ROUTE 66 ROAD TRIP (driving 2,500 miles across america)

this video was sponsored by audible we're karen nate we traveled full-time for four years visiting 100 countries but 2020 brought us back to the u.s where we bought our first home a converted sprinter van cancelling our road trip down the pacific coast highway due to new travel advisories we decided to use our new blank calendar as an opportunity to make it back home for the holidays that means driving over 2 500 miles from long beach washington to nashville tennessee in just seven days must make it back instead of retracing our steps on the northern route across the country we decided to add an extra seven hours to the trip so that we could drive home with different views on the historic route 66. what is this [Music] the first two days of the trip are already behind us all right this is the official start of 40 hours of driving [Music] let's do this buckle up baby here we go it's already raining surprise surprise goodbye washington you're good to us on day one after leaving the rain behind we made the long trek through the middle of oregon and which looked absolutely nothing like the luscious green forest we experienced on the coast after driving well into the night until we could barely hold our eyes open anymore we finally decided to stop in the middle of nowhere in northern nevada [Music] it was completely dark when we got in last night we just slept in a field behind the rest area but look at what we woke up to this morning [Music] also this is like a place you're allowed to camp it's not just a random field on the side of the road we got about 10 hours of driving in yesterday and we're gonna try to do at least another eight today as we traveled south through nevada's completely empty roads we met a few friendly locals walking down the sidewalk we're driving through this little town and there are wild donkeys just walking through the road oh they're coming hey i'm pretty sure he's disappointed i don't have food oh this just made my day hi guys they were so much friendlier than i expected as we continued south we drove through sin city then crossed into arizona where last night we slept in the deepest darkest motel room in the entire world that's where we're sleeping tonight a cave 220 feet below ground that we had all to ourselves so that beat just landed on my hand and that brings us to today from here we still have 1600 miles and 23 hours of driving before we make it home to nashville but it'll probably take even longer than that because we're gonna take every opportunity we can to get off of the interstate and on to historic route 66. all right we're making our first official stop on route 66 at a classic diner for lunch i'm so excited is it open this place is awesome it smells so good how long has this place been here this is you're 67 67 years thank you so much i chose to ride handle this everything about this place embodies the quirkiness that i hope to find along route 66. this just felt like the right place to go with the classic program fries she did not hold back on the cheese wow after 67 years they've definitely perfected the classic cheeseburger all right one last thing before we go these are the diners bathrooms they look like outhouses but inside they're like fully functioning restrooms with more quirky decorations before we go any further we wanted to say a big thank you to audible for sponsoring this video and keeping us entertained on this crazy long road trip audible has been our go-to source for audiobooks for years now and i am a firm believer that what you listen to and what you fill your mind with make a huge difference in your life way before we started traveling back in 2015 i listened to a book called vagabonding and i'm convinced that that book planted the seed that caused us to quit our jobs and go on the crazy one-year adventure that led to the creation of this channel and then in april when we flew back to the us and we were quarantined in that log cabin i started listening to podcasts and audio books on ultra endurance athletes and the one that really had an impact on me was can't hurt me by david goggins i think it's this book i'm listening to but we're all capable of so much more than we think we are it's just how hard we're willing to push ourselves and once again i didn't know it at the time but it planted another seed so later in the summer when a friend asked me to go on a crazy 500 mile mountain biking adventure across colorado i said yes sure exhaust shift to exhaustion and setting in even though i had almost no experience on a mountain bike i wanted to see what i was capable of pushing myself to do physically now looking back on the year that trip is the most rewarding thing that i've done in 2020. so if you're ready to start listening to content that might just change the course of your life audible is the best place to get started as a member you get one credit per month that you can redeem for any premium title regardless of the price it's not a rental it's yours to keep forever and now they're giving members even more value with their new audible plus catalog which includes thousands of select audio books podcasts audible originals guided fitness and meditation programs sleep tracks for better rest and more to get started with the 30-day free trial just go to audible.com forward slash karen nate or text kara nate to 500 500 to sign up today next we accidentally stumbled upon a very special gift shop with a unique history hi there my name is mirna and you're at the original route 66 gift shop in seligman arizona this is for the whole rebirth of route 66 began and the person responsible for that is angel the barber this used to be a pool hall when angel saw the need for bringing route 66 back to life the pool tables went to the wayside and route 66 memorabilia came in we're the first store to sell anything with route 66 on it tell you've never done that before so this is where people would sit in angel's chair and angel would tell them you know i have an idea of how to get the economy back and after 10 long years of just talking and talking talking one day he got tired he jumped in the car with his wife velma they drove down to kingman arizona they stopped at all the little communities along the way angel