I just completed a 5,185 mille road trip - the mother road Route 66 from end to end and back. The original route was commissioned in 1926 and so this is the 100th anniversary. Most of the locations along the way took advantage of the centennial celebration and posted banners, erected signs and sculptures, and so on. Great fun.

My trip took 12 travel days plus a one day of side-trip, 7 days out and 5 back. I averaged about 400 miles per day and 27.4mpg. That mileage could have been better but with temperatures usually over 100°F, I would often leave the car - and the A/C - running for a few minutes while I took pictures. There was also absurd traffic once I got anywhere near Los Angeles. You sit there burning gas and not going anywhere.

My pace may sound exhausting and to some degree, it was. It's hard to imagine fully doing the route any faster than I did. I made a choice early on to NOT spend time in museums or engage as other time-consuming activities. Some looked very cool but there was a Rte. 66 museum in about every third town. I wanted to focus on the "driving the route" aspect, enjoying the neon signs, muffler men "giants", and the natural sights that most 66 travelers have enjoyed over the last 100 years. If you fully immerse in everything, you could easily spend a month or more on this trip. For instance, some of the original pavement is on private or reservation land and you need permission to hike - not drive - it. Many spurs lead to dead-ends at the edge of town, where they become impassable. So choices and compromises must be made for a practical trip. As it is I shortened my eastbound return trip by bypassing the stretches I had spent time on while westbound. No need to revisit everything. I did not take shortcuts though; even on the interstates I was always within a short distance to the old route, often a frontage road just across the ditch.

I'll post a few pictures here but if you want to see more, the full album of 727 photos is here: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B2eGqQrCLGre53f
Most are fairly self-explanatory but there a couple diversions that even the most devout Rte. 66 follower might not recognize. First, in the Chicago suburbs, is my old grade school. I was born and grew up within a mile of Rte. 66 and my grade school was literally next to it. Secondly, my mother was born (in 1926!) in Happy, TX which is a few miles south of Amarillo, which of course is on the route. Near her birthplace, which is now a wind farm, is the second largest canyon system in the U.S., Palo Duro Canyon national park.

If any reading this have questions or are considering making this epic journey, don't hesitate to ask.


Del Rhea's Chicken Basket just west of Chicago where the the highway starts to open up. I grew up about a mile north. That's me in the background with the chicken.


Wilmington, Illinois' Gemini Giant


One of many restored gas stations along the route, this one in Dwight, IL


There are scant few stretches of the original pavement still reachable. This one in Towanda, IL is now a walking path.


Carl and Large Marge at Carl's ice cream in Normal, IL


American Giants museum, Atlanta, IL


One of the Muffler Men, Saint Robert, MO


Springfield, MO


Inspiration for "Cars", Galena, KS


Tulsa, OK

 

Wayneh; what can I say? Wow, wow and WOW!
I will ask you more detailed questions later, right now the only one would be; in reality this road trip is as great as the near-mythical status it has?

 

I hope you got a chance to say hi to Freddie!

 

Wayneh; what can I say? Wow, wow and WOW!
I will ask you more detailed questions later, right now the only one would be; in reality this road trip is as great as the near-mythical status it has?

It was for me, but I'm sure it's not for everyone. I loved being on the road without reservations, a schedule or a plan. That would drive many people crazy.

 

I hope you got a chance to say hi to Freddie!

Freddy the German World Cup fan in Oklahoma City? If I saw him, I didn't know it. I did meet some English tourists doing the route. I don't know if it was part of their World Cup trip or a dedicated trip but they were having a great time.

 

Great pictures, hope the food was good too. I drove (with police officer friend) from Maryland to Arizona in 2014, in a (then) new Jeep. We stopped off at a lot of Route 66 stops, it was great fun, took about 5 days or so. We stumbled upon a few abandoned "towns" and they were eerie.

There's a lot to see, and you definitely saw more than I did.

 

Has something with this forum changed? My photos look darn good, if I do say so myself, and appear to be displayed with HDR. I've complained several times before, mostly in the "Picture this..." thread, that my photos were being degraded and losing their dynamic range. Today's posts look fine.

Here are a few more:

Outside the National Cowboy Museum, OK City


Billboards advertise this place for hundreds of miles. If you can eat the 72oz steak dinner with the trimmings in an hour, it's free! There was a time I might have given it a shot. I'm wiser now.


The old Pained Desert Inn, now a visitor center, Petrified Forest National Park


Jackrabbit, AZ. I saw mileage signs for this well over a thousand miles prior.


Mandatory stop


One of a few WigWam motels still operating, Rialto CA


Yours truly at the western terminus, Santa Monica pier. It used to be downtown, and I went there too, but they know it's more profitable to send tourists to the pier instead of what is now a skid row. Chicago moved the eastern terminus to Navy Pier this year for the same reasons.


I love the old neon. Return to Tulsa


I'm also a sucker for all the old restored gas stations. Mount Olive, IL

 

Are you familiar with Anthony Schmidt Photography? Anthony is a 17 year old kid with autism who uses forced perspective to place model cars in real-life scenes with such exacting precision that it's impossible to tell that the cars are not real full-size classics. His work is truly amazing.

