Route 66 (The Beginning) – 27 August 2008

I know that I used the song title “Route 66″ back in Vicksburg (14 August), but this really is the beginning and a little bit of history.

We made good time this morning and had intended to skirt around Chicago, until Kaz (our tour guide) received a call from her good Aussie friends from OZ HOG in Melbourne, Gaye and Paul Zazeryn, who suggested that we go into Chicago and grab lunch at “Lou Mitchell’s” on West Jackson Boulevard.

In the early 1920’s it was mooted to officially name a route of connecting highways west, so that commercial transport could use the route.

After much deliberation, it was finally agreed and the route was officially named “Route 66″ in 1926 and it commenced at 565 W. Jackson Boulevard.

Lou Mitchell had opened his diner in 1923 and was established when the “Route 66″ street name went up virtually outside his door.

This Diner is not only  nationally and internationally renown, it has played host to US Presidents, Mayors, Governors, Senators and dignitaries over the years and is known as being at the start of “Route 66″.

Together with the frequent use by commercial transport, inn’s and hotels sprang up along Route 66 and then after the Second World War, American families began vacationing by car and Route 66 was the main route west.

A little known musician travelled west on Route 66 to make his fame and fortune and although that did not happen, he wrote a song about the route.

That song was sung in local bars and I have it on good authority that it was recorded in the late 1950’s by the late Nat King Cole and later by the Rolling Stones, being the song that most of us know today.

As more modern and efficient interstates we built, the use of Route 66 slowed, many inns and service stations closed and it became generally used by those travellers wanting a slower more leisurely route from west to east, as seen in the sixties film “Easy Rider”.

Route 66 now has a “Hall of Fame” and Lou Mitchell’s was inducted into the “Route 66 – Hall of Fame” in 2002.

By early afternoon the throng of Harley’s all heading to Milwaukee was all around and as we rode into Milwaukee late in the afternoon, there were Harley’s to be seen everywhere, particularly at our hotel, where the majority of the riders appear to be, yes you guessed it, Australian.