That Kindly Trip

Posted on October 9, 2007 in Driving

If you ever plan to motor west,
Travel my way take, the highway that’s the best.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.

Just found out, as a consequence of my trip, that [[Route 66]] — which wends its way through my hometown of [[San_Bernardino%2C_California|San Bernardino]] — is considered to be an endangered place both nationally and internationally. Petrified Forest NP proclaims itself as the only place where the highway is preserved by the National Park Service. Personally, I had a hard time finding it given that it was buried beneath Interstate 40. Still, NPS has an old, rusting hulk out to memorialize the famous highway.

I’ve tried to explain some of the magic of the route to my wife as we drove across California and Arizona, but she didn’t get the romance much except to gawk at the teepees in Holbrook, Arizona. (San Bernardino also has a set.) Her previous experience of Route 66 was a rough segment of road near Blue Cut in the [[Cajon Pass]]. The potholes demonstrated an appetite for wheel alignments and axles. There wasn’t much to see except passing trains and the cut itself which most people don’t know refers to the basalt that has been dragged to the place by the [[San Andreas Fault]].

Back home and in the post-vacation doldrums, I think I could stand more kicks from Route 66. Motion puts my life in balance.

NPS Corridor Preservation Program

Raise your hand if you have driven/ridden on any part of Route 66. Tell us what you saw.