Route 66 Road Trip: 14 Days Driving the Main Street of America

the iconic route 66 which travels from California to Illinois is one of the most famous road trips in the entire world my dad and I had been talking about driving it forever so we decided to make that dream a reality in June of 2019 the route is constantly changing and so I figured that this video series would be helpful for those that want to look back and see what the route looked like during this time period also note that I tried my best to get all the correct facts in here but I may have missed a couple this video is just a combination of all the state ones so if you want a shorter video you can just watch the individual states here's how our two-week journey went on route 66 to begin our journey we headed out to the Santa Monica Pier which has become the official end or start point even though route 66 actually ended a few blocks east for us it was the starting point of our journey as we were heading east and our end point was Chicago we photographed the famous sign and then made our way down to the pier it was a Saturday so it was incredibly busy and we had to wait for our turn with the end of the trail sign after taking our photo with the sign we walked all the way out to the end of the pier where there's a tribute to Bob waltemeyer one of the famous artists from route 66 if you're doing this drive you'll find a lot more things about Bob wall admire all along the 2,000 miles of route 66 and he's definitely one of the most iconic characters on the journey from there was back up the pier and across the oceanfront walk area of Santa Monica - our next stop it's just a plaque but it's dedicated to Will Rogers and route 66 is known as the Will Rogers Memorial Highway plus it's closer to where the official endpoint of route 66 would be just left Santa Monica got some of that great Los Angeles traffic continuing on to our next stop this is my dad by the way while technically route 66 does cut through the heart of Hollywood we decided to avoid that as we wanted to make the most of our day and you easily need a day or a day and a half to see Hollywood if you want to explore this area though there are a lot of great spots on Sunset Boulevard in downtown LA there's the Griffith Observatory Union Station I have a bunch of videos on all these spots on my channel as well our first stop on this journey was Elysian Park and the overlook of downtown Los Angeles this part of route 66 is on the Arroyo Seco highway which is technically one of the first freeways in the West and was built in 1940 from there we continue to Figueroa Street where we got off to see the chicken boy statue the chicken boy statue was made in the 1960s and was based on the famous muffler men that you can see all along the drive this one was different though because they put a chicken on the head and they turned the arms inward so it could hold the bucket it was moved to this current location in 2007 [Music] next up we headed over to Galco's old world sodas while technically not on route 66 the original location of this store was built in Los Angeles in 1897 it was moved to this current location in 1955 and it has over 700 different sodas that you can purchase it's a fun store with a lot of nostalgia especially for the older crowd after having some fun with our purchases at Galco's we headed on towards Pasadena with a stop at the Rialto Theatre it's no longer a theater it's actually a church now but it's still pretty cool to see from the outside a few blocks from there was our next stop at the Fair Oaks pharmacy and soda fountain with over a hundred years in business Fair Oaks Pharmacy is still one of those places where you can get an old-time phosphate soda the interior looks like something out of the 1950's and it has a great vibe for a route 66 journey they have dozens of different flavors and my dad and I both looked over the menu for a while before deciding on what we wanted Pop's got a chipotle pineapple phosphate soda this is the coolest place totally pineapple yeah it's got the pineapple and a little burn afterwards it's actually for Italy yeah this is the most popular flavor cherry lime we got to meet the owner and we could have stayed in this spot a lot longer because it was a lot of fun but we headed on saw another historic sign and then made our way to Pasadena our first stop in Pasadena was the iconic Colorado Street bridge this is the famous Colorado Street bridge it's a little bit hard to get a good picture of it now because of all the fences that they have but it's historic from 1913 on route 66 I always love seeing this old bridge and the best place to park for it is at the end of Grand Avenue just be sure to read the signs you don't get a ticket on the way out of town you can see the old Howard Motor Company building and across the street in front of the McDonald's you can see a Bancroft marker which was an early Pasadena Mile post for Foothill Boulevard our next stop brought us to the town of Monrovia and the Aztec hotel which was built in 1924 this is the Aztec hotel which is one of the most famous buildings on this stretch of the drive it's not open right now but it's still cool to see from the outside the hotel is currently undergoing renovations and is supposed to open sometime in the future from there we visited another old service station before going to one of my dad's favorite places for lunch the Hat while the route 66 location is not the original one it's still a historic place for lunch as this chain began selling their famous pastrami sandwiches in 1951 protip from pop Susannah throw some hot peppers in there poppers falling apart next up it was on to some more health food at the donut man this is what the donut man in Glendora is known for their famous peach doughnut you only have it like a few weeks out of the year mostly in July and August but if you come and they have the peach doughnut you have to get it fresh peaches and glaze I don't know how you be this is so friggin good of course if you don't want peach Donis there's also lots of other options as well next we made it over to upland and the Madonna of the trail statue there's 12 of these along the National old trails road which goes from California to Maryland and they are dedicated to the spirit of the Pioneer Woman there's only two in route 66 and we'll see the other one when we're in Albuquerque continuing on we made it to the outskirts of Rancho Cucamonga where they have two historic restaurants the magic lamp in and the Sycamore in right across the street the Sycamore and in particular is historic as it's been here since the mid 1800s but we passed them both by as we wanted to get to the Rancho Cucamonga service station before it closed this is the kookamunga service station it's one of the best recreated gas stations in the state of California the Cucamonga service station was built in 1915 and it's undergoing renovations to look like what it would have back then it even has the old Bell that cars would have driven over when they came up to get their gas this was easily one of the highlights in California as the whole thing was really well done and the people who worked there were really excited to talk to you about route 66 you should consider checking the spot out even if you're not doing the route 66 Drive after entering into Rancho Cucamonga you want to stop at this orange this is the only one remaining on route 66 in California and it's what the farmers used to use to bring out their food and to get people to stop while they were driving the route there's also a restaurant attached to the orange we didn't stop to eat here but it looks like a fun place if you need a bite to eat from there we headed on to San Bernardino and our hotel for the night made it to our first hotel on the road trip the wigwam motel in San Bernardino there are two wigwam motels on the route this one and then the one in Holbrook Arizona but this is the only one that we stayed ahead so fancy I don't think you're gonna fit on that rollaway we're gonna rock rock-paper-scissors for it oh [Music] this is what happens when you lose rock-paper-scissors you get a bed that's at least a foot too short for you after figuring out our bed arrangements we took some time to explore the motel and talked with the owner who is also really passionate about route 66 as well it was a great place to spend our first night on the route and remind me a lot of the cars movie they have 20 of these teepees here but if you're coming in this summer be sure to get a reservation in advance as they do sell out it was just about dinnertime so we decided to head over to the mitla cafe which has been on route 66 since 1937 and served some great Mexican food the story goes that supposedly this place was the inspiration for the Taco Bell Taco I don't know if that's necessarily true but we grabbed tacos to find out [Music] after finishing dinner we said goodbye to our wives and then headed back to the hotel to end day one of our 14-day route 66 journey that's it for our first day on route 66 watching the Sun fade over the wigwams tomorrow we're heading to Arizona morning day 2 we're leaving the wigwam motel and we're on our way to Arizona it's about 215 miles from here first stop in San Bernardino the historic California theater which was built in 1928 because of the amount of things we were trying to fit in a lot of stuff wasn't open in the beginning or the end of the day so we just saw both the California theater and the McDonald's museum from the outside next up is the site of the original McDonald's it's not open right now but it's a cool museum if you get a chance to check it out I have a full video on this museum in the description if you're interested in learning more about it leaving San Bernardino we made our way up through the Cajon Pass to the town of Victorville this is the summit in right behind me it's at the top deck the home pass there used to be a restaurant here and they sold ostrich burgers all sorts of crazy stuff all that's left is the sign though after it burned in a fire heading on into the actual town of Victorville we made it to the Victorville route 66 Museum this is the route 66 museum it's not open on Mondays and Tuesdays but here's a few pictures the last time I was here since I've been exploring California for so long I've been to pretty much all these places so it's nice to have some pictures and video from previous trips as you exit Victorville on D Street route 66 leaves the freeway and spends the next 40 miles on an old alignment as you make your way to Barstow this is definitely a section you don't want to miss Emma jeans is a great place for a burger if you're looking for a lunch but we're heading to bottle tree Ranch as you leave Emma jeans you'll head into this awesome steel truss bridge one of the many epic bridges you're gonna see on your route 66 journey before getting to bottle tree ranch stop at this old gas station which is about six miles south I don't know much about this gas station but I read online that it was built in 1935 every time I visit it it seems to get more and more rundown six miles later you'll make it to one of the most iconic spots on the entire route 66 Drive this is my favorite stop on the California portion of route 66 Elmer's bottle tree ranch unfortunately Elmer passed away two weeks after we visited the ranch and so I'm not sure what's in store for the future of this historic spot it does appear that it's going to reopen so hopefully it'll be there if you take this drive how do you think this place is crazy unique it's interesting how everything is talked with something that has almost like a different theme and so I've gotten a chance to talk with Elmer a few times over the years and he was always such a fantastic guy that was open to answering all of your questions and telling you more about his art it's definitely one of my favorite roadside attractions to see in the entire state of California all right relieving bottle true range we're going to the Museum in Barstow once you make it to Main Street in Barstow you'll see lots of route 66 related stuff they have a few historic route 66 motels and lots of murals all around the