Tulsa, OK – The countdown to the centennial of Route 66 is on and Tulsa will be at the epicenter of the celebrations beginning this month. AAA of Oklahoma is hosting an historic festival celebrating the Mother Road called the AAA Route 66 Road Fest.  This three-day Road Fest has something for all ages with a classic car show, a vintage RV park, music, children’s art activities, entertainers, miniature golf, a Pinewood Derby, virtual reality and more than 100 vendors.

It’s a true celebration of the history and rich culture of Route 66 with entertaining and interactive activities for history lovers, car buffs and families.

The main attraction is a one-of-a-kind immersive exhibit called The Journey that takes visitors back 100 years in time. It begins in the 1920s and continues through today and into the future. As visitors meander through the decades, they’ll listen to radio and TV shows from the era, touch period automobiles and other artifacts, interact with actors portraying characters from the route’s history, look at historical photos, and read about gangsters and other colorful characters.

The team that created the exhibits constructed the 3-D buildout for The Journey to fully immerse visitors in the experience of cruising on the iconic road through the decades and learning about the actual stories that happened along the way.

The event is set for Friday, June 23 from 5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., Saturday, June 24 from 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and Sunday, June 25 from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. in the SageNet Center at Expo Square.

Tulsa is considered the ‘Capital of Route 66’ because Tulsan Cyrus Avery helped create the road as part of the federal highway system in 1926. It quickly became a popular route stretching 2,448 miles from Chicago through St. Louis and ending up in Los Angeles. Store owners in towns along the highway saw it as a chance to attract new business and customers to their communities.  Route 66 winds on 400 miles through Oklahoma, more than any other state in the country.