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Episode 109 - The Highway That Built Road Trip Culture · Sorta Sophisticated

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Welcome to Sorta Sophisticated with Pete and Amanda. All right, Amanda, here's how we're starting this one. Are you ready?
• 0:07
  Speaker B: Oh, man. I guess I'm coming in hot.
• 0:08
  Speaker A: Okay, picture this. America, the 1920s. Go back. Go back all the way. 100 years, 1920s. All right, flappers, we're having fun. Okay, Cars have been around, like, how long, 20 years? 1908. 15 years. 20 years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, I mean, there's no real infrastructure built yet. Like, I mean, like, you have New York on the east coast, and then you have Chicago, but, like, west of all that, we got nothing. Okay.
• 0:31
  Speaker B: No highways.
• 0:32
  Speaker A: Yeah, no highways, no byways, none of that crap. Right? Just, like, a bunch of different roads and a bunch of different towns, like a web of nonsense and a bunch of dirt and gravel and shit like that. Okay? So out of nowhere, some guys in Washington decide that's it. They've had it. And they draw a line on the map. Straight from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California.
• 0:51
  Speaker B: Huh?
• 0:52
  Speaker A: Let's go, right, 2,400 miles, right through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, and straight into California, right to Santa Monica. What do they do? They call it Route 66. Get your kicks on route. Okay. Anyway, within 20 years after that, within 20 years, Route 66 goes from a line on the map to, like, the Silk Road of America. You remember the Silk Road? Shout out to Silk Road episode? Yes. And it started connecting all these people in America from all these different. And for the first time ever in what, 150 years, our country, you would say, felt unified. So you're probably wondering, like, why did I just pick Route 66 to do our next podcast episode? Because it's a road, and roads are boring. And I know you're already looking at me funny because, Amanda, it's not just a road. It is how we invented our culture, our American culture, our American identity. I'm arguing it is the soul of America. That's what we're doing.
• 1:50
  Speaker B: Route 66.
• 1:51
  Speaker A: Route 66. So here's what we're promising today. Are you ready for this?
• 1:53
  Speaker B: I'm ready.
• 1:53
  Speaker A: Okay, first, why it even existed in the first place. And how the timing, literally, was everything. Timing is everything. Okay, this is gonna be wild. I freaked out over this one. Okay, second, some stories from the actual people who used it. Like the tourists, the soldiers, the writers. Like, people, like, moving through the road and why it was so important. And then finally, why we, as Americans, we are still obsessed with it, even though the government officially decommissioned it almost 50 years ago. Decommissioned it's decommissioned. Bom, bom, bom. Off the map.
• 2:21
  Speaker B: I can see the flag on it.
• 2:23
  Speaker A: You can, but it's off the map. I know, I know.
• 2:25
  Speaker B: This is wild.
• 2:25
  Speaker A: I know. It's gonna be crazy. Here we go. Let's go get into it. Welcome back to Sort of Sophisticated, the podcast where culture, curiosity, and chaos collide. How excited are you, scale of 1 to 10? Go tell me.
• 2:35
  Speaker B: I mean, I'm pretty excited because we did do a road trip on Route 66 with my parents.
• 2:39
  Speaker A: Of course you did. Because you do everything that I don't do. I sit in the studio and talk about it. You actually live the experiences. I love you for this. This is it.
• 2:47
  Speaker B: In a converse way. You know all the details about it. I did it because I'm like, oh, this sounds like a good idea. And it's like cars from Disney.
• 2:54
  Speaker A: Disney. Yes.
• 2:55
  Speaker B: Oh, my.
• 2:55
  Speaker A: Go it, Yogi. You're so into it.
• 2:57
  Speaker B: So, you know, we stopped at, like, all the fun little towns along the way, but I didn't realize. I ran across the country, but I didn't realize it was what connected. Like, that was the first thing that connected the world.
• 3:08
  Speaker A: It was very, very purposeful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is.
• 3:11
  Speaker B: Or that it was decommissioned.
• 3:12
  Speaker A: I know.
• 3:13
  Speaker B: Already two new fun facts.
• 3:14
  Speaker A: That was wild, right? I had no idea.
• 3:16
  Speaker B: All right, so it's our word of the week. Something to do with, like, decommissioning a road or shutting something down or. I'm going for definition, not actual word here.
• 3:26
  Speaker A: Not even close. Okay. Because I don't. I do it on purpose. Like, I make sure the word of the week doesn't match. So it's hard for you.
• 3:30
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 3:30
  Speaker A: All right. Word of the week this week is saturnine. Saturnine.
• 3:35
  Speaker B: That sounds like asinine.
• 3:36
  Speaker A: Saturnine. Yeah. I don't even know what it means.
• 3:38
  Speaker B: Saturn. Like Saturn.
• 3:39
  Speaker A: Saturn. Okay.
• 3:40
  Speaker B: The planet. I don't know.
• 3:41
  Speaker A: Maybe it's an adjective. It means slow, gloomy, and sullen in temperament.
• 3:47
  Speaker B: What does Saturn mean in Latin?
• 3:49
  Speaker A: Yeah, So I guess it goes back to, like, medieval astrologers that believed if you were born under Saturn, you came out cold and heavy, sort of like lead. Which, fun fact is also where you get the word leaden from, which describes someone's mood. Also, they're in a leaden mood. L, E, A, D, E, N. Yes. So slow, gloomy, and sullen in temperament.