streets there's even a map online with all the mural locations if you want to see them all the main thing we were planning on doing in Barstow was to see the route 66 museum we were planning to go to this museum but it is closed for the holidays I have visited this museum a few times over the years and while it's relatively small it's definitely worth a stop as it has some nice exhibits plus it's situated in one of the old Harvey houses and this one was built in 1911 and features a lot of old train cars that you can see outside as well from the museum we passed some more old hotels and some murals as we made our way out of Barstow and into the town of Daggett we're in the town of Daggett this is the stone hotel behind me it was built in the 1800s and frequented by John Muir supposedly the old liquor store is also a historic spot in decade by this time we were ready for lunch and our options had become pretty limited so we decided to stop at the Baghdad cafe built in the 50s this restaurant became famous because of a German language film when we were there there was a lot of people coming in and taking photos so it must be pretty popular in Europe if you have the option though it may be better to stop for lunch in Barstow [Music] so we were planning to going to Amboy but uh unfortunately the road damn boys closed as well here's some photos from last time I was there the town of Amboy is located pretty much out by itself on route 66 it's historic for two things one is the old neon sign that supposedly is being rebuilt so that it will light back up again and to the Amboy crater which is a volcanic crater right outside the small town that people can hike to continuing on from Amboy or just getting off the freeway for us you'll eventually see a sign for the town of Goff's this is our last stop in California Goff schoolhouse if you come here on a Saturday or Sunday they're usually open you can go in and check it out as a schoolhouse from the early 1900's while it's really out of the way for the normal traveller anyone on route 66 should definitely try to stop by here when it's open this schoolhouse in the middle of nowhere has been really well preserved with lots of interesting information in the interior part of the building also on the outside there's a bunch of trails that lead to old cars and mining materials and all sorts of things for you to see there's even some signs for the nearby mitchell caverns which used to be on the road and an old school bus it's cool to photograph almost finished our first state 166 it's been pretty epic close but it's been pretty epic all that was left for us to see in California was a few stops in the town of needles the first stop is the old Harvey House and train station known as the L Garcias there's not much to see there but it is a historic building on the route apart from that there's the needles wagon on the way out of town and the National old trail sign as well as a few old motel signs the last thing we wanted to see though was the old trails bridge which crosses the Colorado we did a little research and figured out that you could get off the exit before you get into Arizona go along the Colorado River and under the current bridge in order to get a good view of it that is the highway the current route 66 highway right here but this is what they used to drive across in the 40s and it's way cooler well if California looks like Arizona is actually excited for us to be here TURN RIGHT route 66 after crossing over the Colorado River and seeing old trails bridge and the famous needles we made it into Arizona we passed California we're entering into Arizona from the state line you'll get off immediately on Oatman Highway and you'll start the longest uninterrupted stretch of Route 66 that's still left it's about a hundred and fifty-eight miles and it goes from the Colorado River to around the town of ash fork made it to our first stop in Arizona Oatman where we're gonna get some dinner and check out all the donkeys that are supposedly exploring the town located in the Black Mountains one of the most picturesque parts of the route 66 Drive Oatman is famous for the way the town's been preserved and for the fact that donkeys just wander the streets we got there pretty late in the day but we were still able to make a few stops it was bound to happen eventually these are the residents of Bowman after hanging out with the donkeys we headed into the Oatman hotel to grab dinner this hotel is supposedly haunted and it was built in 1902 it's also where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard spent their honeymoon night and you can still see the room upstairs the restaurant walls are lined with dollar bills and you can make your mark and then staple them to the wall we grabbed burgers here right before they closed and then explored a little bit more of the town oh man hotel that's where we went for dinner good food fun atmosphere dollar bills everywhere and definitely look at when they close though because they stop serving at 5:30 when we came the small town had a few more things to explore but most of it was closed and so we headed on to our next destination this would be a fun but hot time to be in Oatman very nice do not miss open when you come to Arizona is such a fun town the drive from Oatman to Kingman is one of the most beautiful on all of route 66 as it winds up through the Black Mountains and takes you over Syd Greaves pass this area used to be dangerous in the 20s and 30s as the steep downhill slant was tough for mini drivers after going over the past you'll get to Cool Springs which has a small museum and gift shop and it's a fun place to grab a drink when we finally made it to Kingman it was dark so we took some time to drive around and see the neon signs before going to bed day 3 leaving from the ramblin rose and Kingman and were heading to Flagstaff tonight we didn't get to see much of Kingman the night before so we backtracked a little bit to see what the town had to offer before heading on first stop of the day powerhouse museum one of the things you'll notice about route 66 is that most of the major towns have their own route 66 museum some are definitely better than others and the one in Kingman Arizona is one of the best it has a ton of history and interactive exhibits that you can see and I definitely recommend that you stop by [Music] when you're in Arizona you can pick up a passport as you can get stamps for the different locations that you visit this is where we learned about the route 66 passports and you can get one just for the state of Arizona or you can get one for the entire drive I recommend the one for the entire Drive is a lot of fun to stop and get stamps and little trinkets that they give you across the street from the powerhouse museum there's also a fun little diner it was too early for food for us but if you check it out let me know how it is in the comments on the way out of town we stopped again at the historic hotel which supposedly has the world's longest route 66 map I can't verify that but it is pretty long this is our first stop today the town of hackberry this is basically the only thing in the town in the general store hackberry was once a popular mining town but then it became a ghost town in the early 1900s once route 66 went through it this store became popular for travelers and it's still one of the best general stores on the entire route today don't forget to stop by the garage they have set up in the back as well from there we made our way to peach springs and stopped at one of the coolest science I saw in Arizona these old signs are everywhere on route 66 but this was one of the ones that was in the best condition there wasn't much to see in peach Springs other than getting our next stamp so we continued on next up we're outside of peach springs and we're taking the caverns tour which is an hour tour about 200 feet below the ground there are mini caves on route 66 but this is one of the first you'll get to if you're driving west to east my dad hates small spaces so I left him upstairs and I went down and took the cave tour this cave is especially unique because there's a restaurant that you can reserved to eat at and there's a room that you can stay at in the bottom of the cave it's expensive but I have to imagine it's a pretty crazy experience the cave also has a lot of interesting history and unique formations to see and it was definitely a lot of fun I would recommend it if you like this type of thing [Music] from there was on a Seligman one of the most famous towns on route 66 we're in the town of Seligman Arizona this is definitely one you don't want to miss so much cool stuff to see here and it was the town that Kars was based off of Seligman was on route 66 from 1926 to 1978 when highway 40 bypassed it by only a few miles this essentially killed the town until angel Delgadillo revived it and made it what it is today one of route 66 most popular stops don't leave the town without visiting Angel's shop he's one of the people who's responsible for actually saving or 66 it's definitely cool to check out when your enslavement if you're lucky you may even run into angel but either way be sure to check out the shop and grab some memorabilia across the street is the snow-capped drive-in which was run by angels brother one which has cars memorabilia all around it and is a super fun place to stop for lunch give that hot dog after finishing lunch we left Seligman and made our way through ash fork there wasn't much to see there other than a few old buildings and signs when Allen Williams Arizona the city of Williams Arizona was the last spot that was bypassed on route 66 and it's a bustling town for tourists with lots of shops neon lights hotels and other route 66 memorabilia it's also the Gateway to the Grand Canyon and you can ride a train to the Grand Canyon from Williams if you have an extra day while you're driving route 66 [Music] I would recommend just parking your car in the downtown area and walking up and down the Main Street seeing what the city has to offer this is the world's largest steel route 66 sign also on the north side of the Main Street there's an old gas station that's been turned into a free museum that you can see you get is they used a train car for a bridge [Music] Williams is also a good jumping-off point for the Grand Canyon you get to actually take the train there we're not going this time but you can also drive from Flagstaff and here's some clips of last time I was there many people choose to visit the Grand Canyon while driving or 66 if you want to do that it's about an hour and a half from Williams to the South Rim and that's a great area with tons of viewpoints down into the canyon and things that you can see if you choose to go from Flagstaff it's about an hour and a half to a different and less touristy part of the Grand Canyon which has the desert view watchtower one of my favorite things to see on the rim all right now back to route 66 with our arrival at Flagstaff we made it to Flagstaff our first stop is at the Museum Club it was a taxidermy place in the 30s then it turned into a bar we're gonna go grab a drink the museum Club is an awesome historic route 66 watering hole and it's still a place where you can see taxidermy animals and catch some live music after grabbing a drink we headed back into Flagstaff to check into our hotel just checked into our hotel in Flagstaff the hotel Monte Vista super cool spot from the 1930s right in the middle of downtown Flagstaff this hotel opened in 1927 is supposedly haunted and it's had many famous guests Michael J Fox Bing Crosby pretty cool after getting checked into the hotel we walked around downtown and made our way over to lumberyard Brewing Company for dinner we got to try to good we got poblano chili cheese grits it's gonna be amazing this spotted great food and it was right next to the train tracks so it was cool to watch the trains go by as we sat on the outside patio after dinner we walked around downtown a little bit saw the neon lights and then headed back to our hotel to play some darts and crash for the night back in our amazing hotel after a day of traveling through Arizona playing