Another busy week has flown by. We made the trip to Kansas City easily but once we finished, our dispatcher said he had some trailers over near Los Angeles that needed to get to New Jersey as soon as possible. He wondered if we could help out by driving it to at least St. Louis. Since we’re soon taking a couple weeks off, we thought we may as well pick up an extra run so we agreed to do it. Once we handed the trailer off to another driver in St. Louis, we had to get to Houston for this weekend’s move of ‘Wicked’ to Columbus, Ohio.
The move from LA to St. Louis is mostly along the I-40. If I had a nickel for each time we’ve run up and down this road from coast to coast, I could buy a tank of fuel. I know what is on nearly every exit from Barstow, California to Oklahoma City. With our old company, this was our regular route. So much so we’d notice every new billboard, new business, and have learned where to find the rare green and grassy spots for Rocky. This interstate was built to replace the old ‘mother road’ – Route 66. A lot of the old road was actually paved over with interstate but parts of it still exist. It’s one of my favorite subjects and I love to look at the old pictures of what surely must have been a hazardous ride from Chicago to LA. There is a Route 66 magazine I love to get my hands on when I can find it. It regularly points out things that I would have never noticed and have nearly blended back into the desert landscape. I imagine how hot and dusty and long the trip must have been. Afterall, it’s a long ride even in an air-conditioned, air-ride, semi truck. The old road was full of little oddities that people would advertise to capture a few dollars from the travelers pasting thru their towns. Things like rattlesnakes, buffalo, and even jack rabbits must have been attractions for Midwesterners that may have never seen them. The interstate isn’t much different today. Have you ever seen the movie “Cars”? It’s a great movie pretty much based on the story of Route 66. I’ve taken a lot of pictures this week while driving on yet another trip down this road. Since New Mexico has the majority of the preserved sections of the old road, most of the pictures are from there. The first six pictures are all from a little Indian tourist trap that sits a the Arizona/New Mexico border. Click on them to enlarge and see the captions.
The move from LA to St. Louis is mostly along the I-40. If I had a nickel for each time we’ve run up and down this road from coast to coast, I could buy a tank of fuel. I know what is on nearly every exit from Barstow, California to Oklahoma City. With our old company, this was our regular route. So much so we’d notice every new billboard, new business, and have learned where to find the rare green and grassy spots for Rocky. This interstate was built to replace the old ‘mother road’ – Route 66. A lot of the old road was actually paved over with interstate but parts of it still exist. It’s one of my favorite subjects and I love to look at the old pictures of what surely must have been a hazardous ride from Chicago to LA. There is a Route 66 magazine I love to get my hands on when I can find it. It regularly points out things that I would have never noticed and have nearly blended back into the desert landscape. I imagine how hot and dusty and long the trip must have been. Afterall, it’s a long ride even in an air-conditioned, air-ride, semi truck. The old road was full of little oddities that people would advertise to capture a few dollars from the travelers pasting thru their towns. Things like rattlesnakes, buffalo, and even jack rabbits must have been attractions for Midwesterners that may have never seen them. The interstate isn’t much different today. Have you ever seen the movie “Cars”? It’s a great movie pretty much based on the story of Route 66. I’ve taken a lot of pictures this week while driving on yet another trip down this road. Since New Mexico has the majority of the preserved sections of the old road, most of the pictures are from there. The first six pictures are all from a little Indian tourist trap that sits a the Arizona/New Mexico border. Click on them to enlarge and see the captions.