The Autry Museum sponsored a presentation by Jerry McClanahan and Jim Ross that made me want to start packing. They shared helpful tips and recommendations for anyone planning a trip along Route 66. They had recommendations for restaurants, hotels and other tips for the road. I’ve included links to their books under my bookstore tab and you can click on the picture for more information about the exhibit at The Autry that closes on January 5, 2015. There are more than 250 artifacts in the exhibit and the guides are very knowledgeable and able to provide a lot of the history of the route and its impact on American popular culture.
Route 66 was established in 1926 connecting Chicago to Los Angeles along a 2,400 mile road. At the exhibit you can see the oldest existing Route 66 shield, an early Jackson Pollock landscape painting, a ten-foot twin visible gas pump, the handwritten page from The Grapes of Wrath manuscript that introduces the “Mother Road,” renowned Dust Bowl–era photographs, Woody Guthrie’s guitar, the original typewritten scroll of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, a classic 1960 Corvette, and countless objects adorned with the Route 66 moniker or acquired along the route.
I’m looking forward to exploring this route in small bits and since the end of the route is at the Santa Monica Pier, I think I’ll start there and work my way East.