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America's Darling: Route 66 by Nathan Ward

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America's Darling: Route 66 by Nathan Ward WARD ROUTE 66 - 1 America’s Darling Story and photos by Nathan Ward WARD ROUTE 66 - 1 t is Friday night, and with the your wheels like a road map to the last gasp of the day, a golden promised land. glow burns low across Central The fabled Route 66 still holds Avenue in Albuquerque, New the lure of discovery, and Americans IMexico. It throws a storied slant on love that promise of potential. Back the time-pitted windows of a blue in 1926. Right now. Tomorrow. I 1968 Ford Mustang, cruising slowly can’t define it, but there is certainly in front of the bright lights of the something about the idea of Route Route 66 KiMo Theater. Lost in the sound of 66 that promises happiness. There glass-pack mufflers burbling out a is no better way to discover The V8 song, we glide on bicycles east Mother Road’s mysteries than to on the avenue to the pink and teal ponder them slowly at bicycling neon of the Route 66 Diner where speed. the promise of the past lives on. From Chicago, Route 66 starts On Friday nights in Albuquerque, down Jackson Boulevard, crosses it’s not the best hour for bicycles, Illinois and Missouri, tastes Kansas, but we persist just as the legend of and digs deep into Oklahoma, the Route 66 persists in the dreams of Texas Panhandle, New Mexico, people worldwide. Arizona, and California — Lake Pull open the door. Inside the Michigan to the Pacific Ocean. Route 66 Diner, the needle drops It’s a classic journey best done on a 45 and “Tucumcari, Here I in one push, but we decided to Come” by Dale Watson bursts out. tackle it in bite-sized rides, bit by A bubbly girl in a short dress and bit like a Dust Bowl jalopy that braces seats breaks down but us on spinning keeps chugging stools at a long when the time is counter in front right. We tasted of an Elvis our first slice of cutout and an Route 66 pie by old Schwinn traveling from cruiser. We Romeroville to order fizzing Gallup, a stretch drinks, then across most of walk around New Mexico that the restaurant follows the pre- looking at 1937 route up memorabilia — through Santa old road signs, a Fe. Pez collection, Why start in the cutt-off the middle? Why front of a 1950s New Mexico? Chrysler with Simply put, for the chrome still gleaming. This me it was the crux of the journey, diner is the just the way I dream of the land where the culture notice- Route 66, but out on the road, of ably changes, food grows spicier, course, the story runs far deeper. hills thrust higher, and the history Next year, Adventure Cycling of the American West, just a gener- will release their newest route, ation or two ago removed form us, Bicycle Route 66, from Chicago’s begins. We weren’t disappointed by gleaming Miracle Mile to Santa Route 66 in New Mexico. Monica’s infinite blue waters. It’s On paper Route 66 was born on a 2,448-mile (give or take) ribbon November 11, 1926, when the U.S. of highway — America’s Main government officially linked up Street — stretching out in front of a collection of existing roads and WARD ROUTE 66 - 2 285 84 0 25 50 550 Miles 25 e 84 d n a r Santa Fe G Las Vegas Gallup io R Romeroville 25 40 14 84 Grants Albuquerque 285 Santa 40 40 Rosa P e c o s 54 R iv ARIZONA e r 60 60 25 60 60 Socorro Los Chicago Angeles e Route 66, pre-1937 alignment d n Ward’s detour from Route 66 ra G io R MARTHA BOSTWICK MARTHA Classic sights and experiences await along the forthcoming Bicycle Route 66 that traces the iconic Route 66 from Chicago’s Miracle Mile to the Pacific Ocean in Southern California. Old hotels, vintage signs, and hole-in-the-wall watering holes abound, if you’re willing to look. 12 ADVENTURE CYCLIST AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2014 WARD ROUTE 66 - 2 named it double six. In New Mexico, the original was a teeth-chattering 501 miles of washboard dirt that S-curved across the state. Back then, there was no straight shot across the Enchanted State. My wife Andrea and I started our tour in Las Vegas, a town just north of the proper route in Romeroville. The road comes into Las Vegas after long stretches of short grass prairie, persistent breezes, windmills, and long fence lines that fade straight into the distance. Then the road starts to roller coaster up and down through a canyon thick with red dirt, stone, and piñon pine. Stacked stone houses give in to gravity, a