Journies of a Lifetime Abroad
Journies of a Lifetime Abroad
Prior to moving to Arizona from Switzerland two years ago, I have spent almost all of my vacation time from 1987-1992 (thanks to 6 weeks vacation time per year and airline benefits) visiting the U.S.A. and taking extensive road trips across the country. I followed the same pattern each time, choosing a bunch of cities from a Rand McNally atlas that are less than a day's drive apart, arranging for a rental car and finding the motels and attractions as I went along. Many great memories, impressions, experiences and photos remain from those days.
Though traveling off the tourist path I often stayed on the interstates between medium-sized cities. I have been on I-40 between Oklahoma and California several times and I have seen the occasional "Historic Route 66" sign along the way when stopping for the night or at a gas station. I had heard of Route 66 before, but at the time just did not know exactly what it was. The signs were there but where was the road? I never quite figured that out at the time and the exact meaning of "Get your kicks on Route 66" eluded me too. I remember browsing through a book in a bookstore, Route 66 - The Mother Road by Michael Wallis, and being fascinated by the pictures, the small towns, the old gas stations, the hamburger joints and the old signs. This was what had always fascinated me on the road too, more than the National Parks, Disneyland and the skyscrapers together!
I finally bought the book last year and the Route 66 mystery started to unfold. My wife and I took a road trip from Phoenix to Detroit last June but due to time concerns had to pass up on most of the "kicks". Now I really wanted to do a Route 66 trip! We set aside the time to make up for it last November and decided to go West on 66 from Flagstaff. We labeled I-40 "the evil road" and corporate fast food and motel chains would be off limits. Regardless of schedule, we would also take the time to stop wherever there was something Route 66 related to see. After all, I had bought my first SLR camera a few months prior and was ready to try it on the road.
So off we went...