Route 66 Road Trip: Everything To Do & See

well we did it route 66 from chicago to la 28 days four adults one dog one cat all in a winnebago this video documents our trip in the fall of 2021 and it shares some info in history that i hope you'll find entertaining and helpful too if if you're planning a route 66 trip yourself oh and if you are planning a route 66 trip check out the link in the description to visiting66.com i got a ton of free info on there to help you out including a google map with all the places that are in this video and like literally hundreds more things to do and see on route 66 i think it'll be really handy for you but without further ado let's get on the route my sister and i flew out from la to chicago where we met up with what would be our home for the next month my parents had driven the winnebago out so we could start the route right in chicago now chicago is a major city with tons of history and stuff to do but it doesn't really give you the route 66 flavor the small town vibe that you're looking for but nevertheless since you're here you might as well do some exploring we had a few days has been touring around chicago so we began at the iconic bean or the cloud gate as it's officially called but uh it's actually really cool to just stare at this thing the way it reflects and distorts the city and people around it and it's made up of 168 stainless steel plates that are all welded together and then perfectly polished so there's no visible seams and you can walk right up and under this thing and because of that they actually have to windex this thing twice a day and then they even clean this thing with 40 gallons of tide twice a year in a short walk from there you got buckingham fountain which is almost 100 years old and the style was actually built to mimic the palace of versailles and we actually spent a lot of our first day on these big bus hop-on hop-off bus tours i like it a lot for a new city it kind of gives you some general history and info but also kind of helps you get a good lay of the land for your future exploring in the city for lunch we went to portillo's which is the real deal if you want to get a chicago style hot dog it comes with mustard this neon green relish onions tomatoes pickle celery salt and these peppers and i don't really like mustard or relish or pickles i don't like that briny flavor but this thing's good there's something magical about this whole combination that just works you gotta get one then we checked out this architecture boat tour which i actually really recommend chicago's got some of the most innovative architecture in the world and it was actually the birthplace of the skyscraper the next morning we started off at the starbucks reserve which is pretty cool it's like a wonka factory for coffee lovers but long lines high prices pretty touristy it's just okay and for chicago style stuffed pizza head to giordano's they claim that their founders invented stuffed pizza back in 1974. some people challenge that claim and say other locations are better but giordano's is good nonetheless and they have over 60 locations so it's easy to find a restaurant and by the way if you're in an rv like us you can spend the night at their convention center it's just an empty parking lot but it's an incredible location that you don't really normally get in cities it's called mccormick place and i'll have that in the google map at visiting66.com we spent the whole next day at the museum of science and industry this place is awesome they got a bunch of cool exhibits like a combine that you can ride in they have a real 727 hanging from the ceiling that you can explore but my hands down favorite was an actual u-boat that was captured by the allies during the world war ii that's on display it's actually there on display this thing is huge and it's got such an amazing story of how it even got into american hands and then to the museum plus they got a few moldarama machines i learned about these a little while ago so i was so excited to finally get to do these they're the coolest vending machines i've ever seen in my life and they're just pure delight they literally injection mold a plastic figurine right in front of your very eyes they're from the 60s and there's only like a few dozen of these vending machines left and look the first time i did this the figure came out all deformed and misshapen but isn't that awesome these 50 year old vending machines aren't perfect and the museum staff happily gave me a new perfect figurine anyway for dinner we went to the berghoff now this place was founded by a german immigrant hermann berghoff and he actually began selling beer in the chicago world's fair in 1893 for a nickel and then he even gave you a free sandwich but then during prohibition berghoff was able to keep his bar alive by brewing near beer and root beer which you can actually still get today and is really seriously super delicious and the german food that they serve here is just so high quality and good i loved it after dinner we headed over to the sears tower now called the willis tower to go check out the sky deck because it's actually the highest public viewing area in the united states it's a really cool view up here we actually enjoyed it especially at night and this is interesting this isn't the tallest building in the united states it's technically one world trade center but they only have 94 stories the sears tower has 108 the discrepancy comes from the classification of those antennas on top of the building the ones on top of the sears tower are just called antennas so they don't count towards the total height but on top of one world trade center they're considered a spire so it does count towards the total height of the building it's kind of weird oh and they have these glass balconies that extend out four feet from the side of the building and i didn't think i was really afraid of heights but i could not get myself to step on that thing it's freaky so that was it for chicago it was time to get on route 66. so the actual beginning of route 66 has changed a couple times over the years in 1933 it started right here at jackson boulevard and lake shore drive but before that the route actually started at jackson and michigan avenue when route 66 was first officially classified but when jackson boulevard became a one-way street in 1955 this became the new starting point for route 66 right on adams street one block north that's where you're going to see the route 66 begin signs today and i'll have all those starting points on the google map for you to check out our first site was the castle car wash built in 1925 and was actually the secret hideout of mr al capone we stopped at henry's for one last chicago dog in cicero just a chicago suburb our next stop was for some more food at del rey chicken basket this chicken is so good the breading is just perfect it's not too thick and crusty it really complements the chicken well and they got a great dining room with these red and white checkered tablecloths and a really good neon sign out front too and in joliet you could stop for some ice cream at rich and creamy where they have the blues brothers on top because this is joliet they actually filmed part of blues brothers at the prison here and then right across from rich and creamy is this old gas station and check this out you can stand on the original route 66 roadway wow look at that they all say bar on them i wonder if that's the brand or manufacturer or something for us the best thing in joliet was the old joliet prison it's worth the ticket price of 20 bucks you get to go in and roam around the whole prison and you can explore the old buildings and jail cells and they do have some signs posted so you can you know understand the history and information and know what you're actually looking at so this prison actually held inmates from 1858 to 2002 and it was also the filming location for the prison where jake blues was released at the beginning of the blues brothers joliet also has some other blues brother surprises sprinkled around town next up is a route 66 classic the gemini giant so this is actually an example of what are called muffler men in muffler men are fiberglass statues are over 20 feet tall and there was a bunch of them made in the 50s and 60s as roadside icons for automotive muffler shops but now they've been