Bob Waldmire was a legend in his own time. The traveling artist became a beloved part of the Route 66 family from his embrace of it in the late 1980s until his passing in 2009. Among his many works and contributions to the highway and its people, Bob painted a mural on a small U-Haul truck that the Oklahoma Route 66 Association is committed to preserving.
The small Toyota moving van was always intended to be a fundraiser and a traveling icon. With the help of Tulsans Ken & Marian Clark, Bob purchased it in May 2007 from a U-Haul office on Route 66 in Springfield, Illinois and set to work. Bob drove it to his winter home in Portal, Arizona and back to Illinois and finished the mural the next year. Unfortunately, Bob passed away before he could sell it.
The truck, which was still technically owned by Ken & Marian Clark, was gifted to the National Route 66 Museum and Transportation Museum in Elk City, Oklahoma. It was never put on display, as the museum didn’t have room for such a large artifact. It simply sat in the city maintenance yard. A deal was made and the truck was given to Laurel Kane and the Afton Station Packard museum in Afton, Oklahoma. It arrived at its new home in 2012 where travelers from around the world would get to see Bob’s work.
Arriving in Afton in July 2012 – photo courtesy of Laurel Kane’s blog.
Laurel herself passed away tragically in 2016, putting the future of the museum in question. It continued operating under her ex-husband, David, for a time but when he died in 2018 that was the end of the road for the station. An auction of all contents was set for June 29th, 2019. The Oklahoma Route 66 Association was in attendance, hoping to secure some of the artifacts to preserve Laurel’s legacy. Alas, other pockets were deeper...including representatives from Barrett-Jackson auctions out of Arizona. The Association left empty-handed.
Two months later, a surprise phone call came into Association headquarters: Bob Waldmire’s U-Haul Truck was available.
The person that had purchased it at auction backed out of the deal and the auction company wanted to get rid of the truck. The Association had made it known that if any of the sales fell through, they were interested. Sylvie Kane, David’s widow, paid for half of the truck as a donation to the Association. After some discussion, the Association had it towed to Chelsea, Oklahoma where it was put on display for travelers next to their Pedestrian Underpass.
The U-Haul at Afton Station.
Arriving in Chelsea in late 2019.
The Association still wanted to return the truck to working order so that it could fulfill its original purpose and become a traveling landmark and mobile museum. In the summer of 2025, the truck (which had been sitting for more than fifteen years) was towed to a shop in Claremore for a full assessment. It would cost about $20,000 to return the vehicle to road-worthy status and five times that to build out a professional interpretive experience in the back. A grant request to the state’s Oklahoma Route 66 Revitalization Grant was not awarded and the Association was not sure how best to raise the money needed for the project.
That’s when the Francis Tuttle Technology Center came calling. Clint Drabek, an instructor at the school, attended an Association meeting in January 2026; he pitched restoring the truck as a student project and the budget fit within a donation that the Association received from Cycle 66 several months prior. The Association reached out to LD’s Wrecker in Chandler, who had been a member essentially since the Association was founded, and the stars aligned. On February 25th, Bob’s truck made the journey from Claremore to Oklahoma City.
But it wasn’t a straight shot - it made a few stops, including at one of Bob’s favorite haunts: the Rock Cafe in Stroud. Bud the driver and Beverly Thomas, manager, sat and had a chat at Bob’s booth where his artwork is still displayed today.
MORE TO COME as this project progresses…