http://www.cs.kuleuven.ac.be/~swa/route66/main.html (World Wide Web Directory, 06/1995)

ROUTE 66

In preparing a drive from Chicago to Santa Monica (Los Angeles), following as good as possible the remains of the historic Route 66, I've stumbled upon the "almost no documentation" problem.

I did get a lot of help from the net, and as a return favor I've set up this server. It is here to help all future Route 66 travellers in their quest for the road. It might spoil some of the fun as it takes away a bit of the magic, but the magic also fades rapidly when faced with the no progress syndrome. Especially for those in Europe it is much harder to find information as most of our bookstores are non cooperative when faced with American books.

I'll keep updating these pages to a full guide to Route 66 as I have time, and equally important, material to pour in. There is some collaboration starting to make Route 66 more present on the Internet [more info will follow]

Most of the stuff was written before I went to the states, time permitting I'll pour in my own expirences.

FACTS

The Route is 2448 miles long. (about 4000 km)
It was commissioned in 1926.
It crosses 8 states.
It starts in Chicago, and ends in L.A. (Santa Monica).
Driving the Route in the opposite direction is historically wrong.
You can only drive parts of Route 66 these days... it has been replaced by the interstate highways I-55, I-44, I-40, I-15 and I-10.
Current maps do not include the old Route 66.

ROUTE 66 ASSOCIATIONS

Here is a list of Route 66 Associations.

BOOKS, MAGAZINES, VIDEOS, ...

A collection of different publications directly relatyed to Route 66.

ROAD DESCRIPTION

I created this outline by combining information from different sources However, I don't have a detailed original map at my disposal, so it is very likely the original 1926 Route ran in a different way.

The detailed descriptions you'll find are designed as a drive trough guide describing almost every turn, so this might be a spoiler for some people.

OTHER SOURCES OF INFORMATION

Other Internet resources more or less related to Route 66, or useful for the route 66 traveller can be found in this section.

STORIES

Some stories are stored in this section. The stories heve a strong Route 66 theme, of course.

ADVICE

A few positive and negative comments by different people.

THREATS

Route 66 is under seige. Road works destroy the original road, the Interstates take away the costumers to the roadside businesses, but this one does it:

Amboy Crater(CA) is being threatened by plans for a giant garbage heap.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Acknowledgements have been moved together because they became to big to keep in the individual files

FEEDBACK

Send me back pointers to other related material, material itself, suggestions for improvements, ... E-mail to Swa.Frantzen@cs.kuleuven.ac.be

SERVER USAGE

Usage of the collection of Route 66 pages on weekly basis can be found here.

This file is maintained by Swa.Frantzen@cs.kuleuven.ac.be, contributions welcome