Driving down Route 66 with Catherine, has been something we have talked about for a while now but fitting it in around my biking tours was always going to be difficult. As many will know, 2014 saw my old Irish muckah Patrick (a.k.a. Grizzly) and I spend 3 weeks touring Europe, so quality holiday time with my good lady was in short supply. I'd already started planning for a 2015 tour, The Wild Hogs Scandinavian Tour but I ran out of Hogs! Bill (a.k.a. Dudley) passed away in February, David (a.k.a. Biggsy), has, seemingly shut himself away from the world and reliable old Grizzly told me he had two weddings to go to in 2015, so wouldn't be able to afford another tour!
So, when one door closes, opportunity knocks, or some such thing and suddenly I was free for a 3 week tour with my partner.
And so the planning began.
We sat down searched the web for all Route 66 tours, 2 wheeled, 4 wheeled, coach, etc, and listed the places they stop over, together with the number of days they take to complete. It became clear quite quickly that 2 weeks is the average time. Longer tours just added a stopover somewhere, rather than reduce the mileage, and some days there are big mileages involved. We didn't just want to be sitting in the car for 8 hours each day, so we shall be looking to spread it out over 3 weeks, including some sightseeing in Chicago and some time in LA to visit with Carol & Dean, wife and tour guide from the Wild West tour I did in 2013.
Moving on from that, I downloaded a set of Route 66 TYRE routes, which I have gone through, tidying up and marking the alignments that I want to drive along. Then, in conjunction with the National Parks Service website (linked on this blog) and some other websites, I have marked the things/points of interest that I plan to stop at. Notice I said I. Cath will need to go through and agree or otherwise with my choices, before we can start to build in our mileages and overnight stops.
Rather than just driving the road, I want to get more involved with the history and culture this time round, so I already have some historic motels/hotels on my list of potential places to stay. Cath likes her luxuries though, so I'm hoping they don't still look like they did in 1949, though retain their old worldly charm.
There's loads more to do yet, so watch out for the next post.
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