Route 66 was one of the earliest interregional link for motor vehicles in the United States.
Starting from Lake Michigan at Adams and Michigan Avenue in Chicago,
Illinois,
it extended 2448 miles (approx.) through eight states (IL, MO, KS, OK, TX,
NM, AZ, CA)
to the Pacific Ocean at Santa Monica and Ocean Ave in Santa
Monica, California.
The route was commissioned on 26th November 1926 and fully paved by 1938.
It was officially decommissioned in 1985,
replaced by Interstate Freeways I-55, I-44, I-40, I-15 and I-10.
However, the old "Mother Road" (as John Steinbeck called it in his novel
"The Grapes of Wrath")
is still used by travelers who want to experience the old American
heartland.
This is a simple map for Route 66, stolen from
the Historic Route 66 site.
We have been daydreaming about Route 66 for quite some time,
but when CK had to move from Pasadena, California (near Los Angeles)
back to Germantown, Maryland (near Washington DC),
it presented a perfect opportunity to realize this dream.
(Note that we were traveling in the "wrong" direction: East.
Historically most travelers went west on Route 66.)
We have tried our best to follow the historic route,
but sometimes it proved impossible
(where we could not find the historic route;
the route is not always clearly marked),
or unadvisable (there are segments of the historic route that were badly
paved,
and we ran into some serious fog between Bloomington
and Joliet in Illinois.)
In such circumstances we chose safety over adventure
and hopped back onto the major interstate freeways.
It took us six days to travel the whole length of route 66.
Afterwards it took another three days for us to get to Germantown
(via I-90, I-80, I-76, I-70 and I-270).
We are really fortunate in having perfect weather most
of the way.
We would like to acknowledge the hospitality
of Kamto Wan and Eliza Wong of Ballwin, Missouri,
and that of Vailam Mui and YY Tsoi of Granger, Indiana.
We would also like to thank the Moreau Seminary
and the nice guy from TNC Towing
for their help when we had a flat tire near South Bend, Indiana.
While there are many books and websites on Route 66
it was not easy to find directions
for traveling the route in the wrong direction (eastward).
We are fortunate to find some detailed directions by Kelly Cash at
a Belgium site,
a very useful Route 66 road map by Pro-Map,
and the wonderful tour book "Road Trip USA" by Jamie Jensen.
Armed with these handfuls of information,
Route 66, here we come!
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Created on 11th Feb 2001. Last updated on 11th Aug 2006.
ckchow.mbox@gmail.com