Rollin' on Route 66
Trip Start
Jun 08, 2009
1
Trip End
Jun 24, 2009
Tulsa, Oklahoma
Monday, June 8, 2009
My goal is to travel on as much of the Historic Route 66 as possible from Tulsa, Oklahoma to Kingman, Arizona.
While passing through Albuquerque, New Mexico, I'll take a side trip to see my Niece Jennifer and her husband, Matt.
From Kingman, Arizona I will roll northwest to Parhump, Nevada which is just west of Las Vegas.
While there, I will spend 5 days at Front Sight Firearms Training Institute in Pahrump, NV improving my pistol marksmanship.
I will get to spend Father's day with my father who lives in Denver, Colorado and hope to see my other three brothers.
From Denver, I'll shift my travels to western Kansas and visit aunt Omah and my cousins.
I'm looking forward to seeing the mountains of Utah and Colorado plus the wheat fields of Western Kansas.
I'm leaving Tulsa early to start my exploration of "The Mother Road" Route 66.
If I'm able to figure out how to work this software, I'll upload photographs of my travels.
Route 66
Route 66 had its official beginning on November 11, 1926 and continued through 1959 when the highway parts of it started being bypassed by new high-speed Interstate highways. This continued section-by-section until the last phase of the new Interstate highway system was put in place in 1984 and Route 66 was decommissioned. Route 66 is now designated as Historic Route 66.
"It was a Route 66 sight, the marvelous Meramec Caverns, that gave the world the bumper sticker, and it was here on Route 66 that the great American driving vacation first flourished. Billboards and giant statues along the highway still hawk a baffling array of roadside attractions, tempting passing travelers to swim alongside giant blue whales (Catoosa), to see live rattlesnakes and other wild creatures on display in roadside menageries, or to stay at 'Tucumcari Tonite'." (Jamie Jensen, Road Trip USA, Route 66 pg 7)
In Oklahoma parts of Route 66 were only one lane wide because in 1926 the state didn't have enough money to make all of the route two lanes wide.
In 1926, Route 66 originally came into Tulsa on what is now 11th street and then went north one mile on Mingo street to Admiral Boulevard. From here it went west on Admiral into downtown Tulsa and then south on Denver street to 11th street and onto the 11th street bridge into West Tulsa. Once in West Tulsa Route 66 moved towards Sapulpa Oklahoma on Southwest Boulevard.
