get your kicks on route 66

I've been greatly inspired from my travels upon the old highway...while much of it no longer exists, if you are patient, you can find more than you might otherwise have thought still remained...not long ago, trying to locate sections of the old road was a trying task...old signs and markers had long ago faded, forgotten to history...your only help was a handful of guides published by the dedicated few who would not let the old pink concrete crumble without a fight...their enthusiasm slowly crept into the public consciousness...

today there is a route 66 renaissance taking place...states, counties and towns eager to shed their ties to the old road are now clamoring to tout its cultural significance...time has a way of doing that...gone are the days of small town gridlock, cars without ac, tires that limped from one blow out to the next, radiators that whistled in pain...also gone are the lost families, tired truckers, migrants, pioneers and other sorts who were drawn to the lure of something better just over the next hill or around the next bend...they were all exiled to the controlled access of the mighty interstate system where no one is allowed to navigate much beyond the tidy amenities circumnavigating the convenience of the on/off ramp...

but wait, aren't there plenty of old federal highways out there to travel...many in a lot better shape than this one...their old numbers still relevant and posted, still holding their own on everything rand mcnally...so what gives...

much like an old silent movie star pushed aside and forgotten when sound arrived, route 66 was literally erased from the map when sleek, efficient interstates began their spread...basically bureaucratic efficiency won out...was route 66 an east/west highway (its even number would say so) or a north/south route (chicago is way north of los angeles)...it was easier for the highway department to decommission the old road than figure out how to deal with this diagonal anomaly...

that should have been the end of it, but route 66 is different, special...its history is our history...it was a character in the "grapes of wrath," it has its own theme song, it had its own hit television series and can you believe there was even a game created based upon that very same tv show...

obviously I could go on and on (and will later)...