I’ve long been fascinated by Route 66 – the freedom, adventure and hope it represented in its heyday, and the heritage, passion and nostalgia it reflects today.
My first solo trip was a tour including a section of the ‘Mother Road’ in California, and it had me captivated. The neon signs, original motels, abandoned gas stations and red-chequered diners felt like stepping back in time, and I’d wanted to return ever since. So when I got the chance to explore a section of it in Missouri, I jumped.
This Midwestern state doesn’t get the glory of its westerly counterparts – there’s no Arizonian desert or Californian glam; it’s a politically red state with remote, rural small towns, crossing into the oft-stereotyped Ozark Mountains.
I was travelling at a time of Trump tariffs and international US scrutiny, but I wanted to put politics aside and meet the communities that call its landscapes home. Route 66 seemed like the perfect way to do that. Inaugurated in 1926 and thriving until the late 1950s, this historic road, which stretches 2,448 miles from Chicago to California, has witnessed its fair share.
Politicians and presidents have risen and fallen during its time. It has seen bank robbers and gangsters, as well as the Dust Bowl and the Great Depression, when farmers and other workers travelled the entire route to seek a new life out west. It survived the Second World War, when troops and military equipment were transported along it.
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It thrived on post-war freedom and the mainstream rise of cars, bringing new opportunities for adventure and a new-found ability to travel for fun. It has long transcended any one moment, and it’s this window into the past that so intrigues me.
And while the westerly stretches tend to get the glory, it’s in Missouri that much of the action happened. It’s while I’m here that I learn Springfield, Missouri – a small, friendly city of around 170,000 – is known as the birthplace of the route, since it’s the spot where it was named 66.
As we traverse the state’s 300-mile section across five days, I’m surprised by just how…
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