The World Off Road Pt 7

MotherRoad

we discover thenostalgic side ofamerica crossing its
most ‘ancient’ roadall the way fromlos angeles tochicago. let’s get ourkicks on route 66…

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Want fries with that?

words by Akis Temperidis
Photos by Vula Netu
and Akis Temperidis

Kingman: The most photogenic
section of the old Route 66 is from
Oatman to Kingman, Arizona. It isa twisty, worn road with majesticviews to the red rocks of Arizona.

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OVERLANDER maY.10

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The World Off Road Pt 7

Oatman: From
Bullhead – an ugly
resort town on
the Colorado river– R66 climbs to awild west village
where donkeys stillroam free and oldcowboys can teachyou how to shootfor a small fee.

There are many exciting road trips
in the United States but only one
is a travel destination in itself.
This is Route 66. For this reason
we followed this road all the way
to Chicago, after we opened thecontainer in LA and drove ourDiscovery after a month’s break.
We thought of driving up toAlaska but our route was towards Central America andthis would mean a financial disaster for us. We could headdirectly to Mexico from California but could we miss themost celebrated, filmed and sung road of America?
So here we are, ready to get our kicks on Route 66 afteran overnight in a petrol station outside San Bernardino. We
are prepared to do Route 66 in the opposite way but in thebest possible way. We don’t want to miss an inch of the oldtarmac stretch that changed the history of the US…
It’s a weird fact that Route 66 became famousworldwide only after its retirement. Since 1984 Route 66
does not connect Chicago and Los Angeles any more.
There is a network of modern interstate motorways, like55, 44, 40, 15 and 10 that connect the two iconic cities.
Route 66 exists for a few different reasons. Today’s users
are not desperados of the 30’s, nor post WWII beatniks
or members of the flower power generation. Some of46

www.overlander.com.auRoute 66

is theroadto diefor, dGrand Canyon: From Williams,a classic R66 stop, you candivert to the north and reachthe southern rim of the Grand
Canyon, the picture post card
landscape of North America.

arling…

Flagstaff: This classic stop gets freezing
during winter and offers good food andaccommodation in a green environment.

The iconic Bagdad Café in the Mojave Desert, which
was used as a set for the homonymous cult movie.

Burma Shave ads revolutionized the advertising businessin the 20’s. Scientifically positioned signs on the road weretransmitting the right message – with a philosophical touch– while you were cruising at 35 miles per hour…

them are probably still there driving an old Chevy or arusted VW Transporter but you can meet many more
and mostly unexpected people on Route 66 today. Mostvisible are the born again bikers from Europe who ride
rented Harley Davidsons, during their summer vacation.
They look like gang members, with all these tattoos, long
beards and leather jackets but they are innocent family
men who are simply addicted to the legends of the road.
We found some at Seligman, a fancy R66 stop in Arizona
and had some fun with them. The current anthropology ofRoute 66 includes more heterogenic characters. You canmeet new married couples from Texas in huge pick ups,
retired Americans – don’t call them grey nomads - in huge
motorhomes, hordes of Route 66 association members
on bikes or cars, or even members of specific automobile
clubs who just parade on the tarmac stretches of the good
old national road…
Do all these people follow Route 66 just for thebreathtaking landscapes it drives through? Of course not.
The road is actually a time machine. If you need to get intoa simulator and live the innocent years of the American
dream, follow the 66 signs and you got the feeling!
OVERLANDER maY.10

47

The World Off Road Pt 7John Steinbeck named Route 66
the ‘Mother Road’ and ‘The Roadof Second Chances’

Seligman: The old section
from Kingman to Seligman
will remind you theanimation movie Cars.
You can buy your firstmemorabilia here and don’t
forget to taste a burger at
Delgadillo’s Diner.

Main Street of America

TRIP dID
Rover

Vehicle: Lan
Discovery3 TDV6
Crew: Akis Temperidis,Vula Netou
Days: 17
Total distance: 4460kmRefuellings: 11
Litres: 556
Lt/100 km.: 12.4

The iconic C
every dadillac ranch
atay thanks to c Amarillo transf
reativevisitors. orms

Amarillo, Texas: Finish the 2kg steak
in one hour and you get it for free!

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Route 66 was opened to traffic in 1926. It was the first, twolane road that connected the state of Illinois to California.
It was 2448mi long, approximately 3,940km, and crossed
eight states, including Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas,
New Mexico and Arizona. In a country where private
car was used as the locomotive of economic and socialdevelopment (it still is!), a road of epic proportions likethis changed the social map forever. Before the war, US
Highway 66 – as the road was officially named – wasthe only path to freedom for the ‘Okies’, the victims ofthe depression years, in the agricultural Midwest states.
California was the American dream for them and Route 66
was the only way to get there.
Grapes of Wrath, the masterpiece novel written by John
Steinbeck in 1939 is the bible of that heroic generation andis still studied at modern American schools. The Americanwriter named Route 66 ‘The Mother Road’ and ‘The Roadof Second Chances’. During that era, celebrity criminals
like Al Capone and Bonnie & Clyde, used Route 66 toescape from the law. After WWII, America was an absolute
superpower and its main street was the best expressionof hope for a better, more adventurous life. Route 66 was
the mother of the new American culture. It was here thatneon lights appeared first. Pop adverts, drive in cinemas,drive through restaurants, mom n’ pop diners and motels
were all born on Route 66. For the next few decades youcould travel from the east to the west side of America instyle and cheaply. Gasoline cost 17 cents per gallon and a
cup of coffee only five cents. Full service petrol stations
were flourishing and right next to the pump you could beserved by a sexy, young waitress who would probably callThe World Off Road Pt 7

You can find plenty of vintage carmuseums at Santa Rosa, Clintonand other R66 hot spots.