repurposed and are all over route 66 and then down the road a bit you hit the town of gardner where you'll find this restored streetcar diner which is over 100 years old you can't go inside but you can look through the windows and see the wooden benches and stools and the chrome countertop it's really cool and then in the town of dwight you got a cool little downtown area with this old railroad depot and the first national bank designed by mr frank lloyd wright in like 1905 dwight also has ambler's texaco gas station which now serves as a visitor center and is actually one of the longest operating gas stations on route 66 they even still have these service bells that ring when you step on them or run over them and it was actually built in this cottage style to kind of look like the residential houses around it so it blended in a bit more it's a really fun stop [Music] so this is hilarious to me but they're actually kind of common along route 66 it's a pedestrian tunnel that goes under route 66 so it made it safer and easier to cross this was built in 1933 there was that much traffic on route 66 back then that they felt they needed a tunnel it's crazy here you can actually see some original route 66 pavement on the right there which is undrivable but it's open as kind of like a bike path now it's pretty cool to see there's even this old stretch called memory lane that you can actually drive on like original route 66 pavement and they got some burma shave signs they put up too [Music] you gotta stop at funk's grove for some maple syrup but call ahead because like the sign says here they do sell out every season but they did have a little bit of their bourbon barrel aged syrup left for us to try so we got to sample that which is great and the funk family has been making syrup since the late 1800s they literally just put thousands of taps in the trees all around them and harvest a whole bunch of maple syrup and i actually did a whole interview with the funk family but i lost the footage i'm so bummed but here's a little bit that i was able to find that was saved somehow as often the first question people walk in with is so why do you spell syrup wrong yeah but it's just an old spelling so when webster wrote his he was writing his first dictionaries he had both spellings and two different definitions so s-i-r-u-p he defined as the product made by boiling sap and then s-y-r-u-p he said was the product made by adding sugar to fruit juice like a canned peach syrup that kind of syrup and so he had this difference in definitions way back then and hazel who put this in a trust you know as far as she's concerned the that s-i-r-u-p was the right spelling it's a pure maple syrup and so we've kept it because that's what she wanted sure i like it and then heading into the town of atlanta we got another muffler man this time of paul bunyan with the hot dog and then heading on into town we find that they also have a route 66 arcade museum where admission is free you just pay to play the games they've got old pinball and video games back from the 1930s up to the 80s and then headed on into lincoln illinois this is hilarious to me they have a watermelon monument because it was near the site that abraham lincoln christened the town with the juice of a watermelon lincoln's also got the world's largest covered wagon with mr abe lincoln sitting on top and it's recognized by the guinness book of world records by the way it's crazy how much stuff is on route 66 you can't drive more than like 10 minutes without stopping coming up next is the cozy dog driving and you gotta stop here so i did actually get to interview josh waldmire the owner of the cozy dog and i didn't lose the footage for this one so i'll have a link to that whole interview and tour in the description but this place is famous for their cornbread coated wieners on a stick josh's grandfather ed actually invented the batter that allowed you to dip a corn dog right into the deep fryer so it could be done quick you didn't have to bake it just a really cool place with a ton of memorabilia inside family run you definitely gotta stop if you like abraham lincoln springfield is the place for you it is the abraham lincoln center of the universe first off we got lincoln's tomb which is massive he's basically been here since he was assassinated and he's also joined by his youngest three sons and mrs lincoln it's really impressive next up you got the lincoln home this is actually the home that lincoln and his family lived in from 1844 to 1861 and they've restored it to look exactly like it did when he lived there and not just the home but the whole street too it's really a cool place to visit and then of course we got the abraham lincoln presidential library and museum which is actually really well done it feels like disney level even but don't let that turn you off it's got a lot of good quality information too just well done a good balance of fun and informative and when we came out of the museum there happened to be this car show going on where bob waldmire's vw bus was on display bob was the inspiration for fillmore the bus in the cars movie and is also josh waldmire's uncle who was the owner of the cozy dog which i interviewed you'll find bob's art all over route 66 he was a really cool interesting guy the whole walmart family is just pure route 66 and then on the way out of town we stopped at the cozy dog again for some more cozy dogs and cheese on a stick which is oh so good out of springfield we hit the litchfield route 66 museum and there are a you know what load of route 66 museums along the route but honestly they're all pretty cool and unique and kind of worth stopping at every one i gotta say and same with gas stations it if you like old gas stations route 66 is the place for you but they're really all pretty cool and we're stopping at especially this old shell station's from 1926 because you could walk inside and and smell that old gasoline wood smell that's been permeating for a hundred years and then you just stumble upon stuff like this like this massive rocking chair but don't get too excited there's an even bigger one coming up stay tuned and then you got henry's rabbit ranch on bums we actually missed this because it was closed which happens for a lot of these things on route 66 so get used to it but it's a route 66 information center and gift shop with rabbits with bunnies so maybe we didn't miss much but it sounds pretty cool i wish we could have seen it but we did get to see all of his volkswagen rabbits plunge nose first out front like cadillac ranch and then a little bit off the route but definitely worth the detour to collinsville is the world's largest bottle of ketchup how can you not love this thing 170 feet tall 100 000 gallons of ketchup or water and i got to meet up with judy and mike the curators of this giant ketchup bottle to learn all about the history of this thing and the restoration process and why the hell there's a giant bottle of ketchup here in the first place it was a great interview they're super fun i'll have the link to that whole interview and tour in the description route 66 in missouri takes you right into st louis the gateway to the west we started off our time in st louis with a trip to the apple store to pick up some new iphone 13s but then the real touring started off at the gateway arch you gotta do it by the way it used to be called the jefferson national expansion memorial weird name good move changing it and here's a fun fact for you the arch is actually 630 feet tall and 630 feet wide weird it looks way taller it's some kind of weird illusion but it's actually like a perfect square the arch has actually a pretty good museum about westward expansion which is very appropriate since you're on route 66 and they talk a little bit about construction and everything like that it's worth checking out about an hour so you should go up into the arch just so you get to ride in these elevator tram type of things they're like circular and as you go up they rotate and click into position so you're always staying level it's really cool and the view from the top is not bad pretty cool to look out and see 630 feet above you and you can actually kind of look down underneath you because the way the windows are angled it's a little spooky and you can bet your clydesdales but we went to the annhauser bush