told different business leaders and different towns i have an idea and those people said angel that's a great idea so in september of 1978 he called a meeting 15 people from different communities showed up and they formed the historic route 66 association of arizona which is the grassroots organization to give route 66 its rebirth we're here to make sure that route 66 is here for generations to come because it's so important in order for us to know where we're going we got to know where we came from this is a can't miss stop on route 66. the reason route 66 is what it is today is because of angel it's crazy it is crazy it's amazing how yes one person can make a difference we also learned that bob's brother juan is the guy that started the burger place that we just ate at next door i don't think it gets any better than this stop i think we started at the best part of route 66 we'll definitely be able to appreciate the history of what we're seeing so much better now that was so special these are like the little parts of travel that you can't plan it's just stumbling up on places like this yes i was like tearing up listen thank you angel do good all right moving on so if you're kind of clueless about what route 66 is like i was a few days ago it was one of the original highways in the united states and back in 1926 it went from chicago illinois all the way to los angeles california but today it doesn't really exist because it's been replaced by new more efficient interstates which is why it was so cool to get to hear angel's story because he was such a huge part in reviving the parts of route 66 that still exist today [Applause] [Music] we've just been driving down i-40 and anytime we see one of those old historic route 66 signs we get off and drive through the town and get back on the interstate but we just stopped in the town of williams arizona to get some ice cream [Music] so this is kind of a weird place to be arriving at sunset but it has a super interesting history one that an entire movie could be made about but back in the heyday of route 66 the story goes that an entrepreneur bought this place and attempted to turn it into a tourist attraction but completely ignored the grim native american history that had happened here and went as far as selling skulls that he found in a cave as souvenirs so ever since then this place has supposedly been cursed people have been shot things have burned down and this gas station right behind me is the last thing that anyone attempted to build on the property and now all that's left on the property are remnants of this gas station the campground the zoo and the original bridge that was built across diablo canyon [Music] well if we continued the rest of the trip at the rate that we went today i don't think we would get home until 2021 so we're gonna drive a few extra hours into the night [Music] we ended up finding a great place to camp just a little outside of albuquerque last night slept in way too late this morning and now we're continuing the journey east on i-40 slash route 66. [Music] morning [Music] all right we're a little east of albuquerque we're back on historic route 66 and legend has it that somewhere on this portion of the highway if driven over correctly it will play a song but apparently all the signs have been taken down it can be a little challenging to find challenge accepted how many guests you get off here yeah what do you think i mean it says we're here like it's like you're here right now so maybe it doesn't even turn definitely didn't play something is that a road i think so [Music] i don't i was hoping google maps was going to help us out but let me just come to a dead end i guess we i am determined to find this road don't think this is it oh i think i know what it is what i think it's only going east so i think we need to get on the other side of the road brilliant all right we're going east oh listen i think this is definitely it we gotta turn around dude this car is on the side of the road too was that it let's switch okay i'll drive you sing okay your turn round two here we go i hope you can hear it here we go that was a little disappointing i expect it more all right we're gonna travel one more time one more time maybe with the window round three here we go okay we'll roll the window up when it gets dark and we don't see anything else on route 66 it's because we spent all day trying to get the road to places all right i'm gonna do better driving this time okay ready for my performance all right how's my will maybe a tad bit more over to the right all right darn it i think i drove it pretty well that time yeah we need to bring that back yeah i'm glad we tried if it seems like we're breezing through new mexico that is because we are in an attempt to respect the travel advisories that this state has put in place we are trying to stay in the van as much as we can and make as few stops as possible until we get to texas [Music] so we've just crossed over the border from new mexico into texas and on the border sets the ghost town of glen rio this little town survived off tourists passing through on route 66 but eventually i-40 was built passed the town up and it slowly died and was left to right so sad we've also learned that this is the first motel ever built in texas so my whole life i've just always thought you used the words hotel and motel interchangeably but as i've been doing my research for route 66 i learned that the word motel came from the combination of motor hotel and then they shortened it to become motel so i guess hotels that motorists would stay in or technically a motel they still don't exactly understand the distinction but that's where the word came from whoa [Music] that's crazy kind of feel like we're back in chernobyl yeah oh this is so sad okay oh we're in all right i'm done with this i like this about as much as i did the haunted cave i don't like this at all so it looks like these are the actual motel rooms they're all open which one do you want to go in none of them i feel like it's a requirement that your motel must be one story oh look at this carpet oh what is okay that's that's enough for me we keep getting we keep getting to these abandoned places right before it's about to get dark and it makes them extra creepy