Route 66

Route 66 is America’s most legendary road. Millions have followed her path from the industrial East to the Golden West. ‘The Mother Road’ is and adventure, and a challenge!

Route 66 consists of several stretches of road that survived their replacement by the interstates. You cannot follow Route 66 from Chicago to Los Angeles without taking an other route or an interstate for some miles. 

If you ever plan to motor west.
Travel my way. Take the highway that is best.
Get your kicks on Route 66.

 

Route 66 per state

Route 66 passes through 8 states and it’s nearly impossible to give you a full overview of all there is to see alongside Route 66. Below you can find all stops Amerika Reis visited during our Route 66 Adventure, nicely arranged per state. By clicking the Route 66 logo of a state you get an overview of all stops in that state.

In these modern times everyone uses a GPS to navigate. We have combined all places we visited in a GPX file. You can use this to plan your trip, but remember to add extra waypoints so your GPS doesn’t just take the fastest way but keeps you on Route 66.

>> Download the GPX-file here

For a complete description of the route we advise you to visit historic66.com. There you’ll find the detailed route description we used for our trip. We can also recommend EZ66, by Jerry Mc Clanahan.

Route 66 Illinois sign
Route 66 Missouri sign
Route 66 Kansas sign
Route 66 Oklahoma sign
Roadtrip Route 66
Route 66 Texas sign
Route 66 New Mexico sign
Route 66 Arizona sign
Route 66 California sign

History

Route 66 was created in 1939 as part of the US highway system and connected Chicago to Los Angeles, a route of over two thousand miles. The ‘Main Street of America’ was the ultimate symbol of freedom. It was a sign of hope for farmers from the Dust Bowl that were looking for a new life.

Lees ook  Route 66 - Arizona

Over the years Route 66 was adjusted and improved. Often the road was rerouted outside of city center to avoid traffic jams. The best known adjustment was moving the end of Route 66 from Downtown Los Angels to Santa Monica. The beginning of the end of Route 66 was the Interstate Highway Act that was signed by President Eisenhower in 1956. Eisenhower wanted more direct connections between cities, like the German Autobahn. On June, 27 1985 US 66 was officially removed from the US highway system. Route 66 was replaced by the modern interstates.

A few years later, in the 90’s, the first Rout 66 associations were established in Arizona and Missouri. They wanted to protect the remaining parts of Route 66. Other states followed and parts of Route 66 re-appeared on maps as Historic Route 66. Since then Route 66 was ‘Alive and kicking’!

 

Route 66 Adventure

Amerika Reis Route 66 Adventure

From July 16th till August 4th the team of Amerika Reis travelled on Route 66. Read our tripreport here!

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