On Dec 23, 12:18=A0pm, dana...@yahoo.com wrote:
> A friend of mine wants to do a road trip on Route 66 from Dallas to
> Chicago. I'm thinking he's thinking the Route 66 of legend is just as
> interesting along that stretch vs. going West through New Mexico,
> Arizona, and California.
>
> A colleague at work from New Mexico says Route 66 gets more
> interesting the further West you go. I guess everyone has a different
> idea of "interesting," but deserts, mountains, ghost towns, old mines,
> etc, sound interesting to me.
>
> 1) Isn't the Route 66 people get nostalgic for, and where the most
> interesting bits are, the stretch between New Mexico and California?
>
> 2) How advisable is it weather-wise to road trip from Dallas to
> Chicago along Route 66 in January? Seems like he could run into some
> nasty weather, especially since he may go even further north past
> Chicago.
>
> 3) What is the stretch of Route 66 between Dallas and Chicago like? Is
> it interesting and worth the trip in and of itself? Is it crowded and
> dull? Empty and dull?
>
> 4) Is the Western part of Route 66 "too touristy?" (an objection my
> friend made to doing that particular stretch) Or does it simply have
> some kitsch every now and then stretched out along hundreds of miles?
>
> 5) What are some highlights of the portion of Route 66 going north
> east to Chicago from Dallas?
>
> I guess another objective of my friend is that he wants to ultimately,
> some day, have driven through all 50 states--and he'd prob. pass
> through a good number of states on his trip. He's also from a small
> mountain town in North Carolina and wants to see more of small-town
> America elsewhere in the country. He's also a photographer as part of
> his day job, so my guess is that he's hoping to get some great shots
> out there on the road.
>
> Us both being from North Carolina, I personally think he'd have a
> better time flying out to Dallas (purpose is to visit a friend there
> first for New Years), renting a car, heading West of Route 66, then
> flying back to NC. Seems like it would be a whole lot more
> interesting. I wanted to go on the road trip, but couldn't justify
> taking the vacation time to do the portion north / east of Dallas
> without ever having done the Southwest portion.
>
> Probably any day on a road trip anywhere is better than a day spent at
> work. But as far as Road Trip A vs. Road Trip B on Route 66, which is
> better and why?
When we used to travel between Ft. Worth and northern Illinois, we
sometimes would take I-35 to I-80, and other times basically the
modern interstate that follows old Route 66 (I-35 to I-44 and I-55,
the latter two basically Route 66), It's also possible to take the
interstate through Arkansas and then another north to Chicago (I-30,
I-40, I-55 and I-57, the latter not necessary but shorter) which we
never did. By selecting a more eastern or western route it may be
possible to plan to avoid bad weather. Although we could drive this
in a day, we usually took two days and used the opportunity to stop to
see things along the way. The previous mention of Cahokia Mounds is
excellent. Although few people have heard of it, it was the second
largest city in North America after Mexico City before the coming of
Columbus, and is just across the river from St. Louis in Illinois.
George |