In the summer of 2024 I spent 3 weeks solo driving America’s iconic Route 66. Here is my story and some tips to help you plan your trip across the country!
Background
It all started in March of 2020. I was trapped at home during my University’s “extended Spring Break” that lasted until January the next year. That summer I planned a trip to Coaster Con at Hersheypark and Knoebels. Coaster Con is a gathering of members from the American Coaster Enthusiasts to spend a week at multiple amusement parks. I usually center my trips around amusement parks. When they started to close in 2020 I started to brainstorm where I could go if the parks were closed all summer.
One night I came across an article on Route 66. I didn’t know that much about it but I knew it was a major road at one time and was home to many vintage places that represented Americana. The 50’s aesthetic is my favorite so the diners and neon on Route 66 offered me an opportunity to see things from that time period. I knew that by summertime restaurants would open with outdoor seating so I seriously considered taking the trip to California that summer.
Postponement
Eventually the amusement parks opened around June so I postponed my Route 66 trip to another time when I had more money and more things would be open. Since then I graduated college and had 3 jobs. Most importantly I had the money.
I’m a teacher so I had all summer to explore. Coming up with enough money to drive cross country for 3 weeks was another thing. All in all my trip cost me around 14 thousand dollars. I did splurge however because it truly was a trip of a lifetime. In this series I will document my trip and give tips for people wanting to drive the iconic route. I used many blogs to help me plan my trip so now it is my time to help others.
EZ Guide
To plan my trip the first thing I did was buy the EZ Guide to Route 66 by Jerry McClanahan. This book gives turn by turn directions for the whole route. Route 66 no longer has signs telling you where the route is so this book helps. This book also has many suggestions for places to eat and see. Most places I had on my list were taken from this book so I highly recommend it.
Using Maps to Plan
I’m an over planner so these next steps might be excessive to the normal person but for me it made my trip so easy and seamless. I made a list of every place I wanted to visit and put a pin on Google Earth. Red pins for restaurants, blue pins for attractions, and gold pins for iconic places. After that I put all of those places into a google doc and put their operating hours under each name.
I also used the line feature on Google Earth to map the whole route turn by turn from the book and then transferred every turn to my maps on my phone using the pins. Again, Route 66 doesn’t technically exist anymore so there is no signage so putting every turn on my phone really helped. I never missed a turn and I only missed out on one thing the whole trip. Now most of you probably don’t want to plan for a whole year so in my blog I will post my whole itinerary so you have a feel for how long you should take on the trip.
You Will be Fine
Two weeks is probably the minimum you need to see everything and I spent about two weeks on the road and another week in LA. You want to average around 150-200 miles a day which will give you enough time to see everything.
I know people from all walks of life would read this to help plan their Route 66 trip so I wanted to make a few quick points about the trip. Never once did I feel unsafe at any time. I know people say the big cities are dangerous but I drove through them all and never had a problem. If you aren’t from the U.S. don’t worry! I came across many foreigners from many different countries and Americans are friendly, especially to people from countries they never heard of.
You may see headlines about violence or racism in the U.S. and yes it exists but Americans are far more open minded and welcoming than the news wants you to believe. I’m a transgender woman and I didn’t have any negative experiences, even in Texas and Oklahoma. So whatever you do don’t be afraid to take the trip. If you keep track of your surroundings and don’t be an idiot you should be fine.
