There have been many stories about development in restoring sites along the road in Oklahoma to support tourism.

now days if you hitchhike you just don't know, back then you did know................there was trust, now days forget about it

Our view out the front window is pasture and our back yard is gorgeous AND we're in walking distance of the Historic District. Gonna be a sweet retirement. I used to hitchhike to work in my 20s. I wouldn't do that again!

In 2005 he bought the town of Amboy, California, located on Route 66, for $425,000. Okura's plans include improvements for tourists interested in and traveling along the highway and building a museum.[1][11] He reopened the gas station in 2008, after $100,000 worth of renovations to the building housing the gas station, diner, and café. Counting on the traffic from a renewed interest in traveling Route 66, the gas station is stocked with candy and souvenirs.


He's really into Americana; he also purchased the location of the original McDonald's opened by Dick and Mac McDonald in 1948 for $135,000, which was being foreclosed on in 1998. Though the restaurant had been demolished, Okura recognized the property and moved his corporate headquarters to the site, which he described as "destiny." He also opened an unofficial McDonald's museum next to his headquarters

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amboy,_California

The energy seems right and lots of people are involved in revitalization. Thanks for the info.

(Amboy visit is around 19:40)

Only nostalgia keeps it alive, but those who are nostalgic about it are getting pretty ancient these days. I've traveled the entire Route 66 system, personally, but I'm almost 73 years old. Fewer and fewer people are going to remember that historic route as time goes by. It may be that it disappears before too long, really.

I live 2 blocks from the old Route 66 (now IL 53) where it still runs separately from I-55. There are cars, campers, motorcycles, and classic car runs every weekend from early April until the end of October.

Just last weekend, there was a caravan of 60 to 70 bikes that rolled through. The weekend before that, there was a run of around 50 classic cars.

Those don't count the people just taking the Route 66 run.

And, i see these people come through all the time. I almost never see anybody over 60, and i see as many families with kids as people in their 50's.

There's a old drive in that serves as a museum/souvenir shop. On weekends, there are 3 food trucks servicing the people stopping by. During the week, there's always one.

At least within this 105 minute drive from Chicago (because it's not limited access in most places and there's stop lights and stop signs galore) the Rt 66 attraction is booming.

attracting visitors. I think that will be true for a while yet. However, long-term, I wouldn't invest in that nostalgia. Of course, at 73, I'm not doing long-term investments anyhow.

You never know!

I get your point, though. Those kitchy places in southern MO, or OK, or West Texas are probably going into disrepair.

That said, our neighbor across the street is currently on a Rt66 voyage, for three weeks. (Actually, she's been gone about 10 days at this point, so she's half way.)

When she gets back, i guess i'll find out how active things are along the route. She's 57, so she's not the young 'uns i was mentioning, but she's not really old. (Like You!)

time soon . Too much history and has been very invested in deep. But is may be like just this IL portion a lot is families and plenty of kids have 66 shirts and are not with grandparents
Not older crowd really. Plus plenty of signs in Chicago the city isn't going to let it go

Hipsters are even hip to 66 in the city
Although some confuse the city 606 trail with being part of 66 it is not , that is an old rail line
https://www.visittheusa.com/experience/route-66-nostalgia-illinois-land-lincoln

Her father was a VP at State Farm in Bloomington. Route 66 stuff is pretty popular there. I remember driving through there in 1965 on my cross-country journey of self-discovery and thinking that Normal was a pretty strange name for a town. Little did I know that I'd marry someone who was still in Junior High school right there in that town someday. She's a "Normal" girl.

strange places to hail from

Especially with Asian and European tourists (German tourists top the list from Europe). It has been suggested the song Route 66 is mostly responsible for the interest.

Bummer, the orange anus is Hell bent in killing that cash cow.

I read upthread, you traveled the entire route. Lucky you! I missed that train by a few years, but on a early eighties cross country trip on Interstate 40, I did get to drive on twenty miles of Route 66 while the last stretch on I 40 was under construction....like six,eight mile away.

I went south from West to East, and came back on 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica.

As i mentioned above, i live in one of those towns. Last summer, we talked to two people from Holland, 3 from Germany, and 2 from Liberia.

No foreign travelers met this year so far, though.

Get it? OK. Kind of dual purpose!

Obviously, i don't see everyone who takes the cruise through town, but i've yet to see anybody that appeared to be Asian, FROM Asia.