• 4:13
  Speaker B: Fair. I don't even know how we're going to get this word in leaden. Like heavy.
• 4:17
  Speaker A: No, like, not like heavy. Like. Like heavy like mood. Not like heavy like Physically feeling. Feeling heavy feeling.
• 4:24
  Speaker B: Yeah, no.
• 4:25
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 4:25
  Speaker B: I'm not going to get this one. Okay.
• 4:27
  Speaker A: Saturday anyways. Okay.
• 4:28
  Speaker B: Why don't we just go back to 66? The thing that was. I was actually intrigued with 66. So why is it 66 and not one Route 1?
• 4:36
  Speaker A: Like, because that. Because it was the first real. It was like the OG Road.
• 4:39
  Speaker B: Wouldn't that make sense?
• 4:39
  Speaker A: That's actually a good question. I don't know. Hold on. If you like what you're listening to, hit subscribe and follow us, please. New episodes come out every Wednesday morning at 30 on your favorite podcast platforms.
• 4:51
  Speaker B: You're so good at that.
• 4:52
  Speaker A: I know. I gotta remember each time because, like, somehow I think I'm hoping for the one person to be like, oh, okay.
• 4:58
  Speaker B: 4:30.
• 4:59
  Speaker A: Yeah, okay. All right. Why not Route 1? Okay, here we go. So here's the thing. Like, 1926. This all happened in 1926. It's the 100th year anniversary of this road. That's the whole point. Okay. They had roads, right? They just were messy roads. And the problem was is every state owned their own numbering system for their roads and then their own. Right. They didn't have those. They didn't have interstates yet. So they had their own roads with their own numbers and their own signs. So it sort of like sucked because you'd be like following a road through, I don't know, like Missouri or something like that. And as soon as you got close enough to crossing to Oklahoma or Oklahoma next, I think it is anyway, if I'm wrong. Oh, well, I'm only sort of sophisticated. The road would just sort of end, right? It was just because it was whatever the last town was and then that was it. And then you would, like, drive through fields and grass and mud till you were like in the next state and then picked up their next dirt road and they were totally discombobulated. It was bonkers.
• 5:51
  Speaker B: I mean, it's one thing that I think makes, like, the United States so unique because really, each state, if you think of it as being its own country. Yeah, this makes sense.
• 6:00
  Speaker A: This is right.
• 6:01
  Speaker B: This right of, like, why the road would just end and then you'd have to go find the next road because you're going to a different country.
• 6:05
  Speaker A: It's, it's, it's bonkers because that's in other countries, that's what would happen. But here it's in the States. It's what's happening.
• 6:10
  Speaker B: Right? And so I think, I mean, even just that the road connected all of us I think it even took us a step further from being little individualized countries and domains to unify one big.
• 6:23
  Speaker A: The United States of America. I mean, because if you really think about it, I'm totally off. I'm off the reservation right now. Completely United States. Think about those words. That's like an emotional feeling. The United States. Like, other countries don't have that. Portugal does. Spain, like, we named our country. On a feeling. On a feeling.
• 6:44
  Speaker B: You think of, like, Portugal and Spain. I mean, everything in that region, they all share borders. They're all super close. Just like here in the States.
• 6:52
  Speaker A: Right.
• 6:52
  Speaker B: But I, like, they're not part. I mean, I know they're part of the EU and whatever, but I don't know. I don't. I just feel like it's something very specifically American. Yeah. I don't know.
• 7:04
  Speaker A: It is kind of wild.
• 7:05
  Speaker B: I know, I know. Okay, digress.
• 7:06
  Speaker A: All right, so there we are. So we have the roads like that are all messy all over the place. And then you had the Model T. So all the way back when I said they were still cranking. Yes, they're cranking up. So mass production of Model t started in 1908. So by 1926, there were like 20 million of these, like, cars on the road already. So the federal government steps in and says, enough's enough. We need to organize into one unified, like, normal national system. And. And they decide to use the same numbering logic through all the states. So same sign, same numbering, all that kind of stuff. And they sort of took all the existing roads that were already there and sort of stitched them all together and then gave them federal numbers. And that is the moment that Route 66 was born. Like, right then, not as a new road, but like a unified concept that they were gonna put it all together.
• 7:49
  Speaker B: Okay, but how. Then again, Route 66, like, why 66?
• 7:54
  Speaker A: Why 62? Oh, I didn't even answer.
• 7:56
  Speaker B: Roots.
• 7:56
  Speaker A: Yeah, no, that was a whole. That was a whole nother rabbit hole I went down. Sorry. Okay, so first of all, question. Do you know who the president was in 1926?
• 8:03
  Speaker B: Sure.
• 8:03
  Speaker A: Don't putting you on the spot.
• 8:04
  Speaker B: Nope.
• 8:04
  Speaker A: You don't know who was in charge of all this?
• 8:06
  Speaker B: Somebody with glasses.
• 8:08
  Speaker A: I like that. That's why we are sort of sophisticated. President Calvin Coolidge, people. He was the President.
• 8:14
  Speaker B: Does he have glasses?
