Route 66 Family Road Trip

My Wife, Two Daughters, and I are about to embark on a Route 66 Road Trip this summer. We will be in a 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 xl pulling a teardrop trailer. We are driving from California. On the way home we will be stopping at Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Yellow Stone. I feel this is mostly for my daughters and wife to see the United States. Any advise from anyone that has already taken this trip. I am looking forward to driving an old car and trailer along and old road.
www.lordleadfoot.blogspot.com
Any advise would be great- Thank you in advance

Some people have brought to my attention that they felt the reason for my tread was to request money's from this blog members. I was just asking for idea's, was not trying to ruffle feathers

 

Have a good trip. Better not tell the sponsors about the leadfoot

 

one guy, three women in a car for a lot of miles? this guys comin back in a body bag! lol. have a fun trip, id love to get my family to do that.

 

i've done it twice, both times in a corvette... you'll find yourself on the Interstate mostly, just take the side roads when you can.. it's a cool drive, have fun

 

The route of the road varried over time, and many pieces of it are gone, missing bridges, or just left in short fragments and access roads. Without a map/guide some stretches are hard to find.

 

Get some research books and contact the Rt. 66 ***ociations in each state. OK has a great guidebook that teaches you to find the old alignments. We lived in OK in the late 90s and were able to drive much of the old road after researching it. Don't miss the old one lane sections in OK! I hear the blue whale has been restored as well. Pity you won't get to meet Lucile Harmon, she p***ed away a few years ago. We hit her place about 9:00 one night and stopped to take a photo in the dark. She saw the car and invited us in and would have told us stories all night if we let her.

1. Resolve to avoid chain restaurants whenever possible. Eat local, along the old alignments. An occasional bad meal will be balanced out by lots of good tasting, well priced food.
1(a). Chains that you don't have in your local area are OK a few times.
2. Plan your drive days so you have lots of time to stop and see things. Don't make it a death march.
3. Plan ahead, so you know where the cool things are. Check the roadsideamerica site, and the Rt. 66 sites. Buy some books on Amazon.
4. Let the kids help plan the route and stops. Even my 4 year old son gets in to the trip that way.
5. Have snacks.
6. Have GPS but don't rely on it. Have good maps and know where you are on them. Don't let a loss of signal make you lost.
7. Stay in the Elvis room! Clinton, OK hotel room furnished like it was when Elvis stayed there each time he crossed the country.
8. I think the Rock Cafe was rebuilt, if it is operating stop there! The owner was part of the inspiration for a character in the Cars movie. I'd suggest watching Cars and then looking for all those places along the trip.

Don't get hung up on schedules, go for fun and good memories!

 

I have a good friend and his wife that just made the trip in their Mini Cooper, they did ever alignment that was still drivable, some including some dirt roads in TX. Enjoy the trip brother, I'm subscribed here and to your blog so I can live vicariously through your journeys!

 

Did the Black Hills / Yellowstone loop in '05 and want to do it again, although I'm in Northern Alberta - so home is 2 days hard driving to either end.

Stay at Devils Tower KOA!
It's at the foot of Devils Tower, good campground

As the movie was filmed there they play the "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" movie outdoors every night.

Devils Tower is about 50 miles of nice secondary highway off of the interstate (that's a good thing) through foothills populated by longhorn cattle.
There is a 100 year old roadhouse at a Highway junction 1/2 way to the Tower that had excellent food, one of those random finds.

avoid the Sturgus weekend by at least 2 weeks
(unless you really like crowds!)

 

Oh- and gas money. Yeah I'm sure you going to need lots of gas money. DAMN Have a great trip.

 

Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Yellowstone are a lon..g way from Route 66.

I highly recommend the book: "Route 66 The Mother Road" by Michael Wallis.
http://www.amazon.com/Route-66-Mother-Michael-Wallis/dp/0312082851

 

Let me get this right. You are doing Rt66 reverse (LA to Chicago), then want to sweep back across the northern tier (I94/90) through the Black Hills and Yellowstone (on to SaltLake/Reno/etc.), basically making a big CCW circle of the western US? Those are the kind of road trip vacations of my family lore, and have since repeated those runs to burn into the next generation's psyche. FUN FUN FUN! EACH of those locations could be an entire vacation in itself. I could write for days....

How much time do you have? What are your interests? History? Geology? Animals/plants/birds/fish/ecology? Funny thing is every time I've repeated a run I've found new stuff. And the best fun has always been the unplanned. All I can say is read everything you can. Look at the events calendar, this part of the world does everything during the summer. Talk to the natives at every stop but take their advice with a grain of sand. LISTEN and LOOK. And take lots of pictures.

 

We live in MN, but we made the trip from Chicago to the Santa Monica Pier and back as far as OKC in 2009.

