I’m going to suggest that you rethink your plan a little bit.
Rather than driving from Chicago to LA, just fly to LA, rent a car, and do a little tour around the western US. Two advantages to this. First, you don’t drive across the Great Plains. Sure, it’s vast and impressive for that alone, but it’s pretty damn boring. The geography starts to get interesting halfway through New Mexico and westward from there, so why not just start out in the west to begin with?
Second, and this may be a minor point, you may get a better deal on a rental car if you pick it up and drop it off in the same city.
Finally, you don’t have to pick LA as a starting point. Depending on your interests, San Francisco or San Diego might work also, though LA has a lot going for it.
Here’s arecent threadthat might be of interest. Unless Rt 66 is a major interest of yours, I think you might find this to be a better use of your time.
“Interesting” is in the eye of the beholder. My sister, who lives near the beach in southern California, visited Missouri for the first time in 30 years and was completely fascinated driving through the Ozarks. The Illinois portion of the Rt. 66 has Chicago, all the Abraham Lincoln history you could ever ask for and an awe-inspiring view of the Gateway Arch. I’ll grant that Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle my be a little flat, but the sheer vastness of it is something every European should have a chance to experience.
Also, Route 66 is a lot easier to follow out west. In Illinois and Missouri, there’s cities and towns and farms and such, so when they built the Interstates they just laid them right on top of the old route to minimize the amount of land they had to buy. There’s still some surviving sights from the old road and a few scattered patches of abandoned route if you know where to find them, but you have to do most of your actual traveling on dull modern looking Interstates. In the western states, it was easier to just built a whole new freeway, so they left the old two-lane route there. There’s significant portions of the old road in New Mexico, Arizona and California that you can actually drive on.
Oklahoma is a bit of a special case in that the Interstate there was built more or less parallel to old Route 66, but the Interstate is a toll road and so the old Route 66 has persisted as the “free road.” There’s some cool sights along it, but also a lot of just ugly strip mall type stuff.
Went through Winslow on 66 right after that song came out and there was no girl nor a flat-bed Ford, just closed feed stores and seedy department stores. It was 3AM, but it didn’t look like it would be improved by adding people and daylight.
Why would you recommend this? Cell Guy, upthread, also suggests it’s worth a stop. Is it just a good place to eat, or is there more?
Just wondering. I’ve never been here.
I’ll second Jerry’s recommendation. The Old Chain of Rocks Bridge spanning the Mississippi River is interesting. Many bridges have curves to the left or right, but this old bridge is narrow and has a sharp angular bend to it - not a curve. It is a sharp, 22-degree bend.
Here’s a good picture of it. If it’s a hot day, this picture is taken from a spot where it’s safe to go into the river and cool off. It’s a small swimming spot that’s protected from the river’s current by some man-made structures that are meant to preserve the river bank. Don’t swim out and into the current, though, because the current is swift. But the protected area is safe. OP, if you do this, it’d add a unique experience to your trip, swimming in the Mississippi River!
ETA: For accuracy, I did not take the picture. To me it looks like the picture is taken from near that swimming spot I mention.
(Not sure if that link will work for everyone, as it comes from Netflix. If not, and you don’t subscribe to Netflix, just go to your local video store or google for it. It’s worth the watch.)
There is a really neat meterior crater in Winslow AZ, Just out side actually. Then in McLean TX the museum about the devil’s roap, barbed wire. Please beleive me there is not going to be a Santa Fe on 66 there will be Alburguerque, bueatiful city, I reccoment the Blue hotel downtown for a inexpensive stop on that part of 66 thru the city on central, also a Brazil grille with the best food, also on central which is old 66
I don’t want to discourage the original poster from the original plan. Driving Route 66 has a certain mystique that a tour around the western US doesn’t. I used to have a web site devoted to highways, and I got an email from a guy in the Czech Republic that wanted to do it.
One way rentals are likely not going to be inexpensive. If you don’t get hit with a specific dropoff charge they will bury it by jacking up the base rate. All rentals in the US are automatic transmissions, but the smaller “compact” and “economy” models might not have cruise control. Sometimes you can rent an SUV for the same price as a sedan, which I personally find more comfortable on long trips though more expensive to fuel.
I always fly Southwest, a low cost carrier that still offers free checked bags.
Some of the older routings in the St. Louis area go through not nice parts of town. The two can’t misses in the area are the Chain of Rocks Bridge, on they bypass alignment, and Route 66 State Park west of town.
Regarding the Chain of Rocks Bridge, I recall hearing a while back that there was some crime in that area – specifically, cars getting broken into while people were hiking on the trail. Is that still an issue or are they policing the area better now?
