Route 66 (from Chicago to California)

In the 1950's and 60's many people traveled about by car. Vacations meant packing for the entire family and putting them into the car for a road trip of 1 to 2 weeks. There were no expressways or superhighways, only regular roads. One however, stands out because if you got onto it in Chicago and stayed on it, you could drive all the way to California!

Along the way there would be many roadside "museums" which usually consisted of some cages with local wildlife and a snake or two. Of course, if there were kids in the car, the family would HAVE to stop at each and every one. There were also many historical markers, which were nothing more than roadside plaques, but they told the story of something that happened in that spot. My father never passed one of those up, even if we had to drive off the highway for miles to actually find the plaque.

We would drive from early morning until about 3:30 or 4 in the afternoon and then look for a motel. Motels were a new innovation; not terribly numerous but often you could just pull up to one and get a room - no reservations needed! The further west and south they were, the more likely they were to have a pool. We loved those!

Today, Route 66 has been replaced in many sections by superhighways, though there are still a few segments of it still around. It has been the subject of movies, TV series, and books. Some of the roadside shops even have 'museums' of pictures from the 50's and 60's.

Text: Janet Barnstable, USA
Picture: Koichi Saito, Japan