Around 7 a.m. Saturday, in a parking lot next to the closed Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, a strange group of cars and trucks began to gather. Three A models. A couple of '60 convertibles. A 1964 Chevrolet Impala pickup. Plus, a big bull on trailer wheels.
“Am I in the right place?” asked a man in one of the Model A's.
“Are you going to Chicago?” asked a guy in a white Denali.
“I wish I could do it all,” said Joe Hernandez of Pasadena, waiting wistfully.
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This was the starting line for approximately 70 drivers who gathered to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Route 66 with a 2,448-mile, 20-day caravan to Chicago. Most had come from outside California to share an adventure with other roadies and introduce themselves to the classic scenery and independent businesses along the Eight State Route.
But rising gas prices and hesitant international travelers have added uncertainty to a trip that was always going to be a logistical challenge. Day 1 alone could terrify a Los Angeles traveler: from the Pacific to Pasadena on surface streets, including miles on Santa Monica and Colorado boulevards.
“I don't know how this is all going to happen,” said Gary Daggett, president of the Old Route 66 Association of Texas. But he and his wife, Stephanie Daggett, have more than a little Route 66 experience to draw on.
Mike and Lisa Visket of Prescott, Arizona, pose on the Santa Monica Pier in their Route 66 gear on Saturday.
“This is our 30th trip in 20 years,” Daggett said. “You can't see everything. There are so many things… You start getting to know people, you get hooked on people.”
Shortly before the start at 8:30, organizer Rhys Martin gathered the drivers.
“Getting out of here is going to be a little complicated,” he said.
Martin, who is part of the Route 66 Road Ahead Partnership, is president of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association and serves as manager of the National Trust for Historic Preservation's Preserve Route 66 initiative. For the trip, he drives a '64 Chevy Impala pickup truck with a GPS unit inside so armchair travelers can track his trip on the web.
“It's going to be impossible to keep everyone together,” he said during preparations. “We're encouraging people to spread out and support independent businesses rather than all going to one place and demolishing the kitchen.”
William Cooke of Pinon Hills participates in a caravan from the Santa Monica Pier to Chicago, celebrating the 100th anniversary of Route 66.
In song and literature, the route is celebrated as a journey from east to west. This caravan, which will run in the opposite direction, will travel from California through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri to Illinois.
From Santa Monica, the Day 1 schedule took drivers to Beverly Hills City Hall, Grand Central Market downtown for lunch, the Chicken Boy statue and Galco's soda stop in Highland Park, and then an overnight stay in Pasadena.
Day 2 takes the group from Pasadena to Barstow. Day 3, Barstow to Needles. On June 25, the caravan will arrive in downtown Chicago.
The free procession was led by a core group of 15 cars, including representatives from the eight states on the route. Since anyone can join or leave the caravan at any time, the number of vehicles will vary depending on the time.
Over the decades, the highway has gone from an American artifact to a global symbol of small-town American culture. Many merchants, restaurateurs and hoteliers on 66 now say that their summer customers are mostly travelers from abroad, especially from Europe. One of the caravan drivers, in a rented van, was Dries Bessels, co-founder of the Dutch Route 66 Association.
Brady Wilson of Amarillo, Texas, displays a variety of Route 66 pins on his cowboy hat. Wilson is part of a caravan of Route 66 enthusiasts who left the Santa Monica Pier on Saturday en route to Chicago as part of the famous highway's centennial celebration.
Although the Model A is sure to turn heads on the road, the most striking element of the caravan is the fiberglass bull representing Amarillo-based restaurant Big Texan Steak Ranch, one of the event's sponsors.
“It's the same one my dad brought home in '71. His name is Big Moo,” said Danny Lee, co-owner of the restaurant with his brother, Bobby Lee. “It's 12 and a half feet tall. About 500 pounds. It's all fiberglass.”
In 21 cities along the way, the Big Texan team aims to host nightly steak-eating contests, offering free dinners to anyone who can eat 72 ounces of steak, a baked potato, three shrimp, a salad and a dinner roll in 60 minutes.
The caravan's first challenge came at the Santa Monica Pier, where there was no room for cars due to a construction project, preparations for the World Cup and a fundraiser for Children's Hospital. Instead, the caravan gathered in front of the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium. Drivers strolled along the pier to take a photo and then returned to their cars.
“Herding cats,” said George Kulakowski of Huntington Beach, behind the wheel of a 1931 Ford Model A Panel Delivery truck.
Participants in a century-old Route 66 motorcade pose for a photo before departing the Santa Monica Pier Saturday en route to Chicago along the historic highway.
Another challenge awaited in West Hollywood, where Santa Monica Boulevard (also known as Route 66) was packed with crowds for the city's WeHo Pride Street Fair. According to prearranged plans, most of the motorcade vehicles were detoured around the party, while some motorcade vehicles followed a police escort throughout the action.
This way, Martin said, “another community along Route 66 can share its identity with the community at large.”
Allison Lehn of Boston participates in a caravan from the Santa Monica Pier to Chicago to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Route 66 on Saturday.
By 11:15 a.m., Martin's car had arrived at Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake. Meanwhile, other parades and caravans are traveling along Route 66 in other states this year, most of them concentrated on short stretches.
By 12:45 p.m., the motorcades had met with the mayor of Beverly Hills and toured the West Hollywood Pride festivities, arriving at Grand Central Market, a little ahead of time.
On May 30, some 3,596 classic cars joined a “Capital Cruise” on Route 66 in Tulsa, becoming the Guinness Book of World Records holder for the largest classic car parade, which attracted some 100,000 spectators and overwhelming local traffic.
In Arizona, the Williams Historic Route 66 car show is scheduled for June 5-6. In Texas, the Amarillo-based Texas Route 66 Festival will take place June 4-13.
William Cooke of Pinon Hills, left, and Sarah Jane Woodall of Tecopa, right, drive down Wilshire Boulevard in a 1960 Edsel Ranger Convertible Saturday as part of a caravan from the Santa Monica Pier to Chicago, celebrating the 100th anniversary of Route 66.
In those states and beyond, the Santa Monica caravan will find hotels and motels in all sorts of conditions: vintage neon, roadside food, blue states, red states, and purple states.
As described in a package of Times articles in May, some landmarks date from the highway's days as the scene of Depression-era desperation in the 1930s, others from its heady postwar years in the late 1940s and 1950s.
Route 66 was created in 1926 as a highway that linked hundreds of local roads. Dubbed “America's Main Street” by its promoters and “The Mother Road” by John Steinbeck in “The Grapes of Wrath,” the highway inspired the Bobby Troup song “(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66” in 1946.
But economic life along Route 66 has been precarious since the late 1960s, when interstate highways and hotel chains began stealing traffic from the older, slower highway. After Route 66 was decommissioned as a highway in 1985, about 85% of the old route remained in use, often as small-town thoroughfares, country roads, and frontage roads alongside Interstate 40.
Efforts to save and reconstruct the route as a historical resource began in the late 1980s and gained ground after the 2006 release of the Pixar/Disney animated film “Cars,” which tells the story of the highway's rise and fall. In small towns like Tucumcari, New Mexico, and Seligman, Arizona, the highway remains central to the local identity and economy.
On Saturday, a participant's vehicle is photographed in a caravan from the Santa Monica Pier to Chicago, celebrating the 100th anniversary of Route 66.
This year's century-old improvements along the route “are things that will be done in the future,” Martin said. “The real impact will come next year and the years after.”
