Route 66 - Remnants of the American Dream

In recent months whilst run­ning tours across Mon­tana and North Dako­ta we remem­bered anoth­er Amer­i­can road trip we ran in 2014 along Route 66 and recalled the neon signs dur­ing the blue-hour and the din­ers that seemed to be fixed in a time when the Amer­i­can Dream was very much alive and kicking.

Being on the road again and speak­ing to the farm­ers and truck dri­vers, the thought of trav­el­ing part of Route 66 again with a tour seemed a very nat­ur­al exten­sion to what we had enjoyed there.

Well, we have decid­ed to go again! we have care­ful­ly retraced our steps, added many more exit­ing loca­tions that we did not have time for when we last vis­it­ed, and hav­ing gone through all this plan­ning, we have the per­fect Route 66 road trip ready to go as promised!
Route 66 was by far one of the most famous high­ways in the world and it orig­i­nal­ly spanned two and a half thou­sand miles from Chica­go to Los Ange­les. Clear­ly, we will not be trav­el­ing the entire route, but we have cho­sen the very best trea­sures that remain today.

We will begin with all of us meet­ing up and begin­ning our adven­ture in Albu­querque before we head east to the aban­doned towns along this stretch of ​“The Moth­er Road” such as Glen­rio and San Jon. We will stay in the amaz­ing town of Tucum­cari for two nights which is still a thriv­ing town lit­tered with rem­nants of the hey­day and where the world-famous Blue Swal­low Motel still wel­comes guests. 

As we trav­el west will stop to pho­to­graph the famous Art Nou­veau style Route 66 Din­er and we will be stop­ping at towns en route such as Grants and Gallup which are lit­tered with old rust­ing clas­sic cars, gas sta­tions, motels and clas­sic Amer­i­can din­ers. We will not be dash­ing through. We will spend time explor­ing these fas­ci­nat­ing places, each of which has its own unique arti­facts, all of which offer a wealth of pho­to­graph­ic oppor­tu­ni­ty. Each day will be packed with char­ac­ter, fun and quite frankly bizarre places, not to men­tion the peo­ple we will meet along the highway.

Towns that are a ​‘must vis­it’ are Hol­brook with the icon­ic Wig­wam Motel which was inspi­ra­tion for the Dis­ney ​“Cars” movie, and of course we will be stop­ping at Winslow which was the inspi­ra­tion for the Eagles song, ​“Take It Easy” which fea­tured the lyrics, ​“Well, I’m stand­ing on a cor­ner in Winslow Arizona”.

There are too many places and sights to men­tion here, but rest assured it will be the trip of a life­time full of expe­ri­ences and one that will con­clude with a night in Las Vegas where we can pho­to­graph the lights of this icon­ic casi­no city. What a road trip this will be vis­it­ing Texas, New Mex­i­co, Ari­zona and fin­ish­ing in Nevada!