• 8:17
  Speaker A: I believe he did have glasses. I don't know if good old Cal had. No, Cal, I don't think had glasses. Well, anyway, so here's a rabbit hole. So it started with some guy named Cyrus Avery, who is this big Oklahoma businessman guy who wanted this transcontinental road to run through his hometown. Specifically Tulsa, Oklahoma. Oh, Tulsa. The problem was he wasn't like a state representative or anything. He was just a guy from Oklahoma who, like, had some pole and wanted to make a shit ton of money. Okay, so the same time that's Cyrus is starting to advocate. Right. First lobbyist or whatever, the government is, like, deciding on all of the names of all the roads. So they decided, completely unrelated to Cyrus, that the big important highways, they're going to have zeros and fives. So if you go across the country, it ends in zero, and if you're going north to south, it ends in five. Right. That's why we, like, we have Interstate 15, Interstate 25, Interstate 35, all across the country, one way. You did not know this? This is news to you?
• 9:10
  Speaker B: Yeah, I may have heard it somewhere.
• 9:12
  Speaker A: Yeah. That's why we have the 10 and then the 20 and then the 30 and then the 40 and then the.
• 9:18
  Speaker B: Oh, it goes up.
• 9:19
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.
• 9:20
  Speaker B: Oh, the five. So the five. Well, the five go up and down.
• 9:22
  Speaker A: Yes, the five.
• 9:23
  Speaker B: Yeah. Right.
• 9:23
  Speaker A: The five is the first one.
• 9:24
  Speaker B: On the west coast, you have a 10.
• 9:25
  Speaker A: The 10. Wrong way.
• 9:26
  Speaker B: 210.
• 9:27
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 9:27
  Speaker B: No, but the two 10 are not.
• 9:29
  Speaker A: You're off your rocker. Just do the five. Yeah, the five is the farthest on the West. The next one is the 15. That's the next one. That runs all the way up.
• 9:37
  Speaker B: But I drive on the 405.
• 9:39
  Speaker A: Those are not. So I'm only talking about the interstate.
• 9:41
  Speaker B: How do I know what's the interstate?
• 9:42
  Speaker A: They are all two numbers and they go from 5 to 95 across the country. Oh, and from 10 to 90, up and down. That's it. Those are the ones.
• 9:53
  Speaker B: Anything else that you have, you have the OG ones. Anything else is extra.
• 9:56
  Speaker A: Now, can I get back on track, please? Okay, so the whole point.
• 9:59
  Speaker B: Yes, question F. So those are interstates. The 91 and the 405 have different logos?
• 10:06
  Speaker A: Yes. They're not interstates.
• 10:07
  Speaker B: One's a freeway.
• 10:08
  Speaker A: They're both freeways.
• 10:09
  Speaker B: But why do they have different logos?
• 10:11
  Speaker A: I have no idea. Now you're getting way too sophisticated. From Adirondacks.
• 10:13
  Speaker B: Okay, sorry. Just kidding. Sorry.
• 10:14
  Speaker A: Yes. I don't know. That's all California state.
• 10:16
  Speaker B: Then why 66?
• 10:17
  Speaker A: Route 60.
• 10:17
  Speaker B: Right.
• 10:18
  Speaker A: Okay, so back 60. So 60 was already taken. So 10, 20, 30, 40, 56, that was already taken. So the government talked to Cyrus Avery and said, hey, you want 62? And he's like 62. That's like low key ghetto. I don't want 62. What does that. That doesn't even mean anything. So the story goes, him and his friend, a guy named John Woodruff, are sitting in this hotel in Springfield, Missouri, of all places. I don't know. And they like the idea of 66. They like, like the duplicative number. So they sent a telegram to watch. It said, screw 62, we want 66. And that's officially government granted it to him on April 30, 1926, and said, let's go. You get it.
• 10:51
  Speaker B: So this guy who is a nobody, essentially businessman of some sort, he wanted money and he had money.
• 10:57
  Speaker A: Yep. He had money, he wanted money. All of the above. He wanted to make sure that he had a route that ran through his town because he was an opportunist. And he figured, if I can make a route from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California, I. I'm going to have.
• 11:14
  Speaker B: So he came up with the root idea, or just the fact that it was going through Tulsa.
• 11:17
  Speaker A: He came up with the root idea and wanted it specifically to go through Tulsa. The whole problem was the government had already decided other routes. And they're like, this route is dumb. It doesn't match what we're trying to do. But he was like, I want to do it anyway. Lobbied one, got Route 66, they started stitching it all together, and he owns a shit ton of gas stations and starts making a gazillion dollars in Tulsa, Oklahoma. That is basically what happens.
• 11:40
  Speaker B: Capitalism.
• 11:41
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 11:41
  Speaker B: To a T. Yes.
• 11:42
  Speaker A: So there you go. What are you gonna do?
• 11:44
  Speaker B: So he basically kills it. Cyrus. Right time. I think you said that earlier. Like, right time, right place, right all the things. So was it just for him or was it. I would assume it benefited a lot of people that were on Route 66. But then in the 20s, we had the roaring 20s, we had the depression, we had World War II.