darts fabulous day end of day three to start our second day in Arizona we took advantage of our downtown location and went to fire Creek Coffee Company starting day four we're leaving flying staff got some coffee we're on our way to New Mexico gotta get our stamp at the Flagstaff visitor center before we leave I also kept noticing that a lot of places had the Smash penny machine so I decided to start collecting those as well on the way out of town there was a few more signs and old buildings to see before making our way to our first stop this is our first stop today about 15 miles outside of Flagstaff twin arrows twin arrows was another favorite stopping point for people on route 66 as the two arrows beckoned them into the trading post that sat nearby unfortunately when highway 40 came it was hard to keep the Trading Post in business and it became the ghost town that it is today basically the same thing can be said for the businesses at our next stop in two guns which was also a place that people stopped but that became a ghost town with highway 40 this is the ghost town of two guns there's not much to see here anymore there's this old abandoned gas station event the old building is out there as well but basically after leaving two guns if you have time you can go to meteor crater national landmark this attraction is pricey but it gives you access to a view point from which you can see a crater that was created by a 150 foot meteor that impacted the earth it's certainly something unique to see while you're driving through Arizona from there was about a 25 minute drive to our next stop and Winslow our first stop in the city was at the Visitor Center where we saw some of the exhibits they had on route 66 and Native American history and got our passport stamped look at this awesome piece of petrified wood I got at the Visitor Center in Winslow Arizona so these sculptures were created by peter toth in the 70s and the 80s he traveled our nation and created these things these are called the Trail of the Whispering Giants to honor Native Americans this sculpture a few burma-shave signs and these old trains were all in the park that's right next to the visitor center from there we headed into the downtown area and stopped it with supposedly the world's smallest church before making it to the main attraction in the city we made it to Winslow Arizona standing on the corner park over there from the Eagle song take it easy there's a flatbed Ford right there standing on a corner Park is an area that honors the famous Eagle song take it easy and the line that talks about being in Winslow Arizona I can't play it for you because I probably would get a copyright strike but you can hear my dad singing it a little bit in the background while you're here to check out the whole trails museum it's free and they're a bunch of small exhibits in their rooms if you're into the history the museum is right next to standing on a corner park and while it doesn't have a lot of route 66 history it has a lot of area history [Music] on the way out of town stop at La Posada which is an old Harvey House Hotel with lots of things to see in history in the lobby area this hotel is really beautiful and it has a fancy dining area if you're looking for a place to eat or a bunch of rooms if you're looking for a place to stay we just walked around the lobby and hallways and saw a lot of the art and decor that they had on display from there was back in the car for another 20-minute drive to our next stop this is our next stop the jackrabbit Trading Post in Arizona yeah there you go you look it looks like it's about built for you that check rabbit does the jackrabbit Trading Post was one of my favorite stops on route 66 in Arizona you'll see the silhouette Rabbit sign all the way to Chicago with mileage noting how far you are from the jackrabbit Trading Post as you continue your drive you have to be sure to check into the jackrabbit Trading Post great prices and the people who run there so just great people right before Halbrook you can stop at your on mo trading post they say they have the world's largest piece of petrified wood this goes down into the earth and then all the pieces that fell around it we're all once part of this tree [Music] there's also another Trading Post here with lots of different things for sale including petrified wood if you're interested this is the second wigwam motel on route 66 we're in Holbrook right now we're not staying here tonight cuz we were you stayed in the same Randy no one but it's still a really cool spot definitely worth staying at if you're driving the roof this one's especially cool because there's classic cars outside every one of the wigwams this is a really fun photo spot all the classic cars and the Wigwam is behind it are awesome to see on the way out of town there's a museum here if you want to check it out it's free has some exhibits a little bit about route 66 but it's a cool building to see after looking at the different exhibits in the museum it was 25 minutes to our next stop [Music] mid-to Petrified Forest National Park the only Park that had a piece of route 66 that went through it so we're driving about 15 minutes in the park to go check it out this park is a beautiful place to spend some time in Arizona and the Painted Desert Inn was a route 66 landmark in the 20s and 30s the people stayed at but now it's just a museum that you can check out on your way to the route 66 exhibit this is the thing you have to see when you go into the inn it's a petroglyph that they found in the blue Mesa you got how big it is with my six-foot dad next to it Bob's exploring the Painted Desert this is where historic route 66 goes through the park there's an old abandoned car here and then the telephone pole line is the original alignment we're not gonna explore the park anymore but you can click in the description to see a video on the entire park which you need about a half day to a full day for all right we're leaving the park and we're heading on in New Mexico on the way to New Mexico we stopped off to take a picture of a few more signs and to make our last stop and an old ghost town called fort courage this is fort courage it's the replica of an old TV show set from the show F Troop it's basically abandoned now I didn't know what F Troop was myself but my dad was excited to explore it a little bit there's also another great Trading Post known as the yellow horse right on the border of Arizona and New Mexico that you can stop at it was late in the day on our fourth day of travel when we crossed over from Arizona to New Mexico leaving Arizona and entering into New Mexico we only drove about 25 minutes over the border to get to the town of Gallup and our hotel the El Rancho this hotel was one of the most unique places we stayed on our entire route 66 journey it opened in 1937 and many famous guests stayed there over the years it still has a lot of that old charm it's become a landmark on route 66 made it to Gallup into our hotel the El Rancho that is the end of day 4 starting day five and we're leaving Gallup and going to Santa Rosa shout out to the El Rancho hotel is a cool place to stay after leaving our hotel we backtrack to downtown Gallup grab some coffee cake walked around the downtown a little bit and then headed on most of the early part of this drive was spent paralleling highway 40 on route 66 we made it to the Continental Divide the Continental Divide in New Mexico is a small town with a trading post and it's the area that splits the water that flows to the Pacific Ocean from the water that flows to the Atlantic Ocean this is in case you need some fireworks on your drive from there we headed to our next stop grants New Mexico this is a drive through science supposedly at nighttime it's neon we drove through the sign and explored the surrounding park and then went over to the mining museum which is the most popular stop in this town the mining museum is actually a really cool stop on route 66 it talks all about the area's history of uranium mining showing you the process that they go through to get the uranium and even having a downstairs basement that features a walk through mines showing the entire process in an interactive exhibit driving east from Grant's we made it to one of my favorite gas station signs that I saw in New Mexico and then we continued on to the ruins on the western outskirts of Coober oh not much is left of the ruins anymore so we just walked around a little bit and then continued on on the way out of Kuvera there's a cool old Trading Post but there's not a lot on this stretch of route 66 to see heading on we made it to Deadman's curve which was an especially dangerous part of route 66 because of the 100 degree curve and the deer that would often cause traffic to go off the road also right near dead man's curve is a rock that resembles an owl this rock is known as owl rock do you see it let me know in the comments we're getting close to Albuquerque and this is the Rio Puerco bridge you see why they don't let you drive on this bridge anymore this trust bridge was built in 1933 and was a part of route 66 all the way until it got realigned to highway 40 you can still walk on it today and it's a good stop as it's a beautiful old bridge this is the enchanted trails Resort right outside of Albuquerque home of one of two stamps for New Mexico in the route 66 passport stamp book I probably wouldn't have stopped here if it didn't have a stamp for the book that we were collecting but it did have a nice outdoor area with some old cars and old air streams that you could see next we made it to the City of Albuquerque stopped to see a few historic signs and then went to the downtown area known as Old Town Albuquerque Old Town Albuquerque has a beautiful plaza area with lots of shops surrounding it that you can walk around and see there's also restaurants in a beautiful old church on the plaza as well San Felipe de neri church was built in 1793 and it's one of the oldest surviving churches in the city it's been in continuous use for over 200 years and it's open to the public daily if you want to walk in and see it our next stop in the area was a little bit different though in Old Town Albuquerque definitely stop by the RAL State Museum sure this museum doesn't have anything to do with route 66 and I had no idea that it was even there before I visited but who doesn't want to see the world's largest collection of different types of rattlesnake species all in one little area my dad and I had a blast walking around and checking this place out and it's definitely worth the price of admission to see the snakes and to get a certificate of bravery at the end for lunch we headed over to the dog house in Albuquerque which was one of our favorite food stops on the entire route this spot has been making killer chili cheese dogs at its current location since the 1960s this is the best hot dog in New Mexico not just saying that for the video 10 out of 10 no no co-ops was actually telling the truth or not like good hotdogs spicy chili if you guys like chili dogs don't pass this place it is so freaking good from there we made it to the heart of Albuquerque where a lot of the route 66 stuff is no longer there there's 12 of these statues on old trails highway only two of them on route 66 and this is one of them in Albuquerque the 12 Madonna of the trail statues are dedicated to the spirit of the Pioneer Woman in the United States and they go all the way from California to Maryland there's also a fun old route 66 diner that you can see and eita on the way out of town but as you can tell from the previous clips we had already had lunch it was worth stopping by to see it though alright so from here you have to decide if you want to go to Santa Fe or not if you do it's about two hours out of the way and that's without stopping to see anything that being said if you have at least a half-day I love going up to Santa Fe and seeing all the historic stuff they have in that city some of my favorite spots in Santa Fe are the Santa Fe Plaza the loretto chapel and the Pecos Historic Park Plus not route 66 related but if you have kids you should definitely go to Mia Wolfe as