apparently my wife's braver than i am oh there's a mattress in here ah it smells so bad it's just a sticky wow that's so crazy okay i'm ready to go it really does feel like chernobyl in the sense that it seems like one day people were here and then the next day they were gone everything valuable has been taken and it's just trash left to decompose [Music] if you're looking for another book recommendation i highly recommend the one that we're listening to right now it's called the art of resilience by ross edgely and it's about his adventure swimming around great britain without ever touching land and it is so good unless you're squeamish then you probably don't want to listen to the part about his tongue disintegrating into his suit from the salt water corrosion is pretty gross but if you just want your mind blown about human potential and capabilities when it comes to physical endurance this book is so good and as an added bonus ross is actually from britain and he's the one narrating the story and probably bless you i'm probably offending every british person watching this video and i'm truly sorry trying to get better [Music] all right we just made it to amarillo texas which is where we're going to sleep tonight and we just parked in the biggest most lovely walmart parking lot i've ever seen and now we're gonna listen to every song on spotify about amarillo which is apparently a lot and have some noodles so we will see you in the morning look at this i've never seen a tumbleweed in real life before there you go we are officially in texas apparently we weren't the only ones who thought spray painting something would be fun this morning i think this is the most people we've seen on the entire route 66. [Music] so this place is called cadillac ranch and it's an art installation done by a group out of california funded by a rich guy here in texas and they've halfway buried ten cadillacs at some point people came out here and started defacing them and they just kind of embraced it and made it okay so now it's the thing to do as you're driving down route 66 is stop the cadillac ranch and leave your mark i'm gonna attempt our logo on this wheel never spray painted anything in my life it wasn't a very good start looks like a black blob i need a bigger canvas whoa i think you nailed it you feel like you're vandalizing yeah yeah this all feels wrong but it's kind of fun the amount of paint caked onto these cars is insane there are inches of spray paint on this car and as soon as you get within 10 feet you're just hit with the smell of paint all right also if you come there's no reason to bring your own spray paint there about 500 half used cans laying all over the ground another fun fact i didn't know that you needed an id to buy spray paint in texas or maybe the entire us so had to run back out to the car this morning maybe i wasn't mischievous enough as a kid to the next stop there's not a certain thing i'm going for i just kind of want something that's not your typical cappuccino or yeah yeah thank you just grab a quick coffee before heading out of amarillo from this place called the 806. it's right here on route 66 and we heard that they made their own homemade whipped cream that's and the caffeinated is so strong and so good all right oh gosh i just lost the door oh my hat [Music] okay we're about an hour outside of amarillo in route oklahoma city i don't know if you can hear anything because it is super windy here but our next stop is the leaning tower of texas unlike the leaning tower piece in italy this was intentionally built to be leaning to attract tourists like us this is crazy this is because my teeth are cold no wonder it was so hard to keep the man on the road must make it back to the van that is nice oh wow i've never experienced wind like that my face is frozen well legitimately it took your hands to shut the door i can't believe you saved your hat you were running so fast no wonder there's tumbleweeds in texas that was awesome that was a rush [Music] all right three hours to oklahoma city goodbye texas [Music] we are five minutes away from completing the longest road trip of my entire life route 66 was fun and it sounded like a good idea at the beginning but i think if you're gonna try to do that get off every time you see a route 66 sign you need to about triple the time that you see on google maps it was slow going but it was fun it feels so weird driving our van in our hometown we haven't been here since june we did it galley are you gonna come see uncle nate run faster [Laughter] you seem more excited to see him than me you saw him five minutes ago you haven't seen me in months whoa it is 66 degrees while we were driving down route 66 wow mind blown what in the world the road is almost completely white this came out of nowhere two seconds ago the sky was blue ah it's kidding me whoa baby that's a big old hail that's a big old hell we're in texas everything's bigger in texas isn't it we are gonna take this as the sun that we need our diesel engine is so darn loud i can barely hear it i need to be in a tesla for this i would do that you're on it you're on it a little more i can barely hear it ah i don't think so i can't decide if it's we're going to fourth time try number four well i just can't decide if i'm a really bad driver or if it just doesn't work that well so i get to listen to his accent the whole way home makes me very happy nate is probably tired of me practicing my british accent but i love it this is the most geese i've ever seen at one time what in the world i feel bad painting over other people's art like somebody like just did this yeah that's still wet i can't that's too fresh let's do another one i think this is the first one i've ever spray painted oh i think i'm painting it's very windy wow art is obviously not our strength this car did you not learn your lesson obviously not and one last thank you to audible for sponsoring this video and also keeping us entertained on this trip i somehow managed to finish the book about five minutes ago as we were pulling into our hometown that was not on purpose mind blowing if i do any crazy physical challenges within the next year it was probably because i listened to this what are you sitting down for christmas have you not got any shoes on

