My Route 66 Road Trip

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The best road trips are spontaneous. Well, as spontaneous as they can be. You still need to pack clothes, food and supplies, and travel goods, especially if you plan to camp out, but I digress.

What better trip to take suddenly than a cruise on the good ol’ American highway, Route 66? A route well known for its eccentric attractions like the World’s Biggest Bottle of Ketchup, the Blue Whale of Catoosa, and plenty of outrageous museums.

Personally, I was rooting for a trip down the Oregon Trail, because I’ve always wanted to visit Yellowstone National Park. Did you know there are more than 10,000 hot springs and geysers in the park, including the famous Old Faithful?

But alas, my friends and I settled for the age-old trip down Route 66, to get our kicks. We piled into an old VW bus camper – I know, total cliché. To be honest, I hated that vehicle, but it did afford us plenty of room to move around while on the road, and I’m not a fan of being cramped up for more than 3,000 miles.

Welcome to Route 66

Route 66 runs from the Pacific Coast, starting in Los Angeles and ends in Chicago, Illinois. Today, it’s about 3,297 miles long and takes close to 51 hours at a decent speed. If you stop at one of the many attractions, that’s a different story.

We began our drive in Chicago, and cruised along the roadway with nary an incident, stopping off at various shops, attractions and sideshows along the way. You’d be surprised at how little traffic there is on the road, for such a famous stretch of highway. I mean sure, certain areas can be more congested than others, but it’s a relatively peaceful drive most of the way.

The seclusion is absolutely haunting in places.

The Ghost Town

Since I don’t have time – or the words – to describe the entire trip, I’ll just talk briefly about my favorite stop: Oatman, Arizona. Route 66 is filled with abandoned, so-called “ghost towns” but the most interesting was definitely Oatman. It’s still considered “living” because they have a lot going on there, but most of the buildings, shops, and dwellings are exactly as they were when they were first built.

There are gift shops, of course, where you can purchase different memorabilia from your visit. There are also staged gunfights set to take place throughout your visit, sort of like a small reenactment. Perhaps, the most interesting aspect is that there are wild burros – or mules – wandering through the town of their own accord.

It’s like a veritable treasure trove of ridiculousness.

If you’re a fan of history, you’ll love the place just as much as I did. It’s seeping from every crack and crevasse and there’s so much to take in. There’s enough going on still to keep it mysterious and wonderful, and anyone taking a trip down the historic roadway should take a detour to Oatman.

In the end, we finished our road trip in LA, spent some time taking in the sights and then turned around and went back. It wasn’t so much about the final destination as it was about the trip.

It was definitely worth the journey, especially since we got to make it twice!

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Comments

[BaronBlack]

Awesome!
I love Route 66. I think we missed out on Oatman though, maybe next time!