I'm planning a Road Trip through the contiguous states.

I want to incorporate the most worthwhile portion of Route 66 that spans across one or two states. If it's real important to span three states to get the flavor, I'll have to cut out in the middle as I want to do something else in each state. Hence, at the most, I figure two states as I'll do my other things in the first state, get on Route 66, pop out at the next state and do my things for that state.

I plan on picking up Route 66 on my eastern direction travelling through, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona.

Where would you suggest I pick up Route 66 and where would I get off and what are some of the sights that I'll see?

Thanks for your suggestions.

I really liked Kingman, AZ and the eastbound stretch from there. Good memories.

Echo Arizona, we lived in N Arizona for quite awhile. I don’t know how good the guidebooks are, but there are several nice stretches of old 66, especially between Flagstaff and Williams. Try to hit Flag and Williams on a weekend, during the summer there’s a good chance that a car club of some sort will be lined up in town—one weekend might be Tri-5 Chevys, or Corvettes, or T-Birds, or...

Ashfork to Seligman (Snow Cap Drive-in) and points west—if I recall, lots of 66 to Hualapai and on to Kingman (birthplace of Andy Devine ).

Spend a night at the restored Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, NM. Have a piece of pie or lunch at the Adrian Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, TX, across the road from the actual Historic Route 66 Midpoint Marker.

I would do NM and TX. You gotta hit the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo TX just because it really is so iconic in its imagery.



There's also some great stuff in McLean TX, such as the first Phillips 66 Station and the Devil's Rope Barbed Wire / Route 66 Museum.

Flagstaff and Williams in AZ...

I grew up in a little town in Ok. that used Route 66 as our main downtown street.

A lot of info. at these sites:

https://www.travelok.com/route...QEAAYASAAEgI3sfD_BwE


https://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/route66/maps66.html

Being from St. Louis, and having a daughter at the University of Tulsa, I'm familiar with Route 66 through Missouri and Oklahoma.

Sadly... much of it is gone but some things remain.

St. Louis is the largest city along Route 66 between Chicago and Los Angeles, and there are some sites related to the Mother Road within the region. Some of the streets have new names, but all of these locations are part of the Route 66 journey.



https://explorestlouis.com/dis...oute-66-in-st-louis/

For true nostalgia, make certain you do it in a Vette like these guys did.

I can speak to the Arizona end of it. at the east end of the state, Winslow. It's a shitty little town but there are a couple of redeeming values. La Posado, is an old restored hotel built by the railroad for bringing tourists out to the Grand Canyon. If you don't stay the night there, at least eat in the Turquoise Room restaurant, dinner entrees include elk and buffalo. Also there is The Root Beer Stand, non descript drive thru but they make their own root beer which is delicious. There are some tacky Rout 66 themed gift shops and there is the Standing on the Corner statue. Just don't stand to close at night it's basically a public urinal and vomitorium for the natives. Winslow is also a good basecamp for exploring the Painted Desert and Petrified Forest.

http://laposada.org

West of Flagstaff is Williams, kind of a cool little town that claims their fame on being the last town on Route 66 to be bypassed by I-40. It's also the depot for the Grand Canyon Railroad if you're wanting to go north and explore the canyon.

West of there is the stretch between Seligman and Kingman that goes through Peach Springs. This is the stretch that served as a lot of the inspiration for the animators of Pixar's Cars. Beautiful drive but also kind of depressing to see the slow decline of the towns along the route.

West of Kingman is a stretch that goes through Oatman. Oatman is an old mining town that had a second boom with Route 66. It's kind of turned into a tourist attraction and artist colony now with wild burros wandering the streets. The Oatman Hotel is a 2 story adobe that houses the honeymoon suite of Clark Gable and Carol Lombard. From there you can drop down into Bullhead City and Laughlin and stay on the Colorado River.

Have fun.

I've seen a few 48-state routes proposed by others and would be interested in seeing what you have in mind.

flashguy

If any of you Route 66 fans use Facebook and don't already, consider following my friend "Roamin Rich"

https://www.facebook.com/rich.dinkela

He does a lot to support Route 66 and is a wealth of information.

...... and don't forget Winona

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
I've seen a few 48-state routes proposed by others and would be interested in seeing what you have in mind.

flashguy

This is the big picture route I'm planning. It's based on this guy's work. I've changed it to reflect that I'm hoping to start late summer / fall so I'll start clockwise with the northern route starting from CA but I'll include Utah and Colorado in the first part to avoid going through them when it might be cold and snowy. If I was starting spring, I would go counter clockwise from CA.

I'm going to start with the base line of the guy's landmarks combined with the same guy's popular U.S. cities. A third layer is to add food places that has been on the food or travel channels. I'll also replace with or add other items that I want state by state.

I do have three personal stops already on my list: 1) Para's Crave Pie in Duluth,GA, 2) Dream House Country Inn in VT that I got a recommendation from SigForum back in 2014 and I want to return, and 3) Anthem Veterans Memorial in Phoenix, AZ.