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From a historical perspective, Route 66 linked the isolated, rural West to the densely populated urban Midwest and Northeast. Chicago had long served as a transshipment point for goods that were transported to the West. The creation of Route 66 ensured the continuation of this vital socioeconomic link. The appearance of U.S. Highway 66 came at a time of unparalleled social, economic, and political disruption and global conflict, and it enabled the most comprehensive movement of people in the history of the United States.
Route 66 was stamped on the American public's consciousness in 1926. That was the year the fabled highway was christened. Through the decades this remarkable road has been celebrated in song and literature. It is a 2,500 mile ribbon of concrete and asphalt pavement that snakes across eight states and was known as America's Main Street. Perhaps more than any other American highway, Route 66 symbolized the new optimism that pervaded the nations postwar economic recovery. For thousands of returning servicemen and their families, Route 66 represented more than just a highway. It became, according to one author, "an icon of free-spirited independence linking the United States across the Rocky Mountain divide to the Pacific Ocean."
There is a spirit, or a feeling, that resides along the Mother Road. According to the guidebooks I’ve read, the spirit of Route 66 lives in the people who still reside along the Route and their stories, the views and structures, and travelers' perceptions of them. To gain an understanding of Route 66 and the spirit of the Route, you have to drive it and experience it.
The experience of Route 66 is formed by the travelers and the people along the Route, the sights, sounds and tastes you encounter along the way. The surroundings are constantly changing, and there is a sense of mystery about what lies around the next bend. Regional differences in rural landscapes and natural features figure prominently in the experience, as do small towns and larger cities.
Route 66 is not for everybody. Finding Route 66 can be an adventure and a challenge requiring a good sense of direction, several maps and guidebooks, a GPS and patience to decipher the highway's various alignments. It is not for people in a hurry. Route 66 is for people that like to slurp root beer floats from a frosty mug, who are willing to tackle a burger that requires at least a dozen napkins to sop up the grease.
I’ve got a taste of the Mother Road now and plan on running her again. But next time, I’ll experience Route 66 while driving in the proper direction, East to West.
The final leg into Chicago was going to be short, about 100 miles, so we took our time departing Pontiac. While Tom was working out, he learned that Good Morning America was airing one of the Route 66 segments on this mornings program. As luck would have it, it was the one they shot in Winslow, AZ on Tuesday, so I got to see the footage they filmed while I was standin' on the opposite corner. That was fun!
We decided to hold off on breakfast until we got up to Dwight, since there was a much talked about restaurant there called the Old Route 66 Family Restaurant. The food was excellent, the waitresses were all wearing Mother Road T-Shirts (I bought one for each of us) and the atmosphere was pure Route 66 nostalgia. The North side of the building had a large Route 66 mural depicting one of my dream machines, a Shelby AC Cobra. Postponing breakfast until Dwight was well worth the wait.
On the way up to Chicago, we passed through several small towns, most of which had something special to offer Route Runners on this section of Route 66. In Odell there was a restored Standard Oil gas station, Gardner had a nicely restored Texaco gas station, and in Wilmington, there was the Gemini Giant Spaceman at the Launching Pad Drive-In. This landmark has been pulling business off Route 66 since 1965, and is fashioned after the Giant Muffler Man of an earlier era. Then there's the Rich & Creamy in Joliet that sports the Blues Brothers, Jake & Elwood, in full tilt boogie on the roof.
Since yesterday starting in Bloomington, the road itself has been in great condition, and has stayed to the East of Highway 55 and uninterrupted (no crossovers, no terminations) all the way into downtown Chicago. Also, there was an old alignment running parallel to the existing Route about 100 feet to the West most of the way to the Chicago City limits. The State of Illinois takes pride in the part it has played in the history of Route 66, and they have done a great job in assisting the Route Runners in staying on the correct roadbed. Of all eight states Route 66 passes through, Illinois and Missouri have done the best job of establishing Historic Route 66 markings.
We met Joyce in LaGrange and she rode with us on the final dash into downtown Chicago. Afterwards, we headed back South to the Chicken Basket Restaurant (a Route 66 icon since 1946), and had a leisurely lunch of chicken, of course.
The only disappointment of the day was at the end of the Route (OK, actually it's the beginning). When we reached Jackson and Lakeshore Drive, traffic was backed up in several directions. Apparently, there was some festival happening down there. As a result, there was no possibility of getting a photo of the Black Bullitt and the Historic Route 66 Begins (or ends in my case) sign. I guess that's not important. What is important is that I finished the 2,500 miles without incident - no car issues, no speeding tickets, and had a fabulous roadtrip.
