Inliners International Forums General Discussion Bench racing Route 66

The wife, myself and 2 other couples are planning our summer holiday trip. It's our 40th anniversary so wanted to do something special. Decided on taking a drive down Route 66. Leave from Southern Ontario, over to the beginning in Chicago and drive to the end at Santa Monica. Plan on about 4-5 weeks for the trip out and back. About 6ooo miles looks like. I am looking for any do's and dont's and must see's or waste of time along the way from anybody that has done the whole trip or parts of it................

I've done the whole thing but not in one trip. Read all you can and get the AAA books for each state you pass through. I know it best from Amarillo to around Victorville.
The Big Texan in Amarillo is a kick. Old Town Albuquerque is interesting. Earl's Restaurant in Gallop has local Navajos selling native crafts. Some of it is even Native American crafts. The Meteor Crater in Arizona along with the Grand Canyon, Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest are all worth while. The stretch of Old 66 from Seligman to Kingman is a must and if you can find the old road from Kingman to Oatman that is one my favorite pieces. The unmaintained piece that goes from Goffs to Daggett is lonely. Near Daggett is the Ghost town of Calico restored by Walter Knott (Knott's Berry Farm) and donated as a park. The Giant Jack Rabbit, and lots of museums and other places I have left out. You could spend years, I have and can't wait for the next chance. Good luck and have fun.

Ask a Scotsman. (Or let him tell you)
There are all of Billys episodes on Youtube.
Here is a link to get you started.
CLICK HERE

regards,Rod.

Wow, Those are great ! Thanks Rod, I'm going to watch them all. It is kind of sad that sometimes it takes someone from some where else to to point out the wonder in things we take for granted. When I get my roadster built I would like to take the Lincoln Highway from San Francisco to New York and 66 from Chicago to LA. Maybe something with a top, a heater, and an AC would be better.

Don, When my wife and I returned from the Inliners convention in Nevada we dropped down to take Route 66 home. It was a great fun and want to do it again. There are a lot of must stop and see along the way. But one that I highly recommend is stopping in Pontiac, IL. and take a picture of yourselves in front of the Route 66 Museum. There is a very nice Pontiac (car) museum and a lot of neat painted murals painted on the wall of the building downtown.

Luke

Beater I have traveled the country in a roadster no top and with a top. Some of my best memories are no top travels. I have been wet,sun burned, and wore out from the wind, but man was it fun. I will have to tell you that my wife prefers a top curtains and A/C heat.

First I have to put it together. Evidently I can't talk it together.

I've been out I-40 that runs beside Route 66 most of the way several times when I was a truck driver and always liked the feel of the West once I got out into Oklahoma going toward LA. I'd like to go again to be able to stop and see the sights better.

On our way to a family reunion in Texas I was told by a local in Santa Rosa, New Mexico about an old alignment that wasn't on my map. We went a little way our of town and turned on a gravel road that got smaller and smaller until it was a single track winding across the prairie. Both boys were asleep and our van was a 4X4 so I wasn't worried. We went along two railroad bridges before the road began to widen. We came to a fork in the road where there had been a few businesses. One had been a gas station another a shop and junk yard. There was the front of a '48 Packard poking out of the tall brush. I climbed on top of the van to see over the growth and could see dozens of old cars from the late '30s to the early '60s. There was a ranch house near but no one home. We took the fork that headed back toward I-40 and a few miles later came out in what's left of Glen Rio on the Texas/New Mexico state line. Several years later when my son and I were on his last return trip from Lubbock I took him that way to show him what he had missed. Almost all the cars were gone, probably gathered by whoever has gleaned all the area and stacked them in Moriarty beside I-40.

Just as my fresh College grad son was expressing his doubt that there was any truth in my story and was telling me that there was no way desirable vintage cars could be found so close to I-40 or Route 66 we came on a complete '55, an engineless '57, and a '41' coupe all Chevies sitting in the brush behind an old gas station. There was no one any where around. That was in December 2005. I bet they are all gone now it's big business.

Sounding like 4 or 5 weeks is only going to get us the tip of the iceberg so to speak. Thanks for all the suggestions... still reading and jotting down notes.

Plan as well as you can and realize that your plans will change. Watch the Disney Movie CARS they captured the spirit of Route 66 and worked a lot of 66 icons into the movie. My new favorite parts of Disneyland/California Adventure are Cars Land and Condor Flats. It's worth the price just to see Radiator Springs which seems to be loosely based on Seligman,AZ. One thing that always strikes me is how few vintage cars you see actually driving the Mother Road. My son and I made several trips in his '54 Studebaker and we only saw a hand full of old cars outside of major towns. His Stude was an attraction wherever we went.

Check out the cement arrows, built in the 1920's to direct the first airmail planes. I was just reading about them and have to check it out on my next trip out west.
https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid...&dg=feature

I can't make that work for me. Am I missing something?

Nope. Me neither, so I just googled cement arrows and found the info. Interesting stuff.

Thanks for the link Rod. Real good watch. Have only had time to see one of them so far but will watch them all. Pretty interesting with the cement arrows as well.

There is a lot of cool stuff out west to do and see. Maybe we should start our own Inliners Power Tour and go check them out.

One of the coolest things other than the expanse used to be the neon. My dad would drive straight through with just a couple of naps when my mom drove. That meant we went through a lot of towns at night, Those were the days of black and white TV and still lots of black and white movies. All those bright lights with what looked like moving action were pretty exciting to a car load of dry land farmers. NEON