Getting Your Kicks on Route 66
Part 2: A practical guide...
Into The Blue is about finding joy in simple pleasures. One of those pleasures is planning and anticipating a great vacation.
Note: In May, I wrote a thematic reflection on our recent road trip on Route 66. In this follow-up, you will find some practical considerations for such a trip. In July, we’ll publish a post on the Illinois leg of Route 66, with other segments following that.
We recently completed an epic trip on Route 66. We travelled the entire length, 2,448 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles. It was an amazing adventure, an immersion in Americana.
I truly commend Route 66 to you. Next year is the Route 66 centennial, with celebrations and special events planned all along the route. We saw folks busy at work in many places already preparing for next year.
In that spirit, I wanted to share some lessons we learned. While they are geared toward to a Route 66 road trip, the principles apply more broadly. I also include a highly subjective “best of 66” list at the end.
Preparing to Get Your Kicks on 66
I’m a planner. For me, half the fun of a trip is the preparation and anticipation. I love to research, find little gems, and put together itineraries. I especially enjoy planning adventures that will delight my wife. The expectation of the joy is itself a great joy.
Of course, you can overdo it. I didn’t have to worry about that this time. The opportunity to do this trip came up on short notice, so we had limited time to prepare. That led to mistakes and missed opportunities, but it also created space for discovery.
Now having finished up the trip, seven practical things stood out.
First, plan ahead. Unless you only do an abbreviated segment of Route 66, you will be covering an enormous distance with hundreds of potential sites to visit. You want to leave space for spontaneity, especially if you are a free spirit. But you also want to know what key sites are out there, where the route goes, what kinds of weather to expect, whether your vehicle is ready for the journey, and so on. A great way to get oriented is with the Through My Lens YouTube channel series on Route 66 and the website Route 66 Road Trip.
Unpleasant surprises await you without preparation. Popular motels, camping sites, parks, and restaurants book up, and this will be doubly true in 2026. Many museums, restaurants, and other sites are not open every day or have limited hours. You will encounter open desert, high altitude, degraded roads, or even downright scary hairpins (Kingman to Oatman, Arizona, I’m looking at you!). For us, Illinois and Missouri were chilly, while the Arizona and California desert was very hot.
Second, start with how much time you have. If you are going to cover the whole route, you need about three weeks to do it justice, two weeks if you are going to drive long days. We spent four weeks, stopping every week to work for a couple days. Even so, we still didn’t see everything and in places used the interstate rather than old 66 to make time. If you only have a week or maybe have two but want to go at a leisurely pace, consider driving only part of the route (more on that below).
Third, one size does not fit all. What do you like to see? Will you be camping or staying in motels? How health conscious are you on vacation? You want these kind of preferences to shape your experience.
Let me share a few examples. There are several popular caverns along the route, but since we were traveling with a dog we skipped them. We travel in a camper van, so we mostly built our itinerary around places we could camp rather than around motels. For RVers and vanlifers, we relied heavily on Harvest Host locations, which worked out well (full list of our sites at footnote).1 We (mostly) prioritize healthy food and exercise, so we hit fewer retro diners than most and included Planet Fitness gyms in our itinerary.
Fourth, think about quality versus quantity. To be brutally honest, Route 66 gets repetitive. The terrain and climate and local cultures change state by state, sometimes minute by minute, and this is endlessly fascinating. But the Route 66 schtick and retro 1950’s vibe and trinkets are pretty much the same for 2,448 miles. By the time we got to California, we were basically supersaturated and ready for something different.
If you are going to do the whole route in one shot, think about planning variety into your trip. Do some excursions and non-66 activities.
If you don’t have time for the whole route, you can still easily get the flavor in a shorter timeframe. Consider focusing on Illinois or Arizona. These two states had a ton to see. If you can get to a part of the route that is very different from where you live, your experience will be richer. As a Marylander, Illinois felt familiar to me in geography, climate, and culture, while Arizona was a wondrous new world. Taryn Shorr-McKee also has some brilliant itineraries for the segment between St. Louis, Missouri and Tulsa, Oklahoma in her article on 66 in 417 magazine.
Fifth, prioritize. No matter how much time you have, you are going to have to make choices. Make a list of the things that most interest you, and focus on these. Old timey gas stations and retro cars have great sentimental value to my wife, whose father ran a car shop and raced corvettes in the day, so we visited many restored gas stations and fun auto and transportation museums.
You will have to decide how much time to spend on old segments of Route 66 versus the often adjacent interstates. In some places there is no 66 left, so the interstate is your only option, but often you must choose. Usually, the old 66 is slower, in some places it is dilapidated, and in others there are multiple alignments from different decades. We stuck to the historic 66 as much as possible, particularly in areas with lots of sites, but we used the interstate when we needed to cover ground quickly or the old 66 was destroying our van’s shocks (this is mostly in parts of New Mexico and Arizona).
Sixth, be flexible. No matter how much you plan, things will surprise you. Sections of road will be under construction. Restaurants and museums will be closed that you planned to visit. There will be flooding in Texas, and you will need to leave earlier than you thought. There will be a heat wave in Arizona that your van’s cooling system can’t handle, and you will have to cover two days in one to beat the heat. Things like that.
Finally and most importantly, have fun! Both in the planning and in the trip itself, I learned so much about the US, my van, my wife, and myself. I’ll never forget my wife’s delight in seeing the Gemini Giant or my own in hiking in the petrified forest. Use your trip, and especially the unplanned “setbacks,” as an opportunity to explore, to discover, and to find unexpected joys!