patient horse waits for dinner at a big porch tacked on to a tidy trailer house, and primered project cars erode NUTS & BOLTS Route 66 in front yards, all under the brilliance of the New Mexico sky. WHEN TO GO Midwest in the spring or WHERE TO STAY Rolling into town under black drip- The route runs from the early summer. A mix of camping and clas- ping fingers of clouds, Las Vegas speaks northern climes of the sic hotels would be ideal of modern America with box stores Midwest through the WHAT TO RIDE along the route. Some of the and chain hotels on its perimeter, the southern U.S. deserts, so We rode road bikes with original hotels are pretty the weather is a factor. You 25 millimeter tires. This cool, but there aren’t many downtown chock-full of historic brick could encounter both very worked well, but these left. Adventure Cycling’s buildings — some restored to glory, hot and very cold. And it would be too narrow for maps will highlight all the others waiting for saviors. We pedaled depends which way you most of the dirt roads or campgrounds along the way. through Las Vegas seeking out its gems want to ride it, Illinois to rough sections. Next time, — a mural on a brick wall and chopped California, or the opposite. I’ll ride a standard touring BOOKS TO READ smooth lowrider pickups with giant If starting in Illinois, late bike with something in the The Grapes of Wrath by chrome grills so shiny they mirror summer or early fall would range of a 32 millimeter John Steinbeck the quiet Spanish-Mexican plaza with be ideal so you would pass tire. Panniers or a trailer Route 66 - The Mother Road streets radiating out like the rays of the through the desert when the would be effective. You can by Michael Wallis sun. days are cooler. If starting also vehicle support the Route 66 Sightings by Jerry Las Vegas has more than 900 build- in California, you could start entire route if desired. McClanahan, Jim Ross, in late winter to reach the and Shellee Graham ings on various historic registers, and it’s fascinating to ride around looking at them. Some may look familiar because, Montezuma Hot Springs. Amazingly, to a battered building. “They worked despite the diminutive size of Las Ve- in this day and age, it’s still free and not all over this area, but that’s where they gas, it’s a hotbed for Hollywood. Many commercialized. Families park along stayed. It ain’t much to look at these well-known directors have filmed the road after work and ease their days.” scenes here over the decades. bodies into these healing waters. They She was right, it ain’t. Time was In the last hours of the day, we rode were an almost too-relaxing cap on a taking its toll, but I could picture it out of town a few miles to “The Castle,” day of riding and it was a struggle to with fresh paint and slamming doors, a a stunning edifice on the mountainside ride back to town and sink deep into home for girls with no other home. We that is currently home to the Armand bed for the night. came to see that this old building rep- Hammer United World College of the In the morning, under a cloudless resented a lot of Route 66. Not much American West. Security guards in golf sky, we rode to the railroad tracks near is left anymore, the road covered by carts chased us down when we tried our hotel. A stunning building sat for- interstate, the buildings torn down, and to pedal through the campus, but they lorn and boarded up. Back in the day, the roadside attractions long gone. But did point out a back road to something it strummed with life and even hosted this home of soiled doves prompted more precious for cyclists: hot springs. a Harvey House restaurant. A white- an epiphany of sorts. Route 66 became Right along the road near the haired lady in the train station saw us more than just a ribbon of highway, college, hot water seeps up through looking around and came out to tell us it became a treasure hunt to find the the ground, and locals have built rock stories. “That was where the ladies of original bits that still remain, and there pools to harness the mineral water of the night lived,” she said and pointed are plenty of treasures if you only look. ADVENTURECYCLING.ORG 13 WARD ROUTE 66 - 3 Out of Romeroville, the road follows that’s how we found San Jose del Vado, But some people lasted longer than the path of least resistance through a pueblito founded in 1803 where it others, and the story of civilizations and growing hills.
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