Route 66 – America’s Mother Road

Having In The Past Driven Every Part Of America’s Most Famous Highway — With A Certificate To Prove It — Mary Moore Mason Decided To Take A Nostalgic Spin Down Route 66.

To prove that you can still get your kicks on Route 66, my friend and I joined her for a 1,063-mile journey through the first four states of her epic eight-state, 2,500-mile trek from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California.

IN CHICAGO THE JOURNEY STARTS

Linking up with the grand old gal near Chicago’s Lake Michigan waterfront, I slipped into nearby Lou Mitchell’s Restaurant & Bakery, a local landmark since 1923, to reinforce myself with a bang-up breakfast of pancakes, spicy sausages and eggs sunny side up before heading out of town.

Soon the Mother Road began playing tricks with us, morphing into Interstate 55 (a chameleon custom, we discovered throughout the route). As penance, she soon introduced us to both Romeoville and nearby Joliet. Any romantic visions were soon dispelled – although Joliet is home to the majestic 1926 Rialto Square Theater and the city bestowed its name on Joliet Jake (aka John Belushi) in The Blues Brothers film, even as Elwood, just down the road, inspired his brother’s first name.

The town of Dwight introduced us to the restored 1930s Ambler/Becker Texaco Station as well as to the First National Bank building, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Our next must-stop was at Pontiac, where the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum is full of memorabilia, the Old Log Cabin Restaurant had been rotated to face the re-routed Mother Road, and murals throughout the town salute its heritage and that of its famous roadway.

At Shirley, we pulled off the road to visit one of a number of small, thriving industries found along the route, Funk’s Grove Pure Maple Sirup, from which I departed with a maple leaf bottle of sweet, golden liquid, planning to recreate my Chicago breakfast somewhere along the way.

Now we were entering into the land of Abraham Lincoln. Atlanta has a statue of a watermelon slice, commemorating the day in 1853 when area lawyer and future US President ‘Honest Abe’ inexplicably christened his namesake town by slicing open a watermelon and pouring its juice onto the ground.

However, the must-visit place for Lincoln fans is the Illinois state capital, Springfield, where we toured Lincoln’s law office, the Old State Capitol Building, his tomb and his home (first stopping off across the street to enjoy a brew at Obed and Isaac’s Microbrewery & Eatery). At the excellent Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, I actually met the man himself, in the form of a ghostly Lincoln hologram wandering around a re-creation of his study. Various exhibitions and dioramas told the story of Lincoln’s life and objectives.

I couldn’t leave Springfield without dropping by the Cozy Dog Drive-In for a special batter-wrapped hot dog on a stick and a milk shake, but alas, there was no time to continue on down the road to explore the Cahokia Mounds, the largest prehistoric indigenous site north of Mexico; we were now due to cross the mighty Mississippi River and head into Missouri.

ST LOUIS’S GATEWAY ARCH SIGNALS THE WAY WEST

Reaching St Louis, we were greeted by another giant edifice – the Gateway Arch, which symbolises the city’s role in the great westward pioneering movement. When last here a decade or so ago, I listened to a magical performance beneath the Arch by iconic local musician Chuck Berry, who at 90, has a new album, Chuck, out this year. Now, the Arch and the surrounding park are being revitalised.

What fun it must have been to be here for the 1904 World’s Fair, which introduced to the American public such gourmet treats as ice cream cones, hamburgers in buns, and iced tea … not to forget that rollicking World’s Fair-inspired musical Meet Me in St Louis starring a luminous, young Judy Garland.

After stopping by Ted Drewes Frozen Custard drive-in, famous for its creamy delight since the heyday of Route 66, we, alas, had to bypass such local attractions as the St Louis Walk of Fame, the City Museum, which includes in its exhibitions the world’s largest pair of underpants, and Calvary Cemetery, final home of such celebrities as playwright Tennessee Williams.

Headed westward to Stanton, we couldn’t resist the Jesse James Wax Museum, which honours the Missouri-based bank robber who locals claimed hid out with his gang in nearby Meramec Caverns.

Photo stops were called for in Cuba, which rejoices in its murals and vintage mom-and-pop Wagon Wheel Motel, and at Rolla’s Totem Pole Trading Post, built along the Trail of Tears route that Native American followed to Oklahoma on being forced out of their homelands back east.

