Route 66 : The Beginning

All good stories have a beginning...most times they start at the end of a previous story and I guess that would be the case with us (Sky-CoCo-Jane)...lots of previous stories but this one starts with our journey across America via Route 66...

Route 66 beginning sign

Route 66 contains much of what is America from mom and pop businesses, early history, culture, farming, industrialization, and iconic architectural changes. There are funky roadside attractions, neon signs, and what can only be described as living art dotting the length of Route 66. It's a reminder of where we started, how we evolved and a possible end...It's also reminder of all the people who went before us during good times (mining booms) and bad times (dust bowl and depression) .

Families, businesses, robbers, lawmen, service workers, farm workers, transitives...all traveled down Route 66 looking for America and it's opportunities...and at the end of the day, I guess we three muses are not much different than those that came before us...we too are looking for what America can offer.


For those that don't know...a very brief history...

Route 66 was established November 11, 1926. It ran from Chicago, Illinois through ...Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona before ending at Santa Monica, California...covering a total of 2,448 miles.It has served as a major path for anyone moving westward during the following 70-80 years...

The Route's start is downtown Chicago...like much of Route 66, it has had several 'rebirths' where the road is moved to accommodate local growth, economical needs and political mongering...and the beginning of the route is no different in that aspect... Originally, the Mother Road (Route 66 nickname as well as Main Street America) began on Jackson Blvd at Michigan Ave., but in 1933 the start was moved east to Jackson and Lake Shore Drive....because the first route was reclaimed for the worlds fair.

It's easy to find as the transportation department on a whole in Illinois has marked both old, older and oldest route 66 (or what still exist of it). Early on we also learned that looking for old telephone poles or railroad tracks would often put you on the Mother Road (or very near it!)...most time it also mirrors a near by highway that replaced it like 53 or 55 or 366...there hasn't been one time that we were 'lost', just a tad off course but backtracking and looking for clues always put us back on the right road.

One final note on finding the Mother Road...While much of the road in many of the states it passed through was moved, asphalt over, upgraded, or simply left to farm fields...you can easily recognize some sections of the route by the Portland cement which in some places was done 10 feet thick...there's no missing the whitish cement.

CoCo and Sky at RT66 Sign

So our story begins...