Route 66 – And So It Begins

Route 66 never really was a road. It was certainly never just an ordinary road. Commissioned by the U.S. Government in 1926 and originally called Route 60, it was merely a linking of many bits and pieces of existing road which enabled a traveler to get from Chicago to Los Angeles. When it was first commissioned, only 800 miles of its roughly 2,448 miles were paved and most of the rest was just washed out dirt trails. It wasn’t until 1937 that it was paved from end to end. In spite of its humble beginnings though, it was destined to become an iconic highway that represents what is good about America.

Over its life, there were numerous realignments which resulted in adding and subtracting miles and various sections of roadway. In downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, one realignment resulted in the corner of Central Avenue and Fourth Street being the corner of Route 66 and Route 66! Traveling the old highway today requires you to make numerous decisions along the way as to which alignment you want to take where. If you are looking to drive a single highway, Route 66 is not the road trip for you. Route 66 is the un-interstate and a road trip down her is a kind of un-vacation. You have to accept that you will not get anywhere fast. And be aware, you WILL get lost a few times. No matter how good your maps, no matter how good your instructions, no matter how good your internal compass, road construction and numerous side trips you find yourself taking will cause you to lose your way and you will have to seek until you eventually find the route on down the road a ways. Best to just think of it as part of the fun and always keep in mind that Route 66 isn’t the way to get to your destination — Route 66 is your destination.

In 1927, Cyrus Avery, the father of Route 66, was the first to refer to it as “The Main Street of America.” In the Dust Bowl years, people saw Route 66 as a symbol of hope and a new beginning. John Steinbeck was the first to refer to it as the “Mother Road” in his 1939 novel, The Grapes of Wrath. Bobby Troup wrote the hit song “Get Your Kicks on Route 66″ in 1946 and it was recorded that same year by Nat King Cole (hear the song here). The song captured the heart of the country and eventually the world. In the 1960′s came the popular TV show “Route 66″ with Todd & Buzz traveling the country in a Corvette seeking adventure (Partial episode here). People began to romanticize Route 66 and before long it became known as the most magical road in the world.

The Interstate is fast - no curious attractions to tempt the traveler to pull over and spend a few minutes not driving, no stop lights and higher speed limits, but it is mind-numbingly, mile after mile sterile. In the 1950′s though, for a number of reasons, “speed” became America’s buzz word and the interstate highway system began to take over much of Route 66. Sections were dug up, towns were bypassed and mom & pop business’s located along her roads began dying from lack of customers. Finally, in 1984, the last section of the old girl was bypassed in Williams, Arizona. Government officials expected the road to become just another historical byway like the Oregon Trail and the Chisholm Trail. But she refused to die and she didn’t go away.

Before long, she became something even more special, even more magical. And she began a slow, but steady comeback. A few people began writing books about her; movies were made about her, then merchandise and magazines became available. It became a grass-roots movement of resurgence led by a few hardy, dedicated souls. The movement is still underway today as more and more people travel her, not just Americans, but folks from all around the world, hoping to find bygone glory days, glimpses of a simpler way of life. The small towns and communities along Route 66 are like snapshots of a time in America that have almost disappeared; glimpses of America’s past.

Like a lot of people, one of the items on my Bucket List was to travel Route 66 from beginning to end. I am happy to say that item has now been checked off. From May 25, 2012 through June 4, 2012 with my 13-year-old daughter along as navigator and co-photographer, we set out to travel America’s Main Street from Chicago to L.A. We called it our “Daddy Daughter Mother Road Trip.”

What follows over the next few blog entries will be an account of this once-in-a-lifetime trip. We talked, we laughed, we took hundreds of pictures, we met some really interesting people, we saw a lot of really interesting sites and yes, we actually made it the whole way and are still talking to each other!

Was it a very special Father – Daughter bonding experience? Yes. Did we make memories that my daughter will remember for the rest of her life? I believe so; I think and hope so. Did we learn more about each other? Yes. Would I do it again? Absolutely. Just maybe not in the next couple of months!

Go to the first Route 66 entry here.

Or go to the first entry of each state:

Illinois   Missouri   Kansas   Oklahoma   Texas   New Mexico   Arizona   California 
 

Route 66 - Planning the Trip

Most people over the age of 55 have their bucket list; the things they want to do, the things they want to see before they leave all of this behind and transition on over to the great unknown. One of the biggie’s on mine, perhaps number 1 now that I’ve seen a space shuttle liftoff (see Space Shuttle), is that quintessential road trip, the road trip emulated by all other road trips, the Alpha and Omega of road trips – Route 66. (see Road Trip Bucket List)

Growing up in a home that was so poor poverty would have been a step up, about the only recreation I had was the public library. It was there I could go to find a different world from my reality; a place to learn; a place to dream. I read most anything I could get my hands on. I spent many, many evenings reading the Encyclopedia Britannica page by page. When it listed book titles, I wrote them down until I had a list several pages long, front and back. And then I started reading them. One of the first I read was The Grapes of Wrath, the American classic by John Steinbeck. I was only 13 or 14 and it made a big impression on me. My grandfather, and therefore myself (even though I had never met them) had family in Oklahoma and the book was about people from Oklahoma, so in my young imaginative mind, it was a book about my family. In the book, Route 66 represented hope; the way to a new and better life. And so Route 66 became that for me also.

