66 By 6
A Sixer motors west on Route 66: Part One

A “beautiful old highway.”

That’s how writer Tom Teague describes America’s first and best superhighway, the concrete ribbon that came to be called America’s Main Street, the highway that’s the best, the place where you could get your kicks. And, most famously of all, the Mother Road.

We’re speaking, of course, of Route 66.

Commissioned by the federal government in 1926 and spearheaded by Oklahoman Cy Avery, U.S. 66 gave America its first transcontinental highway. It stretched some 2400 miles, from Chicago to Los Angeles.

                   Rock Creek Bridge, west of Supulpa, OK

Along the way, this sturdy road allowed tens of millions of Americans to see the real USA instead of the anonymous America of the Interstate system which finally supplanted Route 66 in 1977. A legend in its own time, Route 66 is an icon of 20th Century America, a symbol of an earlier and more personal era of travel which no Interstate will ever replace.

   Route 66 icon: The Blue Swallow, Tucumcari, NM

While Route 66 no longer officially exists, the good news is you can still drive most of the old highway if you know where to look.

                                   West of McLean, TX on Route 66

During my first Route 66 tour in the summer of ‘02, I found a world of driving in which there were no tailgaters or road-ragers. No massive semi-trucks filled my rear view mirror or blocked the way ahead. Instead, light to non-existent traffic let me safely slow down and comfortably cruise the countryside, pull to the side of the road and take a picture, stop at a store where friendly people were glad I dropped in.

                                     The Rock Cafe in Stroud, OK

I found a highway surfaced in original 1930's Portland concrete, with the gentle thump-thump of pavement sections framed by quaint raised edges of the roadway. I found a world of small towns and people of ordinary means who sat talking on their porch in the evening while kids ran barefoot through sprinklers in the yard.

                                          The Big Texan, Amarillo, TX

To my delight, I found myself transported back in time some 50 years to a world of motoring in which the focus was unashamedly the journey and not the destination.

       McLean, TX: 1st Phillips 66 station in Texas

For the driver with a little adventure in his or her soul and a bit of time to spare, Route 66 offers an outstanding driving experience. Its reputation as a freedom road is both deserved and intact. In my case, the few days I spent driving Route 66 in Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico was amply rewarded. Like Tod and Buzz, the heroes (along with their Corvette) of TV’s route 66, I found it easy to get on 66 and hard to get off.

    George Maharis & Martin Milner in Route 66

My personal Mother Road adventure began just south of Tulsa and stretched into two easy days of driving to Tucumcari. Over the next two issues, join me as we settle into the aromatic red leather seats of my silver 633CSi coupe and journey together into America’s past (and present) on the road that refuses to die: Route 66.  -RS

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