Route 66 - Some Tips & Observations

[Voodoo Blue]

We’ve just spent nearly 4 weeks driving from Washington DC to LA including following Route 66 from Chicago. So while it’s still fresh in my mind I thought I’d share some tips and observations in no particular order.

• Route 66 no longer officially exists as a national route across the US although some states still call bits of it State Road 66
• There are several possible ways to complete Route 66 depending on historical facts, locations and in some cases experienced interpretation. We found that Illinois was brilliant with road signs but be careful of which time period you're following as it can get confusing
• You could spend years (and we met some people who have) trying to drive all the variations of Route 66, visit all of the museums, side trips and other attractions along the way so before you do anything, work out what you want to see and do and plan accordingly
• Leave some time for the unexpected, you'll need it
• Make sure you designate enough time to do some bits that look easy for example, we drove from St Louis to Tulsa in a day and spent more than 12 hours on the road with all the stops along the way, there was just too much on our list to see and in hindsight we should have split that over 2 days.
• We bought several guides and books and despite doing our homework still missed things on our list like the Bug Ranch which we only realised after we we’d driven 40 miles past it.
• Take time to speak to people who have renovated some of the buildings and turned them into shops and cafes, they have a wealth of knowledge and know a lot of the other people you’ll meet along the way.
• Spend some money in the establishments you visit, even a $ for a bottle of water will support their efforts to make your trip more enjoyable.
• Remember to fill up your car each day, Fuel stops can get difficult to find especially the further west you are
• Drive from Chicago to LA, that way you gain an hour every few days when you cross into another time zone
• Don’t be tempted to add things to your list based on recommendations, unless you really want to do it. Some of these will add miles and time to your itinerary and may not be worth the investment.
• Drive a cool car (ish). We had a Dodge Challenger and have had a lot of positive experiences because of that.
• Try not to rush, I pretty much stuck to the speed limits the whole way (hence the 12 hour day mentioned above) the journey is the reason for doing it, not the destination.
• If you can fit them in, go to some of the National Parks in Arizona and Utah. Bryce, Zion and Arches are spectacular as is the Grand Canyon
• If like us when traveling to the US you wake up early in the mornings in the first few days, make use of that. We were often getting up at 5 am, packing up the car and out the door by 6. Breakfast is always available somewhere along the way (although the quality and quantity vary greatly)
• Get an eSim for your phone, I used Airalo and 5GB lasted the whole period (we used hotel wifi in the evenings and early mornings
• You will meet some brilliant, sometimes quirky people along the way who want to share their stories and hear yours too. This was what made the trip for us.
• Finally, you will take some wrong turns, drive for miles in the wrong direction and probably get lost several times. Treat that as part of the experience, accept it and move on.

I’ve posted a few pictures below and if you have any questions or want any advice I’d be happy to share more of our experience if you think it might help. If you've been fortunate to have driven it too feel free to share your experiences as well.

[mattyn1]

So cool.

In just over three weeks we fly off to Chicago - ready for the epic RT to LA. Cannot bloody wait!

Been planning for over a year now - do have a fear we have bitten off more then we should have - but we will see. The experienced experts here have been awesome, as have a couple of slightly lesser frequented forums.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[mikef]

Just adding another pic from Eastern California

[Voodoo Blue]

mattyn1 said:

So cool.

In just over three weeks we fly off to Chicago - ready for the epic RT to LA. Cannot bloody wait!

Been planning for over a year now - do have a fear we have bitten off more then we should have - but we will see. The experienced experts here have been awesome, as have a couple of slightly lesser frequented forums.

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

We thoroughly enjoyed it and I hope you do too.

One more piece of advice, if you can get down to Adam St in Chicago as early as you can if you want to take lots of pictures and do the same in Santa Monica when you finish. We got into LA around mid day on Saturday and they had road works everywhere around the 101 and after an hour of stop start traffic we gave up and went to our hotel to crash for the afternoon.

Got up at 5am Sunday and we had the whole place to ourselves, took loads of pictures and videos and had breakfast in Mel's drive in where they'll give you a certificate to say you've completed it.