Route 66

66

Final Summer Road Trip 2019!

Fun Story…I was at The Great Sand Dunes swimming pool a couple weeks ago and heard some people speaking French, and I found out they were from Paris, France, visiting the United States to experience the famous Route 66. I laughed and said “Is this actually a thing??” And the woman said “Apparently it is!” The two families flew in to Chicago from Paris, rented a van, and will leave from L.A. to go back home.

When you hit the Texas panhandle in Amarillo, don’t forget Cadillac Ranch with your spray paint so you can leave your mark on these vintage antique cars.

In the 1950s, US 66 became the main highway for vacationers heading to Los Angeles. The road passed through the Painted Desert and near the Grand Canyon. Meteor Crater in Arizona was another popular stop. This sharp increase in tourism in turn gave rise to a burgeoning trade in all manner of roadside attractions, including teepee-shaped motels, frozen custard stands, Indian curio shops, and reptile farms. Meramec Caverns near St. Louis, began advertising on barns, billing itself as the “Jesse James hideout”. The Big Texan advertised a free 72-ounce (2.0 kg) steak dinner to anyone who could consume the entire meal in one hour. It also marked the birth of the fast-food industry: Red’s Giant Hamburg in Springfield, Missouri, site of the first drive-through restaurant, and the first McDonald’s in San Bernardino, California. Changes like these to the landscape further cemented 66′s reputation as a near-perfect microcosm of the culture of America, now linked by the automobile.

Best Songs of Route 66

The Great Sand Dunes Swimming Pool

Route 66

Cadillac Ranch

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