Ragnar's World: Drive-by shooting on Route 66

Amarillo, July 5th 2014

3 days on Route 66. Or at least I have tried. In California and Arizona it was quite easy. They had clearly marked points of entry to the road, and would have signs to tell me when to get on and off I-40 or other roads. The I-40 is the main interstate east from California, and it follows more or less the same route as the original Route 66. But not quite. So I needed to check every now and then to see that I was actually on the right track. When I passed into New Mexico and Texas, it all became a bit more complicated. They still had signs that said "Route 66", but when I exited, the signs disappeared. And to make things even worse, Route 66 had gotten several different designations here and there. So it would not say 66, but some places 118, other places 125, and at one place, 333. I tried to get my GPS to get me on "Historical Route 66", but it insisted on putting me on I-40. I tried "Route 66". Same result. Even though the map on the GPS clearly stated that the road I WAS on, was Rte 66...
All of this resulted in a lot of head-scratching trying to find the original route 66. So why go through the trouble? Isn't it just a road? In itself yes. But after three days on the track of the old highway to the west, I must say that I have fallen in love with it. Not because of its quality. It has ranged from appalling to superb. But the road cover itself is not what attracts me. It is the pace, the feeling, and the views. I sometimes feel like driving on the worlds longest, drive-through museum.
If you want to get somewhere fast, take the interstate. No question. It is fast, efficient and comfortable. But it is boring. All you see is loooooong road, lots of traffic and billboards everywhere. On Route 66, there is so much to see that I never get bored. Never long for the hotel bed. Like this last leg, from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Amarillo, Texas. If I had driven the I-40, I would have arrived before lunch. But I arrived at 5.30PM. All because I was following 66. There were so much to see and I just had to stop a lot.
And that is the "problem". I want to take so many pictures that if I had stopped every time to get out of the car, I would have spent two months, not two weeks on the trip back to Chicago. So, I ended up with a lot of drive-by shooting. Either holding the camera up and shooting while driving, or stopping for a few seconds and shoot through the window. On some stretches, I had the camera on my lap all the time, ready to shoot at any time. Because at any time, something would suddenly appear. Something nice. Something exciting. Unusual. Fun. If I had managed to shoot everything I saw, I would have filled all my memory cards in an hour.
Another thing I like about Route 66, is that it follows the landscape to a greater extent. The interstate is built for speed. And thus it is flatter, smoother and straighter. Route 66 seems to follow the shape of the landscape more. So on most of it, the speed limit is 55 mph or lower. As opposed to on the interstate where it is mostly 75 mph. There's one part I loved. 66 headed off far from the interstate, and to my much enjoyment, it followed the steep cliffs of red Arizonian rock. It even had a long 180 degree turn around the end of the cliff. And then between two cliffs that stood up on each side. I smiled the whole way.
I have included here a set of images from the three days. These are by no means a complete set of images, but more of a sample. I have filmed a lot, and will maybe make a small video at the end of the trip.