• 12:01
  Speaker A: So, yeah, no, it was totally timing and it was like all three of the things you just said were basically played into it. So it's just different decades, but here we go. So Great Depression was the first one. Right. So you rem the Dust Bowl. Okay. Grapes of Wrath. Okay. Dust Bowl. So that was a whole nother rabbit hole. Can I go down that rabbit hole for a second? So sure. Okay. I have too many things going on right now. So the Great Depression hits at the same time as the Dust bowl is happening. So the Dust bowl was a drought? Started as a drought. But the problem was really not a Drought. Like, how does dust come from drought? Because I'm like, really? I don't get how those are connected. Apparently they had shitty farming techniques for years and years up to this point of like, getting rid of all the deep rooted grass that was there and then trying to farm, not with good systems. And as a result, once the drought hit, that grass was gone and there was no more, like, whatever, leverage, like, in the ground. I don't know what word I'm using. It's not the right word, but you get the idea. And so when the winds came inevitably every year, this wasn't like some catastrophic dust storm. The winds came every year. The problem was, because they had screwed up the ground so much because of the drought, the dust started, I mean, literally black clouds of dust across the United States. Peter, why are we telling me all this? Okay, my point is, is that was the first big movement of people. So that was the first time. Route 66. So, right place, right time. Three years after they commissioned this road in 1926, millions and millions of people are now on this road to get out of wherever they were, like Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, anywhere. Like, they had nowhere to farm, they had nothing to do. They all just wanted to go west. And they all get on Route 66. And as a result of dumping on Route 66, Route 66 starts to build. I mean, I'm talking infrastructure, right? Motels, gas stations, lodges, like, whatever, like all the things that you remember had to start getting built because of the. Did you like Grapes of Rot? Did you not like her? Give me the. Do you remember Grapes of Wrath? Nothing? Okay. One of the greatest American novels ever written.
• 14:00
  Speaker B: That's why you should have been a mystery, too.
• 14:02
  Speaker A: Can I make you go back and read Grapes of Wrath? No, you're not. Okay. Anyway, that's what it's all about. And it's very sad, actually. There's no good ending. And if you read it, you'll really get a good understanding of Ma and Pa Jode. The good old Joads. Yeah, okay. Anyway, my point of bringing up Steinbeck was he nicknamed it in the book, he nicknamed it the Mother Road. And to this day, that is still the nickname of Route 66.
• 14:26
  Speaker B: It makes sense, though.
• 14:27
  Speaker A: The Mother Road. Like the Silk Road. You got the Silk Road, you got the Mother Road. Okay, all right, here's the deal. Next thing, World War II. You brought up World War II. So fast forward 10 years now, there's infrastructure and so on and so forth. In the 1940s, what does America have to do? They have to Recruit soldiers. Where are they recruiting soldiers from, Amanda? A bunch of small towns all over the United States of America. So the government has to get all these people that they're literally demanding go to war. They gotta get them to all these base camps or whatever in the United States so they can ship them over to Europe. Millions and millions of people, literally overnight, jump back on the roads and start building them up even bigger. So, like, diners now start getting built or more bigger restaurants and motels start turning into hotels. Cause families are going, soldiers are going, so on and so forth. How long does the war last? What do they do when the war ends? They all want to come home. So they all get back on Route 66, and they all go back. There's no other way to get home. So 19, we'll call it early 1930s, Great Depression. Everybody moving out west because of the dream of California and green and orange trees and grass and beautiful everything. 1940s, the war. Families have to get things, even munitions. We have to move everything everywhere. So you have now 20 years worth of infrastructure being built on this road. You with me so far?
• 15:47
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 15:47
  Speaker A: Okay. And then the last thing, of course. What happens after the war? What do we do? What's the generation that comes after the war?
• 15:52
  Speaker B: Boomers.
• 15:53
  Speaker A: The boomers, what did they do? They did it. They made babies. That's exactly yes. So everybody's making babies, and our economy is going bonkers. And our middle class, as a result, like, doubles overnight. And everybody wants to move out of cities into suburbs. And where they gonna go? They're gonna get back on the road because it's time to. For the first time in American history, in the 1950s, families are gonna go on vacations because they have two incomes and they have disposable money. Right. So they jump on the road and they start traveling. And where do you want to travel when you want to go on vacation, Amanda? California. Everybody wants to go to California. So the road trip was officially born in the 1950s, thanks to the baby boomer generation and thanks to Route 66.
• 16:40
  Speaker B: I love it. I mean, I'm always here for a good road trip.
• 16:42
  Speaker A: I hate road trips, though. I would kill myself.
• 16:44
  Speaker B: I would pick. I mean, we live in California.
• 16:46
  Speaker A: So you've done road trip. You do road trips with your girls all the time?
• 16:49
  Speaker B: Every year. Yeah.
• 16:50
  Speaker A: I would kill myself, like, if I had to go. No. Like, I can't.
• 16:54
  Speaker B: Yeah. I'll be gone for a week in, like, three weeks.
• 16:57
  Speaker A: Yeah, but you, like, no. You have the patience for. I just don't have the patience for it. And maybe I would now. Now that my kids are growing up. But with four kids. No, I just. And maybe I had the means so I could travel. I don't know. Maybe I'm being a little bit of a, like, white entitled guy right now, but not. Not my thing.
• 17:10
  Speaker B: Maybe. Yeah, because we weren't. And so that's all we ever did as kids, was we'd hop in the car and we just drive. So I very much, you know, am in tune with this concept.
• 17:21
  Speaker A: So I love the idea. I love the idea of it because I think of Disney and I think of cars and the whole.
• 17:25
  Speaker B: It's a trip, it's not vacation.
