Thread: Kiwis on Route 66

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We're going to be taking a tour of Route 66 in September, starting in Chicago, and working our way across to Santa Monica.
The idea behind doing it east-to-west is that the time zone changes are then working for us, giving us an extra hour at every change.

Here's our itinerary, your thoughts / comments would be appreciated.
(But not necessarily acted upon! )
And if anyone wants to meet up while we're in their vicinity . . . holler!

Day 1 Illinois. (USA time.)
Monday 16th September.
Fly into Chicago.

Day 2
Tuesday 17th September.
Shedd Aquarium and Museum of Science and Industry, both on the lake front road.
Kalamazoo: Gilmore Car Museum, 6865 Hickory Rd., Hickory Corners, MI.

Sightseeing…recovering from jet-lag.
Not overly interested in cities; they’re all homogenised…could be Auckland or Paris or Moscow…don’t care.

Day 3 Illinois.
Wednesday 18th September.
Sightseeing…recovering from jet-lag.

Day 4 Illinois.
Thursday 19th September.

Points of interest:
Romeoville: White Fence Farm 1376 Joliet Rd. --- food, car and machinery collection.
Braidwood: Polk-a-dot Drive in. Pro70z28 did their signs. Contact when close.
Gardner: Riviera pub… gaol.
Odell: Meramec Caverns.
Funks Gr: maple sirup.
Williamsville: Die-cast Auto Sales, 117 N Elm St.
Staunton: Henry’s Rabbit Ranch…’’Snortin’ Norton’’ trucks. (?) Campbell 66 Express Trucking.
Pontiac: Murals and Route 66 Museum.
Mitchell: Chain of Rocks Rd…accommodation?
Or on to St Louis.

Day 5 Missouri.
Friday 20th September.

Points of interest:
St. Louis: Ted Drew’s Frozen Custard. 6726 Chippewa. Joe, (TooMany2count) contact when close.
Via Manchester and Ellisville (old Rte 66) to:
Stanton: Meramec Caverns. Antique toy collection. (Closed.) Jesse James wax museum next door.
Sullivan: antiques mall.
St James: Rte 66 Motors and Gift Shop.
Rolla: ½ scale replica of Stonehenge and Totem Pole Trading Post.
Lebanon/Devils Elbow – Munger Moss Motel – Rte 66 Museum 1336 East Rte 66 – also factory outlets and antique stores.
Marshfield: model of the ‘Hubble Telescope’ in the town square, and Exotic Animal Paradise.
Springfield: “Snortin’ Norton” trucks. (?) Campbell 66 Express Trucking. NTFDAY lives near here. Contact when close.
Branson: Musical Mecca of Country Music…and head for Ottawa.
Joplin: or head for Ottawa from here.

Day 6 to day 8 Kansas.
Saturday 21st September to Monday 23rd September..
Ottawa.
Points of interest:

Old Marais River run…a Rod/Custom show… Roger Spears. Contact when close.
That will consume at least one full day I’m sure.
Roger and Susan have proposed we stay an extra two nights after the initial Show day, and they’ll give us a bit of a tour of their area.
Thanks for that, much appreciated.

Day 9 to day 13 Oklahoma.
Tuesday 24th September to Friday 27th September.
Points of interest:
Afton: Afton Station – Packard collection. Darryl Starbird's Rod and Custom Hall of Fame, 55251 E Hwy 85A.
Vinita: World’s largest McDonalds.
Verdigris: The Nut House for pecan pie.
Bristow: Factory shops? (Barstow?)
Arcadia: “The Round Barn” – although I’m told it’s now destroyed by fire.
Warwick: Seaba Station, now a m/cycle museum.
Oklahoma City: Alfred P Murrah Federal Building

Perry…for five days.
Meeting up with acquaintances from our last visit and seeing if we can lean on some to write stories about their memories of the bus.
See if I can make contact with Shirley Self.
Meeting with Dick and Susie Smelser, who are joining us for the rest of the trip.
305 N. Young, Billings Oklahoma, 74630. Ph. 001 913 856 3208.

