Of all the roads in the world, none appeals more to the imagination than the famous Route 66. This historic road goes all the way from Chicago on the East Coast of the US to Santa Monica on the West Coast.
In 1985, the Route 66 became a lot less travelled on with the arrival of the Interstate Highway System. Yet, many tourists still take the old route as it gives off an atmosphere that can’t be found on any other highway.
When we were travelling from Los Angeles to the Grand Canyon National Park, we were mostly driving on the Highway 40 as we didn’t have a lot of time. We just wanted to get to our destination as soon as possible. But with the Route 66 so close, we couldn’t stop ourselves from making a little detour to at least drive a bit on this famous road.
Many people take the Route 66 between Kingman and Seligman, but since our schedule didn’t really allow that, we opted to make the detour at Amboy. We got on the Route 66 at Ludlow and then drove all the way to Fenner along the famous old road.
It took us about an hour to drive to Fenner, and in that hour we probably only saw five cars. That’s it; five other people in an hour. And I absolutely loved it. As far as I could look ahead and behind me, there was just road, road and road. In the distance, we could see a train making its way through the scenery, and at certain points we could make out the other highway, but other than that there was nothing. It was just us and the road. Marvellous feeling.
Of course Route 66 isn’t in great condition anymore and there are quite a few holes in the road, but that didn’t really bother us. It all added to the feeling of driving on this old road.
While at first we just saw driving this bit of road as a distraction from the long trek we had ahead of us to the Grand Canyon, it ended up being one of the greatest moments of our roadtrip. That moment felt most like being on a roadtrip. A definite must when you’re in the area. Nothing beats the moment of spotting the Route 66 sign painted on the road for the very first time.
Ellen's Travel Stories 