well you can see all of these recommendations in the Santa Fe video I made in the description but now back to my dad a nice drive where we left Albuquerque I went straight to Santa Rosa after leaving Albuquerque there wasn't much to see basically all the way to San Rosa that's why I recommended that if you have the time you should go up to Santa Fe and do that route as there's a lot more to see up there all right at 6 o'clock at night we just got to Santa Rosa to the Blue Hole it's still 93 degrees so we're gonna jump in the water even though it's 61 the Blue Hole of Santa Rosa was a welcomed spot for Minnie overheated route 66 travelers the 61 degree water is still a really popular spot for people in New Mexico to visit and it's one of the top places to learn how to scuba dive in the United States we were just there to jump off the cliff into the water though for today the hotel day number six were leaving our hotel in Santa Rosa with the end goal being Amarillo Texas before leaving Santa Rosa we're stopping at the route 66 car museum this museum is a lot bigger than it looks from the outside and it probably has 30 to 40 old vintage and unique cars for you to see neither my dad or I are big car buffs but we both really enjoyed the museum I've been to a lot of auto museums but I have never seen this before from there we stopped in the ghost town of Cuervo which was a railroad town and then became a route 66 stop before highway 40 bypassed it and it became a ghost town of all the ghost towns we saw in this route this one definitely had one of the most ruins for you to explore driving on we got to another ghost town in the town of Newkirk check out this service station in the ghost town of route 66 this is truly a barren section of route 66 and it really shows you how highway 40 devastated some of these small towns a little while later we saw another ghost town with a few more buildings that had been left in disrepair leave the Adobe construction on this old building pretty crazy where's the cold beer at promised me cold beer leaving the ghost towns behind us we made our way forward to Tucumcari one of the favorite towns for route 66 travel in New Mexico [Music] during this section of the drive this is one of the towns you want to plan to spend the most amount of time plus it's a good place to spend the night as well as they have a lot of old historic route 66 hotels and motels made it to Tucumcari which is a popular route 66 town first stop the museum like I said previously most of the major towns on route 66 have a museum we tried to stop at all of them and this one was especially cool because of the photographic exhibit they had it's up to you how many of these you'll want to stop at on your drive on route 66 though check out this old sign you can still see a piece of it that's falling down right here Tucumcari has a lot of a nostalgic route 66 to see from old signs that are still in good condition too retrofitted gas stations and even trading posts I got a chance to chat with the motel safari owner and he was a great guy who shared the love for route 66 by buying a motel and making it more modern and exciting for guests to stay at petting a few blocks down the street we'll take you to the blue swallow motel which is an iconic neon sign on route 66 that's popular for photography unfortunately we were there in the middle of the day so we didn't get to take any pictures of it at night and also when I called to stay there it was booked up as well so if you want to stay at this iconic hotel you definitely need to book it in advance before you leave town this is a great spot to check out on the way out of Tucumcari definitely stop by TP curios shop it has a lot of fun route 66 memorabilia plus it had a passport stamp and another penny smash machine basically the rest of route 66 in New Mexico is the same as the earlier part of the day with not a lot to see other than some abandoned gas stations and ruins one of the coolest parts if you want that old historic route 66 5 is from sanh home to Glen Rio we didn't even realize that this is a dirt road portion of route 66 but getting across some cool bridges a lot of fun this section is 14 miles of dirt which goes through old homesteads and over old bridges see the highway way out there but we are on original route 66 dirt road for both my dad and I this was one of the coolest sections in the state as it gave you a real fuel for what route 66 would have been like for the early travelers it's not for everyone though and if you want a faster trip you probably want to skip this section and just stay on the highway route 66 is paralleling the freeway when you cross over the Texas state line in the ghost town of Glen Rio we backtracked a little bit on the freeway so we could capture the welcome to Texas sign as well we're leaving New Mexico and entering into State number for Texas even though it's only about a hundred and seventy-five miles there's still a bunch of fun attractions in the state of Texas here's our first one we've officially made it to the midpoint of route 66 only 1,100 miles left to go the mid-point cafe is supposedly the halfway point on your route 66 journey it's a great place to stop and get food and legend has it that the owner from 1990 to 2012 was the inspiration for flow in the movie cars don't leave without trying the pie they have revolving flavors and the one I had was incredible even if you're not hungry be sure to stop at the midpoint cafe for pie it's definitely worth the trip from there we headed to the town of Vega which is basically the first town you'll see in Texas look at this welcome I'm getting to Texas exactly what I would expect the main stop in Vega is at the cultural museum that they had it had a ton of great exhibits on route 66 and a lot of really knowledgeable people plus we got a passport stamp and they let us print our own postcard and printing my own start spinning that will towards yourself [Music] it's like you can feel it through it whoa that is super cool there's also an old service station across the street but it wasn't open when we were there we got back in the car and headed on excited about our next stop which is one of the most iconic places on the entire route it is the Cadillac Ranch way out there Cadillac ranches of public art installation outside of Amarillo Texas that began in the 1970s when ten Cadillacs were buried nosed down in the ground it's open to the public and you can bring your own spray paint and make your mark on any of the different cars I have to admit it was a lot more fun than I thought to paint on these old cars check out my dad up there doing works of art we spent probably a good 45 minutes here and it's hilarious how you finish painting something and somebody immediately comes up and paints over it left our mark on Cadillac Ranch at least for 10 minutes if that route 66 gosh is Jeff 2019 we finished our time at Cadillac Ranch it's a ton of fun definitely something you want to do on route 66 now we're heading to our hotel at the Big Texan and we're gonna get a steak win in Texas you got to go big right what better than the Big Texan steak ranch we made it to the Big Texan ranch here is our room very nice I'll get even the pool is shaped like the state of Texas unfortunately the pool was closed for cleaning so I didn't get to jump in but we did get to meet this deer that was out front and explore the property [Music] yeah there you go way better than pops as we waited for our dinner reservations we walked all over the restaurant saw the jail the big cowboy boot the big chair and all the other crazy stuff there is to see here [Music] so this steak is $72 and if you eat it in one hour you get it for free but look at how gigantic that thing is plus you got a shrimp baked potato a salad and bread the fastest person has done it in four minutes and 30 seconds we're staying away eventually our table was ready we sat down for our steak dinner to finish the day to anyone saying that we're not healthy look we got salads my dad went with this baked and I went with the baby back ribs it was a fitting only dinner in Texas for us we just had an awesome meal of steak and ribs luckily our hotel room is right over there that's the end of day six morning day seven we're saying goodbye to our friend at the Big Texan and heading to Oklahoma City on the way out of Amarillo we stopped to see a few more old signs and old businesses before continuing our drive east [Music] as we are driving away we noticed some VW Bug stuck out on the ground just like Cadillac Ranch so we stopped to check it out this is our first stop on the outskirts of Amarillo the VW slug bug ranch we didn't bring any paint because we didn't know that this even existed but it's another cool spot to check out on the way out of town I'm not sure what the history of this place is as there's not a lot of information about it online but let me know if you know about it in the comments [Music] thirty minutes outside of Amarillo we made it to another well visited roadside attraction in the town of groom you can stop and see the groom across this 19 story cross was built in 1995 and it attracts more than a thousand visitors a day all along the base there are different statues that depict the life of Jesus Christ only a mile or so away is the leaning water tower of Texas which was built to draw attention for a local truck stop and restaurant that's unfortunately no longer there continuing on from groom to mcclain the drive is relatively sparse there is a nice service station from the 1930s that you can stop at though as you leave on route 66 you'll notice that it's basically just paralleling the freeway here there are many sections of the route that look exactly like this where the road is right next to the freeway we just managed to the town of McLean first stop the devil's rope museum for barbed wire and the route 66 museum in the same building the devil's rope museum was officially opened in the early 90s and it focuses on the history of barbed wire and the over 2,000 different types of barbed wire in the 1890s the Cowboys used barbed wire as their telephone lines to communicate with each other while this may not sound exciting to you who is actually one of my dad's favorite things that we did on route 66 [Music] cool Museum lots of cowboy history are definitely worth checking out especially when it's right next to route 66 part the route 66 museum is relatively small but it does have some fun exhibits especially the one on the reptile ranch this is the iconic snake from the regal rattler ranch these put dead rattlesnakes on the road so people were driving by would be all freaked out thinking that the snakes escaped it was fun to learn about this roadside attraction here and I kind of wish that it was still in business today we stayed at the Big Texan last night and this is actually the original steer it's probably one tenth of the size but pretty cool to see in the museum after my dad actually bought some barbed wire to take home we went to see another service station in the town there are tons of these along the routes you'll have to decide how many you want to stop at but this was definitely one of the better ones in Texas our last stop in Texas was a visit to you drop in also known as the tower station or the tower cafe it's one of the most iconic buildings on the Texas portion of route 66 duh both in the corners were Elvis that when he ate here driving on route 66 there's no longer a restaurant as the whole thing is just a museum in a store but it was a great last stop for us in the state of Texas after spending a day and a half in Texas we crossed over the border into Oklahoma we're leaving Texas and entering into state number five Oklahoma crossing over the border brought us to our first stop the town of Eric and the Sandhills Curiosity Shop this place is famous for Harley who lives there and was supposedly the inspiration for mater in the Cars movie series it was a crack-up spending 30 minutes hanging out with him and he is an accomplished musician as well do note that most of his jokes are pretty off-color though if you're bringing your family well hi we want to welcome you lyric Oklahoma