His mother has helped her child to find a remarkable path in life, overcoming many obstacles along the way. She is a real advocate for those with autism, stressing that Anthony's awesome photography is not despite his autism, his autism allows him to focus on all the tiny details that make his work so beautiful.

He recently did the entire Route 66 in a classic car, taking some 11,000 pictures along the way, recreating many of the historic scenes. His mom tells an interesting story. He took hundreds of model cars but 3 or 4 kept appearing in many of the photos. She asked why, when he had so many to choose from. "Those are the travelers, going from one end of Route 66 to the other." Anthony has a whole back story for every stop the travelers took, many of which will be included in his upcoming book.

If you're a car guy or a photography buff, check out his work on his FaceBook page. You will be amazed by his photography – taken with an iPhone!

Here's a picture showing the reality vs the photo.

 

One suggestion, Wayneh;
Above (or below) each photo put a very short caption identifying what are we looking at.

Some photos are obvious:
"Well, I'm a-standing on a corner In Winslow, Arizona
And such a fine sight to see
It's a girl, my Lord In a flat-bed Ford
Slowin' down to take a look at me "

 

One suggestion, Wayneh;
Above (or below) each photo put a very short caption identifying what are we looking at.

Some photos are obvious:
"Well, I'm a-standing on a corner In Winslow, Arizona
And such a fine sight to see
It's a girl, my Lord In a flat-bed Ford
Slowin' down to take a look at me "

Working on it! Some context would come from seeing the full set (linked in #1) instead of just these few selected shots.

 

Working on it! Some context would come from seeing the full set (linked in #1) instead of just these few selected shots.

Let's all enjoy a quintesential American anthem!
Bing Videos

 

One suggestion, Wayneh;
Above (or below) each photo put a very short caption identifying what are we looking at.

Some photos are obvious:
"Well, I'm a-standing on a corner In Winslow, Arizona
And such a fine sight to see
It's a girl, my Lord In a flat-bed Ford
Slowin' down to take a look at me "

Good luck with that unless doing it from a desktop. Many times I've tried to embed and image and add text when working on my tablet and it messes up every time.

 

View attachment 369762

That one appears to be in Alanreed, TX, just west of McLean. I only took 3 pictures in that area. It was actually a nice day but clouded over at that moment to make it look eerie.

 

One suggestion, Wayneh;
Above (or below) each photo put a very short caption identifying what are we looking at.

Some photos are obvious:
"Well, I'm a-standing on a corner In Winslow, Arizona
And such a fine sight to see
It's a girl, my Lord In a flat-bed Ford
Slowin' down to take a look at me "

"THE" flat-bed Ford

 

That one appears to be in Alanreed, TX, just west of McLean. I only took 3 pictures in that area. It was actually a nice day but clouded over at that moment to make it look eerie.

Well spotted, it was Allanreed! here's a few more

 

Let's all enjoy a quintesential American anthem!
[URL='https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=Take+It+Easy+Lyrics+Eagles[/URL]

As long as we're talking songs, here's a selection. I had plenty of time to go thru my playlists.

My personal favorite cover of the big one:

Performed by the author:

Don't really care as much for Nat King Cole's cover - way too smooth

I wasn't driving a truck but this is a favorite road tune:

More truckin'

Still more. Thanks to Gram Parsons for bringing this to modern audiences
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZADj_J_M13o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_VnwVOf3NxE

 

And finally, perhaps my favorite trucking song of all. Lowell George wrote this about the truck drivers he met while pumping gas in LA, before he joined Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, and later Little Feat. He brought the song to Zappa and was fired for the drug references. But Frank probably did him a favor, as is often the case with a firing.

It's been covered by many artists many times, including The Byrds, Linda Ronstadt, Tom Petty and Greg Allman.

I struggled to choose my favorite version by Lowell George. The live cut on the Waiting for Columbus album is very good. This performance may be the most "pure".

This one, after Lowell's death, is a loving homage by his former bandmates.

 

I do have a question Wayneh;
You made this trip back in June, correct?
How hot was the weather?

I also made a road trip within Texas, and the heat and sun at times could be unbearable. Even though I always wear sunglasses for driving, my eyes hurt at the end of the day.
If I were to make such a trip, it would be perhaps better by mid-September?

 

There's been numerous TV shows that involve route 66, this is one I watched shortly after I settled in Arizona.

 

I do have a question Wayneh;
You made this trip back in June, correct?

Nope, left home July 6 and returned home on July 18.

How hot was the weather?

Crazy hot. Over 90° most days and well over 100° on some. Saw 114°F in Topock, CA, in the Mojave desert. But my Outback's A/C was able to keep up fairly well - it was mostly dry heat - and other than my time hiking in Palo Duro canyon, I was in the car most of the time.

I also made a road trip within Texas, and the heat and sun at times could be unbearable. Even though I always wear sunglasses for driving, my eyes hurt at the end of the day.

There's a lot of sky out there, and one negative of driving westbound was the inevitable afternoon and evening sun. I find that staying hydrated improves my eye comfort.

If I were to make such a trip, it would be perhaps better by mid-September?

Maybe. Almost certainly cooler but even more certain is the shorter days. I typically drove until sunset every day and having a few less hours would have lengthened the trip. That may not have been a bad thing though. I would have loved to see more of the neon signs.