Yukon: Yukon’s Best Railroad Museum.
Clinton: Oklahoma Route 66 Museum 2229 West Gary Blvd. and Cheyenne Cultural Centre, 2250 NE Rte 66.
Canute: Remains of old businesses.
Erick: Roger Miller and Sheb Wooley Museums, also Sand Hills Curiosity Shop.
Texola: ghost town.

Day 14 Texas.
Saturday 28th September..

Points of interest:
Shamrock: U – Drop Inn. Featured in ‘Cars’. Emmett's mum worked here before he was born, and his dad worked next door.
Amarillo: Cadillac Ranch and antique shops. Palo Duro Canyon State Park, The Big Texan Restaurant 7701 I-40 Amarillo.
McClean: Devil’s Rope (barbed wire) museum.

Day 15 New Mexico.
Sunday 29th September..

Points of interest:
Tucumcari: kitsch architecture, Blue Swallow Motel, Mesalands Community College Dinosaur Museum. Car yard, east of, ph 575-403-0221 or 575-461-0199.
Santa Rosa: Route 66 Auto Museum, some for sale.
Albuquerque: National Atomic Museum.

Day 16. New Mexico.
Monday 30th September.
Points of interest:
Albuquerque: Unser Garage. Race cars.
Laguna: San Jose Mission, built in 1699.
Grants: New Mexico Mining Museum plus fossil and Route 66 exhibits.
Dinosaur Discovery Museum, and Bandera Volcano and Ice Cave.
Prewitt: Swap Meet 66.
Gallup: Rex Museum.

Day 17 Arizona.
Tuesday 1st October.

Points of interest:
On the left between Navajo and Painted Desert is the Petrified Forest.
Holbrook: Wigwam Motel 811 W Hopi Dr.
“Jackrabbit Trading Post”.
Winslow: ‘Standin’ on a corner’, Eagles, 2nd St. and Kingsley.
Meteor City: meteor crater.
Flagstaff.

Day 18. Arizona.
Wednesday 2nd October.

Points of interest:
Downtown Williams - unchanged since the 60's
Grand Canyon.
Seligman: Route 66 Visitor Centre, and Grand Canyon Caverns.
Hackberry: Hackberry general store.
Kingman: Historic Route 66 Assoc. of Arizona with Route 66 Museum, also nearby is the Mohave Museum, also the Locomotive Park.
Ensure gas tank is kept topped up.

Day 19. California.
Thursday 3rd October

Points of interest:
Calico: Archaeological site.
Barstow: Route 66 Mother Road Museum and a railroad museum.
Bottle Tree Ranch.
Oro Grande: Route 66 Antique Station.
Victorville : another Route 66 museum.
San Bernardino: (north of) McDonalds Museum on E Street @ 14th
Duarte: Justice Bros. Racing Museum, 2734 E Huntington Dr.

Day 20. . California.
Friday 4th October.
Los Angeles.
Points of interest:
Peterson Museum.
Blob out.

Day 21. Saturday 5th October.
Los Angeles.
I’m sure we’ll find something to do…
Space Shuttle Museum. California Science Centre 700 Exposition Park Drive.

Day 22. Sunday 6th October

Fly out.

JB, I was born in Shamrock, Texas. Before I was born my Mom worked at the U-Drop In and my Dad worked next door at the Conoco Tower Gas Station pumping gas and spinning wrenches when necessary. It is a landmark for sure and you should have seen how excited I got when I saw it in the movie "Cars" !

Don't know how your schedule will be running but here's a real COOL place just South of Amarillo
Palo Duro Canyon State Park

East??? East??? There ain't no EAST anywhere in your agenda!

Sigh.... to far for me to go to say HELLO!

Maybe next time...................................

Don't forget to stop at the Polk-A-Dot drive In, in Braidwood, IL. It's right on Rt. 66, after Romeoville, maybe 1/2 hour or so & just before Gardner, IL by about 10 minutes or so. It's a fifties style restaurant with tons of memorabilia. I did their menu boards & a few other signs over the years. Here's a link...

