It's a part of American folklore and a pop cultural experience. But the four-lane interstate highway system envisioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower spelled the end of the Mother Road, and in most respects, the end of Main Street America. Route 66 is the freedom of the Open Road even now. Finding out what's beyond the horizon, beyond the sunset. Interstate travel, on the other hand, is efficient, fast and boring, Pitel said.
People traveling the interstates find it a very sterile experience.
Old Mother Roads never die, they just slowly get decommissioned and revert to previous designations, said David Knudson, executive director of the National Route 66 Federation, located in Los Angeles. That doesn't necessarily mean closed, he added. Calif. Trond Moberg, a member of Norway's Route 66 association, said his group of road-riders is coming west through Albuquerque again this summer. In 1999 we were 28 Norwegians doing Route 66. This year we will be 90.