factory even though they're just a massive corporation now anheuser did start in st louis in 1852 so they really have a cool history at this place and the tour is pretty good you get to check out the clydesdale stables and learn about the whole brewing process and of course you get to do some tasting but at least the day we were there they just over packed our tour group and it was just way too many people i wouldn't call this a must-see but it was cool if you're interested in beer well that was it for st louis like chicago you could spend weeks or months exploring this city but we had to get back on good ol route 66. our first stop on the road was ted drew's frozen custard and holy concrete this stuff is good they're called concretes because they're so thick they even serum the upside down they've got a great old-fashioned building a killer sign out front and they've got a massive menu with all the toppings and flavors available to you i myself got banana with reese's peanut butter cups mixed in highly recommend it you gotta stop at this place it's so good all right here's a good story for you as you're driving near eureka you're not really gonna see anything but this used to be the town of times beach in the 70s they didn't have paved roads so they hired a company to come in and oil the roads to control the dust which was fairly common but the oil contained dioxin which is a not good for you toxin and so the whole town had to evacuate and leave this town as a ghost town eventually the federal government purchased and decontaminated the whole city and now you're gonna find a nice route 66 state park there instead it's an insane story that's easily missed [Music] hot and cold we got six of you were here missouri is actually home to over 6 000 surveyed caves and you're going to see signs for them everywhere the most famous is merrimack caverns unfortunately we just didn't have time to stop but you really should it's it's a highlight next up you got the jesse james wax museum which unfortunately for us was closed but it's just a classic kitschy route 66 attraction and they're gonna convince you that jesse james didn't actually die in 1882 but was living under a different name until 1951. keep an eye out for the bourbon city water tower which actually got its name when a general store started selling this new brand whiskey called bourbon and the locals just started calling it the bourbon store then the town of cuba has got some good sites worth spending some time at first stop for some lunch at the missouri hick barbecue the owner dennis miser smokes his meat for 12 hours and serves it with a wonderful variety of barbecue sauces and right next door is the classic wagon wheel motel built in the 1930s it's undergone a careful restoration to keep all the important stuff but also add modern amenities it's a good old-fashioned mom and pop motel we're staying at cuba also has a nickname mural city because there's a bunch of murals all over the city so be on the lookout for those we even had a nice lady come up to us and give us a brochure and mural map which i guess are available at the cuba visitors center make a stop at the haze family shoe store to check out two shoes that belong to robert wadlow the tallest man in the world at eight feet 11.1 inches he's a big boy and then you have the world's largest rocking chair well actually the world's second largest there's a bigger one in illinois but still this thing's 42 feet tall and 20 feet wide and the fanning outpost general store that it's attached to has an excellent selection of soda then you have the uranus fudge factory because who doesn't want fudge directly from uranus this is a kooky place sure they have the fudge store but they also have the world's largest belt buckle in uranus they got a double decker bus a jail cell and jokes everywhere [Music] but they also have a great muffler man and a really impressive neon map of route 66 [Music] then you have the monger moss motel built in the 1940s some of the rooms actually have garages attached and they have a fantastic red porcelain and neon sign out front the city of lebanon houses a great route 66 museum just for free right inside of their library they've got life-size recreations of tourist cabins and a diner and a collection of salt and pepper shakers from route 66 restaurants it's pretty well done in springfield missouri in 1947 it was here that mr red cheney thought it would be easier for customers to drive up and order his hamburgers through a kitchen window creating the first drive-through eatery in america red's giant hamburg and the reason it's called giant hamburg as opposed to giant hamburger as you would expect is a pretty good story red the owner made his sign in a cross like this but realized that the sign he made was too tall and would touch the power lines so he just sawed off the er and hamburger now this isn't actually the original reds that closed in 1984. this is actually a recreation of the original route 66 restaurant built by a local barbecue chain owner but there is a nearby park which does have the original giant hamburg sign which you can check out [Music] there's also a great flagship steak n shake which shows off some of the features of yesteryear like the neon signs counter floor tiles old boots it's pretty cool but honestly the shake wasn't really that good springfield also has a small but helpful visitor center [Music] a bit outside of springfield is an absolute gem of a stop gary's gay purita sinclair this is actually a recreation of a gas station owned by fred and gay mason from the 1930s the separate cobblestone garage from 1926 is actually original but the rest burnt down in 1955. a very very cool stop [Music] next up is a strange place called red oak 2. a man named lowell davis left his hometown red oak in illinois but when he returned he had found that it had become a ghost town he was so heartbroken that in 1987 he started moving the buildings from illinois to missouri to this place to rebuild his hometown calling it red oak 2. so today it's just this odd simulation of a specific time and place [Music] in joplin you can see the apartment where bonnie and clyde lived and this is where they had a shootout killing two police officers before fleeing but they left behind a camera in their apartment which is how authorities finally discovered what they looked like well first off we gotta establish that kansas has the shortest stretch of route 66 in any state it's only 13 miles well actually i interviewed the president of the kansas historic route 66 association and she'll be quick to point out that it's actually 13.2 you can't produce that too you got to get the point too all right we gotta get every bit we can so you gotta give them that and they do cram a lot of good stuff in their 13.2 miles that's for sure like of course kansas has a yellow brick road there's no place like home heading into galena kansas you're gonna find a place called cars on the route kansas has a special distinction of being the place where the pixar guys actually found the truck that inspired mater from the cars movie and they have the actual truck that they saw but wait it's not a tow truck it's a boom truck that thing on the back is way taller than the regular guy it's for mining it's called a boom truck they thought it was a tow truck and they call their truck totator to avoid copyright issues but later pixar said it was fine but they didn't take the time to change it so it's still totator there galena and kansas in general are great they really embrace the route 66-ness of what they got and they even have these great painted shields on the road through most of kansas and you gotta make a stop at nelson's old riverton store it's a delightful 1925 little grocery store where there was actually a lot of locals hanging out and was pretty busy but make sure you get a sandwich from the deli counter they're just classic homemade sandwiches and they're delicious heading into baxter springs we got the route 66 visitor center inside this 1930 gas station that's been restored it's a good stop because you can actually go inside and walk around this thing too and if you're lucky like we are you'll get to meet mr dean walker also known as crazy legs because he can turn his legs completely backwards that doesn't hurt the guys from pixar met dean and he became the inspiration