Best of 66
Below is a ridiculously subjective list of the best of Route 66, as judged by my wife and I over a few drinks. In some categories, such as best diner or quirky site, our choices feel like a crime against the scores of other wonderful places, but what can you do.
Breakfast: The Donut Man, Glendora, CA. The Strawberry Donut tastes like heaven.
Diner: Emma Jean’s Holland Burger Cafe, Victorville, CA.
Burger Stand: Delgadillo’s Snow Cap, Seligman, AZ.
Hot Dog Stand: Cozy Dog, Springfield, IL.
Restaurant: Big Texan Steak Ranch, Amarillo, TX. Over the top fun.
BBQ: Adam’s Smokehouse, St. Louis, MO. World class, and vegan options too.
Southwestern Food: Gordo’s Cafe, Gallup, NM. So yummy.
Brewery: Mother Road Brewing Company, Flagstaff, AZ. Top notch beer and food.
Distillery: Desert Diamond Distillery, Kingman, AZ. Unbelievably good rum.
Big Town: Flagstaff, AZ. Cool restaurants and shops, surrounded by natural paradise.
Little Town: Seligman, AZ. This is how you do Route 66 nostalgia!
Historical Site: Lincoln’s Tomb, Springfield, IL. Such a moving place.
Natural Wonder: Petrified Forest National Park, AZ. Gorgeous. Great place to hike.
Architecture: U Drop Inn Cafe, Shamrock, TX.
Gas Station: Gary’s Gay Parita, Ash Grove, MO.
Museum: Oklahoma Route 66 Museum, Clinton, OK. Great overview of 66.
Auto Museum: Route 66 Auto Museum, Santa Rosa, NM. Unbelievable collection.
Mural Collection: Pontiac, IL.
Native American Trading Post: Painted Desert Indian Center, Holbrook, AZ.
Quirky Site: Blue Whale of Catoosa, Catoosa, OK.
Iconic Site: The Eagle’s “Standing on a Corner” corner, Winslow, AZ. Take it easy!
Dad Joke Heaven: Uranus Fudge Factory, St. Robert, MO.
Retro Motel: Wigwam Motel, Holbrook, AZ.
Camping: Grand Lake State Park, OK.
Please chime in in the comments with your recommendations!
A (Short) Meditation
Then Satan stood against Israel and incited David to number Israel. So David said to Joab and the commanders of the army, “Go, number Israel, from Beersheba to Dan, and bring me a report, that I may know their number.” But Joab said, “May the LORD add to his people a hundred times as many as they are! Are they not, my lord the king, all of them my lord’s servants? Why then should my lord require this? Why should it be a cause for guilt for Israel?” But the king’s word prevailed against Joab. So Joab departed and went throughout all Israel and came back to Jerusalem. And Joab gave the sum of the numbering of the people to David…
But God was displeased with this thing, and he struck Israel.
Quantity versus quality. I never really understood this passage until I got on Substack. I always thought, so David ordered a census, what’s the big deal? Governments need to know their population size. Why did God get so mad about it?
But now I get it. This wasn’t a question of prudent policy. It was a matter of the heart. On Substack, the measure of a writer is their number of subscribers. Out in the real world, the measure of a king is the size of his army.
Ironically, it was David himself who sung, “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God” (Psalm 20:7). But fresh off a series of military victories, David had secured Israel, and he was feeling his oats.
When we measure our success and power by worldly standards, we are falling for a trap. God wants us to center ourselves on him and so become a channel of his grace to others. This is how our lives truly have meaning and impact, eternal impact.
Consider Jesus. He focused relentlessly on his Father in heaven and invested himself in a dozen ordinary, foolish men. No income, no home, and 12 followers. Not exactly a model Instagram influencer. Yet he has changed the world. And he has changed me.
In truth, there is no measure of success in ourselves, and certainly not in any metrics. What matters is God’s grace working in and through us by faith to bless others. If you let God use you to plant one tree, feed one baby, make one person smile, teach one child about Jesus, you have conquered the world.
We stayed at the following locations on or near Route 66:
1. City of Pontiac Tourism Office (Harvest Host), Pontiac, IL.
2. Springfield Beer Company (Harvest Host), Springfield, IL.
3. Vernelle’s Route 66 (Harvest Host), Newburg, MO.
4. Grand Lake State Park, Bernice Area. OK.
5. Route 66 Bowl (Harvest Host), Claremore, OK.
6. Hillwilliam Farms (Harvest Host), Clinton, OK.
7. Texas Panhandle War Memorial (Harvest Host), Amarillo, TX.
8. Starr Brothers Brewing (Harvest Host), Albuquerque, NM.
9. Wigwam Motel, Holbrook, AZ.
10. Cracker Barrel, Flagstaff, AZ.
11. Desert Diamond Distillery (Harvest Host), Kingman, AZ.
12. Hooch’s 66 Bar & Grill (Harvest Host), Topock, AZ.
13. Cattail Cove State Park, Lake Havasu City, AZ.
14. Lake Havasu State Park, AZ.
15. Roy’s Motel (Harvest Host), Amboy, CA.
16. Silverwood Lake State Recreation Area, Hesperia, CA.
Thank you for helping me check off Route 66 from my bucket list! Such a joy to be a part of your posts! Presto ;)
Ditto your Mom. I learned alot about Route 66 but the devotion on Consider Jesus was really meaningful this week. Thanks!