Midpoint of Route 66

Adrian, Texas

The sign straddling the "geo-mathematical" Midpoint of Route 66 claims that it's 1,139 miles to either end, although that would vary depending on which "alignment" you follow -- and, of course, makes the Midpoint not the midpoint at all. But the usually fickle purists of the Mother Road have been mostly agreeable when it comes to the Midpoint, which has been at the same spot for decades. It has to be somewhere.

Across the road from the sign is the Midpoint Cafe. It opened in 1928, but wasn't named the Midpoint Cafe until 1995, when the owner, Fran Houser, received a call from the U.S. Route 66 Association, telling her she was nuts not to name it the Midpoint Cafe. She put up a retro-style sign with the new name, and a Mother Road icon was born. Fran sold the Cafe in 2012, but not before the business attained immortality as "Flo's V-8 Cafe" in the Pixar film, "Cars." It has remained open, under various owners, off and on, ever since.

In 2014 a midpoint line was painted across the road in front of the sign. It gradually wore away, but was repainted in 2018.