for mater and the reason why he can drive backwards kansas has a lot of connections to the cars movie [Music] oklahoma actually has the most drivable miles of route 66 compared to any other state along with some of the most iconic stops and roadside attractions heading into the town of commerce you'll find the dairy oh no it's not dairy queen it's the dairy king that's right and they got some oh so delicious route 66 homemade shaped cookies that you gotta try and right across the street from that we got a gas station built into a brick wall hence the name the konico hole in the wall gas station built in 1929 you can also see the childhood home of mickey mantle that's right the mick himself grew up right here in commerce you could even peek inside of his old home and check this out you can actually see a bunch of dents on the side of this barn where mickey spent a bunch of time practicing his hitting and they even have a nine foot tall statue of mickey mantle at the mickey mantle field at the local high school [Music] so this one might look lame on video but hear me out it's actually pretty cool this is one of the oldest still drivable road beds on route 66 from 1922 even older than route 66 but this guy is only nine feet wide just one lane wide and that's because money was tight they only had enough to do half the job and rather than cover half the distance they decided to just make it half the normal width so we didn't go on this in the motorhome but that means you could drive it today but it's still pretty hairy and i gotta say there's something a little magical about being able to walk on this road that's 100 years old now there's a lot of bridges on route 66 but this prior creek bridge from 1926 is particularly cool it's a through truss bridge and the beams cover the top so it kind of looks like a tunnel look it's another pedestrian tunnel there was one of these in illinois but i love these i just find it so funny that route 66 was so busy decades ago even that they had to build tunnels underneath for pedestrian traffic and this one actually has murals inside but unfortunately it was closed for refurbishment when we were there but we didn't totally miss out on the murals because just right across the street they have this old u-haul painted by bob waldmire just hanging out here next we have what is truly a landmark roadside attraction totem pole park built from 1937 to 1961 as a tribute to the american indian the main attraction is the 90 foot tall totem with 200 carved images and a turtle at its base in this thing we're talking 28 tons of cement six tons of steel and 100 tons of sand and rock and it was just newly repainted so it's looking pretty good now there's not a ton to see here but i want to tell you the story of the transcontinental foot race aka the bunion derby it was a race from la to new york in 1928 and used route 66 for much of the route but it was mr andy payne who won in 573 hours andy was from the town of foyle so that's why you'll see this monument commemorating him today right pals it's the famous blue whale of katusa and boy what a spectacle this thing is built in 1972 by a zoologist as an anniversary gift for his wife who collected whale figurines and back in the heyday you could actually enter inside the whale's mouth and slide down that slide or jump off the back tail but they they close that off now and they were repainting this thing while we were there which kind of ruined our pictures but it was nice to see that it's being maintained and taken care of how was it blue whale is wow so cool wow that's so cool well done and quick tip stop at ron's for some chili it's oh so good and they got a few locations welcome to tulsa a cool trendy town that really embraces their route 66 roots and you can't really miss the golden drill or statue it's a friggin massive 76 foot tall statue of an oil man resting his arm on top of an actual real oil derrick built in 1966 at the time when oklahoma was the oil capital of the world this guy can withstand 200 mile per hour tornadoes and kind of lame they had him decked out with some advertising while we were there and make a stop at buck adams it's really just a newer gift shop on route 66 but it's really well done they've got themselves a great muffler man and some good neon and some of the best souvenirs you could buy on the route in my opinion and don't miss the metal gold sign just down the street which has been beautifully restored then we got the cyrus avery plaza mr cyrus avery is often known as the father of route 66 the sculpture is pretty damn cool it's extremely detailed there's even a juicy bug in the grill of his car now look there's a lot of cool old restored gas stations on route 66 but after a while i think you're just gonna be saying to yourself i've seen enough of these damn gas stations [Music] on our way to stroud we pit some pretty gnarly rain but don't worry we still found the rock cafe so the rock cafe is actually built of stones that were unearthed during the construction of route 66 the pixar guys stopped here and they took a lot of inspiration for sally the porsche from the cars movie from the owner of the rock cafe don welch and the food here is actually really freaking good [Music] next up we got the seba station motorcycle museum and even if you're not a huge motorcycle fan i think you're gonna like this museum it's actually really really cool and it's free in a restored 1921 gas station they've got like 70 or so vintage motorcycles dating back as far as 1908 and don't miss the stone outhouse in the back with plumbing you like that toilet dad fancy next we got one of my favorite sites the round barn it's a barn that's round they said it couldn't be done but in 1898 mr william h o dare soaked lumber and then carefully painstakingly bent each piece in a rounded shape to construct the 60 by 40 foot round barn and this thing takes a lot of upkeep and has been lovingly restored to what it is today which is beautiful upstairs there's a whole dance floor and the ceiling just looks awesome and why make the barn round excellent question well they figured it'd be more resistant to tornadoes but there's really no evidence to support that and also apparently it's a bit more efficient to work in a round barn you can just go in one direction around and around to feed your animals next up we got pops and they got themselves a 66 foot tall led soda pop bottle out front which is cool wasn't turned on we were there but still cool inside's nice they got tons of soda but here's the thing it's kind of gimmicky felt a little sticky a little dirty inside if you're really into soda the place to go is galco's soda pop shop in california on route 66 we went and it's better than pops it just is but pops is fun if you're here it's worth a stop [Music] heading into oklahoma city don't miss the land run monument may sound kind of boring but it's really freaking impressive these sculptures are just massive and there's so many of them and they continue to add on new ones every year so it's just getting bigger and bigger but these sculptures are reenacting the land rush of 1889 which is basically when they opened up the state of oklahoma to settlement there were literally like 50 000 people lined up and at high noon on april 22nd they just ran and claimed their land but it really does just kind of gloss over the fact that it was indian territory and they kind of just stole this land away from tribal members and then we've got the wonderful milk bottle grocery which is only a 350 square foot grocery store but was actually pretty successful in a typical route 66 fashion they added that big old milk bottle to the top as an advertisement to attract some attention then we went for a little night cruise to check out some neon and the yukon's best flower sign which is really really cool the next morning started in the town of el reno where you can get an onion burger which was born during the great depression when meat was scarce so they beefed it up with some onions but a happy accident occurred the onions caramelized made oh so delicious crust on that burger and you can still get these today and you should because they're damn good i always love looking at the local markets and grocery stores when you're traveling you can find some cool stuff they have real cane sugar dr pepper here this is rare hey look another