Posted on 04/01/2012 7:01:15 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Many Americans can’t remember a time before the interstate-highway system streamlined cross-country travel into more-or-less straight, convenient grooves across the United States.
And those are many of the same people who might have traveled the famous, winding Route 66 from the Midwest, across the Great Plains and deserts of the Southwest, and ultimately to California. They’re also the same generation who dreamed about the open road to the lyrics of the song, (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66, first recorded by Nat King Cole:
It winds from Chicago to LA,
More than two thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks on Route 66.
And now, a bit of research partially funded by the American Express Foundation sheds new light not only on the historic importance of what’s known as America’s Mother Road but also on the economic contributions that travel on – and fascination with – Route 66 still make to the economies of the towns and cities along its route.
“This research really showed the potential that Route 66 offers to preserve our cultural heritage, and we look forward to seeing this research create new ways for historic places to drive economic prosperity,” Timothy J. McClimon, president of the foundation, said in a press release.
The song itself supplies the names of many of the places that still benefit from Americans’ nostalgic, vestigial curiosity about Route 66, which traversed parts of seven states:
Now you go through Saint Looey,
Joplin, Missouri,
And Oklahoma City is mighty pretty.
You see Amarillo,
Gallup, New Mexico,
Flagstaff, Arizona.
Don’t forget Winona,
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino.
Route 66 served as a major path for westward migration during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s and afterward. In addition to the song penned in 1946 by Bobby Troup and performed the same year by
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
I always forget winola. Nobody goes though Bagdad any more, Yes there is no “h”.
The TV ahow was great, too. Dark noir on the road with Buzz and Tod.
I live less than a mile off RT66 in NM. Drive on it every day!
I only hear Depeche Mode.
I’ve been a fan of Route 66 for a long time.
“The Rolling Stones” also did a version of the famous Nat King Cole Song in the 1960’s.
Also, there is a Route 66 restaurant in Bar Harbor, Maine of all places.
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino.
I wondered why Bobby Troup crafted the names of those last three towns in a descending musical scale, and then found out why: each town is (roughly) 1,000 feet lower in elevation in the order named as you travel west.
I like the idea of a JaguarXKE on a NM road.
Radical contrast.
Excellent.
There is a Baghdad Cafe on the road between Damascus and Palmyra ,Syria. It even has some signs out front that say “Route 66”.
Who would have thought that..Though I did not see Todd Stiles or Buzz !!!
Before I-40 through the Mojave Desert opened in 1973 or ‘74 I used to stop at the Bagdad Cafe along 66. Sign on the door said “No shoes, No shirt, no service and No Hippies.”
I was just at the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma the other day, but most of it is closed to the public as they are in the process of expanding the facility.
I was just at the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma the other day, but most of it is closed to the public as they are in the process of expanding the facility.
I was just at the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Oklahoma the other day, but most of it is closed to the public as they are in the process of expanding the facility.
I used to love driving my Tacoma out on 66 from Barstow to Amboy, Essex, and Goffs. At night the sky is lit up like a Christmas tree and the air is warm enough to put a rollout and a sleeping bag and just sleep somewhere off the road. No cops, no cars, just nothing.
Don’t piss off Roy in Amboy though.
>>I used to love driving my Tacoma out on 66 from Barstow to Amboy, Essex, and Goffs. At night the sky is lit up like a Christmas tree and the air is warm enough to put a rollout and a sleeping bag and just sleep somewhere off the road. No cops, no cars, just nothing.
>>Don’t piss off Roy in Amboy though.
By the way if any of you Freepers are in So-cal and have a 4 wheeler, go ahead and take some back roads out there in a group in case on car fails. My friend and I used to do that out on Sunflower Springs Road, and nothing would engage a ladies heart like a trip out to Goff’s dunes and then a shot up 95 to Las Vegas for the night or out to Lucerne Valley and up to Big Bear for a winter night by the fire in Big Bear. Damn I used to live such a life.
Also, don’t go near Cadiz, they have an agricultural station straight out of “The Andromeda Strain” with SUV’s patrolling everywhere.
Cadiz was originally a railroad depot in the 1880s. Haven't been there since the '70s when we used to camp out in the desert near there, hunting for old desert relics and shooting our .22s. Good times.
>>Also, don’t go near Cadiz, they have an agricultural station straight out of “The Andromeda Strain” with SUV’s patrolling everywhere.
>Cadiz was originally a railroad depot in the 1880s. Haven’t been there since the ‘70s when we used to camp out in the desert near there, hunting for old desert relics and shooting our .22s. Good times.
Yeah, just about every other weekend I was out in the desert camping or giving some young lady the grand tour. The California desert is a great place to kiss all those ignorant, overpopulated areas in LA goodbye for a night and sleep in pure silence. I loved the fact that there are no cops on Route 66. They’re either near Barstow or Needles, but never on Route 66. My friends and I climbed Amboy Crater numerous times and carried the salt back from Amboy and dissolved it, evaporated it, and used it for cooking.
Man, it takes me back to my college days.
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