• 17:26
  Speaker A: Yeah. No, but. Yeah, both. Yeah. Like, I think of all the. Like, when I watch cars, it's nostalgic. Like, I get the idea. The diner, when you go in, cars land in, literally Disneyland. Very nostalgic. So, yeah, I just can't get over the hump of actually going and doing that. But maybe that's something I got to put on a bucket list. I don't know. Whatever. Okay, my point is, those are the three things you were right. The Great Depression and the Dust bowl, World War II. And then. I mean, you didn't quite say it, but then the boomers. Right. Those are the three things that. That I said. Timing was everything. 10 years apart. Boom, boom, boom. And established. What was this little idea of some guy who wanted to make money into a massive, massive thoroughfare infrastructure, vacation destination.
• 18:06
  Speaker B: Cultural phenomenon.
• 18:07
  Speaker A: Yes, Cultural phenomenon. Absolutely. Cultural phenomenon.
• 18:10
  Speaker B: All right. Okay, wait, hold on. Before we move on, I have three questions. One, because in my brain, like, we have the five.
• 18:15
  Speaker A: Wait a second. I'm not gonna remember all three questions.
• 18:18
  Speaker B: Okay, well, you can.
• 18:19
  Speaker A: Can I answer, like, one at a time? Cause I'm never gonna be able to do this.
• 18:21
  Speaker B: Sure. If it's so intriguing for you to answer. Yes.
• 18:23
  Speaker A: But if I don't know, what do I say then? Can we phone a friend?
• 18:27
  Speaker B: Sure.
• 18:27
  Speaker A: Okay.
• 18:27
  Speaker B: If you want.
• 18:28
  Speaker A: That'd be cool if we could do right now. Okay, Sorry, go ahead.
• 18:30
  Speaker B: You have to be old enough to know what phone a friend is. Anyways, digress. Oh, so. So we have the 5, the 15, the 25, all the way to the 95.
• 18:37
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 18:37
  Speaker B: We have the 10, the 20, the 30, all the way to whatever. Okay, where is, like, Route 66 and all of that mess? Because two thirds of the way.
• 18:46
  Speaker A: Two thirds of the way between the 60 and the 70. Just kidding. I know the 60. Okay. Right. No, different 60. I know, I know, I know. I knew that was going to piss you off. But anyway, okay, here's. Here's Route 66 was sort of before them all because even though the federal government in, like, the 1920s said we're going to build all these highways and this infrastructure, they hadn't built them all out. So 66 got built out first. And so only after they started building the other federal highways did Route 66 start to, like, get decommissioned or not get used anymore. So it's not.
• 19:19
  Speaker B: They're like.
• 19:20
  Speaker A: So to be honest, I think the 10 and the 66 actually overlap. I do think there's, like, parts of it, the nostalgic parts, because it runs through Santa Monica. Yes. But after that, there's no real connection. The 20 took over, the 30 took over, the 40 took over, whatever. They're not connected like that.
• 19:34
  Speaker B: Okay. Fair.
• 19:35
  Speaker A: Good question.
• 19:36
  Speaker B: That helps my brain because I was like, I don't understand.
• 19:39
  Speaker A: Don't ask me about Calvin Coolidge again in glasses, because I don't.
• 19:42
  Speaker B: I mean, I don't know much about him. Anyways. Second question. Did Route 66 get decommissioned because of air travel? And people are traveling less on it because, like, we have this, like, fascination with Route 66. It's like this mythological feel good road.
• 19:56
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 19:56
  Speaker B: But it was. Because prior to so much air travel. Yeah, true.
• 20:00
  Speaker A: That I didn't look all.
• 20:01
  Speaker B: I don't know.
• 20:02
  Speaker A: I didn't look all of it up. I'm gonna say sort of sophisticatedly. Yes.
• 20:05
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 20:05
  Speaker A: It had to have something to do with it, but I think we've just. As the interstates and freeways and highways, everything got so much more sophisticated. I mean, it just did. Like, we can drive 80 miles an hour now, and everything is linked so much better that by default, it got decommissioned. I think air travel was a part of it, but not like the big reason. The big reason was the interstate system took over and our engineering just went bonkers. And we're awesome at it. Yeah. Okay. Okay, third question. So far, I'm one and a half for two. Okay.
• 20:34
  Speaker B: Yeah. So then why was everyone in love with Route 60? I mean, I say that question, and I think the answer is, oh, everyone loved it because it was the road that connected everything and everyone. And especially during the 20s or whenever Steinbeck was around, et cetera, et cetera. But I feel like maybe it was, like, romanticized. It was.
• 20:52
  Speaker A: It was totally romanticized. Oh, yeah. Yeah.
• 20:53
  Speaker B: And I think it's because of the time, and that was the it thing.
• 20:58
  Speaker A: Yeah. So here's the deal.
• 21:00
  Speaker B: That's why were Writers so fascinated with it.
