I am delighted to report that a week ago we completed Route 66 at Santa Monica Pier – the fulfilment of my Bucket List Item 1, having started in Adams Street, Chicago 4 weeks earlier. Doing this route was the original reason we started down the road to buy a motorhome. Route 66 was a great trip which exceeded our expectations, and one we would thoroughly recommend with some caveats as below.
1. Take plenty of time. We took a month and could have used more time.
2. Take several reference books, but make sure that one of them is Jerry McClanahan’s EZ66 Guide for Travellers.
3. Do not expect to see everything there is to see.
4. If you want a comfortable ride use the freeway on those stretches where the original 66 runs alongside the Freeway.
5. Know before you start that you will make navigational errors because the signposting is not always clear, in which case, if married make sure that you start out with a strong marriage, and/or take a good navigator
6. Know that there are no quick stops.
7. Be willing to take diversions away from and back to the Route to see even more sights along the way.
As foreigners we were in plentiful company. Route 66 is obviously a draw for people from Europe, Asia, the present and former British Commonwealth countries and elsewhere – much more than we had appreciated beforehand. We salute the many people along the way who are excellent ambassadors for USA (even better than some politicians – smile) and who made our journey so interesting and very amusing.
The Route itself was a lesson to us in US social history and landscape. But of course most of all it was simply fun because of the many super people we met.
We travelled in our Class A motorhome and trailer rig combo which is 58 ft long. Apart from a single challenge due to my navigational error we had no difficulties whatsoever, including getting downtown Chicago and right down to the foot of the Santa Monica Pier. We did not see many Class A motorhomes doing the route when we did it.
We did our best to support Route 66 RV sites by staying with them. In general, with a few exceptions, the sites are fair to average standard and because of the location of Route 66, which typically follows the Rail Road and has been replaced by the Freeway, they are typically very noisy at night.
We did 2,500 miles in our motorhome and 1,200 miles in our toad.
The people in small businesses along the route deserve support and encouragement, not to mention those in Information Centres and Route 66 “Museums”. By their actions they are collectively attracting foreigners to come to USA to spend dollars, and also Americans, and in so doing creating jobs in areas that might not otherwise have jobs. We are very happy to lend our support to and admiration of them and to all those we met along the way who made our trip such a memorable road trip exceeding our expectations.
I am happy to share our experience and comment to fellow travellers if requested. Well done USA!
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