old gas station and then we just stumbled upon this corn maze at p bar farms i'd never done a corn maze before so i was pretty excited it's really cool and this one was awesome and huge look at it so we come in over here and there's the beef it's what's for dinner damn we're gonna be here for 16 hours it was fun for like the first 30 minutes and then it just gets to be a little monotonous and you don't know where the hell you are we're in the corn maze we're lost in the corn maze there's no way out but i'd never done one glad i did it was fun whoa yeah we're out we're free yeah and they also had this wicked fast slide [Music] yeah this is it [Music] so fun and then down the road we stopped at the cherokee trading post which is great in and of itself but they have buffalo there which is the best part of all they had a mama a papa and a baby buffalo there and these guys just stole my heart i just wanted to hang out with them all day yeah hi buddy next up is the oklahoma route 66 museum and out front they have a fully restored 1940s valentine diner these were small prefab diners made by the valentine manufacturing company they cost five thousand dollars and the owners would pay for their new diner by giving ten percent of their daily gross income and then inside the museum they tell the story of the mother road decade by decade which is kind of a cool way to do it it's narrated by michael wallace and they got some good tunes playing in there this is actually one of the better museums on the route [Music] and the next morning it was another route 66 museum the national route 66 museum where they have shield but there's a few of these on the route so i don't know how that's possible but this is another fun museum where you can drive on the route and burn your thighs on a fireman's pole [Music] and then we drove by another pedestrian tunnel i love these things then we went to visit the sand hills curiosity shop in the town of eric but unfortunately it was closed but still looks cool on the outside but just down the street we found what locals like to call the bone break hardware museum and you can't go in you just gotta look through the windows but the story is that the bone break family owned and ran this hardware store but one day just closed the door and walked away in the 1960s and just left everything as it was it's kind of creepy even texas gives us the good stuff right away because right when you get into the town of shamrock you hit the you drop in the iconic you drop in this art deco masterpiece is beautiful built in 1936 it was a gas station and a cafe and you might recognize it from cars movie this was the inspiration for ramone's body shop and inside is the route 66 visitor center and a nice little cafe where you can get a tasty sandwich and some soda and you can even sit in the booth where elvis presley once sat oh yeah it's a great stop heading out of town there's a good recreation of some burma shave signs along the road next up we got the devil's rope museum which is a tribute to barbed wire it's actually one of the finest barbed wire collections in the world so i'm told there is a lot to read about barbed wire here almost too much it's kind of overwhelming but housed in the same space as that is the old route 66 museum she's got some good artifacts from route 66 texas businesses including this automobile p card which i'm still trying to figure out [Music] down the road a bit you can't miss the leaning water tower so here's the scoop it's not a mistake they moved the water tower to this location in 1980 and this thing was designed so that the center water pipe would be beneath the surface of the ground but the new owners thought it would just be too expensive to do that and they liked the gimmick of this thing leaning they thought it attracted more attention which it sure as hell does because we're talking about it right now but i just love the look of this thing on the horizon leaning like that it's awesome next up is the vw slug bug ranch which is a tribute to cadillac ranch which is coming up we're gonna learn all about it but you can spray a little spray paint on these guys or if you don't have any like we do slap a bumper sticker on them then we made it into amarillo for the night and stayed at the cadillac rv park which is actually quite cool they have a muffler man and some ungraffitied cadillacs the next morning we did some exploring around amarillo and found out that the city actually was and is the helium capital of the world they produce about 90 of the world's supply of helium so we drove by the old historic amarillo helium plant which in the 30s furnished almost literally all of the world's supply of helium and they actually have the six story structure that celebrates the centennial of the discovery of helium in the area and when it was erected in 1968 they actually collected articles to create four time capsules the last of them is not even supposed to be open until 2968. in that last capsule they put a 10 passbook savings account at a local bank which is supposed to be worth at least one quadrillion dollars by then assuming the bank and money still exist i guess and then of course for lunch we went to the big texan stake ranch which is just awesome it's got such a good vibe there's a huge fiberglass steer out front they got a great sign and inside is this awesome two-story dining room with a bar and a shooting range and a gift shop with a live rattlesnake and you can get yourself a free 72-ounce steak that's right free but that's only if you eat the entire steak with a baked potato a salad and a shrimp cocktail in less than an hour since we're not insane we didn't do that but still had some pretty decent steaks here really just like a super fun place with like a classic gimmick that you see in the movies next up is the can't miss cadillac ranch kinda in the middle of nowhere you drive by and you see these ten tail-finned cadillacs just sticking up out of the horizon it's awesome but this wasn't actually the original location they moved in 1997 when the land it was previously on became pretty valuable and look these things are covered in spray paint that's what everyone's doing here it was super muddy when i was there and you know i wanted to partake in the spray painting too so took my shoes off and waited in that mud but the spray painting wasn't an original intention one of the artists who originally designed and built cadillac ranch said that he kind of wishes the site was more protected and people wouldn't litter and spray paint the cars which i kind of agree it'd be cool to see these kind of more pristine but look you're here just embrace it and do it they're already painted have some fun heading out of amarillo and down the road a bit you'll stumble upon the magnolia station which is a really cool restored two-story gas station inside and out too which is cool you can take a peek inside and look around they've also got some cool old original barrels of gasoline because before gas stations they just had to ship barrels of gasoline and this guy just kept those behind his general store and customers would come around and fill up their automobiles using a hand pump pretty cool old stuff nearby there is slash was a route 66 classic dots mini museum unfortunately this seemed to be totally closed and almost non-existent anymore i'm told this used to be a massive collection of treasures and collectibles from all over route 66 by dot levitt but unfortunately she passed away and it seems like her stuff just isn't holding out however you can go and still see the famous boot tree which is there which is very cool it's a bummer but just a good example of how route 66 is always changing and evolving and shrinking and growing next up in the town of adrian is an important milestone for any route 66 traveler the halfway point welcome to the middle of the road we did it we're there halfway here's the midpoint line here it is whoa oh yeah it's exciting they got the midpoint line painted on the ground for you even got a nice little photo up across the street and you could check out the midpoint cafe which i'm told has some of the best pie on route 66 but unfortunately they were close when we went by down the road the last town you'll find in texas is glen rio which is just basically a ghost town there's only a couple people living here and a bunch of old