Route 66, the "Mother Road"......

[ccheese]

We drove Route 66 in 1966, in a brand new '66 Ford Falcon station wagon. Me, the missus, two kids and a dog.
I still remember it rained from one end of the Will Roger's Tpk to Tulsa. When we got to Tulsa, at the toll gate, I asked
the man if it rained like this often. He told me it hadn't rained it weeks, but I said, hang on, it's coming down the
road. Tulsa never got a drop that night. We started out in Baltimore, MD and drove to Springfield, IL, to start our
journey westward, the family was going to SDiego, and I was going to Nam.

The car broke down in Flagstaff, AZ (the distributor cap cracked), and we spend the day in a mall while the car was being
fixed. Oh... the car did not have A/C. What a memorable drive......we still talk about the trip, and the Will Roger's Tpk
always comes up.

Charles

 

[wheelsup_cavu]

I rode in a car across country from Springfield, IL to California multiple times without AC when I was a kid.
Each time more miserable than the last it seemed. We used Hwy 40 which follows closely along old Route 66 in most areas.


Wheels

 

[vikingBerserker]

He may have been on a local state route 66...

Here's a map of former US Route 66, officially Historic Route 66 now

Well dam, I was all excited about it and everything..........dammit!

 

[Lucky13]

Eager to read more about it....thanks for the links! Have fantasized many times, driving on in a 40's or 50's restored car ....
Shame that you can't drive the whole way anymore....

 

[Lucky13]

Think our road similar to Route 66 in Sweden, would be the one we call 'Riksettan'...

 

[bobbysocks]

He may have been on a local state route 66...

Here's a map of former US Route 66, officially Historic Route 66 now

yeah there are other Rt 66s in certain states. where i have my camp is right off of PA Rt 66...which branches off to Rt 666.

 

[meatloaf109]

Been by there a couple of dozen times. Always wanted to grab one of those signs.

 

[bobbysocks]

i can get you the T-shirt...lol. what brought you all the way up there? driving truck?

 

[dobbie]

I live about 2 miles south of old US66 in Oklahoma, between Tulsa and Joplin, Missouri. Its now Oklahoma State Hwy 66. The drive from Tulsa to Oklahoma City is scenic, and there's still some good and interesting places to stop and eat. They can keep the toll road-BORING!

 

[meatloaf109]

i can get you the T-shirt...lol. what brought you all the way up there? driving truck?

Yep. And I would love a t-shirt, it would go well with my "665, Neighbor of the Beast" one.

 

[mikewint]

MOTHER ROAD RIDE/RALLY: Starting in 1994, Kirk Woodward down in Grapevine,Tx conceived of an all bike, individual or group ride along the old US 66. It took him a year to organize the event then on June 10, 1995 two groups of motorcycles, one in Chicage and one in California left and headed towards each other. The cost was $75 which got you a T-shirt, a pin, a cup and a complete set of maps of the old 66, plus a passport-type booklet. About every 500 miles or so you had a stop at a business that had agreed to participate in the ralley. They stamped your booklet and signed, indicating you had been that far. When you were done you sent in the booklet to Kirk who then sent you a certificate indicating miles completed. I rode this rally every year until 2001. Kirk died in 2002 but a couple in Fla has bought the rights from Kirk's widow

 

[T Bolt]

I live a few miles from where it started in Chicago. Can still remember riding on it as a little kid going to visit relitives in Springfield and St. Louis. It was already being taken over by interstate 55 thru Illinois by then. You can still find a lot of the old pavement around, they left 2 of the original 4 lanes as a frontage road in a lot of places and when you get to a town and I-55 makes a big swing for the bipass it becomes the old 4 lane divided highway it once was with weeds growing tall through the cracks in the old concrete. I went to collage in the southern part of the state and use to get off I-55 somewhere near Coal City and follow it all the way to Bloomington on my way back after break, going like hell. All the cops were on the interstate looking the wrong way . You can still find a lot of the original restaurants around too. There's a great chicken place south-west of Chicago at I-55 and Rt. 83 on a frontage road that use to be 66 that we go to often, and the last time I was in Springfield we ate at a place on old 66 that claimed to have invented the corn dog

 

[syscom3]

I travel the origional Rt66 in California when I go train watching, between Ludlow and Essex.

 

[Lucky13]

If you would drive drive the original Route 66, which car would you pick and what would be the first tune coming from the speakers?

 

[fubar57]

The Griswald "Family Truckster"

​

Bob Dylan, "Subterranean Homesick Blues"

View: https://youtu.be/MGxjIBEZvx0​

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9IMBcZaEyY&t=1s

And for reading in the motel room:

 

[special ed]

 

[cammerjeff]

I haven't driven the entire route, but about 1/2 of the remaining sections, west From IL, and most of the remaining sections in CA, NV, & AZ. I will post some pictures if I can find them. Last time we drove them was around 2016.

 

[SaparotRob]

I drove a short portion of Route 66 when I lived in California. I believe the Arrow Highway was part of it. There was a Root 66 museum in Cucamonga , I think.
Yes, there really is a Cucamonga.

 

[GrauGeist]

If you would drive drive the original Route 66, which car would you pick and what would be the first tune coming from the speakers?

A '63 Corvette and playing Nelson Riddle's Route 66 theme song.


View: https://youtu.be/1nbRoyJXSfQ