Why Did America Abandon Route 66? | Abandoned (Full Episode)

[Music] this is Glenn Rio Ghost Town population zilch look cows what do you think cow would say about the state of Route 66 then he'd had some long-winded answer after about like how the dawn of time has changed the automobile and probably something really profound I think when cows move they're just sort of going um and then we're like over it and then we walk away before we really get the long story because they're thinkers cows is what you're saying so what do you think of Route 66 and he goes [Music] then there's that long pause because timing is everything with cows [Music] foreign [Music] we're going to start this story at the end the end of the road Santa Monica Pier California some people might call it the end of the world it's actually the end of route 66. I want to go back to the old dream of Route 66 and kind of get a feel for it because I came up when the dream was dead today I'm 40 years old and I'm going to take a road trip on route 66. Ian Bowen runs a Route 66 gift shop on the pier so he's the perfect guy to ask what's so special about Route 66 Route 66 became known as the first paved road to the West Coast normal people could finally get to California for really the first time and drive down walk right down the stairs and dip your toes in the water so this would be the unofficial end of the road for a lot of people that took Route 66. right so what does Route 66 mean to you as you know somebody that was born after is decommissioned I think to me it's the the parts of old-fashioned America they should be preserved the culture or the conversation the way people care is the whole Route 66 abandoned or is it just part of it no I mean the way the old road was built it went right through the main street of every town it's why it's known as the main street of America so when they built the interstates in the 1950s and 60s and 70s they went around every Main Street so they lost most of their business when I think of Route 66 it automatically makes me think of the American dream yeah do you think that way and do you believe in the American dream 66 to me is sort of not just what America used to be or or what the American dream still is but the the aspects of the American dream in the 1950s that I feel like we need to bring back [Music] the open road grab your family your friends throw the bags in the back and hit the gas the Great American road trip was born along Route 66. 2400 miles of Freedom connecting Chicago to LA for nearly 70 years the traffic on this highway was the lifeblood of countless motels diners and roadside attractions sadly the mother wrote as it came to be known was decommissioned in 1985. [Music] today it looks more like Fury Road but I wanted to see what signs of Life are left I'm about to start my two and a half Thousand Mile Road Trip and I really don't want to do it alone so I've invited a friend of mine named Frank gerwer to come along I'm going to have him as my spirit guide of route 66. there's my guy happy birthday [Music] originally from Long Island Frank is a legend in San Francisco skateboarding no stranger to Old bumpy roads he's a hill-bombing master a beloved character on and off the board [Applause] right holy who wouldn't want to spend a week on the open road with this guy [Music] I think this trip is going to help me maybe you kind of slow everything down because we're going to take these smaller roads we're going to be moving slower yeah anything that's going to help us like maybe start appreciating now I don't appreciate now as much as I I should because I'm always looking to do so yeah like this isn't good enough I got to do that yeah yeah let me get my uh my phone out and just like refresh it every two seconds yeah Route 66 I guess would be like a book you know nice slow read easy yeah the main Interstate would be the television you know you're getting your information a little bit faster and you don't have to do anything to get it yeah and then now we're in just the internet stage of life where like it's a super highway yeah and we're getting off the Super Highway we're getting back to coaxial cables we get to touch America now we're not just seeing it through a screen yeah we're not just touching our phones we're actually I'm touching this and it's getting bigger if we do this a whole bunch we could get there [Music] our first stop the abandoned rakahula water park outside Newberry Springs California from the 1960s to the 80s this desert playground was bustling with rides and attractions I'm assuming there was like water slides or something here you can imagine turning and sliding if you can imagine that then you could picture this as a beautiful Oasis I can't see it you have to use your imagination [Music] Frank's one of the better skateboarding dancers like sort of interpretive dance on a skateboard Ah that's my big move I was just saying that you've been my inspiration for skate dance I mean a lot of people say you invented it people say that but I can't take full credit I mean I'd love to right so I will you got that