abandoned ruinous buildings of unknown identity but you can't get out and kind of walk around so they are kind of fun to explore you'll also see the remains of the little juarez cafe the pixar guys recreated this exact building in the cars movie it's just briefly seen in the background but it's actually called the glen rio motel isn't that crazy welcome to new mexico the land of enchantment and our first stop is a truck stop but not any normal truck stop this is russell's travel center and they've got a free car museum like a legit real good car museum with tons of collectibles this is the russell family collection and it's actually really well done for a free museum inside a truck stop they got tons of collectibles and all these old vintage cars very cool and definitely worth a stop next you'll hit the wonderful little route 66 town of tucumcari this little town has loads of route 66 icons the first of which being tp curios this actually used to be a gas station but when they widen the road they lost their gas pumps so today it's a gift shop with a great concrete teepee and a killer neon sign oh and apparently clint eastwood stayed at the hotel next door tucumcari is also home to the completely refrigerated air-conditioned and iconic blue swallow motel each room at the blue swallow comes with its own attached garage and each one has its own separate different mural inside this motel is just really well taken care of and has such a cool vibe and really one of the best neon signs on the whole route and apparently the blue swallows logo references a classic sailor tattoo when sailor saw a swallow they knew home was near next a bit unusual for the arid new mexico desert is a natural lake called the blue hole it is beautiful crystal clear blue water it's also 81 feet deep and known as the scuba diving capital of the southwest so you know i couldn't miss my chance to do a cannonball into this thing but i think i kind of scared the lady underneath me and damn that water is crisp at 62 degrees but super fun and refreshing you could see how this would be a really popular stop for the okies traveling this route 66 back during the dust bowl it'd be so nice to take a dip in this thing here's a little side tip if you're not from the south in the u.s pick up blue bell ice cream from the grocery store it is so good i highly recommend banana pudding flavor it's good stuff and while we're on the topic of food you're in new mexico so you gotta get yourself some green chilies so we stopped at this local farm right outside of albuquerque where we got some great chilies and bolita beans which are kind of like pinto beans but they're creamier and sweeter oh man they were so good and when we made it to albuquerque well we needed some more food so we went to loyola's family restaurant we got a sopopia which is like a fry bread and it's so good but they're also famous for their breakfast burritos with their red and green sauce and here's a little tip as for your burrito christmas style and you can get a little bit of both and loyola's was also used as a filming location for breaking bad a couple of times pretty cool we spent the next few days in albuquerque because we came for the albuquerque international balloon fiesta it starts bright and early like 5am early and they do these burns where you can see the balloons light up in the darkness which is pretty cool and then you're out in this massive field and you see all these balloons start to be inflated and it just goes on and on there's hundreds like if not thousands of balloons at this thing it is crazy it's really cool to be amongst these now i'll kind of skip over this because the first day wasn't actually the best it was a little too windy so not a ton of balloons went up even though it still looks like a ton of balloons went up there's even more so i'll tell you more about this on day two so after the balloon festivities for the day were over we went to go do some exploring around the area and found the musical highway listen what happens when you drive this stretch of route 66 at exactly 45 miles per hour pretty crazy huh there's little rumble strips in the pavement that have been engineered to play america the beautiful i love stuff like this we were heading up to visit the town of santa fe but there's actually a lot of good stops on the way the first of which being the tinkertown museum this is a kooky place it's this eclectic 22 room museum with an assortment of a bunch of different miniature figurines that artist ross ward made for over 40 years it's amazing impressive so many details the figurines move it's so cool and these displays are huge plus you got walls made of over 50 000 glass bottles and my favorite was otto the one-man band next up is the little town of madrid which is a small little artist town but if you've ever seen the movie wild hogs you may recognize this diner they actually built this whole thing just for the movie and when production wrapped they just left the building here for the town to use it's so cool even in the movie the name of the town is madrid and you can go inside and buy yourself some wild hog souvenirs and see where they actually filmed you could see the door that william h macy breaks and even do some little reenacting out front for yourself so why not and then a great place to eat in town is the mineshaft tavern great vibe inside with live music and this is new mexico so there's green chilies on everything so i got fried green chilies on this burger and it was so so good oh man i missed that burger and then we finally made it to santa fe which is actually the oldest capital in the u.s from 1610. santa fe is kind of a more relaxed artist town with some good architecture although it did feel a bit touristy i think there's good stuff here i just wish we had more time to kind of get past that and settle into the town and find the good stuff but a big quick highlight for us was the filming location of the movie twins with arnold schwarzenegger and danny devito man i love that movie can't wait for the sequel triplets the next morning it was bright and early for our second day at the balloon fiesta and they started off by this awesome cow look at this this is a hot air balloon shaped like a full cow it's huge people are going crazy for this thing so this day was actually what's called the special shape rodeo so it was a bunch of balloons like this that are all special shaped so it's it's really cool i mean look at these things they're incredible what they can do with these is so awesome there's even a balloon with more balloons on it and some of these balloons even play off each other like there's this famous set of three bees you got tom and jerry you got tweety and sylvester and sylvester even has a feather of tweeties in his mouth love it i'm a big fan of the star wars balloons they had yoda and darth vader but my favorite was this upside down humpty dumpty guy there's something about him that i just like and again just a massive amount of these like hundreds thousands maybe and then things got even better all these hot air balloons started lining up for a ring toss so they come in here and try to control their height and speed and then are literally tossing rings from the basket of the hot air balloon onto these big poles it's pretty fun to watch and extremely impressive and skillful these guys are good and look at these guys who got it on he just places it on that accuracy is incredible that afternoon we made it to pimentel and sons they're a small family-run company that makes guitars completely by hand and they don't normally give tours but we just walked in to check them out and were super nice and they brought us back to their workshop and showed us everything this was so fascinating and so cool to see this each guitar maker is a family member and makes a guitar from start to finish we're not even musicians or guitar players but damn this was cool for lunch we went to a good trendy little spot called range cafe which actually used to be a gas station and tire shop later that night it was more balloon shenanigans for what they call the glodio and this is where you get to see the balloons glow at night it was too windy for them to take off so they're all here on the ground but it still looks pretty cool to have them set off their flame and light up like that i think it might be cooler in person