ROUTE 66 for TravelTuesday 2020!
It’s the First Tuesday in February!
January is now in the history books.
Football Season is over.
Where do you want to go this year?
Destination Unknown?
Domestic or International?
First Class or Coach?
Planes, Trains, Automobiles, or Boats?
Flying, riding, driving, or cruising?
Do you travel with a group, a spouse, a friend, or go it alone?
Would you like fries with that?
TAKE A ROUTE 66 ROAD TRIP! – “Hit the road Jack!”
START!
Route 66 originally began on Jackson Boulevard at Michigan Avenue in Chicago. (1926)
In 1933, the beginning (and ending) was moved east onto reclaimed land for the Chicago World Fair to Jackson Boulevard and Lake Shore Drive.
In 1955, Jackson Boulevard became a one way street west of Michigan Avenue and Adams Street became westbound US-66. However, the start of US-66 remained on Jackson Boulevard at Lake Shore Drive on Lake Michigan.
Flag of the City of Chicago
Adams Street at Michigan Avenue is currently marked as the starting point (but Route 66 never started there) and the intersection of Jackson Blvd and Michigan Avenue is marked as the end in Chicago.
FINISH!
Route 66 originally ended at 7th and Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles (1926). Now, Route 66 ends at Lincoln Boulevard and Olympic Boulevard in Santa Monica, California.
Flag of the State of California
The “TOURIST ENDING” is the Will Rogers Plaque in the Palisades Park at the intersection of Ocean Avenue and Santa Monica Boulevard and the official “End of the Trail” sign (placed in 2009) at the Santa Monica Pier (opened in 1909).
US Route 66 – established 1926
Route 66
written by Bobby Troup
“If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way, take the highway that is best.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.
It winds from Chicago to LA,
More than two thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.
Now you go through Saint Louis, Joplin, Missouri,
And Oklahoma City is mighty pretty.
You see Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico,
Flagstaff, Arizona. Don’t forget Winona,
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernandino.
Won’t you get hip to this timely tip
When you make that California trip
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.”
Route 66 (United States Highway 66)
aka the Will Rogers Highway, the Main Street of America, or “the Mother Road”
30 hours of driving, 2448 miles, three time zones and 8 (or 9) states,
from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California:
Illinois: Chicago, Pontiac, Lincoln, Springfield (the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln)
Missouri: Chain of Rocks Bridge, St. Louis, The Gateway Arch, Sullivan, the Meramec Caverns, Cuba, Rolla, Springfield
(Kansas): Baxter Springs
Oklahoma: Claremont, Catoosa, the Blue Whale, Tulsa, Sapulpa, Oklahoma City, El Reno, Clinton, the Route 66 Museum, Elk City, the Pony Bridge
Texas: Amarillo, the Cadillac Ranch, Vega
New Mexico: Tucumcari, Santa Rosa, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, the Acoma Pueblo (the oldest inhabited community in North America since 1150), Gallup
Arizona: Lupton, the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest National Park, Holbrook, Winslow, Flagstaff, the Lowell Observatory, William, Seligman, Kingman, Grand Canyon National Park, Oatman
(Nevada): Las Vegas
California: Needles, Joshua Tree National Park, Barstow, the Route 66 Mother Road Museum, Rancho Cucamonga, San Bernadino, Pasadena, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Beverly Hills, the Santa Monica Pier and the Pacific Ocean
Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California!
Your hands upon the wheel
Yeah, we’re going to the roadhouse
Gonna have a real good-time”
– Roadhouse Blues by The Doors
“The Grapes of Wrath” 1939 Film
–
In 1984, the final stretch of US Highway 66 in Arizona was decommissioned after the completion of I-40 north of Williams. The highway was decertified by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation the following year in 1985 and US-66 was officially removed from the map.
GO WEST!
Cyrus Avery, the “Father of Route 66”, created and promoted the highway during his lifetime
The Iconic Volkswagen Microbus!
The VW bus is the brainchild of Ben Pon, a Dutch importer of Beetles to the Netherlands, who saw the market for a small bus and in 1947 sketched out a concept that VW liked.
March 8, 1950 – The Volkswagen Type 2 (or the Transporter) goes into production!
aka VW Bus, Bus, Microbus, “Combi”, “Splittie”, “Bulli”, and Hippie Wagon,
The VW Bus was only the second product made by Volkswagen (the first was the Beetle). In 1972, the VW Beetle passed the Ford Model T and became the world’s best-selling car, with over 15 million automobiles produced.
“Hippie Bus”
Volkswagen, or “People’s Car” (from the German language)
In 1933, Hitler became Chancellor of Nazi Germany. He wanted new roads (the Autobahn) and an inexpensive, fuel-efficient, mass-produced automobile for the people. Ferdinand Porsche, an Austrian engineer, was commissioned to design an affordable small car. In 1938, work began on the Volkswagen factory, located in present-day Wolfsburg, Germany, but full-scale production didn’t begin until after World War II.
Before World War II, it wasn’t called a Volkswagen Beetle but instead was named the KDF Wagen, a reference to the Hitler Youth motto “Kraft durch Freude” or “Strength through Joy.”
Josef Ganz, a German-Jewish engineer developed and patented many concepts for the VW Beetle and his name was removed on purpose by the Nazis. Ganz faced lawsuits over his patents, and a halt to his benefits from his previous employers Mercedes-Benz, Adler and BMW. He lost his position as editor-in-chief of “Motor-Kritik” and the Gestapo arrested him for alleged blackmail of the industry. He was threatened with assassination, forced into exile and forgotten. He died from a heart attack, unmarried and childless, at age 59 in Australia in 1967.
Porsche’s Concept: “A lightweight, inexpensive, streamlined car with independent suspension and swing axles in the rear of the car” – helping navigate “rough roads,”
Allied bombing destroyed most of the VW plant, which produced military vehicles for the Nazis during WWII. After their defeat, the British Government decided the plant would be a benefit for West Germany if it resumed manufacturing the Beetle.
Historic Route 66 – the oldest Route 66 website!
Where Historic Route 66 meets the Internet> https://www.historic66.com
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“The future’s uncertain and the end is always near.
Let it roll, baby, roll – Let it roll, baby, roll
Let it roll, baby, roll – Let it roll, all night long.”
– Roadhouse Blues by The Doors
“Ramming Speed!”
UPDATE: February 8, 2020 – TRAVEL ALERT! NOVEL CORONAVIRUS!
Friends, the Coronavirus World Health Crisis is at Epidemic/Pandemic level and still hasn’t peaked. Please rethink (cancel) any and all travel plans you may have until the emergency is over.
Updated WHO advice about the outbreak of the novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV>
www.who.int/ith/2019-nCoV_advice_for_international_traffic/en/ (Jan 27, 2020)
JoshWillTravel 