You didn't say how much time you have for the trip. Just one way to Chicago could easily eat up 3 weeks, and then you miss a lot.

You'll have a blast!

 

This sounds awesome! I plan to build my car with the specific purpose of it being road-trippable for a 66 trip with my wife and daughter. Have fun!

 

Once you enter Az. On I-40 crossing over the Colarado River There is a turn off for Topock/Golden Shores. That is the start of the longest continuous length of Rt 66 in the country. (around 162 miles of good road) There is alot to see like the almost ghost town of Oatman, Kingman with many restored historic buildings and Rail Road history,Hackberry wih the Hackberry store, Keepers of the wild animal reserve in Valentine, the Hualapai indians in Peach Springs, the Grand Canyon Caverns and on into Seligman.
You could spend a good week here and miss a few stops.

FYI. April 29/May 2-2011 is our 24th RT 66 Fun Run. the shop I work at is in down town Kingman on 66 right in the middle of Saturdays Show and Shine. We draw an average of 900 vehicles in the show plus ??????? more just driving around for the wekend.

 

I did the trip from Detroit to LA after a Hot Rod Power Tour, in the 2nd-3rd week in May, the northern route, Rushmore, Black Hills, Corn Palace, Yellowstone, Salt Lake City, Vegas, Death Valley then LA... In Yellowstone it snowed 2 inches and Yellowstone lake was still frozen solid!

Enjoy your trip, I'm jealous for you!

 

Interesting this has come up, I am leaving next Thursday for my annual roadtrip. This year we are going from Oklahoma to LA, hitting the grand canyon, petersen museum and all that good stuff along the way. I will be covering it all on my website, www.reddirtrodz.com and in American Muscle Car Magazine. I borrowed a 2011 Caddy CTS-V wagon for this trip, the '63 Buick wagon isn't done yet!

 

What would be the west-bound entrance for that stretch of 66? That sounds like a great place to stretch the legs on the 556 ponies...... not to mention the phot ops and food!

 

In Az.? I-40 just past Ashfork. Crookton road exit.

 

There is still a pretty good chunk of the original road in SW MO, from Springfield to the Kansas line and then some. Lots of neat old buildings in that stretch too. A guy named Gary Turner has restored an old gas station near Halltown called Gay Parita that is worth the stop and there is another one being done as well that is just a few miles away. Go to www.gayparitasinclair.com for more info. If you stop in Springfield you can stay at the Rail Haven Motel on east Kearney street, it still has its original huge working neon sign out front. Springfield is known as the birthplace of Route 66 as this was the location of the original meeting between the different states officials when they were preplanning the route. I'm gonna make the trip west one of these days, just gotta figure out when.

 

That's alot of good info there. My wife and I (along with our three little dogs) will be making this trip at the end of this month as we relocate from Chicago to San Diego. I wanted to follow the old 66 as much as possible since we are no hurry to get there.

 

Just what ever you do. DO NOT SAY WE WILL JUST stop there next time. I ran the road from cleveland to L.A and back every week and I will stop next trip. Well I don't go there anymore and not sure when I will again. I miss them days. Sort of.

 

have a GREAT trip! this is one BIG thing on my bucket list.

 

Make sure you start a picture thread and take lots of pics.

 

Make sure and stop "On the Corner" in Winslow, AZ. Awesome lady runs the store and can tell you many stories and facts about 66. I was just there a week ago! Dont forget the WigWam motel, its cool too.

 

Kayjohn nailed this part of 66. I've spent alot of time out in Kingman Az. & like he said you could spend a week there and miss something. I think Oatmans a must see if you have kids (they'll love the burros) & dont forget to stop at MrDz's for lunch in Kingman. I just wish this part of 66 had more funky gas stations & motels.

 

Once in a lifetime..............kids will grow up fast before you know it.....

 

Well, I am looking forward to it. I have been through this part of AZ before, back in '99, but my wife and kids have never been there. My kids are 9, 7 and 6 and the love the hot rod road trips. in '09, we went to Detroit for the Dreamcruise.

 

Also, one of my favorites is Tu***cari, New Mexico, a lot of original hotel signs from the 60's...
http://www.tu***carinm.com/visitors_guide/

 

All on or near 66 in Arizona -

Painted Desert
Petrified Forest
Meteor Crater
Grand Canyon
Sunset Crater Volcano
***orted Indian ruins

 

One of the best books we've found for the trip is the "Route 66: EZ66 Guide" (2nd Edition) by Jerry McClanahan. Gives you directions to pretty much every piece of 66 road that's still out there.

Have a great trip, take tons of photos, and stop everywhere! You never know what'll be gone the next time you p*** through.