My Dream to Drive Route 66

Written 1/11/24

Trip dates: Friday, September 30, 2016, to Friday, October 7, 2016

(took a red-eye flight on Friday night and arrived in NY on Saturday around sunrise)

Spending time in the states of: Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada

The first of a three part series with Chasing the Spirit of Route 66.

For years I was captivated any time the mention of driving Route 66 showed up on the television. It made me long for days where I could just drive without time constraints, viewing the country from behind my steering wheel.  Once the internet became a thing, more information about Route 66 became easily accessible, it increased my desire to get in the car to drive somewhere. Thoughts of driving through states I’ve only heard of and visiting intrigued me.

Photo 1: I-40 not far from Amarillo, Texas (Route 66 and I-40 are the same in this stretch)

Photo 2: I-40 not far from Thoreau, New Mexico (Route 66 runs along side here)

Fun but Time Consuming

This trip finally came to fruition in 2016. I researched for months, deciding what months/dates would work best, reading about the cities along the road, deliberating on which hotels would enrich our experience of the area, which ones we’d stay at, how long we’d stay, how far the drive was, just so much to map out! My original plan was to fly to Kansas City, Kansas and rent a car from there. Then drive to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, followed by Amarillo, Texas, Albuquerque, New Mexico, Flagstaff, Arizona, and the final stop would be Las Vegas, Nevada. This wouldn’t be a direct drive on Route 66, but it would be closer than I’d ever been, plus I’d see cities and states I’ve never visited.

Starting in Kansas City allowed us to kick off our travels by attending a KC Royals game and tick off another visited baseball stadium. Ending in Las Vegas offered us many flight options to return to New York. Even after I had this somewhat planned out, I had no idea that the Royals didn’t play in the state of Kansas. To confess my naivete even more, I didn’t even know that Missouri had a Kansas City!

Well, try as I might to make flight arrangements, I began to realize what the term, “fly over states” meant. For the life of me I couldn’t find a reasonable flight from New York City to Kansas City. By reasonable I mean, affordable in both money and time. So, after talking it over with my traveling companion, we opted to start our adventure in St. Louis, Missouri. The benefits to this were: flights to St. Louis from NYC were plentiful, the flights were short, familiarity and ease with the airport. Bonus reason: returning to St. Louis for ribs (see the St. Louis trip entry). The negatives were: a four-hour drive added to the front of our trip, and the 4 hours would be on I-70 and not Route 66 because that took us away from Kansas City. It was a trade off we were willing to make.

In addition to missing the drive on Rte. 66 in Missouri, there were other times along the way, where driving Rte. 66 wouldn’t work best for the distance we planned to cover. Parts of the road were still a bit local, meaning the journey would take longer, also there were areas where Route 66 was incorporated into another road. I-40 seemed to be the road we'd be following most of the time, so at least it was a somewhat straightfoward drive.

The Car

“Spend the extra money and rent a larger vehicle. You’ll have more comfort while driving.” – Dad.

I took this advice when looking for a rental for the week. For this trip a rental car from Hertz fit our budget best (no pun intended). I wanted a car that was big, but easy to acclimate to. I chose the mid-sized SUV category. Since we are two people traveling for a week, our travel bags would fit in the back area. Although hesitant because there wasn’t a trunk, I felt it would be more comfortable to drive.

Photo: Nissan Rogue as our mid-sized SUV for the week

The Drive in Mileage and Time

Friday September 30, 2016 – drive from St. Louis Lambert International Airport, St. Louis MO – Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO.

Total for the day: 3 hours and 30 mins (227.6 miles) using I-70

Saturday October 1, 2016 – round trip drive from Adams Mark Hotel (near Kauffman Stadium) in Kansas City, MO to Legends Outlets in Kansas City, KS.

Total for the day: 48 minutes (46 miles) using I-70 (mostly)

Sunday October 2, 2016 – drive from Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, MO – Wichita, KS

3 hours and 40 minutes (208.6 miles) using I-35.

Then Wichita, KS to Oklahoma City, OK

2 hours and 23 minutes (161 miles) still on I-35.

Total for the day: 6 hours and 3 minutes (208.6 + 161 = 368.6)

Monday October 3, 2016 – Oklahoma City, OK – Courtyard Amarillo Downtown, Amarillo, TX

Total for the day: 3 hours and 47 minutes (259 miles) using I-40

Tuesday October 4, 2016 – Courtyard Amarillo Downtown, Amarillo, TX – Casas de Suenos Old Town Historic Inn, Albuquerque, NM

Total for the day: 4 hours and 4 minutes (288 miles) using I-40.

Wednesday October 5, 2016 – Casas de Suenos Old Town Historic Inn, Albuquerque, NM to Hotel Monte Vista, Flagstaff, AZ

Total for the day: 4 hours and 35 minutes (321 miles) using I-40.

Thursday October 6, 2016 – Hotel Monte Vista, Flagstaff, AZ to The Orleans Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, NV

Hotel Monte Vista, Flagstaff AZ to Grand Canyon, AZ

1 hour and 27 minutes (78.8 miles) using AZ 64 S and US-180 E.

Then Grand Canyon to The Orleans Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas, NV

4 hours and 13 minutes (281 miles)

Total for the day: 5 hours and 40 minutes (78.8 + 281 = 359.8 miles).

Friday October 7, 2016 – round trip drive from The Orleans Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas NV to Hoover Dam, Boulder City, NV

Total – 1 hour and 34 minutes (77.2 miles) using I-11 and I-215

Total mileage for the week: 1947.2 miles

St. Louis Missouri to Las Vegas, Nevada - partially on Route 66 and I-40

Final Thoughts

Knowing that this might be my only trip like this, I tried to come up with a plan for each stop since I didn’t know if life would bring me back this way again. This was my beginner template for a one-night stay:

• Something historic (hotel, architecture, museum, etc.)

• Local cuisine (well-known restaurant? Is the area known for a specific dish or food?)

• Make a memory (this could be anything, a scenic view, going to a local tourist attraction, etc.)

  
  

I jotted ideas down on a spreadsheet, then transferred it to an email and sent it to my partner and myself so that we both could look at it as needed while we were traveling.

It wasn’t the exact trip that I had in mind, but it was a memorable adventure, nonetheless. In a future post, I’ll share my “CliffsNotes” version for each stop mentioned above, and things along the way that we saw or did.  Or you can read about each overnight stay on this trip by viewing my other posts.

Things I learned from planning this trip: Not all cities have direct flights from a New York City airport.

Things I learned from experiencing this trip: Even if the map says the drive is four hours, that doesn’t mean it will take “me” four hours, LOL! Calculate for bathroom breaks, meals and late starts. Maybe even plan for them to break up the day and provide some fun during the drive. Not all phone carriers are accessible in these states (at least in 2016).

Things I keep in mind when organizing a trip for myself: What do I absolutely want to see and do during this trip? Sometimes staying in a hotel is a must. At other times, visiting the hotel area is a reasonable exchange. Not the full experience, but some of it. Sometimes just being in the city or town is the experience that I want, so everything else is just icing on the cake.