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RCMS 11052012 Route66
- 15. Cherokee Trail of Tears
- 16. Devil’s Elbow Bridge Devil’s Elbow Bridge Big Piney River
- 19. Route 66 Kansas
- 21. Pony Bridge South Canadian River
- 26. John Steinbeck’s epic novel told of the mass migration along Route 66 in the 1930s of families from the “Dust Bowl States” whose livelihood was all but destroyed when devastating dust storms blew in and laid bare arable land.
- 28. Singer/ songwriter Woody Guthrie was born in Oklahoma & became a “dust bowl refugee”. Much of his music reflected the hardship of those impacted by the experience.
- 29. Written in 1951, Jack Kerouac’s seminal work inspired the “beat” generation (and others) to explore the US by road. Route 66 was high on the list for many and this has contributed to the iconic status it enjoys today.
- 34. Texacola
- 40. Amarillo Texas
- 48. Window Rock
- 51. Arizona
- 52. Route 66 Arizona
- 56. Painted Desert
- 59. Petrified Forest
- 63. Meteor Crater
- 64. Arizona Desert
- 66. Oak Creek Canyon
- 68. Sedona
- 69. Grand Canyon
- 73. You’ll find God in the church of your choice, You’ll find Woody Guthrie in the Brooklyn State Hospital And though it’s only my opinion I may be right or wrong You’ll find them both In the Grand Canyon at Sundown. Bob Dylan 1962
- 80. Arizona Hills
- 81. Oatman, Arizona
- 83. Hoover Dam
Editor's Notes
- Route 66 extends from Chicago to LA. It runs through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. Variety Across America did not include California, it peeled off at the state line &headed north to Las Vegas, Nevada. Route 66 was developed in the 1920s as the main highway to the American west coast. It became iconic as the main road link across the US. It was critical to the development of California and the west coast states. In the fifties a modern US Interstate Highway system was developed and the significance of Route 66 diminished. Towns and cities that depended on through traffic on Route 66 for their livelihood began to die. Route 66 became a byway, not a highway. More recently there have been efforts to preserve the history of Route 66 &for this reason many travel Route 66 each year reliving another era &another time.
- Equipped with satellite navigation. Also UHF and cell phones.
- Chicago, on the shores of Lake Michigan. Third largest urban area in the US, behind New York and LA. The population of greater Chicago is about eight million.
- Chicago has stylish architecture complemented by wonderful street scapes and sculptures. It is known for its skyscrapers (cloudbusters originally), including the tallest in the US, Sears Tower now officially know as the Willis building. Beds of tulips decorate many of the streets, including Michigan Avenue or the Marvellous Mile– the main shopping district through Chicago.
- A section of Route 66 with original brickwork
- Route 66 icons including murals, restored gas stations and stores filled with memorabilia.
- St Louis and its famous arch – reflecting the city’s significant role in and linking the eastern states to the west. St Louis was a key point for the push west which was instrumental in the development of prosperity in the US in the 1800s. The explorers & US folk heroes Merriwether Lewis and William Clark began their epic journeys to the west coast from St Louis, the first Americans to do so.
- The Missouri Route 66 moves into the Ozarks, heavily wooded limestone hills and mountains.
- Restored trading post. This is Cherokee land.
- Back in the 1830s the Cherokees, and some other Native American groups, were forced out of their traditional lands to the south and east and were forced to move north along what became known as the Trail of Tears. The Trail of Tears retains historical significance & passes through this general area .
- The historic Devils Elbow bridge, with its two steel through truss sections, crosses the Big Piney River. It was built in 1923. Devil’s Elbow is named because a turn in the nearby Big Piney River, caused numerous log jams for lumberjacks moving logs downstream to the old saw mills that operated in the Ozarks.
- The resored Gay Parita Sinclair station at Paris Springs. Gary Turner built this beautiful gas station on the site of a long-gone station, named for the builder's wife. He welcomes visitors with numerous stories about Route 66. He is typical of those committed to preserving historic aspects of Route 66.
- Vintage vehicle are kept on the site
- 13 miles through run down corner of Kansas
- Typical of Route 66 in Oklahoma
- There are numerous bridges along the route of different designs. Note State of Road
- Roadside murals are a feature.
- Oklahoma lies at the heart of the so called “Dust Bowl”, the areas in the American mid west devastated by violent wind storms in the 1930s which forced many from the land. The story was immortalised in John Steinbeck’s epic “The Grapes of Wrath” - which recorded the mass migration along Route 66 by those seeking a better life in California. Steinbeck designated Route 66 the Mother Road & the name stuck. He wrote: “Route 66 is the path of the people in flight, refugees from dust and the twisting winds that howl up from Texas that bring no richness to the land and steal what little richness is there. These people are in flight, and they come into 66 from tributary side roads. From the wagon tracks and the rutted country roads. Route 66 is the Mother Road, the road of flight.”