We stayed at Lebanon’s Munger Moss Motel, fronted by its huge red porcelain and neon sign, and swung by the LaClede County Library’s Route 66 Museum and the Route 66 Welcome Center near Conway before enjoying a meal in Springfield’s vintage Steak ’n’ Shake roadhouse.

In fact, Springfield regards itself as the birthplace of Route 66 as it was there in 1926 that the US Bureau of Public Roads decided to transform a network of former Native American, pioneer and farm trails into the first completely-paved US highway across America.

Lined with Art Deco-style motels, mom-and-pop cafés, iconic drive-in cinemas and bizarre roadside attractions, the road inspired popular songs, films and a 1960s TV series, only to be decommissioned in 1985 when faster, multi-lane interstate highways took over.

However, its fans refused to let it die, even though its name and actual route changed frequently thereafter. This was attested to as we drove through a series of small and larger towns full of such vintage structures as Paris Springs’ old petrol station, Red Oaks II’s diner, general store and residences and Carthage’s Boots Motel, which reputedly hosted Clark Gable in Room 6.

THE CONTRASTS OF KANSAS AND OKLAHOMA

Then we entered Kansas, which has the smallest (13.2 miles) of Route 66 of any state on the route. Galena reputedly inspired the Radiator Springs community in the Pixar film Cars; Riverton is home to Nelson’s Old Riverton Store, in business since 1925; and in Baxter Springs we visited a prime example of a 1930s Phillips 66 ‘automotive cottage’ petrol station that is now the Kansas Route 66 Visitors Center. Just down the road, Angels on the Route is a great place for delicious breakfasts, robust coffee, craft sandwiches and homemade frozen custard. This historic town’s former bank was robbed in 1876 by Jesse James and his outlaw buddy Cole Younger.

With 426 miles of driveable Route 66 within its borders, the next state, Oklahoma, contains more of the Mother Road’s original road-bed than any other state, a situation that exists because of Tulsa-based businessman Cyrus Avery. He persuaded the Joint Board of State and Federal Highways that they should divert the new route southwards through Oklahoma – then a state for less than two decades – rather than on a more direct route.

We passed through Commerce, the hometown of baseball legend Mickey Mantle, and Miami, the site of the majestic Coleman Theatre and the Route 66 Vintage Iron Motorcycle Museum, and soon came to Claremore, which has a statue, museum and memorial to beloved part-Cherokee Indian stage-and-screen star Will Rogers as well as a memorial to Lynn Riggs, the author whose work, Green Grow the Lilacs, inspired the musical Oklahoma. Hammett House Restaurant is the place for fried green tomatoes and delicious home cooking.

At Catoosa, we stopped to pick up some literature about the Cherokee Nation, whose members were largely resettled in Oklahoma after their expulsion from Georgia and North Carolina.

Soon we were on the outskirts of big, vibrant Tulsa, its role as a key point of east-west cultural exchange indicated by the impressive Symbolic Route 66 midpoint plaza. Today, Tulsa is best known for its two outstanding museums – the Gilcrease, showcasing one of the world’s most extensive collections of Native American and Western art, and the Philbrook, which is surrounded by formal gardens and based in the Italianate former mansion of an oil tycoon.

Now we were at Oklahoma City, where the handsome State Capitol’s grounds are shared with oil wells, and the outstanding National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum includes such works as the moving End of the Trail statue depicting an exhausted or wounded Native American brave on horseback. I was also greatly moved by the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum, a tribute to the victims of the April 19, 1995, terrorist bombing on the site.

For light relief we retired to lively Bricktown, where you can cruise the canals by water taxi, admiring the Oklahoma Land Rush statues along the way, before enjoying the restaurants and nightlife in this renovated warehouse district.

After linking up with Interstate 40, the ‘Mother Road’ continues to Clinton’s newly-renovated Oklahoma Route 66 Museum, the Elk City National Route 66 Museum and Erick’s Roger Miller Museum, dedicated to the King of the Road musician. By then, I felt like a queen of the road myself and ready to return to London via my connecting flight from Oklahoma City.