Posts Tagged ‘Route 66’
Two-Lane Tidbit: Happy Birthday to the US Highway System!
Happy 95th Birthday to the US Highway System, including the most famous highway of all, Route 66! Before US Routes were established, a series of auto trails traversed the country. In 1925, the American Association of State Highway Officials (AASHO) created a national numbering system for roads, with north-south roads having odd numbers and east-west…
Read MoreOur Favorite Pet-Friendly Roadside Motels
Once upon a time, city streets were lined with the bright and flashy neon of motel signs. The bigger and more elaborate the sign, the more likely the chance of catching the attention of the passing traveler. Sadly, many of these roadside motels and their neon signs have been left to deteriorate, met with the…
Read MoreOur Top 5 Neon Signs
#5: Village Inn Motel- Raton, NM Starting the list at #5 is the Village Inn Motel in Raton, NM. The motel and its vintage mid-century sign are one of many that can be found along South 2nd Street in Raton. Right off I-25, a trip into town provides a wealth of vintage signs and motels.…
Read MoreHail to the Southwest Chief: All Aboard for Los Angeles
As lovers of road travel on a quest for all things Americana, it should be no surprise that we are also big fans of trains. Of course, we wish that train travel today was as glamorous and plush as it once was but are excited that it is still possible to travel across the U.S.…
Read MoreFive Enchanted Days in New Mexico
Last February, we set off on a five-day road trip through the Land of Enchantment. While the highlights of our trip were the alien-crazed town of Roswell and the lunar-like magnificence of White Sands National Monument near Alamogordo, we found many other historical, quirky, and kitschy roadside attractions. One of the reasons that we love…
Read MoreEnd of the Trail: Route 66 in California
From border to border, California provides some of the biggest contrasts in geography on all of Route 66. Entering at the eastern border, drivers find themselves a mere speck in the massive expanse of the Mojave Desert where little remains of the towns, auto camps, and gas stations that were once available to Mother Road…
Read MoreHere It Is: Route 66 in Arizona
Some of the most beautiful stretches of Route 66 lie within Arizona’s borders. With more than 250 miles of the route still drivable, the Grand Canyon State lays claim to the longest unbroken stretch of accessible original road- 158 miles running from Ash Fork to Topock at the California border. Arizona also has the distinction…
Read MoreEnchanted Travels: Route 66 in New Mexico
With a long and storied history covering more than a millennium, there is no shortage of beautiful historical sites, ruins, and places to explore in the Land of Enchantment. Despite being much more recent historically, there is just as much 20th Century Americana waiting to be discovered. Our love for Route 66 began in Tucumcari…
Read MoreGet Your Sniffs: Finley’s Travels on Route 66
For more than a decade, we’d dreamed of getting our kicks on Route 66. With a month set aside to follow our dreams and travel the route last fall, we couldn’t imagine taking the trip without our dog, Finley. Over the last two years, Finley has traveled more than 20,000 miles through 36 states with us,…
Read MorePaint On, Drop In, Pig Out: Route 66 in Texas
Mention the Texas Panhandle and most people will likely envision wind sweeping across wide open fields of, well, nothing. Life on the Llano Estacado, or the Staked Plains, is not for the meek, with hot summers, cold winters, little rainfall, tornadoes, and dust storms. Constructed following the path of the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific…
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