little redneck cap lavoro would you believe where you can see rednecks work and play in their own environment right here two world-class world famous and curiosity gap the only bus stop in town after ending our time with Harley we drove 20 minutes to the town of Sayer the main landmark in this town is the Beckham County Courthouse which was featured in the 1940s black-and-white Grapes of Wrath movie there are a few other old buildings businesses and signs that you can see there as well thirty minutes later we made it to Elk City with a little bit of time before the national route 66 museum was closing we made it to Elk City which has the largest route 66 sign and a museum you see my dad there for scale this museum states that it focuses on the people that lived and worked on route 66 with an exhibit for each of the eight states we found it to be a lot of fun as it was actually pretty interactive and had a lot of great exhibits it also wasn't very busy on a weekday when we were there and my dad and I were the only people in the museum after exploring for about 30 minutes the museum closed and we headed on heading on for another 15 minutes we made it to our next stop route 66 museum round two there's another big route 66 Museum in Clinton the route 66 museum in Clinton prides itself on being one of the best on the route it's hard to disagree with this as this museum looks like it's had the most money invested in it if you have movies to share let them know we've seen that one that one that one the rest are yet to come we especially enjoyed seeing the history that related to Grapes of Wrath as we were listening to that book as we were doing the drive this is basically the sign that we just held at that guy's shop in Eric's don't forget to go outside where they have a few more exhibits including a route 66 diner which is in basically its original condition and you can look through the windows and check it out honestly this is a great museum and one you should definitely stop at if you have the time [Music] by the time we left the museum it was dinner time so we headed to the town of Weatherford and stopped at Lucille's Roadhouse the Roadhouse was named after a Lucille station which is an icon in Oklahoma on route 66 it was an original route 66 service station that was built in 1927 we went and visited it after we had dinner Georgia gay country fried steak country fried steak and the South Louis salad why comes so much healthier than pops is after eating we stopped by the original Lucille's on the way out of town it wasn't open but it was still cool to see this historic spot from Lucille's we continued on towards Oklahoma City with a stop outside of Bridgeport at the William H Murray bridge also known as the Pony bridge this bridge is almost 4,000 feet with 38 trusses and it was also featured in The Grapes of Wrath film we continued on to the town of El Reno and we were hoping to make it in time to get an onion burger at SIDS but unfortunately it was closed when we got there so let me know if you have one in the comments and if it was worth the stop there was also what appeared to be a donut shop in an old service station and a cool Yukons best flower building on the outskirts of town we eventually made it into the town of Oklahoma City with a quick stop to view another bridge before ending the day as we were driving to our hotel we decided we really wanted to see pop soda ranch in the dark as they have an awesome huge LED soda bottle that's lit up with colorful lights at nighttime we made the 25-minute drive out there and it was definitely worth it to see it lit up at night morning day 8 we're leaving Oklahoma City there's a severe thunderstorm warning this morning for the next two hours so we'll see how today goes we're heading to Tulsa we're only hitting a few spots in Oklahoma City but if you want to spend some time in the area to check out the other video I made on the city's best spots in the description there's some really amazing places to see like the brick town area Cattlemen's and the National cowboy museum but anyways back to the drive first stop today on the way out of town the milk bottle building this little building was built in the 1930s with the milk bottle added at the top in 1948 and it's only 350 square feet but it's one of the most iconic spots on route 66 leaving Oklahoma City on the way out of town there was another trading post that didn't seem to be open and an owl court service station that was being rebuilt this our last stop in Oklahoma City is the territorial school the oldest building in the county and the site of the first recorded wedding in the county while it wasn't open and it didn't have much to do with route 66 it was still fun to stop at this old school on the way out of town [Music] leaving Oklahoma City brought us to the town of Arcadia and pop soda ranch that we had seen the night before where at pops the new soda shop on route 66 they have over 400 sodas in the store we're each gonna pick one out another person has to drinking the inside of pops is fun to explore with a lot of different sodas to see and there's also a restaurant here if you're hungry as well all right I got pops the pimple pop soda really want to ranch dressing that they were sold out so we'll see how this goes most disgusting label ever not bad tastes like marshmallows but this may not seem disgusting that I know Josh hates celery he got away luckier I had to get marshmallow flavor it's like my least favorite food in the whole world [Music] right down the road from pops at our next stop the Arcadia Round Barn as supposedly one of the most photographed spots on route 66 the Arcadia Round Barn was built in 1898 and it's really cool to see in person the downstairs has a lot of exhibits on the history of the area and it has antiques for purchase but the true highlight is the second floor built as a community gathering place the second floor of this building is truly incredible it was even damaged in the 80s and a group of volunteers brought it back to life so that we can still see it today there's also an old drugstore in the town but it wasn't open and it looks like it's been converted into office buildings [Music] right on the outskirts of town there's this old stone gas station there's not much left of it but there is a story that says that they did counterfeiting in the back of the gas station right through that window after leaving the town we started getting hungry so we stopped at butcher barbecue stand which ended up being one of our favorite meals on all of route 66 apparently this place had won a ton of awards on barbecue related food TV shows and there was a long line for lunch time so we knew he stumbled on something good this is the meat locker and butchers barbecue stand pier 66 highlight bring your appetite though this says serves for people got a new rib baby oh my gosh it falls off the bone amazing we tried our hardest but there was no way we could finish this even though it was absolutely amazing honestly the entire time we are on route 66 in Oklahoma we just kept stumbling on cool things the same can be said for the town of Warwick when we stopped at what looked like an old service station and it ended up being an amazing motorcycle museum I know literally nothing about motorcycles myself but even I was blown away by how cool this museum was and how many unique different types of motorcycles they had to see the station also has what was supposedly a state-of-the-art outhouse for the 1930s in the back it's not in great shape but you can still see it driving on we passed one of the famous Merrimack cavern signs which are all over the route and then continued to the town of Chandler our first stop there was at a server station and then we ended up meeting some service for our car as well we realized that our Hertz rental has completely bald tires we didn't realize that going in we're having to change the tire in front of an old gas station which is about his route 66 as it gets after changing the tire we arranged a car switch in Tulsa by headed over to the route 66 interpretive center before leaving the city pups is taking in the museum beyond nights from their bed you can watch the video from not a bad way to watch a museum movie this museum is especially interesting as it has beds that you can watch movies that are played above you from Plus there's a lot of photographic exhibits and other things that you can see heading on we passed into the town of Davenport which had another old service station to see there's a lot of these on the road [Music] this town is mostly known for the Rock Cafe which has a famous neon sign and it's a popular place to get a meal while driving route 66 we didn't eat there but we stopped and signed our names and chalk outside went into the store explored a little bit and then headed on also on the way out of town keep your eyes peeled for the cool old Chrysler sign they have near the train station this is the heart of route 66 museum outside of Tulsa it's not open right now but check out that old gas pump I didn't see any science but I have to imagine that's the world's largest gas pump let me know how this museum is in the comments if you get a chance to see it our last stop before making it to Tulsa was the town of Sapulpa they had some old murals and signs about route 66 right in the middle of it downtown we made it to Tulsa we went to Hertz got the car exchange shout out to them for making that process super easy this is the east-meets-west statue and we're gonna explore a little bit this statue was designed to honor Cyrus Avery who is responsible for making route 66 a national highway and for making it go through the city of Tulsa and that right there is the old route 66 bridge this is the recent one the 11th Street bridge was created in 1915 and was used until the 70s now it's unsafe even for pedestrians and so you can only look at it there's a really awesome walking and biking path down here as well we're heading out to the Mother Road Market it's like a food court in downtown Tulsa and then back to our honestly Tulsa is one of the best cities on all of route 66 there's so much preserved history here including old signs and even new roadside attractions so as we were driving to the food hall we came across buck Adam which is a cowboy that was put here in 2018 we didn't even know he existed until today the sign outside the building said that in May twenty eighteen bucks spaceship landed in the city of Tulsa it's really fun to see route 66 coming back alive with some new attractions like this the Mother Road Market in Tulsa has all sorts of fun pop-up restaurants and shops to explore with lots of different food options so you guys saw what we had for lunch today so we went healthy for dinner milk a single scoop of ice cream they also have a route 66 mini-golf course outside but unfortunately there was a heavy rain the day before and it had all been flooded so we weren't able to play this would be a great stop with a family as it has some of the most iconic route 66 stops right in the middle of each of the mini-golf holes from there we drove around to see a few of the neon signs lit up at night and then made a stop at the oil driller statue [Music] just to get a sense of scale there's my dad there's the Tulsa game known as the golden driller he stands 75 feet tall and he's become an unofficial landmark for the city of Tulsa on the way back to our hotel we stopped at the meadow gold sign and add the buck out on a space cowboy again to see what they looked like with the Sun setting behind them and that finished the end of our day on route 66 morning day 9 we're leaving Tulsa first stop is at the blue dome and we're going to go through Kansas and make it all the way to Carthage Missouri the blue dome is another service station that was built in 1924 and the attendant actually lived upstairs we also stopped at the circle theatre and a few of the interpretive sights before getting to our last stop in Tulsa of the art piece known as route 66 rising this is Tulsa's route 66 rising sculpture you can see it in the roundabout on the way out of town built in 2018 this sculpture represented the hope people had as they