My Highlights, Wow, where do you start! (Photos of the below are in the gallery page(s)
First of all, what did I not like? The cities. I was not particularly enamored by Chicago, Las Vegas, or even Los Angeles. I didn't get a lot of time to see much of them of course, mainly 'Downtown', which isn't very pleasant. I'm sure there are lovely areas, and we passed through some of them on the way into Los Angeles.
The Route 66 Museum, Clinton, Ok, is THE Route 66 museum that should not be missed. There are a number of small, and good, museums along the way but none have the organised content of this one. Apart from great cars, old cars and wagons, there are many tableaux of how the people travelled in the early days. Lots of heartbreaking photographs showing how they lived while making the journey to the West, such poverty and deprivation. There's continuous videos running, with many parts covering many areas, it's worth spending a good while just sitting watching these.
Definitely a 'Must See'.
One that we didn't visit is in Elk City, Ok, but I've seen many great reviews of it.
One city I did like was Santa Fe. The centre was very tourist orientated but as we had a whole day there some of us used the bikes to explore a little. I, and a friend, went to the Harley Davidson showroom/shop. Incredibly friendly and helpful staff.
Before that we walked best part of a mile to a Laundromat to do our washing, which means I only needed to take half of the clothes that I did take.
Along the way we passed some interesting places, and it seems like a very pleasant place to live. We are in New Mexico, of course, so to live there it would be very useful to speak Spanish.
We only saw St Louis in the late afternoon/evening. Lots of sport events were going on and we found a great restaurant called 'The Spaghetti Factory', it served lots of things other than pasta though. Excellent restaurant and not too huge a helping unlike most places serve you.
Other highlights have to start with - The Ride "It's all about the ride" our guide would say, and he's right. The vision of Route 66 is not particularly about visiting places but achieving the end-to-end ride of, probably, the most famous and desirous ride for many bikers, and lovers of American history.
And the ride does not disappoint, even when we had pretty awful biking weather most of the way. Stinging rain and freezing cold the first day when we left Chicago, and accompanied by high winds. Most of the rest of the fortnight was high winds, mostly crosswind, apart from 3 days. What to do? You just have to ride through it, after all, "IT'S ALL ABOUT THE RIDE"
New Mexico - what a fabulous state that is. The scenery is just stunning as we rode along towards the 'Canadian Mountain Ridge', named so due to the mountain range running from New Mexico for 3,000 miles to the Rockies in Canada. There is also a 'Canadian River' which starts with the Colorado and runs through New Mexico.
Riding over the mountains is a joy, long, twisting roads with some bends that seem to go on forever but very manageable, no real hairpins or very sharp bends.
The high Altitude of Santa Fe can leave you a bit breathless, take it easy and drink lots of water.
Grand Canyon - If you can manage it, take a helicopter ride to see the canyon in all of its glory. The pilots are very knowledgeable. Ours was a lovely lady called Yani who let us pose with her for photographs after the flight.
You can't get a real idea of the depth and beauty of the canyon if you only see it on TV.
I loved riding through the Navajo Nation. Real 'Cowboy Country' with the red rock cliffs and open plains leading to them. Interesting finding out about the various native American tribes from the guides and at the trading posts, where we stopped for fuel and lunch breaks.
Find out about the hogan's that the Navajo build to use in the winter.
Mojave desert, loved that too. It was one of our warmer days and riding alongside the 'Joshua Trees' was fascinating. They are very slow growing and even the small ones, 3 or 4 feet high, are around 75 years old.
You then come to the Joshua Tree National Park
We stopped for a little while in Kelso, right in the middle of the Mojave. It was created as a train facility where engines would be kept to assist trains up the gradient.
Winslow Arizona (Sound familiar?). Winslow is on Route 66 but, like most places on the route, it was bypassed with a freeway. They re-invented themselves when 'The Eagles' included the name of the town in 'Take it Easy' when they sang 'Standing on the Corner in Winslow Arizona'.
Great gift shops, cafes and sights of members of the band in Bronze on the corners of the streets. And the largest, road painted, Route 66 sign on the whole route.
Oatman - Start from Cool Springs station and Oatman is at the other end of an incredibly twisty mountain road (191 bends with at least two hairpins, so I was told, I didn't count them). It's an old gold mining town. One of the locals told me that mining was being restarted by a mining company. It's an incredibly interesting place, right out of the old wild west, and with Donkeys. Everyone loves donkeys, just watch where you are standing.
Williams, AZ. - Apart from having a claim to fame of being the last town to be bypassed by a freeway, Williams is a good place to wander around. There is a rail head with old engines on display and the Route 66 Zipwire.
