Driving Along Legendary Route 66

Posted - May 24, 2018

During World War II it was the Army’s transport route for troops and arms. After the war, it became the road to a new life for a whole legion of Midwestern homebodies who had never wandered a hundred miles from home, now tempted by the lure of the open road, the wonders of the West.

Today, if it’s your philosophy that the journey is more important than the destination, you’re ready for Route 66. Just let up on the gas pedal as you cruise the road, ease down an off-ramp marked with a Historic Route 66 marker, and take a look at what America was like before it became generic.

Rambling down the old highway, you get the strange sensation of being suspended between 1940 and 2018, stopping at the same attractions that fascinated travelers so many years ago.

A large part of Route 66’s nostalgic charm comes from its roadside oddities. And none is stranger than Cadillac Ranch near Amarillo, Texas where 10 Cadillacs are angled nose-down in the earth in a straight line. It’s the novel idea of Stanley Marsh III, a Dust Bowl child who grew up to be very wealthy. He called it a monument to the American dream.

Still, despite cozy towns and friendly people, it’s tough to ignore that a melancholy number of hamlets suffer from decay. In the panhandle town of McLean, Texas, the Route 66 Museum, though small, captures the spirit of the road. It’s crammed with authentic artifacts, photos, scrapbooks, old Burma Shave signs, and a partial replica of a greasy spoon cafe, built from actual parts of a local café of the 1940s.

One thing Route 66 roadies insist on, whether your travel a section or go the full route, it’s that route that puts you in touch with the land, the roads, the people, the way life was before the world shrank. On the Interstate, you watch a scene speeding by. On Route 66, you are there in the scene.