Route 66 Rewind
Highway 40 is an engineering marvel, a four-lane thoroughfare running from California to the east coast, with rest stops all along the way. When I needed to drive to North Carolina this summer, I contemplated all the various routes I might take; Highway 40 was the obvious choice. It cuts a line as flat and straight as humanly possible through the high plains of New Mexico and Texas, the rolling hills of the Ozarks and on into the Blue Ridge Mountains of Tennessee. Meanwhile, along the western portion from California to Oklahoma, you can still see old Route 66 snaking alongside the highway, like a silent, forgotten companion. Probably most motorists don't even know it's there, or don't notice. But once, that little road was the main route for Americans heading west, including the Okies escaping the dust bowl. Bobby Troupe immortalized it in a catchy song: Won't you get hip to this timely tip When you make that California trip Get your kicks on Route 66 Lots of...