it's like a little half pipe holy I think this half pipe's broken okay [Music] that's not the best way to board slide that [Music] this is not the view you'd expect at a water park Brown dry brownness if I came here I'd be like man I feel pretty guilty about all the water we're using for my butt to get wet for me to go it's a glorified b day let's hit the road all right kahula was surprisingly fun for a water park with no water a great start for the journey ahead [Music] what happens to a highway when the traffic is gone it only takes a few miles on the road to see the downside of bigger faster better we got a motel sign with no Motel an Airstream with no streaming air right here is Route 66 the OG Road right right there is the highway that killed it depressing there's pretty much no one around because there's no exit from that road onto this road for 50 miles like it's a such a goofball there's no exits exactly dude it's hard to get this stuff up there we go there's a little piece of History not too much you want to leave some for somebody else [Music] this road connecting America's East and West has always been a symbol of prosperity so you have all these American Dreams and people trying to uh follow a two-lane road to get there do all two-lane roads lead to the American dream until you get to a place where you don't want to be and then that's the American Nightmare you for damn sure might not live the Americans the American but I feel like you lived your dream oh totally yeah but my but my American dream was totally different than the accountants American dream like from dude and Harvard like yeah I'm gonna kill it in the stock market that's gonna be my and I was like I can't even spell stock market I think that was just somebody's house brothel it's parking a little poke around that chair is so perfectly placed in the see that Margie's old brothel foreign oh yeah they call that rebound rebound it's got some good rebound you think they have a bathroom this was somebody's dream this was somebody's dream for sure on a bustling Highway we'll get a loan this road will never go out of business we'll be millionaires in less than a year Society just moves too quick look at this garage this is just a tough thing to see throughout the whole Drive why doesn't somebody do something about this like just take it down in all fairness somebody out here does have a sense of humor and they put two eyes on that house that's pretty funny [Music] [Applause] [Music] the 50-mile stretch from Newberry Springs to Baghdad California was a dead zone those two towns lived and died by the highway but on the edge of Amboy we came across a place that was here way before the main street of America [Music] honestly I need to burn some energy we're going to be sitting in a car for what's this road trip going to take six months yeah if we want to do it right the most recent eruption of Amboy Creator was approximately 10 000 years ago it's a classic volcano it's a volcano classic there's good traction on this stuff yeah there goes the Sun wow gorgeous soak it up Frank [Music] this crater reminds me of the American Dream all hot and bubbly in the beginning and then just there's an explosion yeah goes everywhere goes everywhere and then there's a pit of despair I don't know if it's a shame or what but like a place like this probably doesn't get visited very much because of that road right behind it died but like in the grand scheme of things if you think about it this is just a hole in the earth while the Earth farted and blew some rock all over the place and another 10 000 years there's going to be like some dude in a space helmet and then like look it's Route 66 painted on the road I don't believe it's still here [Music] well we're not in California anymore me and Frank drove through the night and we're in Flagstaff Arizona so far I like traveling with Frank I've done a little bit on Skate trips but hasn't been this intensive you know like we're together morning Frank I thought I had lost half my life just now I was got the wallet feeling yeah what's half your life worth it's the little Polaroid camera the Polaroid camera and the other camera it's about 45 bucks I don't know what's yeah [Music] okay so here's the plan there's a group of skaters out here that are all Apache and uh we're gonna hook up with them and I want them to show us around like all Route 66 sites sound good sounds good to me foreign [Music] here we go Twin Arrows I wonder why they call it Twin Arrows oh there they are that's why they call it Twin Arrows Route 66 is famous for its kitschy roadside attractions good to meet you the Apache skate crew offered to show us a few of their least favorite try Rick so what do you know about this place where we're at right now what do you think this looks like old trading posts oh yeah I think that's what it is yeah and it was right on Route 66. yeah Route 66 is you know it just cut right through the middle of the Navajo reservation up here in northern Arizona yeah there's like a bunch of cheesy like stereotypical weird semi-racist looking kind of structures