r/route66

This was a very interesting part of my journey - one that I will never forget.

first time posting here but I've driven long stretches of "The Mother Road" and been on this sub since I realized it existed. In the Montmartre neighborhood today, in an otherwise normal Parisian cafe, walked down a narrow staircase to use the restroom and came across this.

I wanted to take my daughter on a long roadtrip to visit her dad before she started kindergarten. I was a single parent at the time and was ready to show her the country. We love abandoned places, roadside attractions, and outsider art, so I figured it would be a great time.

I thought I would share some photos. We didn’t complete the whole thing, as that is nearly, if not completely, impossible these days, but we did manage to drive the majority of the road and hit every state.

We did the Illinois —> California route. I went on to visit Las Vegas, Slab City, and Paradise Mountain while she stayed with her dad. I managed to drive some of 66 in California. I didn’t make it to the Santa Monica, but had been there a few times before.

On the way home, my daughter traveled with my parents and I went further south to see Roswell and then had some bizarre and surreal experiences in Arkansas.

Those four weeks were some of the best of my life.

We met so many interesting characters along the way, many of whom allowed me the privilege of photographing them.

Happy to share more photos in the future if anyone is interested.

My favorite experience was in Oatman. I met a wild woman who worked part time as an actor in the Oatman gunfight reenactments. She invited me to her 70s time capsule home, showed me the alligator she recently hunted in Florida, and took me on an ATV ride through the backroads of Oatman to show me murals painted by a psychotic man. No joke. I took a video because I knew most people wouldn’t believe me if I told them.

And yeah, I saw plenty of donkeys, including a pair mating in the middle of the road. Could probably have done without that one.

Route 66 is unforgettable. Happy 100th birthday.

These are some of the beautiful folks I met while traveling Route 66 with my four year old in 2024. They were all kind enough to let me photograph them. I will cherish and remember these faces for the rest of my life.

I am in the process of finalizing our route stops (the plan is to take 4-6 weeks to do the route, camping most of the way in our truck). Which cities are a must-see at night? Basically, which ones are a must for experiencing them at night (for instance those with lots of neon)? I don't want to just pass through them during the day if they are worth seeing at night.

If you travel down Route 66, the 1927 Chain of Rocks bridge is not drivable, but you can walk across and it’s a must see stop in St. Louis.

Also, the Illinois side is close to the Cahokia Indian Mounds.

When I drove down the route a few years ago, I totally missed both of these. (The mounds obviously aren’t directly related to Route 66, but they were basically on the route)

Anyway, you might miss these if you’re just following a map.

The Missouri side has a nice park. The Illinois side has a one-way bridge you have to cross first. You have to wait for the green light to go. You’ll eventually reach a cul-de-sac where you park. I came from the Illinois side and it was slightly confusing, but not too hard to figure out.

Im a local and I just do not like how tourists just do not care and just spray paint everywhere... yoh are only supposed to paint the cars. I was out there for an hour today and told 15 groups of tourists to stop painting the road and the median.

Had so much fun today at the Great Race traveling through kingman. So greatful that I had the opportunity to be here!

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📷: Mama Daze Photography

Here’s some amazing pictures I got on Route 66 🖤

Hi all!

My partner and I are hoping to book our trip VERY last minute and start next week, coming from Europe. Will 2 weeks be enough time to feel like we are actually on a trip and not just driving constantly?

We want to start in chicago with 3 nights there, then stop off at a stop each night until we get to Santa Fe, do 2 nights here, and then continue on staying somewhere along the way every night until we get to LA and spend 2 nights in Santa Monica. I have attached a screenshot of all of the stops we plan.

Does this seem sufficient or should we wait until we have more than 2 weeks to do it?

Also would you make any changes to our itinerary, I'm not set on anything just yet!

For anyone traveling in IL - double check your address for the Wagon. We had to backtrack to find it. There’s no sign or anything at the former location showing where it went. It’s now at 120 N Kickapoo St, Lincoln, IL 62656… hopefully the wheels get on soon!

There is a peculiar alchemy that happens at a small-town farmers market on a Tuesday morning. The week hasn’t quite reached that hump day status nor is the weekend hustle of the big Saturday for local markets.

Tuesday almost seems like it is more for the regulars. Tuesday is for the people who actually need to buy something and not bump elbows and shoulders with the weekend traffic.

Webb City, the State of Missouri sits just outside of Joplin in the southwest corner of the state, close enough to the State of Kansas line that you can feel the geography shifting — the Ozark plateau giving way to the plains, the hardwood timber thinning out.

This isn’t really the type of things you’d see in the glossy Route 66 guidebooks, but that is precisely why it matters. The Mother Road was never really about the landmarks that made it onto the postcards. It was about the ten thousand places in between, the communities that the highway stitched together and that quietly stitched themselves back together when the interstate came through and the through-traffic dried up. Webb City is one of those places.

So is this market. So is Lee Ann Davis.

Click on link for full feature

https://route66americanaarchive.substack.com/p/love-your-pet-on-route-66-the-crunchy