than it comes across on the film and then they even finished the night off with the fireworks show and that wrapped up our time at the balloon fiesta in albuquerque so it was time to get going but what's a route 66 trip without a little car trouble so we got to spend a few hours at the shop getting the transmission on the rv repaired but luckily it was a quick fix and we were back on the road shortly soon we hit the continental divide where rainfall on the west of this drains to the pacific ocean and rainfall on the east flows to the atlantic ocean and you can really feel the difference when you walk past it then we made it to gallup just like the song and took a visit to the el rancho hotel this is where all of hollywood's a-list stars used to stay back in the day and it's got a really cool lobby kind of reminds me of the movie the shining and all the rooms are named after celebrities who stayed here and they got their photos all over the lobby too cool place and then on our way to lunch at this used car lot we stumbled upon this muffler man lunch was at jerry's which is a favorite of the locals and it did not disappoint this might have been the best food i had in new mexico a stuffed soap appeal with green and red sauce and loaded fries with red and green chili sauce oh so good you can't miss jerry's [Music] soon after crossing the arizona border you'll come across petrified forest national park but we didn't stop there sorry but you totally should we've just been there a few times and we are short on time so we had to get going you can understand that right but we did stop at steward's petrified wood shop which unfortunately is a bit run down but it's still there they're still kicking you can't take petrified wood from the national park so that's why you gotta stop at stewart's they got all kinds of petrified wood items for sale for you whatever your heart desires they've even got ostriches on the property and you can buy their eggs if you want it's quite a place next up was the town of holbrook which for some reason has dinosaurs all over the place holbrook used to be a lawless wild west town so it's definitely worth making a stop at the navajo county museum which is located in the old historic courthouse you can see this really cool original jail cell from more than a hundred years ago and it still has some of the prisoners artwork on the walls and then we can't forget the absolute classic the wigwam motel so this was actually a chain built in the 1930s through the 50s there were seven of them but only three exist now but two of them are still on the route the other one's in california so we'll get there and apparently the guy who made these just didn't like the word teepee so we called them wigwams instead and of course you can feel the inspiration from these for the cozy code motel in the cars movie and we didn't stay here because we had an rv but these people were nice enough to let me take a peek inside basic but nice and they got wi-fi oh and then down the road you'll see them you can't miss them you're gonna get excited for the world famous jackrabbit trading post it's so fun their billboards just get you so amped up you can't miss it and then you finally get there and there's the famous billboard the here it is sign with the jackrabbit in fact they pretty much exactly copied this in the cars movie and then when you get there there's a giant fiberglass jackrabbit for you to sit on it's a great little gift shop that you gotta stop and support and they'll even paint a jackrabbit sign just for you with exactly how many miles away your home is from the store next up is the town of winslow arizona and if that sounds familiar that's because it's where the eagles stood on the corner in their song take it easy i can't play the song for you but here's our rendition standing on the corner in windsor arizona such a fine sight [Music] sorry about that but uh it's pretty fun that the town embraces this word is that the guy who wrote the song was actually standing on a corner in flagstaff arizona but he figured winslow sounded better and just down the street from there is the world's smallest church so they say down the road it's hard to miss this geodesic dome these are the remains of meteor city which used to be kind of a trading post thing but i mentioned it because it looks like they're trying to bring it back and get some funding to reopen this place so if in the future any of you watching happen to go by and see this place and know what's going on please hit me up and let me know in the comments i'm really curious to see if it gets going again and then we got some more remains this time from a wild west theme park called two guns not much of this is left but you can still see part of the zoo where they held the mountain lions and then we got some more ruins this time is twin arrows trading post you may recognize this one from forrest gump and they also have the ruins of a valentine diner which we saw at the museum back in oklahoma now that's cool and you can't forget winona but there's not much here really except for this walnut canyon bridge which is cool and there's some actual old original road bed too next up we arrive to the town of flagstaff which is a fun little college foresty brewery town they've got a pretty good visitor center inside an old train depot and they even offer a free walking tour which was actually pretty decent i'd recommend it narrated by mr ted danson himself oh and look there's even another forrest gump filming location in town and then we get to another great little route 66 town williams arizona williams is often referred to as the gateway to the grand canyon but williams is very proud of the fact that they are the last town on route 66 to be bypassed by i-40 in town you'll find pete's gas station museum which has been very well restored and they've got lots of old good retro gas station memorabilia to check out inside williams is also home to the world's largest steel route 66 shield and then kind of fun for us southern californians we got some hail and then even some snow in the morning when we stayed overnight in williams and in the rv then we arrive at the quaint little town of ashfork and check out this beauty shop called desoto's with a 1960 desoto sitting on the roof you can also check out the ashfork historical society's route 66 museum there's a lot of these free volunteer run museums along route 66 so they're not the most professional but they are fun to visit and then in seligman it's another world's largest route 66 sign oh yeah seligman's a small town it's basically one street but lined with a ton of route 66 gift shops and they've all got some uniqueness to them like this one that has a moto porium inside featuring some vintage cars and motorcycles but the mightiness of seligman comes from the man named angel delgadillo often referred to as the guardian angel of route 66 angel was born on route 66 just as it was being constructed and he opened this barbershop in 1950 but when the mother road started to decline he founded the historic route 66 association of arizona and he started selling route 66 souvenirs in a gift shop and also opened the delgadil snow-capped drive-in where you get a smiley face with your french fries heading out of town be on the lookout for some burma shave signs so if you aren't familiar this is just a famous classic advertising gimmick by burma shave who sold shaving cream and they were just these small red signs where they posted these sequential funny rhyming poems and always finish with a burma shave logo for you these are just classic route 66 [Music] then we got the hackberry general store this is a cool place it's kind of like a living museum with their vintage gas pumps and the old signs and you can see how this place has evolved over the years and this actually used to be owned by bob waldmire who was actually the inspiration for fillmore in the cars movie and whose nephew we met back in illinois and the kitsch continues down the road with a 14-foot tall sculpture called the gigantis hetikis looks like squidward's house to me and they've also got a herby and some jokes around next we get to the great town of kingman the heart of historic route 66. we stopped to check out the el travatore motel because they actually have the world's largest route 66 map painted along the whole motel it's