here now that's why these places are falling apart too in a way because I think people over time they realize like man this place is whack foreign [Music] we're in a new era but there's still tons of sort of racism and cultural Appropriations and things like there's still the TP motel and stuff like that and I'm assuming that the Native Americans and First Nations communities are tired of that well yeah we're tired of it and I think there's a lot of ways to address it in a cool way and I think a really cool way of you guys addressing it is just for starters or just hanging out with us so the pool's up in here the slab right there there's a pool right inside of that oh cool there's nothing in it it's steep as hell all right first ride [Applause] this thing's really hard to escape [Music] we're at altitude too [Music] perfect [Music] you got to kind of just go with me here okay what is the American dream the American dream the American dream is the white picket fence and and the big house and you know the dog outside and stuff like that is it real I guess to me not anymore no yeah because that's what I was thinking because Route 66 I was like that's sort of like in that era when they're talking about the American dream I was like what is that maybe you can just reinvent your American dream and call it whatever you want yeah I don't know shoot I'm leaving the dream right now I'm skating I'm freaking skating with Rick we're crank like dude like shut up you know I got my best homies and all my pops yeah you know we live in a dream right now traveling skating having fun you know making art making videos you know I just got goosebumps it's always sick you know I was inspired by how Doug Jr is living in the present because if the past wasn't great for everyone who really cares if it's disappearing maybe some of it deserves to be left behind blank it's five dollars hello I'm inside of an abandoned teepee made up two by fours what do you guys think about this well it doesn't really mean nothing my ancestors they didn't live in these you know it's just stereotypes made up truth is we don't live in this kind of stuff really never did we do it's a little embarrassing to be an American with Native Americans looking at this kind of thing that makes you feel a little odd you know to say the least when was the last time you guys hung out with a bunch of Apache skateboarders just this time just this time yeah was that scary were you guys scared I was worried because I felt uh I'm like I'm embarrassed of like what the American the American people who came here has done to the Native American I felt embarrassed for like the the white man basically for like blowing it for all those years and then you guys being super cool and coming out and helping us out through the stuff like it's just I felt guilty that's that was one of the things that's really real and we really appreciate you saying that because not a lot of people would actually have the guts to say that and you know for you to to come down and be real humble and mellow and chill and say that it's uh we respect that we do thank you for saying that bro what does American dream mean to you the American dream is kind of what you make it and Native Americans as a whole in this country who just like Frank said they got got the short end of the stick but that don't mean that we're not about it that'll mean we're not on it that don't mean that we're not going to get ours you know it's like this is all our territory I've been caught in the American dream catcher it's more like the American Nightmare let me get out [Music] thank you foreign so we've driven through most of New Mexico and we ended up here in Tucumcari we stay at the blue swallow Motel which is one of the last remaining motels it seems like in this area the heart of Route 66 was the automobile and when Route 66 died anything that was tied to the automobile went with it motels gas stations auto repair shops so it's nice to see a place like this that is actually still open but not only is it just open it's been maintained really well and it's a really nice place to visit hello hey how are you good good morning what do you got you got a little pigs here get a pig's ear who's got the pigs here can you tell us a little bit about your place uh built in 1939 and has served nightly guests ever since uh pretty much since day one there's been people in and out of the rooms every night summer months we are busy busy busy busy we have people almost banging down the door uh we have people from all over the world Route 66 sounds like it's still kind of thriving in some ways it is definitely thriving in some ways there's a lot of people who just they want to experience what America was like before cell phones and tablets and computers they want to see Americana they don't want to just look at it on a computer screen right this is the best way to do it a trip up and down the Mother Road you can come into Tucumcari and see for the most part this is what it would have looked like 50 years ago it's a community that wants to survive a community that wants