Random Sites Along Route 66

[4 cam tbird]

Last week we took a trip through South Dakota, to Denver and down to New Mexico and then drove back along parts of old Route 66. Lots of old gas stations, both restored and unrestored. Some entire towns that are ghost towns or nearly there. Lots of interesting stuff to see. We only had 3 days to get from New Mexico to Detroit so we stayed on the interstate more than I would have really liked, someday I'll go check out more of it for sure.

The Gallery:
http://www.1320video.com/gallery/album175?page=6

Highlights

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Largest Cross in the Western Hemisphere...and a bird!:headscrat

Leaning (Water) Tower of Groom - it was built like this on purpose

If you've seen Cars, this'll look familiar. All places and personalities in Cars are based on real people and places along Route 66.

Bad ass solid example of an old motel. Saw a few of these that were totally crumbling. This one was still pretty intact and even has some cars in the car ports. Tried to get closer pics of the cars but about got attacked by a guard dog!

Restored gas station/Packard Service Station

Not so restored gas station that appears to have gone on to serve other purposes for a while.

Cool old bridge

Another old restored gas station, home of THE tow truck that inspired Tow Mater

Cool old building across the street, owner of the gas station said the owner of this building is working on funding to restore it, side is the basis for the ghost writing scene in cars.

Story is this is an old brothel, the owner of the gas station owns it now and is going to rebuild it to a bed and breakfast

Carthage, MO - this is actually off the route but you could see this building from the route and we wanted a closer look

The Arch, not sure this is on the Route either, but we went to see it. After this we left Route 66 and went over to Indy.

 

[Golden]

Awesome pics! That is a trip that I would LOVE to take. It would be awesome to pack into a Suburban with a big group and just go.

 

[4 cam tbird]

Yeah, after doing that part i would love to start in Chicago and go all the way to LA exploring some of the route variations (it changed over time). We had a great book, the EZ guide to Route 66 I think it was called plus a map set called Route 66: HERE IT IS! They were like $30 combined on Amazon. Had lots of great facts and tips and explanations of the route and when it changed and how and how to follow every variation of it and how to spot some things that can't be exactly followed at all. Like one spot in Oklahoma or Texas where the electric poles stray away from the road, it said the road used to be where the electric poles.

It would take a couple weeks to go from Chicago to LA and really see everything well (obviously you can only drive in daylight to see stuff). We skipped through real fast in our 3 days and were on the interstate quite a bit really. Tulsa to Springfield, MO we were solid on Route 66 the whole time though. A lot of times Route 66 is actually just the frontage road on the interstate but even when that is the case you miss things from the interstate.

 

[ibmgto]

I did the whole thing on a motorcycle a couple of years ago, awesome trip and a great way to see the country.

 

[91Notch]

great pix thanks for sharing +1

 

[jimmyj2000]

great pix thanks for sharing +1

Yeah, no doubt. I would love to take that trip someday. But then, it is kind of sad actually, to see that much of this country's history rotting away like that.

 

[4 cam tbird]

The Kansas part where an effort is being made to preserve everything is pretty cool, but a lot of it is pretty sad. The part through Texeola and Erick Oklahoma (near TX panhandle) is labeled as I-40 Business, which is very misleading because I don't recall seeing a single open business there. There are lots of thriving Route 66 towns though still, but even in them you still see lots of abandoned buildings. The ones that are thriving are typically still direstly on or closer to current I-40 though, not sure if they are still there because of I-40 or if I-40 was built near them because they were still there.

 

[SSunset]

very cool

 

[COBRA90GT]

Sweet pics - looked like a fun trip.

 

[jdustu]

Very cool dude.

The CARS stuff is pretty cool, one more reason Pixar is the best.

Darla and I took a lot of this route exactly 8 years ago when we drove back to California after our wedding.

 

[JoeliusZ28]

very cool pictures +1

 

[chacho44]

i did the whole thing on a motorcycle a couple of years ago, awesome trip and a great way to see the country.

pitstop!!!!

 

[cASe SenSiTive]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing.
A Route 66 trip is on my bucket list.

 

[DeFormula]

Very cool. I was actually born on route 66 in Arizona in 1960 (Mojave County General hospital in Kingman). The population of the state was about 1/10th of what it is now.

 

[nuttsgt]

Nice pics man.

Notice the 4 women on route 66 gas station, it has a snack shack ? Hmmmm?