A couple summers ago, i stopped and talked to a group of young people who were all Asian, but they were from Milwaukee not Asia.

They drove down to Chicago for a couple days and then were doing the Rt 66 thing down to St. Louis, and then back.

We have one of the kitchy landmarks about 4 blocks from my house and i offered to take the picture for them, so all of them could be in the shot.

IIRC, at least a couple of them were students at Marquette, so they may not have been from Milwaukee, just living there for now. But, they were all clearly american born and bred. And they sounded like midwesterners.

I don't remember seeing any other asian folks on the drive though.

when they came to work on the railroads. They could be tracing those footsteps or looking for lost ancestors.

Chinese labor was used for the Central Pacific railroad (over the Sierra), but anti-Chinese sentiment was growing strong when Southern Pacific built the southern route; the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) came into effect one year before completion of the Southern Pacific "Sunset Route".

Thanks

His cronie$ got to make$ the money$.

and then SHOWING us the worse-case scenario.

It'll never die off here. Our 6th street is the most liberal part of our city and the best part. It's where the old route runs.

In Lebanon MO, there is a Route 66 museum along w/ old classics (cars) etc., and there is another museum along the way but I can't remember what city it's in.

A lot of the old route 66 is still out there (in Missouri), and a lot is gone, as the Interstate highways and encroaching development take over a lot of the original route 66 infrastructure (bridges get too old, too expensive to repair, etc.). You can follow a lot of the old route 66 highway if you go on interstate 44 west outwards from St. Louis MO, but you'll have to detour repeatedly over and over again to try and follow the original route 66 westwards.

A lot of cities and towns do ID parts of their roads as old route 66 along the way in some spots, and there are books highlighting parts of the old route 66 too. In some places, there are some neat old motels one can still stay at, e.g., The Munger Moss Inn in Lebanon MO for example, and others like it all along the way. Kind of a neat throwback to the original route 66 infrastructure.

Trying to preserve the thousands of miles of old highway that was originally old route 66 is impractical, but there are big chunks of it still left, if one has the time to travel along its mostly chopped up pathway.

(around St. Louis county) and a few years ago we took a road trip following part of this route. My son worked for a while at the Route 66 Museum in Eureka, MO.
It is historical. But I think saying if Trump saves it (and lets face it, he won't unless there is $$ in it for him) it is not going to unite the country. Saying that is pretty silly. Trump could legalize pot tomorrow and it is not going to make me think he is a nice guy.

As above, i live a couple blocks from the old 66.

About 15 miles south of us, on what is essentially the frontage road of I-55, there is a restored Standard Oil station. Has the old hand pumps with the glass cylinder to gravity feed into the car, an early 50's car up on the rack, and the pyramid of oil cans in each window.

It likely looks exactly like it would have in the 40's and 50's.

...the last remaining pieces to the complete interstate system, were the urban by-passes that forced truck drivers like me routed on I-40/44 to California, to slow down and drive through the small vibrant communities like Winslow Az. and Gallup NM. Hated it at the time but after seeing the effect of the bypass on the life of the community, I was sorry I complained.

It was the TV show of 2 guys cruisin' in a Corvette that piqued my interest in the road:

from CA..not sure if only way to get from theah to heah...but I am sure there could not have been an I70 or I40..

I retired to AZ in 98..and have used RT 66 many times coming back through Holbrook AZ when visitors come to stay..one spot to note..the Wigwam Motel....

http://www.galerie-kokopelli.com/wigwam/

When our kids were preschoolers my wife was working for Indian Health Services in New Mexico. This was before cell phones. The place we lived had a single pay phone outside the clinic and you had to wait your turn for that, all hours day or night. There was always somebody waiting to use the phone.

I was feeling bored one day so I loaded the kids into the car and decided to explore some of the nearby abandoned highways.

We were driving along the old gravel highway when we came upon an elderly Indian man, out in the middle of nowhere, walking vaguely in the direction of Albuquerque. I asked him if he wanted a ride and he accepted my offer.

We had a lovely conversation, he was engaged for about ten miles, twenty or thirty minutes, when he suddenly asked me to drop him off, telling me he had friends in the area he hadn't seen for a while.

I can't even begin to say how much against my nature that was, but you've got to respect your elders. He seemed of sound mind and body.

Yeah, I'm the guy who dropped an elderly gentleman off in the middle of the desert, high noon, two days walk from Albuquerque.