• 21:01
  Speaker A: Yeah, like, well, I'm gonna get off track and then I'll get back on track. I'll answer. The one thing is like, I don't think I personally don't do a good job in 2026, like, putting myself in a position of someone back then. Because if you were living back then, of course you're going to like, it was the best thing ever on the planet. It was freedom. It represented hope. It represented so much to so many families. I just finished watching oh Jesus, 1883. It's like a Yellowstone spinoff or whatever. And, like, you know, James Dutton is like, going across the country to try to get to Montana. And really well done. But it's all about hope. And we don't have that anymore because we have the luxury of living in Orange county and not worrying about stuff like that. So we've lost that connection with what people's struggles were. And so it's sort of like, to us, it's like, well, why was it important? It's like, no, shit, it was important back then. Cause we're not putting ourselves in the right. I'm not putting myself in the right context. That being said, two main massive reasons why it went literally, like, magisterial or mythological, you would say. One was Jack Kerouac. The famous beatnik author Jack Kerouac, okay? So he writes this book called on the Road, and he publishes it in 1957. And it is literally an autobiographical novel about just like, going across America with his friends with no destination, absolutely no plan. And that book became the anthem of what you call the Beat generation back in the day. Like, people that rejected conformity before the hippies, like, what were. They were like the countercultural movement of that. Those people. And they became the hippies in the 60s, right? And then punk rock in the 70s. Or then, like, now it's the. The Gen Z years with their. I'm not going to go to college and I'm going to take a gap year. Like you. You have. It's countercultural. So in the 50s, that was Jack Kerouac, and those were his people, okay? And that book was legendary. Legendary. And so people ate it up. And as a result, one reason why it became super, like, crazy, mythological and fun fact about that, the book wasn't actually about Route 66. It was really more about, like, I was talking about freedom and just going west from wherever you were, period. You're not going to find in the book where to go on Route 66 at all. It's just the journey to nowhere was the concept. Okay. Anyway, and the second thing was, of course, TV. Thank you. They made a television show called Route 66, and it aired for four seasons on CBS, came out in 1960, and people were obsessed. So it was these two guys drove around the country, literally in a Corvette, stopping in these little random towns and getting into, like, all sorts of adventures or, you know, whatever they did back then. Hijinks. They got into hijinks back then. I think you called them now. They got into serious trouble back then. It was just hijinks. So between the TV show Route 66 and Jack Kerouac, that's where we took it from. This is a road that people used for decades to. This is American culture, ultimate American culture. Make sense?
• 23:49
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 23:49
  Speaker A: And that's why today, people literally like, you are like, what is this Route 66 thing? I spent the time to go down the rabbit hole. I didn't know any of this. But, like, I'm sure there are people that are like, oh, my God, I got to learn about this. What is this all about?
• 23:58
  Speaker B: Yeah, this is fascinating. I mean, I drove on it, not even realizing how much culture.
• 24:04
  Speaker A: Well, anybody out here in California. I mean, you drove on it purposely, but anybody out here in California has driven, like, of course you've driven on a little bit, right? Because you got. You're going to be on the 10 for some reason.
• 24:12
  Speaker B: But if everyone loved it so much, why did it die? Why was it decommissioned?
• 24:16
  Speaker A: I know, right? Because of.
• 24:17
  Speaker B: It wasn't. Because of air travel. And so I'm like. Because we got other states, I guess.
• 24:21
  Speaker A: No, just kidding.
• 24:22
  Speaker B: Always Trump's fault.
• 24:23
  Speaker A: So kind of sad. But here's a story. Okay, so 1956, President, then Dwight D. Eisenhower. You remember Eisenhower? Okay. We, like. Okay. Signed something called the Federal Aid highway act, which officially created that interstate highway system. We know that, like, put the infrastructure around what they originally said they were going to do in 1926. So it took 30 years for them to start building out all the roads, doing the infrastructure, doing the engineering, so on and so forth. And to be honest, it's the best thing he ever did. Because, of course, where would we be without freeways and everything like that? So don't get me wrong. But I mean, literally, probably one of the most complicated projects in human history. Okay, but my point is, is Route 66, at that point, basically was like, okay, we're done. We're the redheaded stepchild. They don't need us anymore. That was it. So all these small towns that Route 66 ran through, started, of course, dying off because the freeways were not going around those small towns and nobody cared anymore. The motels closed, the gas station closed, the diners closed, and people were just starting to get their services off the side of the highways faster, better, didn't need it as frequently because cars were becoming more efficient, so on and so forth. And then finally, in 1985, it was officially decommissioned, like, removed, like I said at the beginning, from, like, the highway map system altogether. So it is not a federal road anymore. That's it. But to your point, it is absolutely still there. You can drive on it and everything. Totally right. Because as soon as somebody decommissioned something, then all of a sudden we have a social movement around. Like, we can't really do that. So even though our federal government did that, people got super invested in it, were like, no, no, no, hold on. This is nostalgia, which is, of course, awesome, because that makes everything more iconic in America, and I love that. So they've now preserved it. Certainly parts of it are now preserved, and the government has made room to preserve it. Even though it's a decommissioned federal highway, it's not gone forever now. We're preserving what we can of the legacy behind the whole thing. And fun fact, Americans aren't even the most people that drive on it every year.
• 26:14
  Speaker B: Really?
• 26:14
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 26:15
  Speaker B: Why?
• 26:15
  Speaker A: Because when you think from other countries, specifically when I was looking all this up, Germany and Japan, I mean, a lot of them, but Germany and Japan top the list. They equate American culture and freedom to this road. So when they come to America, one of the first things they want to see is Route 66, and they want to drive on that. It's like, it's America to them in the purest form. Because you think back to America, right? What was America? America was cowboys. America was the frontier. America was, right? So that's what it represents to them. So, I mean, I'm sure, like, they have that in other countries. I don't know what other countries would be like, oh, it would be like the bullet train in Japan. Like, if you got on the bullet train and be like, if I went to Japan, I haven't been to Japan. Have you been to Japan?