Check back in a few days, as I plan to post a final wrap-up of the Black Bullitt's journey from Santa Monica, CA to Chicago, IL on the Mother Road - Route 66.
Friday night we stayed in Rolla, MO at the Best Western. We had an excellent Filet at Zeno's (one of the better restaurants I've run across in the Route 66 Diners Guide) just down the road from the motel. We had just made it back to the room when the sky opened up and it started to pour, and there was lightening dancing around all over the place. Fortunately, there wasn't any hail or tornadic activing in our area, but it did rain quite a bit. The Black Bullitt got her second bath for the day.
This morning, Tom was up early and got his morning exercise in before I was even awake. Must be nice to be young. Once again we put off breakfast and hit the road with only a travel mug of generic coffee. We drove on to the South side of St. Louis before stopping to have brunch. Just down the street from the restaurant was a Starbucks, so we loaded up on Pike's Place before heading into St. Louis.
St. Louis has about 3 different routes for Route 66. Over the years, the layout of the route changed, apparently moving further out from the inner city, as the city expanded and got more congested. We decided to take the Southern most Route into the downtown corridor, which was the closest to the Arch. The Arch was spectacular and Tom got a few good pictures from the passenger side of the Bullitt. After the Arch, we followed the oldest route Northeast, not realizing that this orientation went right through the St. Louis projects. Needless to say, we were anxious to get further North along the old Route.
Once we crossed into Illinois, the Route and surrounding environment took on a new identity. I'm sure the transformation was more subtle than it seemed, but the green rolling hills of Missouri gave way to the flat farmlands of Southern Illinois, almost as soon as we crossed the Mississippi River. The Mother Road was now running North by Northeast toward Springfield and Bloomington beyond.
As we motored North by Northeast, we crisscrossed Highway 55 about about 8 times before we hit McLean. McLean is known as the birthplace of the Republican Party (1856), Lt. Colonel Henry Blake (MASH 4077), and the Dixie's Truck Stop which opened in 1948.
One of the highlights of Route 66 culture in Illinois is the Cozy Dog in Springfield. This place has been in business since the 1940's and it's claim-to-fame is that they perfected the corn-dog. The Cozy Dog has moved across the highway from its original building, but is still serving the best corn dog on the planet. Next we drove by the State Capital and the Lincoln Statue. Parking looked difficult, so we did a drive by shooting (see Tom's fuzzy photo of Abe). Bloomington Normal is noteworthy in the sense that it's the location of Illinois State University and Joyce's alma-mater.
The State of Illinois has done a pretty good job of marking the various routes of Rotue 66. I say various, because there were apparently 3 variations, like those in St. Louis. There was the oldest, old and current routes, all of which were indicated by different signs. This was a new twist for me, having a choice of which route to take, so we did some exploring and doubling back to another route during the day. It also meant that there were old alignments that are still very much intact, but not officially in use anymore. There are a couple of pictures posted that show an old alignment that is in pretty good shape, but closed off to traffic. These closed sections were in use until the 1960's when Highway 55 was completed, then decommissioned.
I allowed the navigator (Tom) to drive the Black Bullitt for the second time today. I neglected to mention in yesterday's blog that Tom drove a manual transmission for the first time in about 20 years. I guess it's like riding a bike, once you've mastered it, you never forget how to do it. At any rate, he did a good job and I wasn't too anxious riding shotgun.
For most of day, it was overcast and it looked like it was going to rain again, but it did not happen. It stayed dry, but also cool all day. For the first time in over a week, I wasn't wearing shorts. After spending the past 6 days in the warm/hotter than hell Southwest, moving into the Northern latitudes is having a chilling effect. I guess it's back to reality.
Tomorrow will be a short run up to LaGrange where we are going to pick up Joyce for the final run into Grant Park, downtown Chicago. The jouney is coming to a close and I have mixed emotions about that. It will be nice to be home, get Ally out of doggie jail and back into the normal swing of things. But also, I'll miss the freedom of the open road and carefree attitude you have when traveling the Mother Road on a loose time schedule in the Black Bullitt....
Since I was picking up brother Tom at the Tulsa International Airport last night, I decided to get a room out by the airport, off of the Route. Turned out to be a fortuitous decision, as this morning, we decided to skip breakfast and get a couple of road coffee's, and the only Starbucks within several miles was at the airport.
With travel mugs filled with Christmas Blend, we headed back to Route 66 and drove East out of Tulsa. Once again, the State of Oklahoma didn't disappoint us, as the Mother Road was well marked with the official Historical Route 66 signage, which made staying on course fairly easy if you were paying attention. This assisted Tom in his first day of navigation duties in the Black Bullitt. He fulfilled these duties well (for a beginning Route Runner), as we only got misdirected a couple of times.