drove route 66 for a new life it's also a great metaphor for the city of Tulsa and how they're bringing route 66 back to life as well 20 minutes later we were in the town of Catoosa at one of the most well-known landmarks on route 66 we're outside at Tulsa today and this is one of the ones I really wanted to see it's the blue whale the iconic blue whale live route 66 was built by Hugh Davis in the 1970s as an anniversary gift for his wife for decades it was open to the public for swimming and became a popular attraction along the route but unfortunately it fell into disrepair and it wasn't until local efforts raised money to restore this route 66 icon now today you can still experience it you can walk through it and even climb up into its head it was easily one of my favorite stops on the entire Drive about 20 minutes past the blue whale of Catoosa we stopped at the Will Rogers Memorial Museum this museum is dedicated to the famous entertainer and it houses all sorts of exhibits and photographs and even videos from his life Will Rogers has a strong connection to route 66 as he was influential in putting the route on the map back in the early days and the route was even unofficially named the Will Rogers Highway in 1952 all along route 66 you'll see memorials dedicated to Will Rogers so it was great to be able to learn more about the famous man [Music] while it's not technically on route 66 definitely stop in the town of foil at Eid Galloway's totem-pole park about 10 minutes offer at 66 it's ed Galloway's totem-pole park which features about a dozen different totem poles including the world's largest concrete totem pole standing in over 90 feet tall with a 30 foot diameter base this totem pole was created in 1948 and it's really interesting to see the park also has the fiddle house which is a concrete house that he made and inside it has dozens of the different handcrafted fiddles he made as well from there we got back on route 66 and stopped at a few old buildings and service stations before eventually making it to the town of Miami Oklahoma the town of Miami had an old theater to see and the famous cuckoo hamburgers which is known for its sign we continued on to the town of Commerce though which was the hometown of Mickey Mantle the town has a statue and a few other things you can see while you're there if you're interested you can also see Mickey Mantle's childhood home while you're in commerce this is the coolest part of Commerce though this old gas station connected to the building I was really excited to see this spot after seeing pictures online but apparently after talking to some of the locals it's not really that old anyways it's still a cool place for pictures across the street is the Dairy King though which is a historic spot on route 66 this was a service station that was built in 1927 and then a few decades later it became the Dairy King they make fun route 66 cookies and it's definitely worth stopping by if you're looking for something else fun and commerce you can pick up these route 66 cookies right here at the Dairy King after leaving commerce we made our way over to Kansas ending our time in Oklahoma on route 66 as we crossed over from Oklahoma into Kansas we were on a nice two lane highway which was a great break from following interstate 44 we're entering in to state number six Kansas the first place we got to in the state was the city of Baxter Springs the city has a nice small-town vibe with a popular restaurant called cafe on the route which is in a bank that was once robbed by Jesse James unfortunately it was later in the afternoon when we came through the state so most of the things were closed and we didn't get to see a lot we walked around the town a little bit took some pictures of the cement emblems that lie in the street and then made our way over to the historic service station on the way out of town the service station was built in 1930 and it's on the National Register of Historic Places it was closed when we went but it's the main information center for route 66 and Kansas heading on we made it to the top historic attraction in Kansas the brush Creek Bridge built in 1923 this is the only remaining Marsh arch bridge on route 66 you can only drive through the bridge one way so if you're heading in the same direction as we were you have to go past the bridge about a quarter mile turn around and then come back to drive on it after driving over the bridge and taking some pictures of it we headed on to the town of Riverton the main highlight in this town is the Williams store also known as the old Riverton store it was built in 1925 a year before route 66 was designated and it's a great spot to stop on your road trip luckily for us it was open and we got to walk through the store and see some of the historic photos they have on display from there we made it to our last town on route 66 in Kansas Galena again basically everything was closed when we went through this town as well but the mining museum is the first thing that you'll see and we walked around the outside of it outside of the mining museum they have a lot of equipment a few old train cars and even a tank we're about to leave Kansas our last stop cars on the roof it's not open still cool to see the outside cars on the route is in a service station that was built in 1934 and it's been many different attractions over the years currently it's capitalizing on the Cars movie series with some fun cars that look like they came right out of the movie sitting outside [Music] about a block away from the service station there's a park you can see as well which has a few small information science and a Will Rogers Memorial Highway plaque as we crossed over into Missouri some people told us we should take the excursion to Grand Falls before continuing on so that's what we did you want to nature excursion in Joplin epic Grand Falls which is about 15 minutes south it's only about 25 feet but right now it's been flooding and so it's going off while not especially tall the waterfall does flow year-round and is about a hundred and sixty feet wide it was pretty incredible to see when we were there heading back to route 66 we stopped in Webb City to see the praying hands roadside attraction sitting on top of a mountain this 32 foot sculpture is something that you can easily see from the road after that it was back on the route and through the town of Joplin to Carthage which is where we stopped at the sixty-six drive-in movie theater we just may have hit a ton of Carthage and that's where we're spending the night this is the famous route 66 drive-in movie theater they have here no movies on the weekday though so for us that's the end of day 9 I said it was the end of the day but I did make a stop at the historic boots Court motel which is lit up with neon and Carthage I had wanted to stay there but it was sold out on the dates I went through day ten we're heading out from Carthage and going to Springfield Missouri you can combine yesterday and today if you wanted to but there's a few things we want to do in Springfield so we're keeping it a little bit easier today as we are leaving our hotel the owner said we couldn't leave Carthage without seeing the Precious Moments Chapel so we made a quick detour when we asked what the top attraction plus in the town of Carthage they told us it's a Precious Moments Chapel which is a free chapel dedicated to the Precious Moments characters I guess I'm not super familiar with that at all but I figured someone would probably be familiar with that on the video so it's here in Carthage if you want to check it out the chapel ended up being a lot more impressive than I initially anticipated and it was pretty cool to see with basically floor-to-ceiling art all around the chapel interior back to route 66 on the way out of town we made a couple more stops first at the Phelps house just for a photo of the exterior and then over to the Jasper County Courthouse the Jasper County Courthouse is well worth a stop as it was built in 1894 and has a small museum inside just seen the building from the outside though is really impressive we also made another quick stop at the boots Court motel on the way out of town as I wanted to see it in the daylight as well leaving Carthage our next stop was about 35 minutes away in the town of Spencer [Music] most of the drive today is through ghost towns but definitely pull off and stop at the town of Spencer lots of little storefronts here that you can peek your head in it definitely looks like what route 66 would have looked like Spencer was a great little spot to explore and I'm excited to see how this one changes over the years as it looks like they're continuing to work on it [Music] as you drive away from Spencer there's an old bridge that was built in the 1920s and that's fun to see on this stretch of route 66 five minutes later brought us to our favorite stop of the day the gay Paree de Sinclair station this site includes a replica gas station from the 1930s with the original pumps and all sorts of memorabilia from route 66 history it's crazy to see all the stuff they have here and to talk to the people running it who are really happy for us to stop and to tell us all about the history of the area don't forget to go out to the garage in the back and to see the old restored truck as well on the way to Springfield be sure to stop here George who runs the store is amazing he's got a ton of fun souvenirs in history and it's definitely something you want to see from here the next 25 miles or so is relatively uneventful with some small ghost towns and a few little attractions along the route check out what's left of the inside of this general store it's like a little Narnia or something in here the overgrown general store was the coolest part of this 25 miles so we just continued on towards Springfield to go to fantastic caverns took a break from route 66 got a fantastic caverns which is a drive through cave system outside of Springfield Missouri this is what we're gonna be doing there's a jeep that pulls everyone after arriving I grabbed a ticket for the next available tour and hopped on the back of the tram my dad opted to stay in the lobby is he doesn't like claustrophobic things and so he didn't want to go into the cave after having been in the cave I can easily say that it's not claustrophobic and it's a great one our tour [Music] on the drive behaved work this cave was discovered in 1862 and it was renamed of fantastic caverns in 1950 it's the only cave that's entirely drive through in the United States the cave is about 60 degrees year-round so it's a nice place to escape the summer heat as well after about 45 minutes of exploring we were heading back out the cave and it's definitely a fun experience especially for families on route 66 here is the photo of my cave tour and you'll notice someone's missing in the back I'm totally good with a not a fan of caves I'm fine with leaving the fantastic caverns going back to route 66 that's a really fun excursion though after leaving the fantastic caverns we drove south and headed back into the town of Springfield to see what they had to explore our first stop was at a chocolatier in the middle of the old downtown area it was in a really cool old brick building and they gave you lots of different samples to try [Music] in the same downtown area there's also a cool old footbridge this is the longest footbridge in the United States is closed for renovations right now but if you can walk on it and get some great views of the trains and the train tracks driving on we stopped by a staking shake that was built in the 1960s while it's not the first location for that chain it shows what it used to look like and has the old style from that time period we made one more stop at an old theater before heading on to our hotel so this is our room at Bass Pro world they even left us comfy Pierce head checking and then across the street is all of the Bass Pro stuff the store and the aquarium and the restaurant all sorts of stuff taking a break from route 66 to visit Bass Pro Shop world that's our hotel right there and we're heading to the aquarium known as the granddaddy of the outdoors this Bass