On Route 66

PROLOGUE

PROLOGUEIt was only a road. But... what a road. Route 66 was the first of its kind. A kind of continental avenue, a two-lane stretch of highway birthed on the south shore of Lake Michigan, concluding at the Pacific. As the railroad had linked the United States in the late 1800s and opened up the west to settlers, Route 66 too opened the west — mainly California — to the automobile traffic of the new century. Completed in 1926, Route 66 ran from Chicago to Los Angeles, over 2400 miles of sightseeing adventure through the Ozarks, the bald prairie, farmers’ fields, rock, and desert. It covered eight states and three time zones. The Land of Lincoln. The Show Me State. Bloody Kansas. The Lone Star State. The High Country. The Mojave Desert. People packed up and left the east. Next stop, the Sunshine State. Paved completely by 1938, U.S. Route 66 had reached a new plateau and became a fully-modern federal highway.

The entrepreneurs came in droves and built their businesses along the highway. Diners, motels, reptile ranches, fireworks shops and maple syrup stands. The gas companies put up their filling stations. All to service the traveling public. The 1950s saw the heyday of U.S. Route 66. The era spawned faster cars and more time on peoples’ hands. Meanwhile... in Washington, President Dwight D. Eisenhower — elected in 1953 — brought to mind the four-lane German autobahn he had seen while stationed in Europe as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces during World War II. In his first White House term, he introduced legislation that would set the gears in motion for contractors to construct a series of four-lane superhighways linking the west to the east, as well as the north to the south. It was the beginning of the end of Route 66. The interstates came, and by 1984 the last stretch of the ol’ 66 was decertified.

Over the years Route 66 has been immortalized three specific times. First, the 1940s Grapes of Wrath movie referred to it as the Mother Road, the roadway to the land of milk and honey... that is California. Second, in song written by Bobby Troup in 1946 and recorded numerous times since. And third, the Route 66 television series starring Martin Milner, George Maharis, and later Glenn Corbett.

To this day, Route 66 is remembered fondly by those who drove it. Greasy hamburgers in diners, the snowstorms through the mountain passes, the towns along the way and the Pacific Ocean at the west end of it all. Although most of it can still be driven, the road is not found on any road map. Locals only know it as Historic Route 66. Gone, but not forgotten. However, organizations are keeping the memory of the Mother Road alive in the eight states that had seen its traffic from the beginning.

This book is dedicated to the legendary road. It’s a book about people. People on the move. On Route 66 is a series of short stories that cover that great and wonderful era in the good ol’ US of A, when the open road brought something new, exciting, and magical around every corner and bend. Everyone always wants to see what’s on the other side of the hill.