Terese Loeb Kreuzer Route 66 near Acoma, N.M., about 55 miles west of Albuquerque. On nearby Interstate 40, semis travel day and night.

By Claire Walter
Travel Arts Syndicate ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- Route 66 was more than just another road. The millions who traveled the 2,200-mile-long highway between Chicago and Santa Monica, Calif., called it "the Mother Road," "The Highway of Dreams."

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The first stretch of the famed highway was laid 80 years ago this year. During the Depression, thousands of men worked to construct "the Main Street of America," completing it in 1938.

Even as work was going on, some 210,000 desperate heartland refugees fleeing the Dust Bowl for California did so via this highway. John Steinbeck poignantly described their journeys in "The Grapes of Wrath": "They's a hundreds of families like us, all a-goin' west," one of Steinbeck's characters explained. "It's like they was runnin' away from soldiers -- like the whole country was movin'."

During World War II, Route 66 linked military bases in the Southwest and Southern California for rapid mobilization. After the war, the highway was used for continued emigration westward and eventually for tourism, as Americans discovered such natural wonders as the Painted Desert, the Petrified Forest and Meteor Crater.

Entrepreneurs in every hamlet along the way built auto camps (forerunners of today's campgrounds), then cabins and motels, and also cafes, gas stations, auto repair shops and tourist attractions. Neon signs erupted out of the dusty landscape as businesses vied for the attention for passing drivers. Modern styling, now known as art deco, prevailed.

In 1956, President Dwight Eisenhower signed the Federal Highways Act to fund the network of Interstate highways that we know today, signaling Route 66's near-demise. By 1970, virtually the entire original route was replaced by limited-access, four-lane highways.

As Interstate 40 drained the lifeblood from Seligman, Ariz., a barber named Angel Delgadillo decided to harness America's collective memory and growing nostalgia. He formed the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona and lobbied the state legislature to preserve sections of the old highway. Seven other states also did so, and there are now Route 66 associations in countries from Switzerland to Japan.

Claire Walter Antique cars are permanently parked at Arizona's Wigwam Motel, where guests can check in to concrete roadside teepees. Click photo for larger image.

Even though many sections of the old highway are gone for good, enough remain for a great trip. The best parts are between central New Mexico and California's Mojave Desert. Albuquerque is an eastern anchor for the good part. An 18-mile stretch of Central Avenue, the city's main east-west thoroughfare, boasts more than a hundred Route 66-era buildings, including some of the most glorious, and a fine display of classic, bright neon signs.

Albuquerque, celebrating its tricentennial this year, was already 220 years old when Route 66 was constructed. The restored KiMo Theatre (1927), Hiland Theater (1952), the entire Nob Hill Historic District (late '30s through late '40s), the old Prado Hotel (formerly the First National Bank Building, 1922), La Posada de Albuquerque (1939) and various small motels and other businesses give a sense of the way things were.

Though scattered among the relentless big-box retailers, endless chain stores and franchise restaurants, pockets of highway history remain. The gleaming, neon-lit 66 Diner at Central and Fourteenth is nostalgia realized: the black and white tiled floor with built-in hopscotch grid, hot pink and florescent turquoise accents, daily blue plate specials and fine antique Route 66 signs.

You can drive Route 66 for hundreds of miles northeastward from Albuquerque. If you do, be sure to make a pilgrimage to the Route 66 Museum in Clinton, Okla. However, for a combination of artifacts and scenery, head west. Get off Interstate 40 whenever you see a "Historic Route 66" sign and follow it as long as you can before returning to the freeway.

Grants, N.M., 65 miles west of Albuquerque, was once New Mexico's carrot capital and later a uranium boomtown. Grab a bite at the recently refurbished Uranium Cafe (1950), gawk at the Lux Theater marquee (late 1920s) or gaze at the monumental sculpture, wrought by Jan Pearson in 1999 and called "Grants Hub of History" to commemorate Route 66 and all who traveled it.

The road climbs west toward Top o' the World, the historic highway's highest point in New Mexico. At 7,263 feet, this is a bit of hyperbole, but travelers of yore felt quite adventurous overnighting at the Continental Divide Hotel or Continental Divide Tourist Camp, now both abandoned.

Claire Walter In Albuquerque, old Route 66 is called Central Avenue. The city has installed commemorative signage. Click photo for larger image.

West of the Divide in Gallup, the glamorous El Rancho Hotel (1937) and the elegant El Morro Theater (1928) still reign as the town's two most monumental buildings. There are also abundant cafes, restaurants and trading posts that position Gallup -- it sits between two Navajo reservations -- as a major center for Indian jewelry in the Southwest.

The next town of note is Holbrook, Ariz., gateway to Petrified Forest National Park. Grab a bite in one of the town's funky cafes, or if the time is right, check into the Wigwam Village Motel (1950), where you can sleep in a concrete teepee.

In the '70s, as Route 66 was fading, the Eagles immortalized the town of Winslow in their hit song "Take It Easy." The key lyrics were the phrase "Standing on the Corner in Winslow, Arizona." Stop at The Route 66 Place, an old-style soda fountain, for refreshments or for a souvenir fix. In early October, the town hosts the annual Standin' on a Corner Festival and Just Cruisin' Car Show.

La Posada Hotel (1928) has been called "America's last great railroad hotel," built by the Fred Harvey Co. and the Santa Fe Railway in the waning days of vacationing by rail. Abandoned and threatened with demolition more than once, La Posada is now a gloriously restored national historic landmark.

After the hot desert, the route's climb to Flagstaff at 7,000 feet provides a welcome shot of relatively cool air. Flagstaff didn't have to struggle to save itself from oblivion by reviving the Route 66 heritage, because it is a gateway to Grand Canyon National Park.

The Museum Club, built in 1931 mostly to display the taxidermist's craft, is now a landmark country-and-western club that is constantly named "the best" for live entertainment, dance floor and bar. Vintage downtown buildings and a sprinkling of old motor courts still recall the past.

Seligman, 50 miles from Flagstaff, is the emotional heart of the Route 66 renaissance. Angel Delgadillo, the barber who lobbied for the rebirth of Route 66, runs a mom-and-pop visitor center where he sells themed gifts. His late brother, Juan, operated the Snow Cap Drive-In, a must-stop for burgers, milkshakes, soft ice cream and perhaps the corniest sense of humor along the entire Mother Road, until his death in 2004 at age 88. The sign on the door still says, "Sorry. We're Open." And that's just the start of the deadpan merriment at the Snow Cap. Juan's family still runs the drive-in during the warm months.

The last of Route 66's best parts passes through the Mojave Desert from Needles to Victorville, Calif. Ghost towns and near-ghost towns, old gas stations, eateries and lodgings punctuate the starkly beautiful scenery. Here, returning to its really historic name before being designated as U.S. Route 66, it is called National Old Trails Road. Victorville boasts the small California Route 66 Museum.

San Bernardino is a fitting emotional end to a Route 66 odyssey before the desert and the hardscrabble towns give way to the Los Angeles megalopolis.