We didn't have them all with us. Moreover, when we thought about the thousands of kilometers that we would have to travel on Route 66, a tickle of doubt entered us and we asked ourselves: will we get bored? Will we meet too many people on the road? Will the attractions be a little cow poop? What if we find it too heavy? We failed and a lot! Tour Route 66 aboard a motorhome It was one of the best experiences of our trip to the United States.
In this post we will tell you what it was the best of Route 66 with the intention of being able to help those undecided who still wonder if touring Mother Road is worth it or not…
Bored? No way! Route 66 confirmed that road trips are our favorite type of trip. Go through different states, be surprised with landscapes, people and stories, start the day without knowing what the road holds and where we will end ... buah, for us it is priceless!
advice: prepare a traveling soundtrack to accompany you, we created this playlist 🙂
To enter a diner is to step back in time, suddenly find yourself in the '50s, feel inside another era. They are beautiful? No, they are precious!
advice: the best diner on Route 66 where we ate (and one of the most beautiful) was the Lucille's Roadhouse (Oklahoma). Rober took a hamburger and I had a pulled pork sandwich. Buaaaaaah, delicious.
// We have pending preparing a post with the best restaurants on Route 66, if you are a fat man like us, you will love it 😉 //
Do you think it's a boring plan? You know nothing, like John Snow! The museums distributed along Route 66 are the best way to know its history and freak out with the vintage objects that its owners collected over the years. Here you will literally find everything, although for us old cars (which are more beautiful) are the most.
Along the Route there are many museums, if you do not have time (or interest) to see them we all recommend these two:
- National Route 66 Museum of Elk City: possibly the most complete and visited Route 66 museum of all. It is very worth it! Admission is $ 5.
- The museum at Russells restaurant, between Adrian and Tucumcari: the owner is super friendly and has everything from vintage cars to coke refrigerators or posters of Marylin Monroe and Elvis. It's free.
Thanks to Route 66 we discover that the United States is much more than the skyscrapers of New York, the San Francisco Bridge or the Washington Capitol. We passed through deserted areas, through Indian reserves, through ghost towns, and others that seemed stagnant in the 1950s. Today we would not understand the United States without the Midwest, without the deep America, which never comes out in Hollywood movies (unless it is not a movie of Indians and cowboys) and that however is an essential part of the History and geography of the country.
Ohhh, we are not souvenirs, but we had to endure the desire to start the occasional vintage poster of the Route. The best are the neons of the motels ... our favorite? That of Blue Swallow Motel!
But there are other very curious posters: those of advertising Burma Shave, a set of 6 consecutive posters in which you can read funny and rhyming phrases:
Ex: the poorest guy in the human race can have a million dollar face, if you dislike big traffic purposes slow down til you can read these signs…
Apparently in the 60s they were counted by hundreds on all roads of the country, today they are like relic stories and, although there are few, they can be seen along the Route. We saw them in the Ash Fork and Seligman Road (Arizona).
More info on the history of these posters: BurmaShave
The frikadas are never missing on Route 66 and we are delighted. Some of the best have been:
- The teepee of Wigwam Motelthe Jack Rabbit Trading Post, a giant rabbit where you can upload and take a thousand photos.
- The Catoosa blue whale, not every day you will be able to walk inside the belly of a whale.
- Cars on the Route, where you can see the main cars of Cars.
- Ed Galloway's Totem Pole Park, a park full of Indian totems
And many, many more: seriously, every day you will come across something new and totally different.
And what about the vintage gas stations? A symbol of Route 66 and some of the most curious places you can find in the United States * _ * We simply loved it and I wish today there were more like these, colorful and full of personality.
The Americans, against all odds, we found super friendly and good-natured people, especially those who crossed Route 66. One of the memorable moments of the trip was to meet in a lost bar of a little town lost of a lost City from Missouri where we had a great afternoon, watching the Champions League final and sharing beers with characters soo weird as funny, who on the other hand did not understand how the hell we ended up there hahaha, neither do we, the truth.
And what about the mythical characters of the route? Being able to run into some of them has undoubtedly been one of the best things about the trip. Although if we had to choose one among all would be the friend Harley, which honored us with its version of “Get Your Kicks on Route 66” (actually or better it was to get out of there alive!).
We also liked to meet Elmer, the man who created the Bottle Ranch, a “little forest” of very handsome colored bottles! Already John, the son-in-law of Gary Turner who today is responsible for "receiving" the many tourists who pass through the Gay Parita. He filled us with postcards, he gave us great ice cream and the best, he made us feel at home in one of the most epic gas station on Route 66.
The motels are other of the great protagonists of Route 66. In almost every town there is a legendary motel, one of those that you would not be surprised to find in a movie of the 60s and that with its neons and aesthetics catapult you to a time of rock n 'roll and glitter. A little kitch yes, but if you have a geek-nostalgic touch ... you'll love it.
We, when traveling with a caravan, did not stay in any of them, but we did not miss the opportunity to stop to know some of the most famous ones like the Wigwam, with its rooms in the form of an Indian store (our favorite) and the Blue Swallow Motel, with its legendary sign and pastel colors ... although there are literally hundreds on the road, all with their peculiarities 🙂
Not everyone knows it but there is a National Park on Route 66: we talk about Petrified Forest National Park (more info), a park where you can find ancient petrified trees and a few viewpoints with amazing views like this:
When we were crossing New Mexico we decided to turn to Santa Fe to go to Albuquerque and at the town's tourist office (beautiful, by the way) we were recommended to visit a very little known place: Tent Rock National Park, a national park with peculiar rock formations in the form of a tent (hence the name). It was a success to visit and a real surprise, we were practically alone (except for a lizard with the blue belly that did push-ups, yes, we promised you, did XD push-ups).
But National Parks aside, if there is something that in the United States is never missing are curious places,and you can imagine that traveling so many kilometers of route you will encounter lots of spectacular scenery... you will pass through green fields, red mountains, deserts without na de na and you can also share route with the very long trains of the United States (and make you be pitted to greet you hehehe, true story).
That said: there is nothing like a road trip to feel part of a destination 🙂
At first we were scared: it was a huge distance to travel and many days in such a big pot, but in the end it turned out to be the best of everything! We stayed to sleep in the parking lot of Indian casinos (fucking, by the way), on the banks of lakes, sharing space with trucks at gas stations, in Walmarts and other rare places. We cooked pasta in the middle of a forest of petrified trees, ate a hamburger with milkshake on Rober's birthday, and followed the Breaking Bad caravan to see all the locations of our favorite series. Living Route 66 aboard a motorhome, without ever abandoning it, was like living the square route, like enjoying the road to the fullest.
If you can do it ... we highly recommend it.
These are, for us, the things that we could summarize as the best of Route 66. Sincerely it has been one of the best trips of our life, different, interesting and nothing boring ... in fact, we would not mind doing this legendary road again in a few years, I hope it does not change!