to keep being there to share the history that is route 66. thank you [Music] I got some Road badges California Arizona whoa New Mexico thanks Frank you're a road Rider so we've done how many states now three how many more to go oh you want me to have there's eight all together so I don't know if we say hi [Music] this trip is an OU if you get a girlfriend in Chicago and you want to be like hey let's get to know each other drive to Santa Monica Pier on 66 either you love each other or hate each other by the end I'm in love with Rick at the moment but who knows we've still got five more States [Music] back on the road Frank back on the road baby this is Main Street of America right here closed Motel closed Motel close Motel closed gas station closed antique shop ranch supply store closed closed shopping center closed gas station close Diner look at the sign history it went out of business before we could finish the sign historical closed Auto Repair right here closed siding business so I'm seeing a large percentage of closed businesses well the road turns to dirt here we're about to come on to our first bit of dirt road this is where they just totally gave like 66. we're done it's got to be pretty sick to live on this part of Route 66 why I mean there is no one like if you like doing a whole lot of nothing and hanging out with no one if you're into no one this is your spot this is your stretcher Road Glenn Rio even though the population was never more than 30. it was Infamous for being a Rowdy pit stop on Route 66. from the 30s until the 70s when Travelers started speeding past on the brand new highway now it's just famous for being a ghost town it's kind of funny it's not very modern how's the facilities it's great even the trees are dead here I notice people like to break glass that's like number one thing like kids love to break glass why do you think they want to break glass the noise it makes so satisfying tell me you wouldn't love to just throw a rock right into that thing and just watch all that thing I wouldn't love to do that really yeah that's where you and I differ yeah I'd throw a baby through that thing this was a good idea at one point yeah like this used to be the place to go people will come through here and now they don't so the people that started this place left with the customers and they went somewhere else and started something else it was a road that brought him in and it was the road that brought him out it doesn't look like it was inhabited too long ago oh yeah someone actually might be somebody actually might live in that one yeah [Music] let's go walk down there yeah I think I got a little nervous when we realized someone might actually live there yeah when the and in this country I know if you're on somebody's property and you're not allowed to be they can just shoot you [Music] standing right here just next to the I-40 it's uh it's sort of an interesting juxtaposition of present day America and the past that is the modern way of life right there the I-40 it's faster more efficient this older slower way of life just couldn't keep up and it's just left here to die here's an idea before we progress on to the next thing we learned to repurpose the last thing and not just leave it you know driving Road Again well the new roads just to the left in bands you know what's so great about this Frank we're on Route 66 directly beside I-40 we don't have to share the road with anybody [Music] I think we're just about to enter Oklahoma [Music] there's no other place like this place anywhere near this place so this must be the place I have California Arizona and New Mexico Texas and now we're in Oklahoma do I get Oklahoma badge okay and we're in hexola do you understand it yeah Texas Oklahoma Tex ola [Music] just like glenrio texola flourished for years because Route 66 ran right through it unlike glenrio you can get to texola from an I-40 exit it's probably the only reason it's not a ghost town still with only 30 people left and most of the building's empty it's pretty close hey Frank tumbleweed's coming get go on get come on get get he is the laziest Tumbleweed I ever did see to see what it's like living in texola we caught up with Michelle Zimmerman at her restaurant the Tumbleweed Grill the only business in town Everything Green in town or has green on it belongs to me okay and so that's uh sort of a trademark and slowly been buying it up as it comes to and we was going to fix it up you know and rent out places and all but the people did not want that so I'm just going to buy it up and then do what I want with it that's right so the bar that was the last thing that I purchased and yeah that was a major thing so I like to maintain places and I like that right next door is like just like a falling over house and stuff like that it's sort of like a nice juxtaposition the way that it was yeah and it'll never be like that again you don't think it'll ever be like that again not here in this town it'll never be like that again what is the story with all the dogs the dogs they are greeters and they came here by people just