Date:         Fri, 2 Feb 2007 19:54:27 -0700
Reply-To:     David Etter <detter@MAIL.AURACOM.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Etter <detter@MAIL.AURACOM.COM>
Subject:      Re: ROUTE 66  was  Friday Curiousity
In-Reply-To:  <c803c1a70702021336h3e2d3ba0j34700adfb82073cf@mail.gmail.com>
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I don't know about you guys, but I bought my second Westy ( now on my
3rd) with the express purpose of doing Route 66.
        It seemed a natural; the nostalgia that I and yo'all have for
the old Westies carries automatically over to the "Mother Road". Why
you haven't all done this as a first right of passage is beyond my
comprehension.
        In the mid to late 90's I did the top 1/3 of Rte.-66 and had
mechanical breakdowns cutting it short of completion. The next year
Imanaged to cover the second 1/3 ( down to Arizona) and had the
balance again cut short by a litany of failures. In the intervening
years I avoided the apparent jinx and travelled across this country
twice and to the furthest North possible(Alaska & Yukon).
        I am afraid that if I joined any group tour attempting the
last 1/3 of the route, that you fellers would all end up scattered in
disarray along the track in various shades of disaster. BUT !! I am
willing to risk your various calamities in an effort to finally
finish the mighty drive.
        What I found about Route 66 was a rapid loss of "landmarks"
featured in the various travel guides.( a must read). Even in the two
years I attempted the route. It was so sad to see another business
closed or burnt down. I had taken the time to stop in many
communities and locate the "landmarks" and even talk to many of the
old-timers who worked the garages and restaurants and motels. It was
a life altering experience, I'm telling you; I'm Canadian and even I
feel the pull of the road.
        The various owners of the remaining features or "landmarks" ,
all feel betrayed by the Federal Government. They were promised
federal grants to maintain their establishments, but the beaurcrats
have tied up or cut back the critical promised funds, so they are all
coming to grips with the reality of having to slowly close down.
        I cried after talking to one really old feller and hearing
his life story; not because it was sad, but because he had persisted
and through struggle in hard times he made it. He had stories that
would do your heart good, families with 6 kids in the back seat,
families travelling in pairs to help in case of breakdowns, and even
families turning around and going back after being turned back at the
California border; heartbreaking yet redeeming in the resolve they
showed. They were real men in those days.
         You can't do the trip as a vacation 'check list'. I was
lucky to have had the time and had taken many weeks to do each
section. I had a chance to relive the atmosphere; to visit and
experience something of what it must have been like. To have my van
serviced in a garage that was operating back in the thirties, by a
kid under the tutelage of the owner who himself was a gas jockey at
that very same garage. It burnt before I returned the following year.
        Yes Rte.-66 is all but covered over and bypassed now and
keeping true to the Route is getting more difficult all the time but
...PLEASE... DO IT ...  The long lonely stretches through the desert
and brush country only add character and opportunity to stop and
reflect.. if you take the time to pull over and stop you can
visualize the old cars chugging along, they too would be stopping,
stopping to refill the radiator, stopping to cook a meal beside the
road, stopping to fix a flat tire; they too would pause and look at
the vast distances yet to be covered and imagine the glories and
salvation that await them at the end of the road.
        Read "The Grapes of Wrath", buy or borrow some of the many
books written on this most glorious of roads.
        You owe it to the van to do this, why else would you want to
drive a piece of history (the van) unless you covered the miles over
a piece of road that sculpted the American character.
        I can see non VW van owners never driving 66, but it is
unconscionable for antique lovers like you are, not driving 66.

M2CW.
                                        David (82dslwesty)

P.S.: The best times are late fall when the temperature is cooler.

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