Bob Waldmire

Robert Waldmire (April 19, 1945 – December 16, 2009) was an American artist and cartographer who is well known for his artwork of U.S. Route 66, including whimsical maps of the Mother Road and its human and natural ecology.

[2] Waldmire was a well-known snowbird, spending his winter months in Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains in a self-sufficient home of his own design.

During the summer, he travelled the country, but based himself in his native Central Illinois, living in a converted Chevrolet school bus near Springfield.

[4] The 1934 store, originally the Northside Grocery[5] and Conoco station, had been closed and vacant since 1978[6] after Interstate 40 in Arizona bypassed the town (on 66) and left it stranded fifteen miles away from the very different route taken by I-40.

[2] One of Waldmire's modified vehicles, an orange 1972 Volkswagen Microbus, was the inspiration for the character "Fillmore" from the 2006 animated motion picture Cars.

[14] His trademark van and bus are now displayed in the Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum in Pontiac, Illinois.

[15] In an interview published by Jay Crim on Youtube in 2013, Robert Waldmire, details aspects of his life in relation to Route 66 through a series of questions.

Waldmire grew up on Route 66 but did not find a connection to it until he drove on the road from Arizona to Illinois in the fall of 1987.

As a travelling map-making artist, he thought of the idea to draw a map of old route 66 because he was inspired by his trip.

Waldmire had an initial exposure to Route 66 because his dad built his main restaurant on the south edge of Springfield which was close to 66.

He detailed the rush that would go on in the kitchen as they drew up drinks ahead of time, loaded the grill with hamburgers, and filled the fryers with racks of cozy dogs and baskets of French fries.

(1) Waldmire detailed his nostalgia for Route 66 and expressed his appreciation for old items from the past that have not yet been destroyed or painted over.

His road as an artist started as he made flyers for Route 66 and passed them out to neighboring businesses to promote the history.

Additionally, as his audience grew larger, his objective was to produce a diversification of cars that he was representing in his art on Route 66.