But with all of those highlights we have to remember "IT'S ALL ABOUT THE RIDE" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
First of all, what did I not like? The cities. I was not particularly enamored by Chicago, Las Vegas, or even Los Angeles. I didn't get a lot of time to see much of them of course, mainly 'Downtown', which isn't very pleasant. I'm sure there are lovely areas, and we passed through some of them on the way into Los Angeles.
The Route 66 Museum, Clinton, Ok, is THE Route 66 museum that should not be missed. There are a number of small, and good, museums along the way but none have the organised content of this one. Apart from great cars, old cars and wagons, there are many tableaux of how the people travelled in the early days. Lots of heartbreaking photographs showing how they lived while making the journey to the West, such poverty and deprivation. There's continuous videos running, with many parts covering many areas, it's worth spending a good while just sitting watching these.
Definitely a 'Must See'.
One that we didn't visit is in Elk City, Ok, but I've seen many great reviews of it.
One city I did like was Santa Fe. The centre was very tourist orientated but as we had a whole day there some of us used the bikes to explore a little. I, and a friend, went to the Harley Davidson showroom/shop. Incredibly friendly and helpful staff.
Before that we walked best part of a mile to a Laundromat to do our washing, which means I only needed to take half of the clothes that I did take.
Along the way we passed some interesting places, and it seems like a very pleasant place to live. We are in New Mexico, of course, so to live there it would be very useful to speak Spanish.
We only saw St Louis in the late afternoon/evening. Lots of sport events were going on and we found a great restaurant called 'The Spaghetti Factory', it served lots of things other than pasta though. Excellent restaurant and not too huge a helping unlike most places serve you.
Other highlights have to start with - The Ride "It's all about the ride" our guide would say, and he's right. The vision of Route 66 is not particularly about visiting places but achieving the end-to-end ride of, probably, the most famous and desirous ride for many bikers, and lovers of American history.
And the ride does not disappoint, even when we had pretty awful biking weather most of the way. Stinging rain and freezing cold the first day when we left Chicago, and accompanied by high winds. Most of the rest of the fortnight was high winds, mostly crosswind, apart from 3 days. What to do? You just have to ride through it, after all, "IT'S ALL ABOUT THE RIDE"
New Mexico - what a fabulous state that is. The scenery is just stunning as we rode along towards the 'Canadian Mountain Ridge', named so due to the mountain range running from New Mexico for 3,000 miles to the Rockies in Canada. There is also a 'Canadian River' which starts with the Colorado and runs through New Mexico.
Riding over the mountains is a joy, long, twisting roads with some bends that seem to go on forever but very manageable, no real hairpins or very sharp bends.
The high Altitude of Santa Fe can leave you a bit breathless, take it easy and drink lots of water.
Grand Canyon - If you can manage it, take a helicopter ride to see the canyon in all of its glory. The pilots are very knowledgeable. Ours was a lovely lady called Yani who let us pose with her for photographs after the flight.
You can't get a real idea of the depth and beauty of the canyon if you only see it on TV.
I loved riding through the Navajo Nation. Real 'Cowboy Country' with the red rock cliffs and open plains leading to them. Interesting finding out about the various native American tribes from the guides and at the trading posts, where we stopped for fuel and lunch breaks.
Find out about the hogan's that the Navajo build to use in the winter.
Mojave desert, loved that too. It was one of our warmer days and riding alongside the 'Joshua Trees' was fascinating. They are very slow growing and even the small ones, 3 or 4 feet high, are around 75 years old.
You then come to the Joshua Tree National Park
We stopped for a little while in Kelso, right in the middle of the Mojave. It was created as a train facility where engines would be kept to assist trains up the gradient.
Winslow Arizona (Sound familiar?). Winslow is on Route 66 but, like most places on the route, it was bypassed with a freeway. They re-invented themselves when 'The Eagles' included the name of the town in 'Take it Easy' when they sang 'Standing on the Corner in Winslow Arizona'.
Great gift shops, cafes and sights of members of the band in Bronze on the corners of the streets. And the largest, road painted, Route 66 sign on the whole route.
Oatman - Start from Cool Springs station and Oatman is at the other end of an incredibly twisty mountain road (191 bends with at least two hairpins, so I was told, I didn't count them). It's an old gold mining town. One of the locals told me that mining was being restarted by a mining company. It's an incredibly interesting place, right out of the old wild west, and with Donkeys. Everyone loves donkeys, just watch where you are standing.
Williams, AZ. - Apart from having a claim to fame of being the last town to be bypassed by a freeway, Williams is a good place to wander around. There is a rail head with old engines on display and the Route 66 Zipwire.
But with all of those highlights we have to remember "IT'S ALL ABOUT THE RIDE" HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Just a few photographs along the route
Click and then scroll through
Click and then scroll through