Santa Fe: We discovered anancient section of Route 66
south of Santa Fe and it proved
to be a hard 4WD challenge.

Squ irrel! !

Gallup, New Mexico:After Flagstaff thelandscape gets arid
and the temperaturerises as the roaddescends from theColorado plateau.

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Route 66 wassung around theworld thanks toBobby Troup’ssong Get Your
Kicks on
Route 66.

you ‘honey’ as if you were her tender love. In a simple
way route 66 was becoming a living legend year byyear. It became the favourite road for flashy chevy’s,
nickel plated Greyhound buses and chopper bikes. The
road was the backdrop of mark Twain’s novels andJack Kerouac’s on the road, the absolute bible of thebeatnik generation. Since 1946, route 66 was sungaround the world thanks to Bobby Troup’s song, Get
Your Kicks on route 66 which was performed by many
more artists, from nat King cole to The rolling Stones
and depeche mode...
well it winds from chicago to la
more than two-thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.
well it goes through St. louie
down to missouri
oklahoma city looks oh so pretty.
you’ll see amarillo, Gallup, new mexico
Flagstaff, arizona, don’t forget winona,Kingsman, Barstow, San Bernardino.
won’t you get hip to this timely tip
and think you’ll take that california trip.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.

The World Off Road Pt 7

U n c leants
Sam w

p e a c e..

. now!

Elk City, Oklahoma:
The only reason
to stop in thisagricultural town
are two noteworthy,
outdoor museums
about life in 19thcentury and theflourishing era ofRoute 66.

Simple travel lyrics that everybody knows, even someone
who never dreamt of crossing the US. How many times didn’t
we sing the same during our trip to Chicago? The song was
creating images which we were trying to see alive. Amarillo
is not a village as I thought it would be but a smaller Dallas.
Gallup was just a truck and train station. Winona was nothing
more than a useful rhyme in the song. San Bernardino is a
wealthy LA suburb. Reality was in contrast to that song at
every mile for us…

Back to the Future

Weatherford: you can’t miss this town with thehundreds of wind power generators around. This is thebirthplace of Apollo 10 astronaut Thomas Stafford. The
aeronautical museum he created here is more inspiringthan NASA’s Johnson Centre in Houston.

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In a standardized country like the US, where endless interstate
highways and thousands of interchanges dominate its
environment, Route 66 is a nostalgic parenthesis. Route 66 is
not a copy/paste road. High rising signs, fast food restaurants,
chain motels and supermarkets still exist here but they are notas visible as little, born again enterprises that sell everything,but more than anything, the 66 brand itself.
Most of the sections of the old road were replaced since1956 for the construction of multi-lane highways. Othersections were left unused for decades. Old motels, diners
and petrol stations were shut down. There was no use for aroad like Route 66 as long as the Americans could travel fastand cheap in jet planes. The American dream was all about
moving fast and Route 66 was very slow by the new Americanstandards.
As time went by, Route 66 was revived. Americans andEuropeans alike started getting nostalgic and asked for theMother Road to come back, more as an outdoor museumof beatnik culture than as a useful route from Chicago toLA. Old motels were restored and deserted petrol stations
were rebuilt and converted to R66 museums. Old barns andhouses where transformed into memorabilia shops, whereyou can find everything and anything with a 66 logo on it,

The World Off Road Pt 7

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Don’t pump and run!

from a bumper sticker to a bottle of beer. Over the next few
years Route 66 became a strong brand with no copyrights,
so everybody here uses it to make a living. For us, this route
was like a treasure hunt. We found loads of information fromthe internet before hitting the road and it proved to be apleasant task to find the sections of the old tarmac among
new interstates. It was worth the effort, even if we travelled
for hundreds of kilometres on narrow service roads, just to get
the whole feeling. After a few days we felt as if we were living
in post-war America. Every town was like a movie set. Somecharacters are the same that starred during the peak yearsof the road. They are older now but they still make a livingfrom a stretch of tarmac that crosses deserts and canyons,endless fields and remote towns. These Route 66 characters
are the best part of this long trip and you know what? There
will always be an old, fat waiter, a former beauty of the Mother
Road, who will call you ‘honey’ while refilling your second
cup of coffee. The Main Street of America is there and likeDisneyland, Hollywood and the Statue of Liberty, will bewaiting to sell you one more American dream…
md.co
ffroa
rldoo!
ww.thee no
www we arClick whereeto seChicago: We celebrated the end of
our trip on Route 66 with a gyros
sandwich in Greektown, not far
from Shears Tower, the highest
skyscraper in America.

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