sunday” entry, since I captured all images with my Samsung S25 Ultra using the Expert RAW app. However, a tribute to the Mother Road and its namesake diner belongs here as a Tuesday Trek. The two exterior shots of the diner required a visit to Adobe Photoshop, where Generative Fill and the Distraction Removal tool helped eliminate the people and cars in the parking lot. I processed all remaining images in Adobe Lightroom Classic without AI tools. The Flickr gallery here showcases these photos in 2K HD, along with each image’s metadata. I have several posts featuring our travels along sections of Route 66, and you can find them here.

Lynn and I are traveling for the next couple of weeks. Feel free to comment, but I may not be able to respond as quickly as usual.

John Steiner.