Have you checked out some of the Route 66 websites? Tons of memories there! Motels with “deluxe cabins” available, some of them “teepees,” heh heh, and real “service stations” with attendants in uniforms, perhaps some free glassware with a fill-up, and Burma-Shave signs!
We bugged our mother to please, please PLEASE can we stop?
When we got there, some old guy guided us knobby kneed Eastern kids out back, up some wooden stairs that led to a circular pen or corral that we looked down into.
In the middle of this .. ohhh, maybe 30 or 40 foot corral .. was a pool of muddy water about 10 or 15 ft across .. and in it was a fairly large crocidile or alligater or something that did NOT resemble the pictures on the signs we passed on the road.
I think we were charged a dime or something for this experience.
I came away with a memory and a cheap wooden tomahawk (probably 'made in Japan').