Route 66 is just a road that goes through everything America forgot to develop and somehow that's the whole point. Towns that existed because the road went through them and stopped existing when it didn't anymore, the buildings still there, the signs still up, nobody inside. You drive through and the diner has been open since before your parents were born and the pie tastes like it and the woman behind the counter has heard every story anyone ever tried to tell on this road and she is not impressed by yours. Oklahoma flat enough you can see tomorrow from here. New Mexico red rock doing nothing, just standing in the heat. Texas is the same mile repeating until it isn't. The desert doesn't register that you're there and that's actually the best part, you're just moving through it with the window down and nothing to prove.
>>2911528>route 66 is just a road that goes through everything America forgot to develop and somehow that's the whole point.Are zoomies actually this retarded? Route 66 was THE way to get from East to West in the safest possible manner. When cars had gas milage measuring between 10-20 miles per gallon back then you had gas station towns that sole purpose was to refill cars and trucks from one stop to the next. 66 died and everything collapsed or now looks undeveloped when cars got better gas milage and plane travel became affordable.
>>2911528Yep, the preservation instinct came on strong in all those towns once Route 66 became a culture meme instead of merely the most convenient pre-interstate highway route from Chicago to LA. Of course the stopover towns still have their Walmarts and franchise goyslop, but it's built on different streets (like Stockton Hill Rd in Kingman). There's lots of America that is rustic and forgotten, far more than most people think. Endless sprawl and traffic is only 30% of the country max.
there's also a weird pseudo 66 in the east that nobody talks aboutessentially there's no main route from east to west south of I-80 and north of I-20 (columbia sc to birmingham alabama) cuz of continuous mountainsthere's ways to get through, namely I-81 but god its shit and mostly only 2 lanes and jammed and doesn't really go east west anyways, there's 64 but its only 2 lanes and very hilly in parts and with construction its often 1 lane in sectionsso the most sensible routing would be to have a highway heading west from dc - but that takes you through steep mountains, so they've been building that highway for decades with no resolutionthere's still 2 sections that need finishing - blackwater canyon - highway has to go around a protected gorge, and the section connecting I-81 to the already built interstate-standard section in WVso you have 66 that turns into 48/55 and nearby you have 39 - which is the old, flat way to go through, I believe it was the turnpike connecting staunton to the ohio river but you have all these 66 "subsidiaries" that aren't quite what you would want for a major east west highwayamerica is quite underbuilt
>>2911575for me its the north south route of the 101 beginning around Olympia, Washington then out to the coast down to San Fran then following the Cali Route 1 to LA before joining up with the I5 to San Diego and Mexico.
>>2911588Is that not the most normie route possible other than like just doing the major western national parks and nothing else?The beauty of weird eastern 66 and its numerical offshoots is how undiscovered they are. There's never ever traffic on 48/55 unless they are doing road work. And seems like the new segments are being built around the old ones, not on top of, so they won't have to close the road to build it up to 2 lanes each way and interstate standards of curve-less-ness, though it is pretty curvy and I usually just leave my car in 6th gear (7+8 are overdrives) when I take it
>>2911575Route 66 was built back in the day, the 70's and 80's oil crisis was the beginning of the end for Route 66 having any key relevance to use. The .net boom where people were no longer forced to "pack up and make the big move" killed anyone using it in the summer to relocate. The other interstates were built up and much better to choose from by available lanes and speed. The small boom towns built on oil, gas station income, etc all basically were dying because the boomers running them shipped their kids off to a better life.08 was the basically the final nail in the coffin for any of the iconic places to see along Route 66, I remember driving it in 2012 when I moved out to west coast. Everything had clearly shut down in the Obama era of things, it's only remembered for TV/Movies and boomers. I can't imagine what it's like post covid but I imagine it's just a irrelevant way to travel at a slower pace with cop speed traps everywhere.Saying "forgot to develop" is just wrong, it just became less economically viable to maintain compared to other routes.