- The pictures from the 1930s shows how tough the journey was. This is an important part of the American story.
- The celebrated folk singer, Woody Guthrie, saw himself as a Dust Bowl Refugee. Woody, well known for songs such as “This Land Is Your Land”, was born in Oklahoma and his family was victim of the dust storms that swept the mid west in the thirties. He wrote of the experience in his music, including “So long its been good to know yuh!” Well the dust storm came, it came like thunder It dusted us over, it dusted us under; It blocked all the traffic and blocked out the sun, And straightway for home all the people did run So long, it's been good to know yuh; So long, it's been good to know yuh; So long, it's been good to know yuh. But this dusty old dust is a-gettin' my home And I've gotta be driftin' along.
- Kerouac’s seminal work introduced the bat generation and many others to the joys of being on the Road, ncluding Route 66
- The faces of middle America – the real America (not Manhatten, Rodeo Driver or Fisherman’s Wharf). All with an interest in the preservsation of R66 and its heritage. Engaging. A privilege to meet and talk with them.
- Self confessed redneck Harley, a character from Erick Oklahoma
- Many of the towns by passed by the US Interstate Highway system have all but died and Texacola, on the border between Oklahoma and Texas is an example of one of them.
- Interstate 40, the replacement for much of Route 66 has rolled over the top of the old highway in the wide open spaces of the Texas panhandle, the section of land in the north west corner of the Lone Star State. NB old R66 to the right of the interstate.
- Route 66 is mecca for bikers.
- A feature of Route 66 is the car yards and museums along the way with vehicles from another era. These were the sorts of vehicles that travelled on Route 66 in its hey day.
- And nearby a graveyard for Cadillacs, all half buried. Who knows why. Its a sort of Texas thing! They comprise a work of art. Graffitti encouraged.
- Strange happenings in Amarillo. 30 oz beers and 72 oz steaks.
- New Mexico and high plains country
- Albuquerque and a restored diner.
- Icons of the 1950s
- Icecream sundaes
- In (old) Albuquerque, Mexican influence. Adobe style buildings. Note the chillies hanging from the verandah.
- Much of New Mexico in Navajo land. In fact the story of the Native American people is well in evidence along many parts of Route 66.
- Window Rock is the seat of the Government for the Navajo nation. Spiritual significance for the Navajo people
- Native American Trading Posts.
- Arizona – spectacular with rocky buttes and mesas, mountains and canyons, and desert
- Under the inerstate
- Under the Sante Fe and Burlingham railway
- Burlingham North and Santa Fe Railway More than a kilometre long, eastbound, westbound Huge volumes of cargo.
- The Painted Desert derives its name for the multitude of colours ranging from lavenders to shades of gray with colours of red, orange and pink. It is an expanse of badlands and buttes and although barren and austere, it is a beautiful landscape of a rainbow of colours.
- The petrified forest has its origins more than 200 million years ago. These logs were buried beneath layers of silt, mud, sand and volcanic ash and were protected from decay. Mineral laden ground water percolated through the layers of sediment saturating the dead wood. The result is what is called agatised wood.
- Standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona A girl my lord in a flatbed ford Slowing down to take a look at me! The Eagles
- Meteor Crater,in the Arizona desert not far from Winslow, is 50,000 years old. The object that excavated the crater was a nickel-iron meteorite about 50 metres across. The meteorite itself was mostly vaporized; very little of the meteorite remained within the pit that it had excavated. Not as large as Wolf Creek Crater in the Kimberly, but far better defined and developed for sightseeing. Impressive.
- The view from the rim of Meteor Crater with the wide open spaces of the Arizona desert & distant snow clad peaks. (San Francisco Peaks)
- Awesome.
- Supper on the rim.
- You’ll find God in the Church of your choice You’llfind Woody Guthrie in the Brooklyn State Hospital And its only my opinion I might be right or wrong You will find them both in the Grand Canyon at sunset. Bob Dylan from last thoughts on Woody Guthrie.
- A classic diner at Williams in Arizona. Note car on roof.
- Memorabilia and corrugated iron walls remind travellers of earlier days on Route 66.
- Route 66 continues westwards from Williams. Road Kill Cafe
- Images from Route 66
- The road to Oatman – remote, isolated and twisting and winding through the Arizona hill country.
- Oatman is preserved as a cowboy town.
- Donkeys (burros) roam in the streets
- The Hoover Dam, once known as Boulder Dam, is a concrete arch-gravity dam across the Colorado River, on the border between Arizona and Nevada. It was constructed between 1931 and 1936 during the Great Depression. Its construction was the result of a massive effort involving thousands of workers, and cost over one hundred lives. The dam was named in honour of President Herbert Hoover.
- Las Vegas. 2,500 miles from Chicago. End of the journey.