throwing them away so I take them and I feed them and love them and this one here when she got shot by my neighbor it put her eye out I noticed she was bleeding from this side here but she lived fortunately and that's your neighbor did that yeah on the other side of the bar I don't know who gave him a shotgun but anyway well I'm sorry that you're neighbor shot your dog too she's really a sweetie it seems like Michelle has like a bit of an uphill battle here she said it herself it's a dying town and she's buying it up and trying to reinvigorate it but it seems like for Route 66 to survive and be healthy the Americans need to come off that I-40 and take Route 66 more just maybe slow it down and get some nice pie and a good chat texola's salad days are long gone Charming old-fashioned highways like Route 66 are fading away we now live in a world that offers us driverless cars and space vacations the whole point to driving old Route 66 is to experience an America that's disappearing fast [Music] so we've driven over half of Route 66 I think now's a good time to talk to somebody who might know what they're talking about how you doing good Rick gonna meet up with a guy named Michael Wallace who is a Route 66 historian and writer well welcome to Tulsa and welcome to a very important part of route 66. the reason this spot is so important is because this is literally where the east meets the West when you cross that bridge you're really in to the American West where you've come from this torn up strip of asphalt may not look like much but Michael has fought hard to preserve it plans are underway to reopen the bridge for pedestrians and to create a Route 66 Visitor Center so you were originally enamored with the road by vacationing it with your family well I grew up just off an original alignment of 66 in Missouri so it was the highway I knew I learned how to drive on that road I did my first cording on that road when I was in the Marine Corps I hitchhiked back from California on that road the reason Route 66 appeals to all of these people is because it's adventure and that adventure comes from the fact that it's not predictable those of us who see the big picture it's not just about Nostalgia and Kitsch it's a metaphor for the way America used to be it gives us a chance to expose that part good bad and ugly do you think that America will ever be like that again well no it won't we're always changing right you know when I came out here in the late 60s people said you should have been here in the 30s and 40s you know yeah that's just the way life is no we advance I think we have to acknowledge that with progress we give some things up [Music] we figured we're in Tulsa Frank knows the spot let's throw it away let's go skate after driving non-stop for six days it was time to stretch our legs or break them so this is it hell ditch hell ditch there's some skaters here [Music] you can trip on it you could definitely trip on it foreshadowing oh hooked up some local skaters [Music] foreign I think I figured out why they call it hell's ditch it's not the easiest thing to skate ah Frank had a couple spills so far I've slid down backwards almost took a bath and then clipped myself on the wall so we're doing good [Music] I just spread my butt cheeks apart so bad [Music] my ass is taking a beating it's not even Friday [Music] [Music] all right thanks for the session doc take it easy hit to skate and leave but we got to get to Kansas next time yes sir we're about to cross into Kansas come on Kansas hurry up welcome to Kansas boom welcome to Kansas that's six that's six on 66. way back in 1926 this was the first state to pay route 66. but in all fairness to the other seven states Kansas only had 13 miles to pave hey welcome to Missouri how you doing [Music] there's no shortage of nostalgia for the Mother Road but traveling this highway in its Glory Days Wasn't So Glorious for everyone [Music] we're here to meet a woman named candacey Taylor she's writing a book about another book called the green book The Negro motorist green book was published from 1933 to 1966 for an emerging black middle class that was road tripping and looking for their piece of the American dream before the Civil Rights Movement this building was part of Graham's Rib Shack and Lodge it's one of the last green book approved structures Still Standing originally it was a restaurant it was the place to be because Missouri was difficult in terms of finding lodging if you were black and you were on the road and you're traveling Route 66 we're just a few blocks away from Route 66 right now say you went through the state of Missouri and you found Graham's Rib Shack which was awesome you didn't know where your next place was going to be unless you had this guy there were 89 counties along Route 66 44 out of those 89 counties were Sundown towns what's the sun downtown Sun downtown was an all-white community and many of them had signs that said don't let the sun go down on you here [Music] pretty scary pretty scary to think that and then pretty scary just to think like it wasn't safe to travel