Forty miles north, artist Robert Ryan, 61, stopped to inspect a detail in the mural he’s painting on a storage building along ...

Situated along Route 66, Amboy, Calif. once boasted 200 residents, three gas stations, three motels, two cafes, a post office, a school and a church. Now it’s a ghost town.

Rodriguez drove Route 66 from St. Louis to Barstow, California, in 2015 after finishing a project at Fort Leonard Wood. And again in 2024. “I took seven days cruising Route 66.