Jane E. Fraser

Get your kicks… on Route 66 October 2, 2009

Posted by janeefraser in North America, Travel.
Tags: Arizona, California, Chicago, Kombi, Oatman, road trip, Route 66, Travel, US, USA
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Doesn’t it drive you crackers when a song gets stuck in your head?  Barry Manilow’s Copacabana is one of the worst offenders for me, along with various songs from The Wiggles (it could be worse, I guess, it could be Achy Breaky Heart), but this time it’s “get your kicks, on Route 66″. 

It’s been going around and around in my head the past couple of days and I’d do anything to get rid of it, but it does bring back memories of an amazing road trip…

 

My first taste of Route 66 is indelibly etched in my mind, one of the most enduring memories of a six-month road trip through the United States. Driving through Arizona in a slow but steady old Kombi van, we finally hit an original section of the celebrated and romanticised road that once linked Los Angeles with Chicago.

Everything is as I think it should be. Vast plains of desert stretch away from both sides of the road, giving way to red rocky outcrops and distant mountain ranges. A few towns are dotted along the way, with little more than quaint old petrol stations, old-time garages and those famous roadside signs, stating: “Route 66”.

Already feeling we are in a movie, one so old the screen would be flickering, we drive into a town that could easily be a movie set, with nothing behind the old-time facades.

But while Oatman is close to being a ghost town, it is no movie set. The tiny dot on the map, not far from the Californian border, was once a thriving mining town, with the last mine operating until the 1940s. Hollywood screen stars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard are said to have honeymooned at the Oatman Hotel, which has changed little since their visit in the 1930s, and the entire town is a snapshot of history.

The old wooden buildings include a general store, post office, trading post and theatre, while on the streets roam wild burros (donkeys), which were brought into the area as pack animals by the miners and set loose when the mines closed. The burros, which live in the rugged Black Mountains surrounding Oatman, have now perfected the art of begging from tourists. You can buy carrots and other snacks to give them – but they have been known to bite the hand that feeds them.

Driving out of Oatman in the late afternoon, we are so taken by the Wild West scenery that we decide to “free-camp” in our van on a cliff top, looking down over a dramatic valley. I check the handbrake about a dozen times, such is the extent of the drop below us, but with a glass of wine in hand, watching the sun set over the ranges is truly magnificent.

The morning brings us an equally spectacular sunrise, lighting up the landscape in rich, red tones and rising to give life to an untainted blue sky. We eat our breakfast looking out over the view, without another soul in sight, and feel truly at one with the world.

There is something about Route 66 that gets into people’s hearts and minds. The unforgettable 1946 song, “Get Your Kicks on Route 66”, and numerous movies are no doubt partly responsible, but for many people the route is symbolic of greater things.

For some, it represents the ultimate road trip, traversing the country that made such journeys possible, through the mass production of automobiles. For others, it is an insight into an inspiring era of history, and man’s triumph over distance.

Route 66 was officially commissioned in 1926, under a plan for national highway construction. Its diagonal course across the country created an easy route for the trucking industry and brought transport links to hundreds of rural communities across the country.

Dirt sections were paved by thousands of labourers between 1933 and 1938 and the all-weather road later became crucial to America’s World War II war effort, allowing the fast mobilisation of troops and supplies. After the war, those same troops used the road to relocate from the cold of Chicago and Boston to the warmth of South West, thus giving the road its unofficial “direction”.

One of those travellers was none other than Bobby Troup, the former Marine captain who penned the famous song advising those making “that California trip” to get their kicks on Route 66. The song was released by Nat King Cole in 1946, immortalising the name Route 66 and creating a catch cry for all those making the journey.

Route 66 already had its place in literature, thanks to John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel “The Grapes of Wrath”, in which he coined the term “The Mother Road”. The Mother Road is a name still used in relation to Route 66, along with “Main Street”, which dates back to the time when the road was considered America’s most important thoroughfare.

Route 66 is also occasionally referred to as “The Will Rogers Highway”, leaving many foreigners wondering who Will Rogers was. Rogers, who died in 1935, is well known in America, having starred in 71 cowboy movies and worked as a comedian, radio commentator, author and newspaper columnist.

If you are planning a trip on Route 66, you might be surprised to discover it is not marked on many maps. While there is a cross-country journey generally accepted as Route 66, almost all sections of the original route were superseded by modern interstate highways by the 1970s. The route was officially decommissioned in 1984, when the final section was replaced by an interstate highway, and only sections of the original road remain.

If you dream of doing the great American road trip, you can spend three weeks or more driving 4000 kilometres across eight states from Chicago to Santa Monica in Los Angeles, taking in parts of the original road and linking them with newer roads. The route is commonly accepted to go in this direction, and you will find all the maps and travel information go from east to west, but there is nothing to stop you doing it in reverse.

More realistically, you might want to do a section of the famous route, such as the picturesque drive through Arizona. Several states have preserved parts of the original route, marking them with historical Route 66 markers, and many of the route’s old-time attractions remain.

Along the way, you can expect to find plenty of “only in America” scenes, such as neon-lit motels in the middle of nowhere and old fashioned diners serving burgers, malted milkshakes and other appropriate road-trip food.

You can fill up with petrol – or gas as it is called it in America – at a roadside gas station that has been filling tanks since early last century and chat to people who have lived on the route their whole lives.

The longest remaining stretch of the original road is the one that runs through Oatman. It starts at Seligman, about 70 kilometres west of Flagstaff in Arizona, and ends at Topock, on the Arizona-California border. It covers about 250 kilometres and attracts more than half a million visitors a year, such is the appeal of its history and scenery. The road’s proximity to Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon have also added to its popularity.

There are numerous small sections of Route 66 in Illinois, substantial stretches in Missouri and a large section in Oklahoma, at times running parallel with the interstate highway. A detailed and specialised map is essential to finding these original stretches of road and will also help you track down some of the route’s more wacky attractions, such as the large and far-from-the-sea wooden Blue Whale near Tulsa, in Oklahoma.

Other well-known attractions include the original “Steak ‘n’ Shake” restaurant in the town of Normal, Illinois, the Route 66 Hall of Fame at the Dixie Truckers House in the nearby town of McLean, and the largest (religious) cross in America, by the roadside in Texas. One of the most photographed sights is the Cadillac Ranch in Texas, where a group of artists was somehow possessed to half bury a collection of brightly coloured Cadillacs in a wheat field.

 

Best time to go: Route 66 covers the width of the United States, ensuring a range of weather conditions along the way.  Spring and autumn provide the most comfortable driving conditions. Driving through the desert in summer is not recommended, so it is best to avoid June, July and August. Winter conditions can be chilly, with temperatures dropping well below zero at night.

Further information: For general travel information, go to www.discoveramerica.com.

For information on Route 66, go to the website of the National Historic Route 66 Federation, www.national66.com.

 

Copyright Jane E. Fraser

 

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