Route 66 - Cars on the Route! (Day 3 - Part 1 - Joplin to Catoosa)

Late last summer, Alan and I spent 22 nights on the road in a dedicated effort to travel Historic Route 66 from start to finish, Chicago to Santa Monica.  Eight states, three time zones and 2,448 miles.  Come along with us as we continue to “get our kicks on Route 66.”

Ending Day 2 of our Route 66 adventure in Joplin, Missouri, meant that we were only five miles from the Kansas border when the sun rose the next morning.   Although Route 66 traverses eight states and covers almost 2,500 miles, only 13.2 of those miles are in Kansas, cutting across the very southeastern corner of the state.  Kansas was the only state that was completely bypassed when Interstate 44 replaced Route 66 in the 1960’s.  That doesn’t stop Kansas from celebrating the historic route, though – far from it.  A round of applause for the Kansans who keep Route 66 not just alive, but thriving.

Historic Route 66 - Enjoying its Delights Along the Way (National Parks Trip #3)

This post represents another installment in the series documenting our West Coast National Parks trip in the summer of 2017.  Alan and I, along with our 18 year old daughter, Kyra, logged a total of 8,513 memorable miles of adventure over the course of five and a half weeks during the months of July and August.

It’s no secret that Alan and I are road-trippers at heart.  I absolutely love our home, love being at home and love coming home to our home.  After varying lengths of time, though, I start to miss life on the road.  Decades ago, when we started traveling together, vacations were a string of truck stops, tent sites, mom and pop motels and fill ups of cheap gas.  We cruised up and down the east coast so often that nearly every interchange on Interstate 95 became familiar.  So, what could possibly make two die-hard road trippers happier than including stops along historic Route 66 in their travels?  Not a thing.