Following the American Road
Glenn (@Work) sent me a link to this site the other day: Shadows of Old Route 66. I’ve only been over a small part of it (the site and the road itself), but it’s a really remarkably detailed tour. Guy Randall, the site’s author:
It took only four years, two cars, 33.75 thermoses of coffee, untold Snicker bars, 457 Tums, and 4566 photographs to complete this cyber tour of Route 66! What started out as a photographic journey to capture images along what I thought was a vanished road in Arizona and California expanded to encompass all of Route 66. What I found along the way has changed my life forever. Though Route 66 is no longer a US highway, it is far from being the lost and vanished road I once imagined it was. Route 66 is alive today and along her winding cracked pavement I discovered America. It was the America of my parents and grandparents, an America that I thought had been lost to us. The people of the Mother Road proved otherwise.
After watching Alton Brown’s excellent Feasting on Asphalt series (thanks to Vince and Colin for referring me to it), and hearing our friend Pete talk of his back road motorcycle trek to Texas, I can’t help but feel a longing for the American Highway. They make it sound so romantic and real.
My personal Route 66 experience has been limited to Williams AZ during two trips to Grand Canyon, Glenn’s stories over lunch, and the Brian Setzer cover song. On my first trip to Grand Canyon, having hitched a ride on a tour bus due to my underaged inability to rent a car, the bus stopped at a Williams soda fountain and souvenir shop for lunch. This was 4+ years ago now, but I remember being taken by the proprietor’s realness, and so I bought (realness == commerce?) a nice big, heavy reproduction Arizona Route 66 sign, supposedly stamped using the original tooling. Today it sits on our fireplace.
Watching Alton Brown and his crew drop into restaurant after restaurant with nary a familiar brand name to be seen (except Coca-Cola) was downright inspiring. I’ve been terrible about this myself, always opting for the familiar chain food before trusting some run-down BBQ joint. There’s the fear of the unknown (just because it’s small doesn’t mean it’s good!), and there’s also the drive to get to where we’re going as quickly as possible! Although I recognize these as just being excuses, I don’t know if I’ll ever overcome them.
I don’t think I’ll ever tour the country by motorcycle, but I will probably see more of it by car in the future. And when I do I’ll try to remind myself to slow down and absorb some of what’s around me. Maybe buy some Jack Kerouac to fuel the fire, too.