Route 66

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Route No: 66

Finally I came out with my next plan. Yes, after Euro Trip this will be my next dream on which I will be working now. It may be sounding weird to many about wtf is Route 66. So I will be telling you everything about it.

This route has already been abolished after introduction of Interstate Highway System. But still I feel the road trip is still worth to take.

History (As Per Wikipedia)

U.S. Route 66 (US 66 or Route 66), likewise known as the Will Rogers Highway and colloquially known as the Main Street of America or the Mother Road, was one of the original highways within the U.S. Highway System. Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year.  It was recognized in popular culture by both the hit song “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” and the Route 66 television show in the 1960s.

Route 66 served as a major path for those who migrated west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and it supported the economies of the communities through which the road passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive in the face of the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.

Why Route No: 66

In U.S. highways have numbers. East West roads are even numbered and North South roads are odd numbered. The promoters of the route (such as Cyrus Avery in OK and his counterpart in the state highway department in MO) wanted to number it as “route 60” but a rival east-west highway through Kentucky got that number. They could’ve tried to get 62 or 64 but 66 sounded more immediately recognizable (with the repeated digits) so they took it. So this is how this Route called as Route 66.

States through which it passes

Illinois-Missouri-Kansas-Oklahoma-Texas-New Mexico-Arizona-California

Total Distance

	mi[9]	km
California	314	505
Arizona	401	645
New Mexico	487	784
Texas	186	299
Oklahoma	432	695
Kansas	13	21
Missouri	317	510
Illinois	301	484
Total	2,448	3,940

Time Zones you will crossed

Illinois-Missouri-Kansas-Oklahoma-Texas

New Mexico

Arizona-California

Options to spend night (As per national66.org)

The evolution of tourist-targeted facilities are well represented in the roadside architecture along U. S. Highway 66. For example, most Americans who drove the route did not stay in hotels. They preferred the accommodations that emerged from automobile travel – motels. Motels evolved from earlier features of the American roadside such as the auto camp and the tourist home. The auto camp developed as townspeople along Route 66 roped off spaces in which travellers could camp for the night. Camp supervisors – some of whom were employed by the various states – provided water, fuel wood, privies or flush toilets, showers, and laundry facilities free of charge.

The national outgrowth of the auto camp and tourist home was the cabin camp (sometimes called cottages) that offered minimal comfort at affordable prices. Many of these cottages are still in operation. Eventually, auto camps and cabin camps gave way to motor courts in which all of the rooms were under a single roof. Motor courts offered additional amenities, such as adjoining restaurants, souvenir shops, and swimming pools. Among the more famous still associated with Route 66 are the El Vado and Zia Motor Lodge in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Immediately that the highway has celebrated its 89th birthday, its contribution to the country must be judged in the wider setting of American societal and cultural history. The appearance of U.S. Highway 66 on the American scene coincided with unparalleled economic strife and global instability, yet it hastened the most comprehensive westward movement and economic growth in United States history. Like the former, long-gone trials of the nineteenth century, Route 66 helped to spirit a second and possibly more permanent mass relocation of Americans. We only hope it does not meet the fate of these once-famous eateries.

Help us keep this priceless part of America before it becomes just a computer storage.

 

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