Polk-a-Dot Drive-In | Route 66 Association of Illinois

Oh, and I live about 5 or 6 miles from the place. Maybe we could say hi if the schedules work out.

Let me know when you're in Springfield, Missouri and I'll show you the original route through the city.

I'm jealous since I live in this country and have never done that trip yet. But it sounds like a great road trip so hope you have a wonderful adventure.

Are you driving any kind of interesting car on this trip?

Thanks for the contacts and additional 'points of interest' folks!
Much appreciated!
Nick:
Nah; just a boring rental. But, having said that; if something interesting should happen to cross my path . . . well maybe, just maybe, I might feel obligated to save it from a restorer. . .

It's a great trip!!!!! Did parts of 66 over the years, then in the early 80's 4 of us did the whole route on scooters and had a blast!-----Parts of the journey remain classified to this day!!!!!!!!

Did someone say Ted Drew’s Frozen Custard ????
That's about 20 minutes from my house.
I could wander on over there to enjoy great frozen custard w/you.....joe

Originally Posted by johnboy

...Nah; just a boring rental...

That reminds me of one of my favorite adventures of my life back in the day. I was out in Idaho working at INEL on secret nuclear stuff I'd have to kill you if I told you and when done I figured no way I'm going home before exploring eastern Idaho and western Wyoming. So I did, in my Olds Cutlass rent-a-car. This was in late Spring when there was still 8 feet of snow off the sides of many roads and nobody else around for most of the trip. Fortunately I didn't get stuck anywhere off road since I drove that car up and down many miles of back dirt roads, and also fortunate I didn't get eaten by any bears just coming out of hibernation since there were lots of "grizzly area" signs around and I was the only food within miles, other than moose and elk that could run faster than me ...and no gun with me either!

Pro70z28, NTFDAY, TooMany2count, could you-all please PM me with phone numbers?
We'd purely love to meet up with as many of you as we possibly can, and we will be carrying a cell phone while travelling . . .

I'll also be carrying my lap-top, and intend updating this thread on a daily basis as my personal diary of the trip.
On our last trip I kept my diary up-to-date; but one evening when I was typing it up I realised I had over-typed a letter, clicked on it, and clicked 'delete' just as the hotel system crashed . . . I lost three weeks of entries.
So I intend to keep my diary somewhere else (here) as a back-up.
And if you fellas get to giggle at me from it; then that's all good.

For some reason e-mails from the States don't always come through onto my system, (as I have found out from Meller and one or three others,) so try it if you like, and if I don't acknowledge it I haven't got it!

As you can see; as the comments / suggestions have been forthcoming I have been updating / editing my original itinerary.

So you got 3 days planned for Kansas????? there's probably less than 10 miles of us66 in the south east corner of the state---------------however,on our trip 3 years ago, we took I40 from Joplan to OK city and missed Kansas altogether-----so gotta return so I can mark off Kansas, still need to do state of Washington and I think Colorado in my truck---

Also suggest the VLA(very large array) of electronic telescopes in New Mexico--27 scopes that the y spread out along one 11 mile leg and two 9 mile legs for extralestular? outer space stuff

I would also suggest Williams, Arizona. The downtown area looks as it did in 62 and 64 when I drove the Mother Road, at least it did the last time I went through there in 2000.

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

So you got 3 days planned for Kansas????? there's probably less than 10 miles of us66 in the south east corner of the state---------------however,on our trip 3 years ago, we took I40 from Joplan to OK city and missed Kansas altogether-----so gotta return so I can mark off Kansas, still need to do state of Washington and I think Colorado in my truck---

Yeah, three days; but we're gonna get the chrome-plated-machine-tooled-99-carat guided tour of the place!

Originally Posted by jerry clayton

Also suggest the VLA(very large array) of electronic telescopes in New Mexico--27 scopes that the y spread out along one 11 mile leg and two 9 mile legs for extralestular? outer space stuff

Bugger!
Won't fit!
They give guided tours on the first Saturday of every month; a week after we've shot through the place.

Double post.