We Find The Original 1926 Road
Michael Schlee

 
The 2nd day of the Route 66 Rally proved to be even better then the first day. Our group of site seers had grown and ‘The Mother Road’ offered up even more historic sites for our viewing pleasure.

Famous bridges, service centers, landmarks and roadways were all over Route 66. At one point, we even ventured onto one of the few remaining stretches of the original Route 66 dating back to 1926. This single lane road was in rough shape, but still existed. It could quite possibly be the highlight of the entire trip.

The best way I can help someone who has never traveled the road understand what it is all about would be through the following story. One of our fellow travellers wanted a picture of him riding a horse (to compliment yesterday’s bunny riding photo). When we saw a horse statue in a small town we pulled over for the photo op. Upon approaching the horse, we realized it was made out of plastic and would not hold his weight.

While we debated about the horse’s load baring ability, a man stepped out of the building it was in front of. At first, he tried to sell us the horse, but then he took us inside the building to show us that he was in the process of restoring; a turn of the century bank/jailhouse back to its original 1900 look. It was very early in the construction but already looks amazing. He even showed us the historic vault and iron gated jails. This happened all because we stopped to see a plastic horse.