Jennifer’s Note (June 2021)

The posts that follow document my very first trip on Route 66 in August 2000. At the time, I created a standalone website dedicated to that trip, which included daily travel logs, planning notes, resources, and trip preparation details.

As my travels continued over the years, the website evolved considerably. I later created a separate website documenting my future husband’s travels. When we married, the two sites were merged and eventually became Road Trip Memories, which ultimately transitioned into the blog format you see today.

Much of the information on that original site from more than twenty years ago is now outdated. As I repost these trip reports, I will be updating the material to keep it relevant today—adding current links and resources while removing some of the more detailed planning information that was originally included.Online gaming becomes more flexible when a casino offers several entertainment styles while keeping the journey through its lobby straightforward. A visit to https://live-baccarat-online-australia.com/fairgo-baccarat-review/ gives players a direct way to explore another digital casino environment and see what stands out. Combining familiar favourites with new discoveries can give each casino visit a slightly different rhythm and sense of variety.

The goal of this blog is not to serve as a comprehensive Route 66 travel guide. Rather, it is primarily a place where we document our own travels and experiences. That said, I will include helpful resources on the Links page for those interested in planning their own Route 66 adventures. There are far more resources available today than there were when I first began researching this trip.

Over the coming months, I will be reposting the daily travel logs from that first journey.

The Inspiration

My fascination with Route 66 began in 1993, when I purchased Michael Wallis’s outstanding book Route 66: The Mother Road. I was especially captivated by the photographs taken by his wife, Suzanne Wallis, which captured the character of the road and the small towns along it.

Living in the Northeast, abandoned buildings and historic roadside structures rarely remain for long. Prime real estate is usually redeveloped quickly, and even non-prime areas often see buildings demolished and left vacant rather than preserved. Seeing so many historic roadside places still standing along Route 66 was fascinating to me.

In 1994, Michael and Suzanne Wallis released a companion video, Journey Down Route 66. I happened to notice it in the Harriet Carter catalog—among the usual assortment of household gadgets—and decided to order it. Watching that video deepened my interest in the road and made me even more determined to someday travel it myself.

Unfortunately, circumstances didn’t allow me to make the trip for quite some time. But by August 2000, it finally became a reality.

Tracing Route 66

Since Route 66 was officially decommissioned as a U.S. Highway in 1985, following the road can be confusing.

In some places the route is marked as a state highway with the number 66. In other areas it appears simply as a local road, another highway designation, or even just a frontage road along the Interstate. In many locations there are also multiple historical alignments—older sections, loops through towns, or stretches that were bypassed entirely when the Interstate system was built.

In some places the Interstate was paved directly over the old Route 66 alignment, leaving only fragments of the original road behind.

Because of all this, navigating Route 66 can be challenging. Fortunately, thanks to the work of Route 66 historians and researchers—many of whom spent countless hours studying old maps and early guidebooks such as Jack Rittenhouse’s Guide Book to Highway 66—the route has been carefully traced and documented.

Today travelers can follow Route 66 using a variety of books, guides, and maps. In my experience, having these resources is essential for successfully navigating the road.

Route 66 Resources I Used

For this trip I relied on several excellent guides:

Illustrated Guidebook to the Mother Road

by Bob Moore and Patrick Grauwels

(photos by Yannis Argyropoulos)

This was my primary guide for the trip. It provides detailed, turn-by-turn directions along the entire route, along with stories and notes about many of the roadside attractions.

The book is excellent overall, though navigating cities can occasionally be tricky because not every local street is described in detail. There are also a few typographical errors, some of which involve directions. In my trip narrative I noted a few of these spots.

Here It Is! – The Route 66 Map Series

These maps provide clear route diagrams along with text directions and overlays showing the relationship between Route 66 and the modern Interstate system. They were extremely helpful for maintaining a visual sense of where the road ran relative to the Interstate.

Route 66 Traveler’s Guide and Roadside Companion

by Tom Snyder

Another excellent resource. The directions are somewhat less strict than the Moore guidebook, but the book contains great maps and plenty of entertaining stories and historical notes about places along the route.

During the trip itself I also purchased a colorful folding map titled Historic Route 66, which shows the route in red and clearly labels the streets that form the route through cities. It quickly became one of my most-used resources and is quite dog-eared today.

