From the picture of grain elevators in Elkhart, Illinois to the photo of nightfall in Santa Monica, this book is jammed full of wonderful images from the “mother road.” Page after page takes the reader on a visual journey across America’s heartland.
Even without the pictures, the author, Michael Wallis, paints the images of the open road in elegant prose. Here is a perfect example from chapter one:
“Route 66 is Steinbeck and Will Rogers and Woody Guthrie and Merle Haggard and Dorothea Lange and Mickey Mantle and Jack Kerouac. It’s thousands of waitresses, service station attendants, fry cooks, truckers, grease monkeys, hustlers, state cops, wrecker drivers, and motel clerks. Route 66 is a soldier thumbing home for Christmas; an Okie family still looking for a better life. It’s a station wagon filled with kids wanting to know how far it is to Disneyland; a wailing ambulance fleeing a wreck on some lonely curve. It’s yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Truly a road of phantoms and dreams, 66 is the romance of traveling the open highway.
It’s the free road.”
Each state (eight total) that Route 66 passes through has it’s own chapter detailing all the attractions and personalities that line the historic highway. In addition, ‘A Route 66 Portrait’ describing a person along the route from famous singer to store owner is a feature scattered in sidebars throughout the book.
This book is truly a wonderful addition to anyone’s collection. To purchase this book or just read more about it, click here to go to Amazon.com.
Tags: Book Reviews, highway 66, route 66, route 66 book
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