Ian Bowen is manager of the “66 to Cali” store/kiosk on the Santa Monica Pier. Many travelers go to the kiosk to purchase Route 66 “passports” and completion certificates.
(Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times)
Beyond the merry-go-round and before the Ferris wheel on the Santa Monica Pier, Ian Bowen does business in a cozy kiosk filled with souvenirs, tourist guides and replica road signs. The entire structure measures around 77 square feet. But the idea behind it stretches for miles and keeps Bowen talking for hours on end: Route 66.
The 66 to Cali kiosk is owned by Dan Rice, who started the business in 2009 after years of traveling the Mother Road. But Bowen, 35, has run it for 10 years, making sales, offering advice and listening to travelers' stories, which almost always come with surprises. He calls himself “a real Route 66 nerd.”
“It took me six years to go all the way and finish my last leg in Arcadia, Oklahoma,” Bowen said between customers on a recent night. Instead of covering more than 2,400 miles in a single trip, he's done what many American roadies do: bite off one chunk at a time. Before you know it, he said, “you become part of the community.”
That became evident when Bowen flipped through the photo albums he keeps at the newsstand. There's Harley Russell, smut owner and artist at Sandhills Curiosity Shop in Erick, Oklahoma. There's Fran Houser, the late and much-loved owner of the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, Texas. And there's Bowen getting a haircut with Angel Delgadillo, the now 99-year-old Seligman, Arizona, barber who sparked a resurgence of interest in Route 66 in 1987 with a call for historic recognition.
This is not the career Bowen planned; He studied to be an industrial designer. But now that he's dedicated to celebrating Route 66, he sees it, and other highways like it, as a launching pad for independent businesses, a lifeline for small towns and an antidote to the isolation of contemporary society.
“Old roads aren't just nostalgia,” Bowen says on his website. “It's about creativity, honest work, investment in ourselves and our communities, and the notion that effort is rewarded.”
For those considering a trip along Route 66, Bowen has advice of all kinds.
Want an old-fashioned meal along the route in Santa Monica? Bowen will point you to Bay Cities Italian Deli & Bakery, which opened in 1925.
A lunch spot near Elmer's Bottle Tree Ranch in Oro Grande? Cross-Eyed Cow Pizza, Bowen said, is right down the street.
The backstory of Bobby Troup's song “Route 66”? Bowen can tell you that Nat King Cole recorded it in early 1946 in a studio at 7000 Santa Monica Blvd. And that address, now occupied by the Jeffrey Deitch art gallery, is actually on Route 66.
Whatever your itinerary, Bowen recommends a flexible schedule, leaving plenty of room for unplanned discovery and conversation. Otherwise, “it's very easy to spend all your time and end up falling behind,” he said.
On a recent Friday, Leonidas Georgiou, 36, approached the kiosk brimming with enthusiasm.
Georgiou, who lives in Athens, learned about Route 66 last year “through a Greek TikTok influencer.” But once he found out, he acted quickly. Georgiou planned a trip to the United States, recruited her mother to travel as co-pilot and rented a Mazda SUV in Chicago. They made the trip in 23 days, with detours to Las Vegas and Monument Valley and a stop at Walter White's (from “Breaking Bad”) house in Albuquerque.
The variation in climate and landscape, Georgiou said, made it feel like a four-season trip. Several times, in cities where hotels seemed too expensive or substandard, he and his mother slept in their SUV. Before Bowen could speak, Georgiou added that he is a police officer in Athens and that he chose his spots carefully. Georgiou's mother, who didn't speak much English, nodded affirmatively.
“Instead of spending $40 each and getting bed bugs, it's better to sleep in the car,” Georgiou said. And more generally, he said, it was important to give the trip all the time it needed.
“This is a journey of a lifetime,” Georgiou said.
Bowen nodded and smiled. Another traveler 66, another series of surprises.