you know because we take travel for granted like oh we could just get in the car and go but for some people it wasn't like that the green book was such an important document because not a lot of people think about the Great American road trip being something that could have been dangerous for you because of the color of your skin you know what I mean candacey sort of explaining to us a small little piece of what African-Americans had to go through was really kind of eye-opening and I think it's really cool to be here next to this structure that was such a safe haven for people and like you think about it it's like okay it's just a rib shack with some rooms to stay at but for a lot of people it was like their lives depended on it [Music] it's heartbreaking to realize that so many people suffered violence and discrimination along this road that Sundown towns filled the American landscape but who am I kidding just look at the news today that past isn't even behind us candacey wanted to take us to a Route 66 Roadside Attraction just outside of Springfield that probably wasn't in the green book it's a cave system that you can drive through apparently the KKK used to use it as a Gathering Place so right about the time Route 66 started which was 1926. this cave was known for having plant activity the idea that you might encounter some kind of violence where you were taken against your will and taken to a place like this would have been incomprehensible for the clan to have cross burnings and Gatherings here I mean a lot of lynchings were community events people came to to watch it was almost entertainment you know which it just seems unreal yeah you know and that was a reality that that black people new all too well even though this was a Route 66 stop that you know was fun and kitschy for for most people um you know not for everyone [Music] Illinois the state where Route 66 begins and me and Frank's road trip ends so what we're driving on right now is some of the original Illinois Route 66 made out of brick it's been restored there are some original red brick like on the bridges here it's real brick like you get that I'll tell you when you get out of the car you can really feel a road like this in your balls shakers They Call These Bricks shake your balls pretty good it's cool this skate on this really old historic Road probably no one's no one's ever there you go okay there it is last one started here on your left shoulder blade come all the way through here past your spine all the way up here right around your right shoulder blade that feels good go ahead right there yeah and then uh we got a little bit of stretch of road to go and then we're gonna end up in Chicago foreign it's going to be a little depressing when we get to Chicago and see the beginning of the road for them in the end for us it's been a great trip I love going on the road with Frank it was cool seeing all these small little towns that we've never been able to see on our normal U.S tour skate trips I came into the trip thinking like it was all going to be fun and games and shits and giggles and world's largest rocking chairs and purple whales and like that but crazy enough I did learn something on this trip we're on our way to find the beginning marker of Route 66. I don't know where that is I refused to find the beginning of this route because I don't want to go home you sad yeah anytime the road trip ends here a little bit bummed I mean I don't want to go home I especially like life on the road it's a simpler time you don't have to use your cell phone and call your friends you're usually with them you know what what oh you're funny there it is after eight days and 2400 miles me and Frank made it to the beginning there was no more Route 66 left but we weren't ready to let go I guess that's the mark of a good road trip it ends before you want it to because even when you're driving down a dead Highway full of ghost towns rotten tour straps and tumbleweeds even when you realize half the Nostalgia is there's nothing like taking it slow with an old friend [Music] [Music] I've got something to share with you here [Music] [Applause] [Music] so now we're at the end what's the American dream for you I think we're going to drop American on it and just go for the dream I mean it's been like this for a while it's just a dream and it's a dream to do whatever you want whatever makes you happy it was all a dream if I wake up I'll be home [Music] and that's my heart [Music] foreign

Channel: VICE

Views: 2,362,270

Keywords: documentary, documentaries, docs, interview, culture, lifestyle, world, exclusive, independent, underground, videos, journalism, vice guide, vice.com, vice, vice magazine, vice mag, vice videos, film, short films, movies, route 66 john mayer, route 66 song, route 66 road trip, route 66 cars, route 66 depeche mode, route 66 tour, route 66 tour on motorcycle, route 66 tour guide, abandoned places, vice abandoned, abandoned route 66, route 66, route 66 america, america, usa, route 66 vice

Id: tedJdhb6QJI

Length: 43min 55sec (2635 seconds)

Published: Tue May 16 2023