We are on Route 66. The historic “mother road,” “America’s Main Street.” Whatever you call it it’s almost more of an icon than anything else and we have finally made it to take it from the California end all the way to Chicago. 

After a few days just getting here we finally made it to the Santa Monica pier where Route 66 ends (or starts, for us) and headed down the historic highway. Except, well, a lot of it is just gone. Progress and all. 

Our vision is to drive as much of the historic portion of the road as possible and see how much is left and what condition some of the historic and kitschy bits of it are like. And share that with you. 

Santa Monica

Like so much of the rest of what is the City of Los Angeles, Santa Monica is wall to wall people and traffic and cars. Having grown up here I’m used to this although it’s gotten even more intense in the 12 years since I left. So the point of all this is, with a travel trailer, we weren’t able to get a photo of the Santa Monica pier to share with you. 

There’s a sign there that tells you you’ve come to one end of this historic route but you can’t get a travel trailer onto the pier and the locals are angry enough without someone towing a travel trailer slowing with a GoPro sticking out of the window. Three times. Nor does the local police department appreciate such silliness. Oh well. 

Onward

From there you can head east and follow the streets of Santa Monica. If you listen to the GPS you’ll end up on the 10 freeway headed east which is what we did. 

One thing, Venice is the next city over from LA and it absolutely has a weird side in a good way. There are shops and buildings in Venice that are a trip to the more unusual side of life so if you do visit LA, definitely stroll Venice. And the Santa Monica pier. 

If you’ve ever heard bad things about LA traffic know that they’re likely an understatement. In science when you take a bunch of rats and put them into a cage they start attacking one another and that’s sort of what LA is like now. Too many rats in the cage 

San Bernardino

Until you get to San Bernardino there is essentially nothing left nor even any hints of what was once Route 66. But San Bernardino does celebrate their historic status on the Mother Road with some signage and even a few buildings left from days gone by. 

For example there’s a bridge over Route 66, which is now two lanes in either direction, that proclaims that you’re on America’s Main Street - Route 66. It’s pretty cool. 

Several businesses have adopted signage or names that reflect the heritage of the road they’re on and there are also signs reinforcing that you’ve found the Mother Road. Some vintage signs also denote new businesses such as the Route 66 Storage which uses a historic neon sign from some other business way back when. 

There are a few businesses that still survive to this day including the Magic Lamp restaurant, a fancy eatery with the most intricate tile roof I think I’ve ever seen. I can only imagine how much that thing weighs. 

Friends and family who have eaten there report that it’s a pretty nice place to take in a meal and the building speaks to being a somewhat glamorous place. 

Route 66 app

One of the resources we’ve used is an iPhone app called Route 66 Ultimate Guide. It’s a great resource that lets you see what there is left and has details about that. We’ve been pretty happy with it already and it’s a free app. You can tell it which way you’re headed down Route 66 and it will list the attractions to see including parking and other things.

Some attractions have lengthy descriptions, others don’t. There is a whole page of options to suit your trip and it’s a really well done app that I would actually pay for, but didn’t have to. 

My favorite bit

Without question my favorite thing on the road thus far was a historic Richmond gas station that people in the city of Rancho Cucamonga have restored to absolute pristine condition. Complete with the vintage gas pumps, this yellow beauty is really cool to see and celebrates the style that used to be dotted all up and down this highway. 

Thoughts

As we were slowly creeping along, looking at other people’s taillights in a reported 112° F temperature it made me appreciate modern vehicles and modern highways. There I sat comfortably in my truck listening to podcasts and feeling the comfort of a cool air conditioning system, all while hauling a house around behind me in the form of a travel trailer. 

Going up hills or down the truck’s temperature barely changed at all and it’s amazing how far we’ve come with vehicle technology. 

Think about the heyday of this historic road before cars had air conditioners or comfortable seats and a hot day meant a likely overheating situation. There were no podcasts nor much else to entertain us, unless you could get the radio to tune in to a local station. 

Sure you could bemoan the fact that much of our history has been replaced by shiny new buildings and businesses but, by the same token, I’ll take my modern pickup any day. Progress is inevitable and usually represents moving forward but I still appreciate the style of things we did in the past as well. 

Tonight we stayed at the Needles KOA which offers full hook-ups for which we’re very grateful. With the 111 degree temps I am very happy our trailer has air conditioning and we’re working it.

Thank you for joining me on this adventure - I will try to update the travels every day, barring lousy Internet.