Channel: Kara and Nate

Views: 980,604

Rating: 4.9352412 out of 5

Keywords: audible, audible app, amazon audible, audible books, audible free trial, audible membership, amazon prime audible, audible amazon, audiobooks, audiobooks review, audiobooks platform, audiobooks site, route 66, route66, route 66 road trip, route 66 road trip vlog, route 66 road america, usa road trip, the mother road, road trip vlog, driving route 66, route 66 guide, road trip usa, vlog, travel, travel vlog, van life, #vanlife, van life vlog, van life couple, kara and nate

Id: Dn7gWOPeUu8

Length: 26min 10sec (1570 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 10 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/Ro6t]

They are definitely behind their editing schedule. Wednesday video upload turned to Thursday and the uploads are not sequential. They are yet to settle down and get used to Van life. We should support them till they find their footing.

[u/thoughtful_human]

I really enjoyed this video - it felt like a video from a couple years ago whens they did the montage of stuff on route 66. The bad mask habits do bother me though

Edit: spelling

[u/hello_amy]

I loved this vid! I want them to do a whole series on abandoned structures lol

[u/HaliHD]

Ouffff Kara’s mask when they stop in the diner around the 3 minute mark - it’s clearly way too big for her and her nose is almost fully sticking out. They’re both wearing their masks poorly throughout the video though 🙄

[u/Substance_Conscious]

Most of this video is an advertisement.

[u/anonymousbro69]

Anyone know why the Mercedes logo was blurred out on the steering wheel?