Finally, I carried AAA state maps for each state along the route. These included city maps that proved extremely helpful when navigating larger cities such as St. Louis, Springfield (Illinois and Missouri), Amarillo, and especially Los Angeles.

Time Considerations

The entire point of traveling Route 66 is not to “make time.”

If my goal had simply been to reach Los Angeles quickly, I could have driven the Interstate at 75 miles per hour—or better yet, flown directly there.

Instead, the goal of this trip was to experience the road itself: the towns, the roadside attractions, the landscapes, and the people along the way.

I found it surprisingly difficult to determine how much time was truly needed to travel the full length of the route at a pace that still allowed time to enjoy the journey. That’s understandable—everyone travels differently. Some people spend hours exploring small towns and museums, while others prefer to cover more distance each day.

For my trip, I had two weeks available—15 days total, from Saturday, August 12 through Saturday, August 26, 2000.

My plan was to:

• Drive Route 66 east to west, following the historical direction
• Complete the drive in 12 days
• Spend two days sightseeing in Los Angeles
• Fly home on the final day

In practice, 12 days proved to be a reasonable minimum for driving the route while still stopping to see many of the attractions along the way. Even so, I still had to keep an eye on the schedule.

In the daily trip logs you’ll see both my planned driving schedule and the actual mileage and travel times. For the most part I stayed close to my planned schedule, though there were a few days where things didn’t go exactly as planned.

Getting There

Travel logistics depend heavily on personal circumstances.

Because I was living in Connecticut, and because of the time limitations of my trip, the most practical plan was to:

1. Fly to Chicago
2. Rent a car
3. Drive Route 66 one way to Los Angeles
4. Return the car at LAX
5. Fly home

This approach made the most efficient use of the time I had available.

Costs

Airfare

I flew with Southwest Airlines, traveling from Bradley International Airport in Connecticut to Chicago Midway.

For the return trip I flew Los Angeles (LAX) to Bradley, connecting in Nashville.

Total airfare in August 2000:

$338 per person

Rental Car

Many Route 66 travelers drive their own vehicles—including RVs, motorcycles, or even classic cars—from home to the start of the route. Because I was flying to Chicago, I needed to rent a car.

While renting a classic car would certainly have been fun, practicality won out. After comparing several companies, National Car Rental offered by far the best price for a one-way rental.

My rental:

• Compact car (Chevy Cavalier)
• Pick-up: Chicago Midway Airport
• Drop-off: LAX
• Rental period: two weeks

Base cost: $871

Final total with taxes and fuel option: $923

Other rental companies quoted similar weekly rates, but then added one-way drop fees of around $1,000, making the total cost far higher.

During the trip I also had to replace a tire in Kingman, Arizona after a gas station attendant noticed a one-inch split in the sidewall. National instructed me to replace it and assured me they would reimburse the cost. Fortunately, the reimbursement was handled automatically when I returned the car—no paperwork required.

Lodging

There are plenty of good, clean, and affordable places to stay along Route 66.

Here are the places I stayed during the trip:

• Aug 12 – Innkeeper Motel, Hamel, Illinois
• Aug 13 – Super 8 Motel, Eureka, Missouri
• Aug 14 – Rest Haven Court, Springfield, Missouri
• Aug 15 – Super 8 Motel, El Reno, Oklahoma
• Aug 16 – Motel 6, Amarillo, Texas
• Aug 17 – Blue Swallow Motel, Tucumcari, New Mexico
• Aug 18 – Leisure Lodge Motel, Grants, New Mexico
• Aug 19 – Super 8 Motel, Winslow, Arizona
• Aug 20 – Route 66 Inn, Williams, Arizona
• Aug 21 – Motel 6, Needles, California
• Aug 22 – Days Inn, San Bernardino, California
• Aug 23–25 – Wyndham Hotel, Los Angeles (LAX)

The LAX hotel was booked through Priceline, which secured a great rate of $40 per night.

This was the beginning of a journey I had dreamed about for years. What followed would be twelve days traveling the length of Route 66, discovering the towns, people, and roadside history that make the road so special.

The daily travel logs from that first trip will follow in the posts ahead.