The Word - Vol 66

Route 66
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This is the 66th edition of The Word, so what better time to spin a yarn about Route 66? Are you old enough to remember a TV series called Route 66? The show ran from 1960 to 1964, it starred George Maharis as Buz Murdoch, and Martin Milner as Tod Stiles. The premise was simple, 2 young men drive across the U.S. in the most amazing Corvette doing odd jobs and looking for adventure. It was a show that at one time or another ended up on the bucket list of every kid from the 60’s who watched the show. As the song says, “Get your kicks on Route 66.” 

The original highway started in Chicago, Illinois, crossed Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, and ended up in Santa Monica, California, we decided to jump on Route 66 in Oklahoma. For the definitive look at the old highway, check out local author, Rick Antonson’s book titled “Route 66 Still Kicks: Driving America’s Main Street” 

My Route 66 odyssey started in the Fall of 2008 when I received a phone call from my friend Dr. Doug Wilson. He was moving from Philadelphia to Calgary and had some of his important papers and personal items packed in his car and wanted someone to ride shotgun. That would be me. Our annual golf trip was coming up with our mutual friend Greg Fairburn, who was going to fly into Phoenix and meet us at the golf course. We could have chosen a more direct route to get to Arizona, but why not check off a bucket list item and head on over to Route 66. We called it “Take it Easy, the Road Trip.” 

According to the TV show’s creator and writer, Stirling Silliphant, Buz and Tod were really on a journey in search of themselves. Ours was a simpler quest, we had to get to Arizona for a 12 noon tee time, nothing more, nothing less.

We decided to incorporate tunes to go with our destinations along the way, kind of a soundtrack for our trip. Starting in Philly, naturally, I had to have the theme from the movie Rocky playing as I ran up the 72 steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, aka “The Rocky Steps,” and “Philadelphia Freedom” as we rolled out of town.

It’s amazing the sights you see while making this epic journey. The first one was in Tennessee as we passed a sign that pointed the way to Davy Crockett’s birthplace. Fire up the stereo for the Davy Crockett theme song! “Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee, greenest state”….etc. Well for the record, we were hard-pressed to see anything that looked like a mountain, and as far as green goes, I’ll give that title to our friends in Washington State! Same thing for the Blue Ridge Mountains! A ridge maybe, but mountains, ah, no!

We wanted to see Nashville, but it was a windy, rainy day so thought we’d save it for another time and carry on to Memphis. In Memphis, naturally, Graceland was a photo op stop, as was a visit to Sun Records and the Gibson guitar factory. Lunch on Beale Street included some great barbecue ribs served by a waiter who claimed his Mother went to school with Elvis! Talk about a near brush with fame! At that stop alone we knocked off another 1/2 dozen songs!  The next morning we were up and gone over the Mississippi River and hit Little Rock Arkansas by 10:00am. We saw more police cars in Arkansas than anywhere else on the trip! It must be a cottage industry in that state. 

Then it was time to finally start seeing parts of the old Route 66. Fire up the CD again because we’re in Oklahoma “where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain” and we stopped for lunch in Muskogee where they’re proud to be an Okie. We found Main Street, and the Courthouse, and City Hall, but couldn’t find a decent postcard. We made Oklahoma City for dinner and even though there was a world-famous steak house in town, we discovered Mickey Mantle’s steakhouse, and being Yankee fans at heart, there was no contest. We not only had dinner at Mickey’s but we bought the t-shirts! 

We waved to Yukon Oklahoma’s water tower that informed us it’s Garth Brooks’ hometown. Sorry Garth, can’t stop, but we’ll play some of your tunes, you see we’ve got a tee time waiting for us. With that in mind, I guess we got a little carried away as we hit the Oklahoma/Texas state line. That’s where we met a State Trooper just outside of Shamrock, Texas who wanted to welcome us to the Lone Star State and remind us of the speed limit. That reminder cost us 180 bucks! I think that also included a friendly donation to the upcoming Policeman’s Ball. 

As you may know, much of the Route 66 highway is missing these days, but there are sections of the new highways that replaced it running parallel to the old road. Driving the old road meant a much slower drive, so we motored on down the new interstates.

From Amarillo “by morning, up from San Antone” we crossed into New Mexico, through Gallup, and crossed the Arizona border and onto (get the Eagles cued up!) Winslow Arizona where we stayed in a place that looked like the Hotel California. The next morning we took the obligatory photo of us “Standing on the corner in Winslow Arizona” and headed for that coveted tee time. As we approached Phoenix we had Glen Campbell crooning “By the time I get to Phoenix” and rolled into the parking lot of the golf course at our allotted time of high noon! Made it. 

Following our stay in Phoenix and after half a dozen rounds of golf we were back on the road. We discovered there is nothing between Phoenix and Palm Springs, it’s like the surface of the moon. But from there our trip went to Santa Monica and the end of our Route 66 adventure. 

To get the rest of the way home Tony Bennett sang us into San Francisco, with stops in Napa Valley and a salute to the Prune Tycoons of Dry Creek. We drove through the mighty Redwoods, up the Oregon Coast and had Perry Como singing “The Bluest Skies you’ll ever see are in Seattle.” Finally, we crossed the border to the sounds of Chris Rea singing “Driving home for Christmas!”

We left Philadelphia on November 22 and arrived in Phoenix for our tee time on November 27th. Buz and Tod had nothing on us!
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Till next week...
Wayne

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