One of the first attractions of the day was one we stumbled across. The Pryor Creek Bridge, outside Chelsea, OK. This steel trussle bridge was built in 1926 and was part of the original Route alignment. We were crusing down the current alignment and I just catch a glimse of this off to the South. A nice surprise find early in the day!
While still in Oklahoma, we drove through a town called Commerce, OK. What's special about Commerce you ask? Well, for you older baseball fans out there, Mickey Mantle grew up there. The museum we thought was there, didn't exist. There were plans to build one (we actually saw the sign on the site), but according to a local, those plans have been shelved. One thing Commerce had was cheap gas. Check out the picture of the Ethyl gas pump, showing a price of $0.185 per gallon. Unfortunately, this was only a prop, but there was a time premium gas was that inexpensive.
When we left Tulsa, we had decided to stop in Baxter Springs, KS for lunch. Tom had seen an episode of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives on Food Network. Guy Fieri and his spike blonde hair reviewed some restaurants along Route 66 for a special airing, including Cafe on the Route, which is where we ate. The menu was diverse and atypical for a small town Midwestern eating establishment. The food was excellent and prices were very reasonable. Good choice navigator!
Route 66 cuts across the Southeast corner of Kansas heading Northeast into Missouri. Kansas has the shortest stretch (only 14 miles) of Main Street America of the 8 states it passes though. However, Kansas also has the last surviving Marsh Arch Bridge of its type on the entire length of the Route. Also known as the "Rainbow Bridge", and built in 1923, it is still open to traffic but has been replaced by another wider bridge to the East.
It's becoming clear that today's theme was going to be about bridges. Without actually going back and counting, I'm willing to bet that we crossed more bridges today in Oklahoma and Missouri, than I crossed in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. When you think about this, it makes sense. Missouri has more rivers, streams than the entire Southwest. So, we found ourselves crossing many bridges, some of them historic and worth stopping to photograph. The next couple of days we'll encounter more impressive historic bridges as we cross larger bodies of water.
The most interesting portion of the Mother Road today was approaching Rolla, MO. There's a place about 20 miles West of Rolla called Devil's Elbow. The roadway is situation in a deep ravine, surrounded by step hills that belong to the Osarks. The Route passed over Devil's Elbow Bridge spanning the Big Piney River, and then it takes a sharp bend East. At this point the road crew cut a pass into the solid limestone hill. This pass is called Hooker Cut and at the time (during WWII) was the deepest roadway cut in the United States.
Tomorrow we continue to head Northeast, through Missouri and into Illinois. They end of the Road is not too far off....
Spent the night at a Holiday Inn Express outside Amarillo near the airport, just off Route 66. Very nice facility and well worth the $100 price of admission. Compared to all other places I've stayed so far, this was the best and not the most expensive. Breakfast (real breakfast, not a continental) was part of the package, but no Starbucks there, so I found one with the Garmin. Met a couple from Boston, MA who were driving Route 66 Westbound. They were driving a 2007 Roush Mustang, which is a step or two up from the Bullitt.
While driving East out of Amarillo on Route 66, I couldn't help but notice several changes; the conditions of the Route were improving, the terrain was becoming flatter, and the color of the soil was becoming a dark rust. Of course, what really impressed me were the road conditions. There were sections that were concrete for long stretches, so you had that rhythmic clunk-clunk as your tires hit the separations in the pavement.
I ran across several old alignments of the Mother Road, all in Texas. There are a couple picture of them I've uploaded here. One in particular was curious, as there was a herd of cattle grazing on the old roadway. When I stopped to take the picture, some of the cows looked up and started walking my way. The sight of a Black Mustang must of looked welcoming to then.
Restoring old iconic gas stations is a popular enterprise on the Route. I saw several today, two of which are posted here. The Conoco in Shamrock, TX, which now serves as a Visitor's Center, was absolutely incredible. Who ever did the restoration knew what they were doing and put a lot of attention into every detail. Phillip 66 stations are numerous in Texas and Oklahoma, and the one in McLean, TX was just sitting there waiting for a thirsty Mustang to pull in and fill up.
There are many abandoned motels along old Route 66. Most of them look like they've been shut down for decades. Typically they are such a shambles that they only reason to take a picture is the get the roadside sign, if it's still standing. There is a picture posted of one just inside of Oklahoma, actually, it's a picture of one of the carports at the motel. Must have been an upscale motel in its day. Inside the carport is a 1968 Mustang, that may someday become a restore Bullitt.
