What to see on Route 66

Route 66

If your idea of a road tripping involves the weird, odd, or unusual, you’ll love historic Route 66.

Historic Route 66 has had many names:

Will Rogers Highway

Main Street of America

Mother Road

Whatever you like to call it, Route 66 began in November 1926 and ran all the way from Chicago to Santa Monica, CA. The road, which covered 2448 miles, was the main way people headed west, especially during the Dust Bowl.

As you can imagine, sudden traffic was an incredible windfall to the small towns all along the road. Travelers stopped to buy gas, eat, and stay the night hotels.

The original CARS movie explains this quite nicely and is a great movie to watch with the kids in preparation for a road trip that includes Route 66.

While Route 66 was originally designed to connect the new highways with smaller, rural communities there was some disagreement about the name. It needed a ‘nice round number’ and #60 was proposed. Well, all heck broke loose over that suggestion since # 60 was already tentatively spoken for. After some arguing, which proves definitely that some people can argue about anything, the #66 was chosen since no one had dibs on it previously.

So…what is the big deal about Route 66 these days? Nostalgia. With the world rushing ahead at breakneck speed and everyone is multitasking and trying to get as much done as possible in the smallest amount of time….we have lost the ability to savor. We no longer relax, chat, and wander. Route 66 lets us recapture those feelings.

In addition to rural beauty, Route 66 lets you see the country and its people in a totally different way than when you speed by on the major highways. Stop and smell the roses and admire the creativity you’ll see in some of the special, unique and pretty wacky things the US has to offer.

We love taking day trips from big cities in general and the very best ones are on Route 66

Some of the fun things we’ve seen on Route 66:

CLICK HERE – Tulsa’s GIANT oil man statue

COMING SOON – Pops – Home to more than 700 flavors of soda!

What have you explored on the US Historic Route 66?

Happy travels!

Natalie, The Educational Tourist