I stayed there in 2015. At the time the owners were doing a great job in keeping up the property (photos). The rooms themselves…well, there’s only so much you can do with them; they were clean, the AC and TV worked and the wi-fi was decent.
I haven’t been lucky enough to score a room at the Wigwam in Holbrook yet, but I plan to keep trying.
I’ve driven the whole thing maybe 10 times, with some trips running only on selected portions. It’s fun. It’s also slow. Driving it now makes you realize it must have been hell when all the traffic that currently runs I55/44/40 was on the route. There are places I hate to meet cars now - blind corners, narrow bridges, etc.
There is a lot still extant. Nearly all of the last route exists in Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma. It just isn’t called 66, but it’s the same road. A lot exists in Texas and Arizona, but most of that is short runs, and you have to get on the freeway for long stretches. There’s not much to see there, anyway, so it doesn’t matter. The view of empty desert from I40 is exactly the view you would have gotten on Rte 66.
Some of the areas I’d hate to recommission are the former four lane alignments in Oklahoma. The route is fun now, as you can see the old extra two lanes there, and wonder at what it used to be. But should they be recommissioned, too? A lot of bridges are old, and decaying, and unsafe, and closing. What do you do about them? There used to be these two twin bridges just north of Catoosa, OK, but one of them needed to be replaced. Now there is one old classic bridge and one new boring (but safe!) bridge. Is that still “66”?
Another area is the single lane (center) paved section south of Miami, OK. The road was paved only down the middle to save money. But it is still the original pavement, and it is decaying. If I lived on it, I’d want it paved. But as a tourist, I love it. But it has decayed noticeably even in the 15 years I’ve been following the route. What do you do about that?
What they should have done is called I55/44/40 “I66”, because that’s what it really is. As noted, the alignment has changed several times over the decades. It had been updated to accommodate the increased traffic over the years, and straightened and fixed up for safety. The interstate really is the logical successor. The route would still have been continuous, and updated for modern traffic. It would have been the “legitimate” 66, just like Washington’s axe. 
I would think the best thing overall would be to renumber the route as “state 66” in each state. Because many of the surviving sections are state highways now. Just change the number to 66 and leave it at that. Would make it a lot easier to follow!
According to Wiki it’s not longest more. When the leg from Bishop to Long Beach was changed into US 395, US 20 became the longest route. Still, a lot more of it is intact (not under Interstate highways) than 66 is and its eastern terminus is on the tip of Cape Cod, which is pretty cool.
I have been trying to talk my brother into taking a trip on it collecting photographs and stories along the way, then publishing a book, The Other Road. He’s not keen on the idea, though.
IMHO, any organized attempt to develop or redevelop Route 66 will result in a sanitized and Disneyfied (as Senegoid described up thread) version of the experience. I think it fine to recognize the historical parts of the route, and identify where they still exist, but making it a “thing” seems like forcing the issue and would diminish the experience, whatever that may be, for everyone. Let it be.
Couldn’t make it to Barstow?
What change would actually be made? You can still drive it. It’s just that that means either driving on a slower route than the interstates, or driving on sections of the interstates themselves. Some of the points of interest along the way aren’t there any more, but you can’t bring them back just by officially “re-opening” the road.
Well, there probably wouldn’t have been a song, if the Route hadn’t been so groundbreaking. For the first time, a motorist could drive from Chicago to Los Angeles* (or from Los Angeles to Chicago) without having to keep the numbers of all the highways in his head, or consult a map. Just keep looking for the shield-shaped sign with “Route 66” on the side of the road. If that was there, you were on track.
*(It’s not widely known, but Chicago and Los Angeles had formed a secret club, called the “No New Yorkers Club,” to emotionally isolate NYC, which Chicago and Los Angeles thought was getting a little too big for its britches. The clique kinda fell apart when Hollywood emerged as the new entertainment capital of the world, and we Angelenos decided that those mobster-types in the Midwest were a little déclassé for our tastes.)
Just as long as it ticks off all the boxes: Chicago, St. Louis, Joplin, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Gallup, Flagstaff, Winona, Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino, and Los Angeles.
BUY? I thought gas stations gave those things out for free…
I drive a bit of Route 20 every week; it’s on the way to the curling club. Are you sure about Cape Cod, though? According to Wikipedia, Route 20 ends at Kenmore Square in Boston. That’s right by Fenway Park, and is the location of the famous Citgo sign, if that helps with your book.
Angelenos were feeling left out by the Twentieth Century Limited train service to New York City and wanted their own iconic transportation corridor. The thing is, Chicago has been playing you guys off one another for decades.
Right - even if the route number had been kept in commission, what made it famous/iconic was mostly overrun by time and the interstates.
At least some of it is. I crossed US-30 in central Iowa a couple of years back, roughly near Cedar Rapids and this was maybe in 2013 or 2014, and there was a Lincoln Highway sign there. I did a double take. Wished I’d taken a picture of it.
Here in San Francisco at the Palace of Fine Arts, a concrete pedestal marks its Western Terminus.
Map: Google Maps
Web Image: Lincoln Highway; Western Terminus - Google Search
It is right next to the bus station. I wonder if the Eastern Terminus is marked?
[QUOTE=DesertDog]
According to Wiki it’s not longest more. When the leg from Bishop to Long Beach was changed into US 395, US 20 became the longest route. Still, a lot more of it is intact (not under Interstate highways) than 66 is and its eastern terminus is on the tip of Cape Cod, which is pretty cool.
[/QUOTE]
[Boldness added for emphasis.]
Just to clarify, DesertDog was referring to US 6 which *does *end on the tip of Cape Code in Provincetown.
Incidentally, while US Route 66 is easily the best known of the old United States Highway routes (even though it’s been decommissioned), what other routes have crept their way into American pop culture? There’s US Route 61 which has a Bob Dylan song and album named after it. Also, unlike Route 66, most of it still exists.
As I noted, most of Route 66 still exists. A lot of it still is the same pavement going back decades. North of OK city it’s either US 69 or US 60. West it’s a series of frontage roads, true, but many stretches are designated Business 40. It’s totally drivable.
In Missouri it’s mostly designated as county roads. Some of them however, are the nicest county roads in existance.*
IN Texas most of 66 is a frontage road, but there are stretches of original. In NM and AZ, true, most of it is under I40.
Illinois has most of TWO different alignments. The better route is IL 4.
*I don’t know why Google says “state highway Z”. It’s County Z.
There’s US 666, a spur of Route 66 in the Western U.S., which was notorious for its number alone, and appeared in such classic films as Natural Born Killers. Sadly, the route was renumbered to U.S. 491, mainly because AASHTO got sick of having to replace stolen signs.
There’s also the video game Interstate '76, although I think the title has nothing to do with the actual interstate (which is one of the few 2DI’s composed of two completely discontinuous sections.)
I don’t know if they qualify as having “crept their way into pop culture”, but there are a whole bunch of routes designated as National Scenic Byways.
US 666 was a pretty dangerous road. Adding lanes and improving the route helped. I don’t really blame them for renumbering it, as the parent route no longer exists.
The only place in the US where I’ve actually seen Rte 66 still in existence is in Arizona (and I believe NM, too, IIRC). It’s a thing out in the Southwest but nobody outside of that region really cares about it anymore.
We were looking at vacation properties on Route 66 west of Flagstaff yesterday. It’s a beautiful old road, that parallels I-40 where we were.
I would have to say the Pacific Coast Highway in California, and the various LA-area “Boulevards”.
