Route 66 To Be Refurbished
By RICHARD BENKE, AP
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) - New kicks are in
store for Route 66. President Clinton late Tuesday signed a law that supports state, local
and private efforts to preserve Route 66 with $10 million over 10 years. The
``mother road,'' commissioned in 1926 and decommissioned in 1985, traversed eight states
and 2,448 miles between Chicago and Santa Monica, Calif.
It inspired a 1960s television series about traveling the West and at least two
songs by Nelson Riddle and Bobby Troupe. The ``get your kicks on Route 66'' lyrics
are Troupe's. The ``mother road'' label belongs to John Steinbeck and his 1930s Dust Bowl
classic, ``The Grapes of Wrath.'' Those displaced Oklahomans weren't the only ones to head
West on U.S. 66. After World War II, it became the thing to do.
``America became more mobile than it had ever been,'' said Eric Szeman, co-owner
of Albuquerque's Route 66 Malt Shop, who made the Route 66 trek himself with his parents
in 1954. ``The mass migration westward was pretty much handled by Route 66.'' Szeman hopes
Albuquerque will gain a hefty share of the $10 million earmarked for Route 66 restoration.
Martin Zanzucchi, a Flagstaff, Ariz., restaurateur instrumental in getting Flagstaff's
Santa Fe Street renamed Route 66, hopes the bill will do the same for his hometown.
``It means little towns like Flagstaff can apply for funding to repair parts of
the old roads or to get some landscaping or park-like settings,'' Zanzucchi said after
Congress approved the bill July 28.
Tourists still retrace the route. An Italian couple shipped their Motoguzzi
motorcycle to Chicago to ride west in tandem, and a German couple arranged to pick up
their new Harley-Davidsons in Los Angeles for their eastbound Route 66 trek, Szeman said.
Then there's the fellow from Ireland whose European travel club plans to ship in the 30
vintage U.S. cars they've collected. ``They're going to ship them to Chicago and do the
Route,'' he said.
Martin Milner, star of television's ``Route 66,'' hit the road again for a video
issued last year. ``Route 66, Return to the Road With Martin Milner'' takes viewers on a
historical-cultural nostalgia trip in two volumes. The eastern leg takes viewers across
Illinois, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma. The western portion crosses Texas, New Mexico,
Arizona and California.
Related Links:
National
Historic Route 66 Federation
Lucills's Route 66 In
Oklahoma
Route 66 -
Detailed Road Description
Route 66 USA
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