May 26, 2007
Beginning with this column, Full Circle will take you during the summer months on an imaginary road trip. We will travel each week from Memorial Day to Labor Day and visit familiar destinations to Baby Boomers as well as some not so commonly seen.
What better way to start on this journey than to travel historic Route 66, the storied Main Street of America, now a pop culture icon and the subject of an array of movies and songs.
Baby Boomers will remember Route 66 well. Our offspring are just discovering it. Come to think of it everyone should discover it or revisit it while they can. Read about it or travel it. Nothing is more a part of our culture than the Mother Road. It is well worth the trip, as the saying goes.
To get you up to speed if you will, U.S. Route 66 was one of the original federal highways and was established in 1926. It ran (before realignment and route changes were made over the years) from Chicago through southern Missouri and a bit of Kansas, through Oklahoma, part of Texas, through New Mexico and Arizona, and finally through southern California.
Familiar road stops along the way from Chicago to California included the cities of St. Louis, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Albuquerque, Gallup, Holbrook, Winslow, Flagstaff, Kingman, Barstow, Los Angeles, and Santa Monica.
The last time I drove the Will Rogers Highway, aka Route 66, was in 2002. My husband and I picked up Route 66 at Tulsa after driving down from Kansas City. Our destination was Flagstaff. I told our kids we would make “Amarillo by Morning”. I do not think they got the connection, and I am not referring to the George Strait tune either.
For many years, travelers driving west on Route 66 set out to make Amarillo by morning.
Most drove all night because of the summer heat. We did not have car air conditioners in the 50’s, as Baby Boomers will no doubt recall. Our parents used water bags tied to the front of the cars as a reserve in case the radiator boiled over. I also suspect that today my grown kids think I am making up these stories.
As children and teens, Baby Boomers traveled Route 66 with their parents on summer vacations. We marveled at the landscape, the number of Chevy pickups in Gallup, New Mexico, and the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest in Arizona. We stopped at the roadside cafes with giant neon billboards that said, “Eats.” We drank grape, orange, or strawberry soda in glass bottles when our Dad stopped for gas, which wasn’t very often. As I recall, we had to drink the soda fast because travelers were told to leave the bottles behind. No cans, no cups, no ice. Try explaining that to your kids and grandkids. Trust me they will look at you with disbelief and a fair amount of disdain. By the way, clean bathrooms along the way were considered a luxury, and I will not even discuss the motels in polite company.
Since I had not traveled Route 66 for some time, I was eager to hear what it is like today.
Recently, three of our sons have driven parts of Route 66 from Kansas City to Flagstaff on different occasions. Listening to their stories takes me back for sure, but I was more interested in new sites that were not there in the 60’s.
Anyway, my travel tip for you, according to the offspring, is this. One must absolutely visit two places along the way that were not there during the heyday of Route 66. These are must-see places according to the boys. My husband and I missed both of these sites on our last trip so you will have to take the word of the young adult travelers.
If you make Amarillo in a decent amount of time, the boys say to stop by the famed Cadillac Ranch where Stanley Marsh III has created an art display representing the “Golden Age” of American automobiles (1949-1963). The graffiti-covered cars are half-buried, nose-down, facing west at the same angle as the Cheops’ pyramids. Visitors are encouraged to bring your own spray paint and add to the graffiti. You can spray paint your name and say you were there!
Well, that is a new one for this purist Route 66 lover.
Then, the sons told me about the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, also not to be missed. For only $72, one can attempt to eat a 72-ounce steak along with a baked potato, salad, roll, and shrimp cocktail. If you can eat the whole darn cow as the saying goes in those parts, you will make it into their Wall of Fame and list of Champions. Then, the steak is free!
Perhaps, we gastrically-challenged Baby Boomers will pass on that one.
Today, tourists from all over the world, travel Route 66 to get a glimpse of the past, see cars buried in the sand, and eat a gigantic steak.
As the song by Bobby Troup goes: “If you ever plan to motor west, travel my way, the highway that’s the best. Get your kicks on Route 66!”