Stopped at the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City. You'd have to be blind, or on the wrong road, to miss the Route 66 sign out front. They had some good displays of antique, vintage and classic cars, placed in the appropriate setting. I learned an interesting story about Phillips 66. The founder of Phillips 66, Frank Phillips, was driving on Route 66 contemplating what he was going to name is new oil business. He looked down at his speedometer, it read 66 mph. He was doing 66 mpg on Route 66, so the second part of the name was decided....Phillips 66.
Another Historical Landmark on The Mother Road is the Round Barn in Arcadia, OK. the barn was build in 1898, so it predates Route 66, but it's part of the history now. I didn't actually go in, but it was certainly a unique looking barn.
It's obvious that Oklahoma takes great pride in the fact that Route 66 passes through its borders. You can see the difference in the condition of the road surface, adequate official Historic Route 66 signage, more roadside attractions, and how the towns line the Route with banners, flags, signs, etc. The best all around drive (and I mean for the entire trip to date) was between Oklahoma City and Tulsa, about 110 miles. Except for the small towns encountered along the way, the speed limit was 55 or 65, the road surface was a very smooth asphalt, lined by cottonwoods on a gently rolling hilly terrain.
Picked up brother Tom this evening, who had flown down to Tulsa from Chicago. Tomorrow I'll have a navigator and someone to keep me company as we head towards Rolla, MO or somewhere thereabouts. If he's lucky, I'll let him drive the Black Bullitt....
Got a relatively early start this morning, so I had time to locate a Starbucks. That Garmin GPS is fabulous. It can locate restaurants, gas stations, even the nearest Starbucks and it will give you turn by turn directions from your present location. So, I filled my travel-mug and Pike's Place and got a second one in a cup. I was good to go.
I wanted to get to Santa Rosa, NM (about 100 miles East) for breakfast at the Route 66 Restaurant, which I had hear about. Great little spot that's been in business, since the 1950's. They are known for their Mexican food, but their breadfast was excellent as well. The owner was very friendly and wanted to talk about the Black Bullitt. Like most successful businesses along Route 66, he had one or two classic cars parked in front of his business. Just down the street from the restaurant, there was a wrecker parked on the South side of the road. Bozo's Garage, or so it said on the door. Fortunately, I did not need to be towed this morning.
East of Santa Rosa, I drove through Tucumcari, NM, which plays up the Route 66 theme pretty good. The Route through town has banners on the lightpoles and there were several murals on the sides of buildings. Two were actually well done and I have posted pictures of them.
It has happened several time now, and twice today, where the Route mysteriously ends, or turns to a gravel surface, despite what the maps show or guide books talk about. Apparently, some of the publications I'm relying on were printed in the 1990's and conditions have changed.
There was a noticable change in the landscape the closer we got to Texas. The land flattend out moreso than what was typical for New Mexico and the colors changed as well. The very first exit off I-40 across the stateline was a ghost town called Glenrio. Route 66 use to go right by its door step and now the Interstate has by-passed it. Several shuttered businesses, an old Willis sevice vehicle, but I didn't see any ghosts.
Starting about 100 miles West of the stateline, I stated to see billboards for The Big Texas restaurant in Amarillo. I had read about this earlier, so I knew what their pitch was .... FREE 72 oz steak dinner with all the fixin's. Well, as you can imagine, there's a catch. It is free, but you have to consume every bite and within a certain time frame. Otherwise, I think the price is $100. I wasn't that hungry tonight, so I didn't bother lookin for the place.
There was a long unbroken stretch of Route 66 coming into Amarillo from the West. Must have been over 50 miles, running alongside I-40 on the North side. One of the small town we cruised by was Vega. The only reason I mention it is because there was a large wind turbine farm there and there were the 300 to 400 foot tall versions. Well, there was a new tower being installed and the crane that was erecting it was a Manitowoc Crane. I could tell from miles away, as Manitowoc cranes are the only red latice boom cranes I know of. This fact didn't help my MTW stockholding today, as it lost another 12%. Down about 30% in the past 3 days.
The Mother Road was tempormental today. There were stretches were the surface was smooth and well maintained, followed by some down-right nasty roadway.
Another interesting drive today. The High Desert of Albuquerque gradually changed into the not so High Desert of Amarillo. Elevation dropped from 5,400 feet to 3,500 feet. Does not seem like a significant drop, but the landscape certainly changed during the day. Spent an equal amount of drive time on Route 66 and Interstate 40, which made for a quicker transit to Amarillo. Looking back, I see that we crossed I-40 about 18 times, which included getting on & off the Interstate and passing over or under it on the Route.
The jouney continues tomorrow, heading Northeast up into tornado country of Oklahoma. Good thing I wasn't making that leg today....