One other point of interest in the same general area (a bit north of the Chain of Rocks Bridge) is the spot where the Missouri and Mississippi rivers meet.
Thanks for the replies. I understand what everyone’s saying about it may be better to go elsewhere but it’s been my hubbies dream for a long time and after 20 years of marriage we’re going to renew our vows in Vegas. We drive from the North of England to Italy or Spain every year which is approx 1200 miles and we do it in 1.5 days so 10 days to do 1800 miles shouldn’t be a problem and as for the cost of the fuel - compared to UK prices that’s really cheap We’re spending 4 days in Vegas - hoping for a bit of luxury, again any recommendations would be good (considering the Bellagio), around 5 days in San Francisco, with the remaining 2 weeks hopefully in a villa between LA and San Diego. May stray into Mexico but am a bit concerned about reports of car jacking along the border - all suggestions gratefully received. Thanks again.
You are correct about the break-in problem at the bridge especially on the Missouri side. They are policing the area better; however, I’d recommend entering the bridge from the Illinois side. There seems to be less crime on that side.
Of course you should hide things like GPS units, money, telephones, etc., while away from the car. But that’s good advice anytime.
A lot of US car rental car companies don’t allow their cars to be driven into Mexico, especially if you rent it at a location not near the border, so if you want to see Mexico you need to decide before you rent and find a location that allows this (and purchase the required Mexican insurance at the time of rental.)
We picked up a car in Chicago and drove Route 66 to LA (and then on to San Francisco) in August 2011. We had the most amazing time! People on here tried to dissuade us - but I’m glad they didn’t succeed. We found the entire route interesting, for different reasons in different places. We loved the little towns along the way, and met some of the most amazingly lovely people I’ve met anywhere in the world. I can give you lots of tips and advice if you care to PM me, but here I’ll confine myself to recommending Jerry McClanahan’s EZ 66 Guide for Travelers (link to Amazon). Great maps, interesting information, we loved its style as a guidebook and found it really easy to follow even where the route is rather obscure. I think we got lost one time in two and a half thousand miles, and we did our absolute best to follow the oldest/most “original” road at all times. We didn’t do more than a hundred miles on the interstate the whole way.
First of all, there’s no such place as Washington, Washington. Do you mean Washington, DC or some place in Washington State like Seattle? If you mean DC, you might be interested in train travel. IIRC there’s at least one overnight train daily from DC to Chicago. It goes straight through Appalachia but some of the more picturesque areas might go by at night.
If you’re gonna drive from Chicago to LA, please do keep in mind that it’s like two thousand miles with a lot of traveling through the desert. It’s hot, dry, filled with cacti, and looks a lot like the old “Roadrunner” cartoons. Do bring water and make sure the AC is working.
I’ve taken Amtrak between DC and Chicago, and it was quite a lovely ride, very pleasant except for the 3 hours we sat at a dead stop because someone committed suicide by sitting on the tracks in front of the train.
To further clarify, is hubby’s dream going to Vegas to renew you vows? Or is it specifically to drive the length of Route 66? If the road itself is not the attraction, I would agree with others that you pick things and places you want to see, and set a course based on that.
You may be attached to the idea of driving specifically on the old alignment of US 66, which is understandable, but will be difficult because it’s all been superseded by other highways. If I was going to do a Route 66 Road Trip I would just try to hit as many cities as I could - Chicago, St. Louis, Tulsa, Oklahoma City, etc - and check out the landmarks in each one.
I lived on 11th Street (Route 66) in Tulsa for three years, and drive a few miles of it daily now. There is a big investment around these parts into the idea of being the first western city on the Mother Road, so, I think Tulsa is a can’t-miss city whether you decide to do the loose or strict variation of the trip.
I could give you the laundry list of “sights to see” if you’re interested, but to keep this short, just related to the road, definitely drive all the way down 11th from at least US 169 to downtown. There are a lot of used car lots and diners still around that are historic holdovers; you’ll also get to pass the University of Tulsa. There are parks on both ends of the road in the city limits; the biggest name diner is Tally’s. You can also see the US-66 bridge across the Arkansas River in Tulsa, built in 1915; currently rated unsafe and gated off with weeds growing in the roadbed but still easily accessible (on foot!!!).
If you do decide to just do big cities, make sure you take OK-66 between Tulsa and OKC, instead of the more modern I-44. In Arcadia there’s a great restaurant/gas station called Pops (warning: sound) with over 600 sodas offered.
We’re spending 4 days in Vegas - hoping for a bit of luxury, again any recommendations would be good (considering the Bellagio), around 5 days in San Francisco, with the remaining 2 weeks hopefully in a villa between LA and San Diego. May stray into Mexico but am a bit concerned about reports of car jacking along the border - all suggestions gratefully received. Thanks again.