Pro Shop is insane with over 500,000 square feet of shopping one of the main attractions here though is the aquarium which has 1.5 million gallons of water and over 35,000 different live fish that's what we decided to check out first to say that this aquarium is impressive would be an extreme understatement I have been in Aquarians all over the United States and this is one of the best I've ever seen this is the shipwreck room check out that aquarium if you decide to do this give yourself at least a few hours though because my dad and I got here about an hour before it closed and we had to rush through it as it has over a mile of walking to see everything puranas there's even a full section with a bunch of different kinds of sharks and another one with a bunch of alligators there's also a wildlife exhibit that you can pay to enter and it has over a mile of walking as well with many animals stuffed and displayed in their natural habitats [Music] this area shows what every type of deer looks like this is definitely one of my favorite creatures the narwhal look at those dudes after leaving the museum we walked around the store a little bit and then ate at one of the restaurants that they had inside done with the museum is done with food back to the hotel that is the end of day ten morning day 11 we are leaving our hotel and we're on our way to st. Louis it's gonna be a long day with lots of stops but I'm excited for it after leaving Springfield we drove about 35 miles to the town of Marshfield in the town of Marshfield be sure to stop by the courthouses is where Edwin Hubble was born and you can see a replica of the Hubble telescope outside this simple fact makes it worth the stop as the replica Hubble telescope is pretty cool to see in person continuing on we drove another 30 minutes to the town of Lebanon and past the world's largest gift store once you get to the town of Lebanon there's a library and the route 66 museum is in the back we basically only stopped here because they had another stamp for our passport but the museum was pretty nice and it had a few different exhibits that you could see plus it was free to enter which is always a positive our next stop was a trinks market built on the outskirts of the town in 1950 it only recently reopened in the last few years but when we were there there was a power outage so we didn't get to go inside right next to ranks market is the Munger Moss Hotel that's been here for over 70 years and has one of the best restored signs we'd seen for a motel on the route unfortunately this kind of stuff happens where roads out and you don't even know so it's back the freeway for us since route 66 had been closed to that bridge we got back on highway 44 and made our way to Waynesville Waynesville is still an established city today with over 4,000 residents a courthouse a museum and some old historic buildings ten minutes later we were at the divisive roadside attraction known as Uranus Uranus is a fun place to explore with a general store that has shirts and all sorts of other types of memorabilia plus a picture of the mayor and a fudge factory where you can grab some fudge how is actually surprised by how good the fudge was and they had a stamp for our book plus all the puns you could possibly want I got fudge from Uranus more because I am big time this is the world's largest belt buckle after exploring the roadside attraction just a little bit longer and making my dad pose for some photos we made our way on to our next stop this is the devil's elbow part of route 66 it was known because it was super dangerous for the military to come across and so they had to actually move the road over in like the 1930s this area was part of the 1926 to 1943 alignment of route 66 before it bypassed the town in order to make the route a little bit safer we got really lucky we were walking around the bridge and it was sunny and then immediately when we opened the car door it basically just started pouring rain so continuing on we made a quick stop at the Trail of Tears memorial near the town of Jerome it's only open a few days a week and we weren't there when it was open so we just looked at the statues near the entrance before getting back on the highway our next stop brought us to the town of Rolla and the totem-pole Trading Post which is supposedly one of the oldest businesses still left in Missouri I've never seen this before it looks like a gas station but these are actually parking spots and it doesn't sell gas according to the man who is working there it was established in 1933 and it was popular as a roadside attraction because it had a huge totem pole sitting on top of it you can still see the totem pole inside of the store today we also stopped at the Dylan house in Rolla and it was built in 1857 and served as the county's first court house then we stopped at the mule Trading Post to see their waving arms hillbilly sign from here route 66 paralleled the freeway for a while before getting to one of the stops I was the most excited to see the next stop we're in Fanning Missouri at the world's largest rocking chair I was told while on the route that I guess this is now the second largest rocking chair but it still looked like a pretty big rocking chair to me plus they have an awesome store with lots of things to purchase and a bunch of different kinds of popcorn so we grabbed some for our drive [Music] proceeding onward we made it to the town of Cuba which has some murals to see and the 4way restaurant which used to be a Phillips 66 gas station the wagon wheel motel is the main draw in Cuba though as it's been here for over 80 years and it's supposedly the oldest continuously operated motel on route 66 we didn't get a chance to stay here but I imagine it's a pretty cool hotel for that route 66 bibe plus it's right next to Missouri hick barbecue which looked pretty fun as well next up was the town of bourbon and while I didn't see much to stop at here it was pretty cool to see the bourbon water towers I imagine they get photographed pretty often we made it to the Merrimack caverns this is where Jesse James hideout was it's an hour and 15 minutes for the tour not heading we planned the day to get here before this closed is I was really excited to take a tour of this cave plus there's signs on route 66 for hundreds of miles in either direction advertising the Merrimack caverns I was able to hop on a tour with only two other people and my dad sat in the lobby as he didn't want to go in the cave the tour was fantastic as it took you deep into the cave had some really dark sections and showed you where Jesse James hid out as you got farther in you got to see a lot of different water elements which is very unique for any of the caves that i've ever been in [Music] check this out it's called the jungle there are also some fascinating formations in the caves so if you like this type of thing you definitely don't want to miss this stop at the end of the tour they even take you into a theater room where they project a patriotic movie onto one of the cave formations something I never thought I would see on a cave tour just finish the tour that is so much fun they have a theater where they play a movie on a formation plus they have a bunch of crazy rooms definitely go to it it's an awesome rixty six experience after leaving the cave we saw a few more old signs and motels before meeting up with some family and ending that day [Music] morning's a 12 we stayed about thirty minutes outside of st. Louis and our first stop was at route 66 State Park where they have an old bridge that they're revitalizing and then there's a park on the other side as well since the old route 66 bridge is no longer passable you have to access both sides of the park from different exits on the freeway we visited both but the west side is mainly just trails in a park and the east side features the museum the museum and visitor center is located in what used to be the bridgehead Inn on route 66 there are a lot of great exhibits in here with some cool neon signs and I would recommend stopping at least for a few minutes to see this one now we're heading into the city of st. Louis we're gonna see a few stops along the way and see the arch this is Ted Drewes it's supposed to be a great place for frozen custard that people line up for even before it's open fortunately it's not open for us but if you drive 66 check it out let me know if it's good in the comments I got a chance to visit Ted ruse a few months later with Amy and it's a great spot for ice cream definitely don't miss it if it's open while you're going through the city from there we navigated our way to downtown st. Louis looked forever for a place to park and then walked over to the arch we made it to the st. Louis Arch we're not actually gonna go up or see much of the city today but we wanted to lease through the arch before heading on I knew I was gonna be back in st. Louis a month later so I didn't explore much with my dad but I have another video on my 21 favorite spots in the city that you can see in the description I did want to specifically mention that if you don't want to go to downtown st. Louis you can take an earlier alignment you can go to the chain of the rocks bridge as well the bridge was built in 1929 it was an integral part of route 66 it's unique because it has a 22 degree Bend right in the middle I wouldn't recommend trying to see the bridge and downtown st. Louis unless you set a half day aside for this part of the adventure though after leaving st. Louis we crossed over the Mississippi River which is the border between Missouri and Illinois State number seven our final state on route 66 journey Illinois our first stop in Illinois was in the town of collinsville fifteen minutes outside of st. Louis don't forget to stop at the world's largest ketchup bottle the world's largest ketchup bottle is a hundred and seventy feet tall and it was built in 1949 as far as I could tell as part of a construction company and no longer a ketchup bottle and but it's still a cool roadside attraction to see next up we're in the town of Livingston Illinois at the pink elephant antique ball my dad and I had no idea this place existed but we saw all the big statues outside from the road so we got off to check it out when we arrived we found an old school gymnasium that had been converted into an antique mall with thousands of different things to purchase on what looked like a consignment basis [Music] we had a good time walking down each of the aisles and we got to talk to the owner who is really excited about being a part of route 66 they also have a fun diner in candy shop here if you're looking to get a bite to eat [Music] from there we continued on to Henry's rabbit ranch in Staunton Illinois Henry's rabbit ranch takes its inspiration from a lot of other historic parts of route 66 with some cars buried in the ground outside and a large Jackrabbit that you can sit on we're at Henry's rabbit ranch where you can play with actual rabbits and you can sit on another rabbit just like in Arizona Henry has a bunch of rabbits in his shop too and we got a chance to talk with them and to interact with some of the rabbits which were very friendly [Music] leaving there we stayed on the 1930 to 1940 alignment of route 66 and went to see another old service station in the town of Mount Olive souls Bea's service station was built in 1926 and it's on the National Register of Historic Places the work the current owners are doing and preservation is amazing it's definitely one of the best service stations we saw on the entire route plus they had a fun passport stamp for us here as well so we're in Litchfield Illinois now this is a great little corner for route 66 they have the museum on one side a historic building on the other side and then jewe bellows which is the 1920s bakery we went to the route 66 Information Center first which was pretty small but it had some nice exhibits to see and it was free to enter one of the best exhibits was on Bob walled Meyer and we always enjoyed seeing his different art as we drove route 66 we walked across the street to take a picture of the cafe and then we went to Jubal's to get some bakery