I have come across so much about Route 66 over the years, in movies, old photos, and road trip stories. It always looked so cool. I've always wanted to drive it myself. For a while, I figured that dream was dead, since the road technically no longer exists.
Quick version: it opened in 1926, and by the '40s and '50s it was the road, packed with diners, motels, and neon signs. Then, in 1956, Eisenhower signed the bill that built the interstate system, and the new highways were designed for speed rather than small-town charm. Route 66 got replaced piece by piece until it was fully decommissioned in 1985. Mental Floss has the full story if you want more.
But it's not actually gone. Five interstates picked up right where it left off, in order — I-55 out of Chicago, then I-44, then I-40, then I-15, then I-10 into LA. Drive that whole chain, and you're basically tracing the Mother Road, just faster.
People still make the trip anyway. There's a whole group, the Road Ahead Partnership, keeping the old road alive, and travelers come from all over the world to follow it, even though it's no longer an official highway. It turns 100 this November.
I've actually already touched a piece of it. I rode through Albuquerque on Central Avenue once, and I knew right away it was old Route 66. I even took photos.
But touching a piece isn't the same as doing the whole thing. I want the real version someday, starting in Chicago and driving all the way out to Santa Monica, where it ends at the Pacific.
A road can get erased from every map in the country and still mean something.
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Part of my Blaugust run this August. No rules, no pressure, just posting for fun. |