As time rolled by, driving Route 66 from beginning to end became more and more of a dream for me. It remained just that though as life happened and there were always logical reasons and good excuses for it to remain right where it always had been, a thought in my head that one of these days…
Fast forward going on 50 years after I first read The Grapes of Wrath and “one of these days” will be here next Friday. I suffered a fatal heart attack 1 year, 5 months and 2 days ago (but who’s counting?), and by a miracle of dedicated, very good medical personnel who didn’t give up on me and a few electrical shocks from a defibrillator, I returned to the land of the living. (that story is here Back from the dead & here I’m still here). Since I was given the gift of a 2nd chance at life, I have tried to make the most of it in ways big and small. One of the things I’ve been trying to do is to check off some of my bucket list items. Number 1 on the hit parade is Route 66.

Youngest-daughter is now 13, soon to be 14, is a wonderful young lady with her own personality and a great sense of humor that often cracks me up. She is my baby girl and the center of my life, but just as important, I truly enjoy being with her. She has also developed into a very good photographer with an innate sense of space and composition and an understanding of what makes a good photograph. So who better to share my grand life-long dream with than her? Momma-woman is staying home so it can be just the two of us on this trip. It will be our adventure, our time together, time to smile, time to laugh, time to talk, time to teach each other and time to learn from each other. Time to hopefully make a nice, life-long memory for her to call on when I’m gone. We’re calling it our “Daddy Daughter Mother Road Trip.”

Next Friday is her last day of school for the summer break. With grades being posted online, we already know she has passed (with almost straight A’s, there was never any doubt anyway). Nothing to do that day except tell her friends bye for the summer, turn in books and throw away unwanted papers. I have work meetings that morning, but can be finished with everything by lunch so Thursday night we pack BFT with clothes, some road food, laptops, GPS, Route 66 books & maps, my camera gear, and Youngest-daughter’s brand new, right-out-of-the-box Canon starter DSLR camera that came from Amazon today and Friday, at 12:00 o’clock, high noon, I pick her up at school and we are on our way to Adams Street & Lakeshore Drive in Chicago, the official start of Route 66.

Who knows what will happen between Chicago and the end of the trip at the Santa Monica pier in California? We have an itinerary of things we want to see and a few places where we want to eat and spend the night, but no set schedule. We might be gone 10 days; we might be gone 3 weeks; and there’s always the possibility that Youngest-daughter will be totally bored with the whole thing & we’ll cut it short and be back within just a few days. If that happens, I’ll be calling on my friends and family for a volunteer to be my co-pilot for the rest of the trip as I don’t intend to let anything stop me from checking off this bucket list item!

Whatever happens, we hope you will join us on our journey as we intend to post entries and pictures when we get the chance. It should be interesting!

Go to the first Route 66 entry here.

Or go to the first entry of each state:

Illinois   Missouri   Kansas   Oklahoma   Texas   New Mexico   Arizona   California 

Goat Man of White Rock Lake

In northeast Dallas, Texas is the beautiful, suburban White Rock Lake. The north part of the lake is a state park and in the southern part are expansive waterfront estates. Surrounded by a 9 mile jogging trail and bike path, the park is an idyllic urban oasis visited by thousands of people every day. Fishing, jogging, biking, families having picnics, sailors piloting their sailboats, lovers stealing kisses under a shady oak tree, boys and young men playing football and small children feeding the ducks present a picturesque, idyllic, Norman Rockwell slice of Americana.



Creepy, haunted Cox Cemetery by
White Rock Lake.

All, however, may not be as it seems, for White Rock Lake has its dark stories. There is the creepy cemetery dating from the mid-1800's which is rumored to be haunted. There are the deaths by drowning in the lake with some of the bodies having never been found. At least one person has committed suicide at the lake by hanging himself from a limb of a large tree by the water's edge. The drowning in a boating accident in 1927 of beautiful 19-year-old Hallie Gaston led to the story of the Lady of the Lake. In 1934, a small plane crashed into the lake, killing every passenger. In 1941, 27-year-old John Howard, a world record holder for underwater swimming inexplicably drowned in the lake. Is it any wonder there have been numerous reportings of strange goings on in the area?

Runners talk of strange "cold spots" frequently encountered near the area where J.C. Hacker drowned in 1938. He was one of the victims whose body has never been recovered. Even in the hot Dallas summer months, there is one particular spot that always feels coolish. Perhaps though, the strangest story of them all is of the Goat Man of White Rock Lake.

In the 1960's, I was busy growing up in Garland, a town "just down the road a piece" from the lake. I went to a church located 2 miles from the lake. I heard all of the ghost stories and I heard about the Goat Man. My teenage friends and I spent many Friday and Saturday nights slowly cruising around the lake. A couple of times I somehow even convinced a girl to spend some time with me parked in a dark corner of the park steaming up the car windows. I never saw the Lady of the Lake and I never saw the Goat Man, but a couple of times I did see and have a nice conversation with Officer Daley of the Dallas Police Department. He told me to button up my shirt, get my butt out of the park and take the girl home. My side of the conversation consisted of, "Yes sir." I may never have had an encounter of the supernatural kind at White Rock, but to this day, the stories persist with a few more people over the years giving eye-witness accounts of encounters with the Goat Man.

The last reported sighting of Goat Man
was on this spooky road.

According to these accounts, the poor creature is half-man, half-goat. He is about 7 feet tall when standing and is covered from head to hoof in coarse, brown hair. He has 2 horn-like protrusions coming out of his head, his feet are hoofs like a goat and he has the body and face of a man. It's skin has a jaundiced appearance and he has long, gnarled fingers with grotesque fingernails.

Most often he is seen early in the morning when he comes running out of the woods toward an individual jogger or biker. He sometimes throws trash or even muddy tires at the person. With a fierce look on his face (some have reported his eyes to be red), he turns and seems to vanish into thin air. He doesn't seem to have ever physically hurt anyone, but the fright he gives has made more than one person swear off White Rock Lake forever.