items to try [Music] trying to donut from Jubal's sour cream since 1922 does not disappoint yeah once they get out of ten it's very nice I'm given eight and eight we continue driving and then took a short detour to Pioneer Park where the sugar creek covered bridge is located as you know if you watch this video series I love old bridges so I couldn't resist the opportunity to see a bridge from 1880 plus it's a pretty cool covered bridge at over 60 feet long this bridge is about ten minutes off route 66 but it's definitely worth the shore excursion if you have time in Springfield that's our destination and but tonight we're going right here when we entered Springfield one of the places I wanted to stop at the most was the cozy dog driving this restaurant has been on route 66 since 1949 is supposedly one of the originators of the hot dog on a stick dipped in batter and deep-fried known as the corndog so we got cozy dogs in Springfield which is the home of the corn dog Cheers ha good corn law creator of the corn dog and yummy after indulging in our corndogs we went and saw a muffler man and then made our way through the city of Springfield since I had never been to this town before I did want to stop and see a few of the President Abraham Lincoln exhibits they have here first up we went to President Lincoln's home which sits on a replica recreation of what the street would have looked like when he lived there we were lucky enough to get there right when they were giving their last tour of the day so we got to walk through the home and learn more about the history of the Lincoln's in this area plus they even have a desk that he used when he was at the White House there if you get a chance while you're in Springfield and you want to check out some Abraham Lincoln stuff there's a ton of that here this is the home that he had while he was in Springfield before he went to the White House and there's a memorial library and his tomb as well on the way out of town we also stopped to see the Lincoln tomb State Historic Site but unfortunately it closed for the day so we just got to see it from outside from there we went to carpenter park which supposedly had some original route 66 Road in it but we're not sure we saw it then we went over to the mill which was the sandwich shop in the 1930s and which is now being turned into a museum we left the town of Springfield and now we're in the town of Lincoln which is famous for the world's largest covered wagon which you can see behind me with Lincoln sitting on top we tried to stop it everything that said world's largest while on the route and this was no exception you can also see the courthouse where he practiced law while in the city and go to the site where he's supposedly Kristen to the town with watermelon juice back on route 66 we headed on to Atlanta to see the famous hot dog muffler man it was built in 1966 and it used to stand outside of bunions hot dog restaurant before moving to this location in 2003 we've reached our last stop Atlanta Illinois this is the muffler man statue we're heading on to Bloomington Normal and that is the end of day 12 so this is technically day 13 we're actually not leaving the Bloomington area because my grandma lives here and so we picked her up to experience a little bit of route 66 in Bloomington Normal Illinois with us we decided to make this a chill day so we can spend some time with my grandma but you'll probably want to go through most of these spots relatively quickly if you're going on to Chicago the first stop for us was to backtrack a little bit to funks Grove and try their famous maple syrup they have a long history making maple syrup which is spelled with an i' here and we took a few bottles home for ourselves for lunch we headed over to Lucca Grill in Bloomington Illinois which has been here since 1936 selling Italian food with an original bar and tin ceiling still first experience getting a video to review a pretty good chicken wing what would you give that out of 10 oh wow that's a good review right there after lunch we visited a few more places in bloomington-normal and then went over to a service station from 1930 on the way out of normal be sure to stop at this 1930s gas station it's the only two-story gas station on route 66 the service station is beautiful to see from the outside and it has a small store inside as well before leaving Bloomington my dad really wanted to stop at the beer nuts company store and so we went over there to end the day we headed out to Towanda where they have an original stretch of route 66 that you can walk on this is the end of day thirteen we're in the town of Towanda where there's an original stretch of route 66 it's only about fifty feet or so but it's definitely something fun to check out and that's the end of day thirteen day fourteen our last day on route 66 leaving Bloomington and heading to Chicago leaving Bloomington we passed through Lexington which has another original portion of route 66 on our way to Pontiac this is our first stop today the city of Pontiac in the Pontiac route 66 Museum plus the city has a lot of great murals all around the downtown area we plan to spend a good amount of time in the city of Pontiac as it has one of the best route 66 museums on the entire route plus it also has one of Bob wall admirers last murals and after he passed away over 500 of his friends came and painted it each leaving their handprint in the mural after seeing the murals we went in and explored the museum they have Bob Bob Myers VW bus in here as well which served as the inspiration for Fillmore in the movie cars of course there are lots of other exhibits to see here as well and the volunteers that were working there were really excited to talk about our route 66 Drive with us [Music] after leaving the museum go out back and see Bob Wald Meijer school bus that he created to be his home on the road I was told that he built this in the late 80s and that he lived in it for over 15 years driving back and forth on route 66 it's pretty amazing that they still have this on display to see and that they open up for you to go inside on select days while in Pontiac there's also an auto museum across the town square if you're interested in seeing some historic cars we're north of Pontiac in the city of Odell and here's another historic gas station from 1932 my dad and I stopped at about every restored service station we saw but you might not want to stop at all of them if you have a time crunch we found it really interesting to see what each one had and how they differed in their restoration we headed on to the town of Dwight and stopped at another recreated gas station which is probably one of our favorites in Illinois 19:14 firetruck look at that hearing the Bell it's on the red write the red thing [Music] they also had a small store and a few other exhibits you could see in the gas station you also don't want to miss the historic windmill wall in the town of Dwight which was built in the late 1800s heading on we made it to the town of Braidwood which has some mining history and an interesting exhibit called the Braidwood Zoo I didn't see this on any of the maps or anything but when you enter into the town of grade would go to this art installation the Braidwood zoo which is all these little animals right here the Braidwood zoo is an especially fun little roadside attraction it was made by an artist who loved to work with scrap metal and created all of these unique animals and put them in this small cage basically across the street from the zoo was our next stop the polka dot drive-in where we decided to have lunch the polka dot drive-in has been there since the 1960s and it still has that fun route 66 diner vibe complete with the jukebox and well priced food it's a diner burger very nice huh after lunch we continued on past a Sinclair dinosaur to one of the spots I was most excited to see next stop Gemini giant the story goes that the original owners bought a muffler man in the 1960s and had it designed to look like an astronaut they sat it next to their restaurant which they called the launching pad and it became an iconic landmark on route 66 the restaurant was sold and closed for a little while but the new owners have opened it back up again and made it a fun spot to stop for a meal with a little store as well I enjoyed the spot so much I picked up a Gemini giant bobblehead for my desk we continued on to the town of Joliet where they had an old historic theater and a museum that had a small route 66 exhibit and a stamp for our passport the coolest thing they had in the museum was a map with a lot of the landmarks and we looked over it to see all that we had accomplished on route 66 Drive heading out of Joliet we had a few more stops including Dix on 66 [Music] you're now standing on an original route 66 roadway heck yes across from dicks is a popular ice-cream place so we knew we had to stop and try that as well thank you what you guys charge the dip cone yeah we're on the highway about 30 miles outside of Chicago there's only one more stretch of route 66 left before we're done but in Chicago you got to get a Chicago hot dog Henri's has an awesome neon sign and is supposedly a route 66 original so we had to stop in for a hot dog we split a hot dog so we could save room for deep-dish later and then continued on towards Chicago we prepaid for parking at the Millennium parking lot which is really expensive but it's close to the bean and the end of route 66 sign made it to Chicago first stop the bean the official name for this art installation is clouds gate and it's one of the most popular photo spots in Chicago many people refer to as the bean though because of its shape from there we started walking a few blocks through downtown to get to the end of route 66 sign if you're doing route 66 heading west this is where you're gonna start on Adams in Michigan but we're one block over at the end sign [Music] we're walking through the end up route 66 sign but we're trying to take our time because we don't want this that picture to be over in the end of 66 that's it we made it to the end of route 66 2,400 miles and 14 days and one of the most epic road trips ever thanks so much for coming with us on this journey to get more information at through my Lance comm you guys on the next road trip thanks so much for going on this journey with my dad and I and I hope you enjoyed this series as much as we enjoyed making it also if you have questions about route 66 be sure to leave them in the comments and we'll see if we can answer them in a future video again we really appreciate all of you watching these videos and leaving us positive comments over the last few weeks it's been so fun to go on this journey with you and I hope it encourages you to see route 66 in the future as well thanks again and we'll see you on the next video

Channel: Through My Lens

Views: 7,210,443

Rating: 4.7292686 out of 5

Keywords: route 66, route 66 road trip, route 66 14 day road trip

Id: H0bA72fjHMQ

Length: 120min 55sec (7255 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 07 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/GRW810]

I stumbled across this when daydreaming - as I often do - about embarking on the Route 66 road trip one day. I wondered if anyone had ever documented their journey and this popped up on YouTube. It is two hours long but don't let that put you off. It is really well filmed and edited and the guys come across as really genuine and enthusiastic.

(I should add there's also individual videos of each state if you prefer shorter or more specific clips).

I found the entire 120 minutes fascinating, though as a full disclaimer, I've never even been to the States, let alone Route 66. When I found this community I wondered what those of you who have taken the trip would think of the video.

[u/stevenriley1]

Glad to see they made it to the Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari NM. It's the Bee's Knee's, as they said back in the day. Great Neon. If you get to Tucumcari any time near sunset, wait around, have a bite to eat at Del's, and then get some great shots of the Blue Swallow and Teepee Curios -another example of Great Neon.