Route 66

Sea to Sea, East to West, side trips North & South.  - -  North America is the main travel plan for this “bug,”  visiting caches in each state and province.  Caches along Route 66 would be of particular interest.  - -  Photos appreciated.

5-15-16 This TB was removed from a cache on 2-18 by cupcake sparkle who logged it out but must think it was SWAG or seems to not understand how to visit a TB and we are fearful that it will sit idle in a drawer so am grabbing and traveling it until someone else finds and grabs the original, if ever.

Historic “Route 66” was first opened in 1926, starting in Chicago , angling SW through St. Louis on down to Oklahoma City, then turning directly West via Amarillo, Albuquerque, Flagstaff and ending in Los Angeles.  Much of the route was not paved until a decade later and in some cases (until replaced by the interstate system) was only single lane with passing done by both cars pulling out onto the dirt shoulders.  Also know as “The Main Street of America” & “The Mother Road”, it was one of the original highways within the U.S. Highway System covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km).

Route 66 was featured in John Steinbeck’s 1940 “Grapes of Wrath” telling the story of farmers leaving the 1930’s dust bowl areas of Kansas, Texas & Oklahoma to head down Route 66 for the Promised Land of California and “posited the road as an almost hostile force, draining the area of money, energy, and enthusiasm from the optimistic Okies.” (http://wikitravel.org/en/Route_66). Also to become very famous (even in Europe) was Bobby Troup's song of 1946;   If you ever plan to motor west - Travel my way, the highway that's the best - Get your kicks on Route 66!,  (first recorded by Nat King Cole), and is still popular in modern “pop” culture.  National attention was again focused on Route 66 by the media with the 1960’s TV show “route 66”, and most recently with the 2006 world wide release of the movie “Cars” by Disney/Pixar.

The aging highway was decommissioned in the ’80s having been replaced by Interstate 40 in the West and I-55 & 44 in the central states.  Many of these modern interstates exactly parallel or overlay the old route.  Although the designation U.S. 66 no longer exists, much of the historic route still exists and is marked as “Historic Route 66” and is used as the “Business Loop” of the interstate that bypassed the town that US 66 once served.  Many bridges (even out in the middle of nowhere!) still exist as historical monuments but are only open to foot traffic.  In a 2012 “Special”, CNN referred to Route 66 as “the most famous highway in the world, and it remains the ultimate road trip. Within the United States and to travelers from around the globe, Route 66 is on par with the Alamo and the Statue of Liberty as an icon of America.”  The original Route 66 highway system is now officially known as “the Will Rogers Highway".

As kids, the TB owners still remember traveling the original US 66 from their historical homes in Oklahoma out to either California or New Mexico where each had family ties.  What used to be a 2 day trip from Oklahoma to Western New Mexico, - -  with canvas water bags hanging from the mirrors,  windows wide open for ventilation, extra spare tires tied on top, and spare fuel cans in the trunk - -  can now be done in under 8 hours in air conditioned comfort on a single tank of fuel and nary a flat tire.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Route_66 for more info from the article from which much of this information is drawn.