• 26:54
  Speaker B: That's what you would do, right?
• 26:55
  Speaker A: You get on the bullet train, right? So, like, I think there's things like that in other countries that you immediately in Germany, the Autobahn.
• 27:01
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 27:01
  Speaker A: My dad. I remember my dad got us on the autobahn, and he was so excited. He's like, there's no speed limit, kids. And it was the Stupidest thing ever. I was, like, 8 years old, sitting
• 27:07
  Speaker B: in the back of the car.
• 27:08
  Speaker A: We're going, like, 100 miles an hour, freaking out. I'm like, what the hell's happening here? So, like, it's the same thing. That makes sense.
• 27:13
  Speaker B: Yes.
• 27:13
  Speaker A: Yeah. Okay.
• 27:14
  Speaker B: Place to see, place to visit, place to check off the bucket list.
• 27:17
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 27:18
  Speaker B: Well, you stuck in a couple of fun facts there. I did do more.
• 27:20
  Speaker A: I do.
• 27:21
  Speaker B: Oh, I love fun facts.
• 27:22
  Speaker A: This was my favorite fun fact. You know how sometimes I, like, I get into, like, a little lot of the research. This one by far, was fun fact galore. We're gonna need a part B to this episode. It's so long. I mean, I don't even know. I don't even know how we're gonna get through this.
• 27:33
  Speaker B: Let's see how many of them I either know or I've experienced. Didn't even know.
• 27:36
  Speaker A: Oh, shit. All right, let's go. You ready? Okay. So, number one. You know the song get your kicks on Route 66? I was singing it earlier.
• 27:43
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 27:43
  Speaker A: Right, okay. Written by Bobby Troup in 1946. Get your kicks on Route 66. Did you know that he wrote it while he was actually driving to California with his wife to try to make it in the music business? He was on the road when he wrote it. And the story goes, somewhere along the way, his wife turned to him and just said, you should write a song about this road. She's the one who came up with the title. His wife, who would have known behind every great man. Okay. And then from there, Nat King Cole records it. It blows up, becomes a mega hit that we all know and love. And super fun fact. It is one of the most covered songs in all of American music history. Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry, Depeche Mode, everybody. All music genres. Everybody's covered it. Written by a guy on his way to California with nothing but a dream and his wife with better ideas than he had. Go for it. Get your kicks on Route 66. I love that song. Okay. Number two.
• 28:38
  Speaker B: I feel like that's the only reason why I know Route 66.
• 28:40
  Speaker A: That's why everybody knows Route 66.
• 28:42
  Speaker B: Yeah, so many times.
• 28:42
  Speaker A: Okay, anyway, number two. In a field in Amarillo, Texas. Did you get to Texas? Did you see this? No.
• 28:47
  Speaker B: No, we did go to Texas.
• 28:48
  Speaker A: Okay. Off the side of the road, just sitting there on Route 66, are 10 Cadillacs buried nose first into the ground, just sticking up out of the dirt at like a 45 degree angle.
• 28:56
  Speaker B: Is that where the lights come from this is art.
• 28:59
  Speaker A: I don't know. Is it? I don't know. Oh shit. Now you gotta look that up. I don't even know. So apparently they were buried there in 1974 by this eccentric Texas oil millionaire named Stanley Marsh, who hired a San Francisco art company to do it all in the name of art. The whole point was a critique on modern society back then. Cause they took Cadillacs, obviously the ult symbol of like excess in America right after the war, the baby boomers with the Cadillacs and they literally buried them in the ground as tombstones. That was the idea. Like here lies the American dream. But of course, then in perfect American fashion, the most American thing happens and people start loving it and families start driving out to see them in the middle of nowhere as a tribute. So what was supposed to be this like ironic take on American culture turned out to be this awesome thing that Americans love.
• 29:46
  Speaker B: I mean. And yes, it is actually. Yes, the mountains in Pixar's. And like the animation team took the exact silhouette of the buried vehicles and adapted it into the jagged car shaped rock formations that overlook Radiator Springs. But the more I didn't even know that it was based off of these. I didn't know either. Just when you. I knew the mountains were cars. Yeah, yeah. Huh.
• 30:06
  Speaker A: Now you know. I didn't know that either. That's wild. We'll never look at. That's a hidden. That's not a hidden Mickey. That's a hidden Cadillac. Okay, number three. This one I could not believe. When Route 66 got popular, some towns literally, Amanda relocated themselves closer to the highway, the actual town, on purpose. Physically moved their buildings and infrastructure. They figured like traffic would be so valuable. They deconstructed buildings and moved them to the side of the road so they wouldn't be invisible anymore. That's how important this was Route 66, economically important. Okay, number four. Speaking of spending money. Competition was so fierce back in the 1950s, some guy decided to build concrete teepees that he called the Wigwam motels. Did you go to him?
• 30:49
  Speaker B: No.
• 30:50
  Speaker A: The closest one is in Arizona. Yes, all over the southwest. Full size concrete structure shaped exactly like Native American teepees that you could literally sleep inside. He built seven of them. Two of them still exist today. One of them is in Holbrook, Arizona. And you can still book a room if you want to. You did not see that one.
• 31:05
  Speaker B: Maybe we did.
