Route 66, Main Street of America

Route 66, Main Street of America, originally uploaded by CarolinaRen.

"From beneath the trees in Chicago's Grant Park, historic Route 66 takes in the beauty of the heartland, the plains, and the desert southwest, before coming to rest on the edge of the Pacific Ocean."

A few interesting factoids from the Internets:

--One of the original U.S. highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926.

--The famous highway originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles, covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km).

--Route 66 underwent many improvements and realignments over its lifetime, changing its path and overall length. Many of the realignments gave travelers faster or safer routes, or detoured around city congestion. One realignment moved the western endpoint farther west from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica.

--US 66 was officially removed from the United States Highway System on June 27, 1985[3] after it was decided the route was no longer relevant and had been replaced by the Interstate Highway System. Portions of the road that passed through Illinois, Missouri, New Mexico, and Arizona have been designated a National Scenic Byway of the name "Historic Route 66". It has begun to return to maps in this form.

Get your kicks on Route 66!