Route 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime that changed its overall length. One of these realignments moved the western endpoint from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica.
Route 66 was a major path of the migrants who went west, especially during the Dust Bowl of the 1930s, and supported the economies of the communities through which the road passed. People doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive even with the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.
US 66 was officially decommissioned (that is, officially removed from the United States Highway System) on June 27, 1985 after it was decided the route was no longer relevant and had been replaced by the Interstate Highway System. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, New Mexico, and Arizona have been designated a National Scenic Byway of the name "Historic Route 66". It has begun to return to maps in this form. Some portions of the road in southern California have been redesignated State Route 66, and others bear "Historic Route 66" signs
As we had already done the Santa Monica to Hollywood section, our journey started on Sunset Boulevard. Route 66 winds its way through Hollywood and into downtown LA, before twisting back out through Pasadena and on towards San Bernardino. Much of this section of 66 has been replaced directly with 6-lane freeways.
Once clear of LA, Route 66 turns away from the multi-lane roads and turns into seldom used two-lane roads, many of them crumbling and ridden with pot-holes.
A section of old 66 in better condition than many other parts. There was little danger of me being hit by another car. On one particular section over a distance of about 160km, we passed only four other vehicles.
Our first stop was at Amboy, a small town by-passed long ago by the interstate is now a ghost town. The only life was at the ‘famous’ Roy’s Drive-In, a gas station/diner/motel, which now only has the gas station, which was run by a strange looking guy wearing a Sheriffs uniform complete with hand-gun in a holster, who gave us some weird looks whilst we used the ‘rest rooms’. Karen reported that the ladies had all the cubicles locked except for a solitary one which had no door. We decided that the Sheriff was in fact Roy, who now ran the whole town (as he appeared to be the only resident), and had appointed himself to the position. It was one of those places that you don’t want to stay in too long.
Roy's Motel Cafe at Amboy
The derelict Amboy School
All along Route 66 were remnants of the road when it was a thriving thoroughfare. We passed countless derelict service stations, motels and diners.
The long-disused Roadrunner Restaurant in the Californian Desert
We crossed into Arizona at a place called Needles, where Route 66 begins a long winding ascent into the Arizona desert mountains. The road wound its way up the mountain through several hairpins, in a lonely desolate area, probably inhabited by lonely desolate people, when we encountered a sign which said Welcome to Oatman – bring your own banjo. Actually, it didn’t say that, I just thought it sounded funny.
Route 66 climbs into the Arizona Mountains
Main Street of Oatman, Arizona
We entered a town which made it easily into our Top 5 Unusual USA Towns. Oatman survived the Route 66 by-pass by turning itself (or maybe it was always that way) into a place resembling an old cowboy town. Most of the shops sold touristy things like t-shirts, tea towels, cowboy hats, postcards, banjo repair kits etc. The oddest thing about the town (other than the obvious fact that the place was in dire need of a resident dentist), was the presence of burros, which resemble small donkeys, that wandered through the main street, walking in and out of shops to their hearts desire. Apparently the town is a major tourist attraction, and anywhere else you’d have to pay a fee to get in, but this was a normally-operating town (other than the lack of dental hygiene), and people come from as far away as New York, Los Angeles and Coolangatta to look at the burros and buy souvenir t-shirts.
The Oatman Hotel. Its only claim to fame is that Hollywood stars Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their wedding night here about 70 years ago. It is apparent they were trying to get away from it all
After Oatman we continued to Kingman, where we made a small detour to a town about 100 miles off Route 66 - Las Vegas
No comments:
Post a Comment