My winter holidays - a trip on HISTORIC ROUTE 66

My winter holidays in the US were very exciting - 15 days, 14 US states, 3 time zones and one street. From freezing winter weather in Michigan to sunny beach weather in California – my experience was all this and everything in between.

Before reporting about my trip I would like to provide you with some general information for those who didn’t hear that much about Route 66. “The Main Street of America” or “Mother Road” is a historic US highway that officially opened in 1926. Starting in Chicago, Illinois, the highway has a total length of 3,940km and passes 8 US states before it ends at the Pacific Ocean in California. Presently, people who want to travel fast and truckers use the Expressway that replaced Route 66 in 1985.  However, tourists still love to take the slower old Route 66 to see some unique sights and old towns.  The very old abandoned gas stations and motels create a nostalgia and the feeling that these many sites are “frozen in time”.  Yet, some of the gas stations and motels have been renovated and restored to what they may have originally looked like - and many can accommodate present day tourists.    Some of the abandoned gas stations still showed some prices - just 20 to 30 cents per gallon - wouldn’t that be a dream for every driver today?   In short, there might be no better place than Route 66 to get an authentic impression how the United States looked in the 1950s and 1960s.

My host father and I started our trip early in the morning on December 26th in Kalamazoo, Michigan. There was a long 8 hour drive in front of us. Route 66 starts in Chicago, Illinois - so first we had to go to Chicago where our trip officially started. Our first longer stop on Day 1 was in St. Louis, Missouri. I really liked this city - a lot of interesting sights and streets, a variety of international restaurants, and of course the Arch!  Standing at height of 192 meters, the Arch is long curved symmetrical structure with the possibility to go inside and see the whole city.  unfortunately, the Arch was closed the day we visited St. Louis - but I am sure it was not my last visit in St. Louis ;-)

For our first night we stayed in Cuba, Missouri - we selected an old authentic Route 66 motel that has been refurbished by the owners.

On Day 2 we continued our way on Route 66 - I saw a lot of old gas stations and the famous Uranus Fudge Factory -a place that is known for their fudge in al lot of different flavours. The next days were pretty the same - we spend a lot of time on the road passing different states, for example Oklahoma City and the Elk City Route 66 museums filled with old cars and other illustrative Route 66 material from the first half of the 20th century.

Finally, we reached Texas and New Mexico. I dressed up in shorts and a T-shirt - a big unpredictable mistake. There was more snow and cold weather in some parts of Texas and New Mexico than in Michigan (just to remember Michigan is at the Canadian border, Texas at the Mexican!) This is very unusual - so there was a lot of traffic jams and accidents - local drivers were not used to that kind of weather.

There is a picture of me visiting the snow-covered Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas in shorts - I don’t know if I have ever been that cold. Fortunately in the USA the parking lots are never far away from the sight - so I just stayed a few minutes.

In Albuquerque, New Mexico I saw some real Breaking Bad film locations, for example I had breakfast in the fast food restaurant Twisters (known as Los Pollos Hermanos in the TV series), which is a very important place in Breaking Bad.

Continuing on in our westward journey, we traveled out of the snow and into Arizona. We stayed in an old Grand Hotel in Williams that is connected to the Grand Canyon Railway station. Hence we took the train to the Grand Canyon National Park - and again experienced a lot of snow. I saw the Grand Canyon snow-covered, a really great breathtaking view. That has definitely been one of my favorite visits on that trip.

While the Grand Canyon was great, that wasn’t the only nice thing I saw in Arizona. I also had a nice view over the world’s largest meteor crater. The crater is located in the middle of nowhere in the desert of Arizona. It was a nice experience to see the desert of Arizona.  On the way to the crater our trip has been interrupted by cows staying very calmly in the middle of the street. It felt like there were more cows than human in the desert.

Finally, we arrived in Los Angeles, California. Definitely, this has been the best part of the travel. It was winter, but I had a refreshing bath in the Pacific Ocean at Venice Beach and tried a lot of good food. In Los Angeles one can find any kind of international food.  For example I had wonderful Caribbean food in an authentic restaurant near the beach.  I also rented scooters and e-bikes and explored the area with those - this has been awesome! I was also riding a boat on the Pacific Ocean. I really want to go back there!

On our way back we took the Northern Route to Michigan - so I saw some more states like Colorado, Utah and Iowa. Additionally, we stopped in Las Vegas, Nevada and I got a short impression of the city.  Surprisingly, they let me entering the casinos without an I. D. - although gambling isn’t allowed to people under the age of 21.

To put it in a nutshell the whole vacation has been an amazing experience and I am planning to visit some places again later in my life. I would highly recommend to you to do such a trip too - traveling might cost some money; however to quote one of my favorite sayings: Life is like a book -  and when you don't travel you only read one page!