so my 55 chevy is nearing completion along with some of my friends cars as well. we were talking about doing trip down route 66. I was wondering if any one has some advice to where to stop some cool things to see. etc. we are in phoenix az. i was looking on line for some sights but not really find to much that helped. so i turn to you guys. thanks, 992life
Well I'm off to do Route 66 next Monday. Going from Oklahoma city through to Nevada. Some good books I've found are The Route 66 Travelers Guide and Roadside Companion and Roadtrip USA Route 66. Also a website which is run by National Parks Service. http://www.nps.gov/history/nr/travel/route66/index.html Pretty cool site. Alex
I've done every bit of 66 from Santa Monica to Joplin. Be advised you might be somewhat dissapointed. There are a few original 66 landmarks still surviving but for the most part it's just depressed areas and towns time has long p***ed by. Lot's of it boarded up and falling down. Still fun to cruise it if you have the time, you just have to use your imagination to see it "how it was". RIP Route 66 is how I feel about it!
We've been wanting to do this for a while, but my job has been too screwed up to allow it. It might be possible next year. Some of the online pics I've seen reflect what Metalman is talking about. Maybe it would be possible to come up with a cool, scenic drive that incorporates the better or more intact parts of Rte. 66?
thanks for the replies!!! i am all about the boarded up properties that stuff really makes your mind think i guess. i am going to check out some books, maps etc. i will post the route once i make for others to see it. thanks again!
We did Route 66 last summer. It's best to allow all the time possible, don't rush it. It's true that most of it is gone or crumbled, quite a shame. To me it was still worth every moment. Read all the guide books you can find...I found that there isn't really one particular definitive guide book so just look at them all....and have fun.
Oklahoma has the most miles of Route 66 still extant. 396 miles. Check this out http://www.oklahomaroute66.com/ You might want to check out The Mother Road by Michael Wallis. I drove from Tulsa to OKC on old Route 66 a few years ago. Took me four hours, as opposed to 90 minutes on the turnpike
Just west of Williams, AZ in Ash Fork. you will find the Delgadio brothers Drive In. This is one of the last vestiges of 66 that hasn't changed much! There is also the "Standing on the Corner" display and statue in Winslow, AZ.
i went out to vegas last fall and took a road trip to route 66 muesum in kingmnan arizona. neat place set up in an old powerplant. there was a neat little diner across the street. i believe there is also a magazine called the motherroad which talks all about route66 and the attractions along it
I did it when I was 16, in 1967. My buddy and I drove his Olds powered T from Los Angeles to St. Louis to see his uncle. What was just a "ride-along" with my friend was a trip of a lifetime.... What a wonderful way to see much of America. DO IT!!!!!
i did the reverse trip, okc to tulsa and back to okc last october, thanks to Big Jim....between him and Randy, i think we covered all the great spots along the ok section of 66....thanks again guys!!!!!!!!made a work trip turn into a great vacation!!!!!!!!!
I have done it from the starting point in Chicago all the way to Vegas, it starts and stops a lot, you dont see it clearly marked in many places, this is the kind of trip you have to archive, look for Historic Route 66, you may have to look it up in each state it p***es through, it was fun, really depends what car youre in.
we just did the illinois and missouri portion last week, we picked up a map on the start of the trip that shows where the road actually is, or was. it's not a horrible trip, but very touristy. stand by for sites like the world's largest rocker: there are also tons of books to give a guided tour. we took this one because it was small and didn't use many big words: http://www.amazon.com/Traveling-Route-66-Motoring-L/dp/0806133260 but it was a little dated and written by someone in the UK.
Vegas?...you must have taken 66 from Barstow to the non-66 I-15 to Vegas...66 doesn't go through Nevada
I side tracked at the end of the trip to Vegas, when you drive all that way looking at all that weird stuff you need to get away and see some show girls.
I hear ya loud and clear on that one! 66 can get somewhat tiresome...counting lizards can get old.... but, I'm sure you were glad you did it. Too bad, I didn't have "gurls" to look forward to on my trip...just sitting for two days at the "new" St. Louis airport waiting on "standby" for an open seat back to El Lay..........I wouldn't trade that experience for anything, though... True story....on the flight home, when we were about ready to land at LAX, the straight-laced women next to me finally started a conversation with me and asked where I was from. I told here I was from "here" but went with a friend to St. Louis on Route 66 and now was returning home. With a perfectly straight face, she said..."What did you do...walk?" I could tell she wasn't being a smart***, she was dead serious. I guess I didn't look like I was very well "groomed" after my adventure.
In 1931 my grandfather moved from Kansas City to Burbank, Ca - they took my father and his younger sister in a 1926 Model T sedan and it took them 14 days of hard driving to do the trip. Route 66 wan't there yet, in fact most of the "roads" were just dirt trails......my grandmother kept a log of the trip and most of the entrys talk about mud, rain and more mud. Route 66 was a hell of an upgrade to what they endured......hope you have a terrific trip in your '55!
We have been from Chicago to Kingman AZ.. Okalhoma was the best part. More stuff to see. We got a brochure from a tourist info stand at the OK. border. It was very cool . Go to the library or get on the internet and research each state you plan to visit. Each state has lots to offer. Just take your time some of the diiferent alinements are hard to find. Especially through St. Louis. We spent nearly a month total drive time on 66. Over several different vactions.
ok here's the few I like. Williams, just all of it.. its a neat 66 town.. stop at the world famous sultana have a beer and some great wings... and Holbrook. stay in a tepee. those are the 2 i have.. and if ya can... take a detour off of 66 and take 89a to Jerome say hi to don Robertson and the gold king mine and ghost town... or if your feeling daring and have some ground clearance on that rod.. take Perkinsville road from Williams to Jerome.. you wont regret it.
well, which way are you going from phoenix? east or west? if you go east try to find this 9' wide section of original pavement in eastern oklahoma. it's location is one of the best kept secrets.
or if you look for old road side attractions, the "blue whale" near catoosa, oklahoma is cool. was closed when we went there in `05. but we got in for photos.
some of the towns in texas have been left like ghosts when rt66 closed and byp***ed them, like this neat brick street between the old one way routes a block apart through this town.
this original rt66 cast concrete bridge is stiil there in what is left of "two guns", az. near the meteor crater.
original pegasus in MO, and more yard ornaments than you can shake a stick at along the side of the road.
just get off the highway as much as possible.... i've done route 66 twice in the corvette, a lot to see, just take your time....
We did it a few years ago. http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=167995&highlight=kuztomklaus
in central missouri near rolla, you can find "johns modern cabins" you have to look pretty hard to find relics from the fifties or before. as others have said - most have been torn down and sadly just don't exist anymore.
see ya always learn something new everyday... that bridge is about an hour from my house... gonna have to go see it.
been there and stood there LOLOLO...there are a few sections of the original road left...most of them look like drive offs to access homes along them...gotta again thanks Randy and Big Jim...never would have found either or section of the "old road".... on another note, my mom and my grandma have told me stories of going from kentucky to cali..via 66..and my grandma stories of the trip prior to 66....funny how now days it's "cool traveling" old 66...granny and mom have the same opinion....better then before 66 exsisted, but still not a "scenic drive"...both agreeded that ya either sweated your **** off or froze it off...lord forbid there would be an accident..delays lasted hours..... still one of my most anticapated sections of my planned cross country drive........
I heard a story about the 9' wide section of the hiway. Okla. officials were given money from the federal govt. to construct a certain number of miles of new hiway. They made it half as wide to stetch the Fed. money. If I remember right there was a concrete curb on both side of the roadway. If you run upon on coming traffic you had to jump the curb.
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