On our way back to Las Vegas we were supposed to take highway 40 but we decided to take the historic route 66 instead. This road is known by many names – Will Rogers Highway, the Main Street of America, and the Mother Road. It was built in 1926. It starts in Chicago and goes through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and finally ends at Santa Monica in California. It is 3,945 km long. Until 1985 this road existed independent of other roads. However, later, parts of it were assimilated into other highways. About 600 km of this road passes through Arizona. It goes mostly parallel to the new multi-lane interstate highway 40.
We got onto route 66 at Williams and went up to the town of Seligman. There is a historic restaurant in this town called the Snow Cap started by Delgadillo in 1953. It is still serving food amongst a display of old cars, pickup trucks, and artifacts from the era when this road was still in use. It is a popular tourist stop. We had lunch there. The owners of this place are known to pull pranks on the visitors. So beware. There are also a few Native American areas along this road.
Pixar’s director John Lasseter was once driving on this road with his family. Based on the inspiration and idea that he had during that trip he made the 2006 animated movie ‘Cars’. They consulted road historian Michael Wallis for this movie. The town in this movie, Radiator Springs, is based on several actual small towns on this road that the team visited while researching for the movie with Wallis. This movie revived tourism on this road. Part of this movie is also filmed in the Monument Valley.
Compared to freeways in America, route 66 is much smaller. It is a two-lane road, one in either direction. Since this part of route 66 runs parallel to the freeway 40 which is not too far and is much faster, there is not much traffic on 66, which is why it is still in a good state. One has to take this road in order to approach the west entrance of the Grand Canyon National Park. We got off route 66 at Kingman and then continued to Las Vegas. We were booked in hotel Paris for two nights.
Meera's Travels 