pretty cool in word is clark gable marilyn monroe and even james dean have stayed at the el travatour motel in the past and it's worth making a stop at the old powerhouse because this is actually the visitor center and a route 66 museum but first off they got a great big drive-through neon route 66 shield in the front parking lot there's a little type for us in the motorhome though and then one of the better route 66 museums inside it does a good job of going through kind of the historic evolution of route 66. i liked it a lot and i would be remissed if i didn't mention the town of oatman so oatman's a fun little gold rush tourist type town that's famous for their burrows that just wander around the streets but the road to oatman is a little tough especially when you're in a 40-foot long motorhome it's steep with a lot of switchbacks so we had to miss this one unfortunately so we went around the other way to bullhead city and got ourselves some delicious coffee from dutch bros get over that colorado river and that means you're now in california our first town is needles the gateway to california it may not look like much on the outside but it's worth making a stop for lunch at the wagon wheel restaurant the inside ambiance is great really feels like that classic 1970s roadside restaurant and the designs on the menu were made by our friend bob waldmire and the comfort food here is so good this pot roast is crazy even some members of the irwin family stopped here so you should too california may have the reputation of hollywood glitz and nice beaches but here it's just a straight up desert i mean imagine feeling the dust bowl in the 1930s your dream is to get to california and you get here and it's just a barren wasteland just like where you left but don't worry there is some good stuff on that desert horizon you start to see the little town of amboy with the little oasis of roy's motel and cafe the first thing you notice is that iconic roy's motel cafe sign this thing has been beautifully restored and had its official re-lighting ceremony in 2019 the whole town of amboy is actually owned by a route 66 enthusiast named albert akira he literally bought the whole town in 2005 for 425 000 he's been working to restore the whole place and actually reopen the gas station in 2008 so you can buy gas here now and they've got a good little gift shop with souvenirs and sodas and snacks and now they're working to restore those six motel cottages so you can stay there soon so to anyone watching this in the future if you happen to go to roy's and it's seeing improvements let me know how it's going in the comments i'm really curious to see what happens to this place in newbury springs you'll find the baghdad cafe aside from being one of the best episodes of california's gold with heel houser it was also used in the german film baghdad cafe i'd heard it had been struggling and even though the door was open we didn't see a single person there so let me know in the comments if you know what's going on with this place i really hope it sticks around oh next up we found the site and the original dale 1965 nice now it's just a burger place but they still have the sign to commemorate the first del taco [Music] and you can't skip elmer long's bottle tree ranch so here's the story elmer's father collected old glass bottles and when his father died elmer inherited the collection and decided to memorialize his father by creating this art installation it's a pretty cool simple idea the bottles just sit on these welded metal hangers but it looks really cool when the sun shines through them unfortunately elmer himself passed away in 2019 but it does look like the place is still being kept up and even worked on and make sure you stop for lunch at emma jean's cafe just a classic small 1940s era diner with some great food what you want to get here is the brian burger it comes with ortega chili swiss cheese and this thick parmesan crusted bread oh so good plus this is the restaurant that uma thurman walks into after being buried alive and kill bill 2. if tarantino liked it you know it's good in san bernardino you can visit the site of the very first mcdonald's unfortunately the original building was torn down in 1972 but there is this free museum on the site today and it's actually pretty well done they've got original equipment a bunch of old happy meal toys and even some info on the creepy original ronald mcdonald and this museum is actually owned by albert akura who is the same guy who owns roy's motel in amboy just down the road it's another wigwam motel where you can sleep in a teepee this was restored in 2004 and i think it's in a lot better condition than the one in arizona looks really nice i want to stay here [Music] we saw a few more points of interest but settled into an rv spot for our very last night on route 66 and two let the fly that is disgusting why is it clear the next morning for breakfast it was the donut man this place is famous for their fresh peach and strawberry stuffed donuts they're by seasonal availability only but we were able to snag ourselves a strawberry donut and damn these things are so good the freshness of the strawberries just combined so well with the fried doughy goodness [Music] the beautiful colorado street bridge is just an iconic part of route 66. to check it out this cul-de-sac is a good place to park and you can just walk over to the bridge i'll have this location saved on the google map at visiting66.com for you to check out now unfortunately this bridge is also known as suicide bridge just because of the number of people who have taken their own lives here that's why they put up these huge chain-link fences to help prevent that but architecturally it's a really cool bridge around the corner in pasadena is the fair oaks pharmacy where you're going to want to stop for a phosphate at their 1915 soda fountain so a phosphate is kind of like an old timey soda that consists of this flavored syrup ice soda water and just a dash of phosphoric acid they're really good oh and the soda adventure doesn't stop there because we got galco's soda pop stop this place is the place to get soda on route 66 they have over 700 varieties then the owner is extremely knowledgeable he'll help you pick out the perfect soda just for you i love this place we go like once a month and that was really our last stop for california and route 66 so there's obviously tons of stuff to do in cnla but we live near here so we've seen a lot of it and it's pretty tough to stop and park when you're in a 34 foot motor home in la but it was a really cool drive through la you can still sort of feel the route 66 vibe even though you're going right through a major city but of course we didn't give up we had to drive to the end of route 66 so the official end is right here at the corner of olympic in lincoln but the symbolic and photogenic end to the route is just two blocks west the santa monica pier and the pacific ocean we did it wow well that's it that's the end of route 66 in california and the end of route 66 we did the whole thing and it only took us 28 days really this could have been a four month long trip if we wanted to see everything but boy what a trip it was hope you enjoyed coming along with us and thanks for watching and hey don't forget you can check out visiting66.com for that free google map with all the points of interest that are in this video and all the previous videos it was really like the handiest resource to have on this trip i think you'll really love it and if you're into the roadside attractions and oddities maybe you'd like to subscribe to the curiosityness channel i think you might like some of the stuff that i'm doing here but that's all i got for you thanks again for watching

Channel: Curiosityness

Views: 308,657

Keywords: route 66, route 66 road trip, best of route 66, driving route 66, historic route 66, route 66 guide, route 66 history, guardian angel of route 66, where to stop on route 66, route, start of route 66, route 66 arizona, arizona route 66, stops on route 66, end of route 66, brief history of route 66, u.s. route 66 (road), route 66 travel guide, points of interest route 66, route 66 road trip vlog, us route 66, driving all of route 66, route 66 shave

Id: 6znQ2k2xUD0

Length: 67min 20sec (4040 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 08 2022