• 31:06
  Speaker A: I did not. I have not.
• 31:07
  Speaker B: Let me see.
• 31:07
  Speaker A: All right, look that up. I'm gonna keep going cause I have a lot. Okay, number five, right near the start of Route 66 in Collinsville, Illino, you can see the world's largest ketchup bottle. How do you like that? Who would have known? Because who wouldn't want to see that? Apparently, in 1949, the Brooks Ketchup Company decided it would be a good advertisement campaign to shape their water tower as a ketchup bottle so they could advertise ketchup.
• 31:30
  Speaker B: I mean, it was a way to.
• 31:32
  Speaker A: It's like Randy's Donuts, you know? And that's right. It almost got torn down in 1993. But, of course, then a bunch of people fought to save it and successfully restored it, and now it is on the National Register of Historic Places. You could go see the world's largest ketchup bottle. Yeah.
• 31:45
  Speaker B: So good.
• 31:46
  Speaker A: Did you find the Wigma Motel in Arizona?
• 31:48
  Speaker B: So loosely it's tied into cars. I haven't figured out how exactly, but we did look at staying there. But it's really hard because, like, it's always booked.
• 31:56
  Speaker A: Oh, I can imagine.
• 31:56
  Speaker B: Yeah.
• 31:57
  Speaker A: All right, number six. When Route 66 was officially designated in 1926, well, the 800 miles of its 2,400 miles were actually paved. So remember how we said, we're stitching it together? The whole thing had to get stitched together. All the rest was gravel and dirt. And actually, one part of Texas, it was wooden planks. Literally, wooden planks. It wasn't completely paved until 1938. Twelve years after it was officially declared a federal highway, it finally got paved. So all those dust bowl families driving to California in the early 1930s. Most of that shit, Amanda, was dirt roads and wooden planks. Kill me now.
• 32:27
  Speaker B: Okay, hold on. So I found the, like, connection with the Wigwam Hotel's motel. Hotel.
• 32:32
  Speaker A: Motel, whatever.
• 32:32
  Speaker B: Teepees. Whatever.
• 32:33
  Speaker A: Tps, right? Yeah, Concrete teepees.
• 32:35
  Speaker B: So the Cozy Cone Motel in Radiator Springs. The inspiration behind the cone.
• 32:40
  Speaker A: The five cones. There's six. Well, probably seven cones. I don't even know. That's where my kids get their Mac and cheese. The Cozy Cone. Oh, but those are like. But those are, like, red comb.
• 32:48
  Speaker B: Well, it's like the cone, but it's. The inspo is behind it.
• 32:51
  Speaker A: Okay, okay, okay. I'll take that. I'll take that. That's good. That's good.
• 32:54
  Speaker B: That's kind of cool.
• 32:55
  Speaker A: Okay, last one. Finally, Route 66 ends, or starts, depending on which direction you're going, at the Santa Monica Pier. Like we said right here in California. There's actually a sign there, and the Reason it ends at the pier is kind of perfect, actually. The whole mythology thing we were talking about is that you're chasing something west, right? California, the ocean, the end of the continent. And when you get there, there's literally nowhere left to go. The road dumps you out at the end of the water. So you either have two choices. Turn around and go home or figure out what to do next. Well, just to be sophisticated, it technically ends a few blocks away at the intersection of Olympic and Lincoln. I figured out, because you can't legally end it, like, at the pier, really,
• 33:31
  Speaker B: because they know there's a sign that roots these six signs.
• 33:34
  Speaker A: It's not as sexy as the pier. And also, by the way, that sign has been stolen more than anything in the world.
• 33:39
  Speaker B: I'm sure. There's always a line. I take a picture with it. So then it's more, like, symbolic than anything else.
• 33:43
  Speaker A: Yes.
• 33:44
  Speaker B: Okay.
• 33:44
  Speaker A: Yes. I mean, how that's that and that's the best, right? Let's go. You know what? I feel like Randy Newman would be good for a Route 66, like, remake. He probably did it. Okay. Anyway, that's all I got. Fun fact.
• 33:53
  Speaker B: Whatever you say.
• 33:54
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 33:54
  Speaker B: I love how we just started talking about a road, and then we somehow, like, ended up talking about American culture and identity and Disneyland.
• 34:02
  Speaker A: A lot of Disneyland, a lot of cars.
• 34:03
  Speaker B: I mean, like, you know, Somehow this Route 66 has seeped its way.
• 34:09
  Speaker A: Unified America.
• 34:10
  Speaker B: I guess unified is unified America of just connection. Right? Whether it be Disneyland, whether it be, you know, you've traveled on it as a kid, stories, songs you've heard, fill in the blank. It is part of, like, the American culture.
• 34:23
  Speaker A: It's DNA. I said at the beginning, really quick, you had New York totally built out the whole east coast all the way to Chicago. Chicago was the westernmost city in, like, 1926. I mean, I know they had little towns, but you get the idea. Like, that was it. So when they built this, this whole thing, like, it literally did bring the country together. People could meet each other for the first time and all. Like, think of, remember the 1940s in the war? Like, think of the number of families that met other families. And, like, think of the life that was just lived on this road. Like, that's what I mean. That's why history for me, comes to life. It's insane.
• 34:54
  Speaker B: We have to experience it, right? Once you experience it, you have a different appreciation for it. All the good stuff.
• 35:00
  Speaker A: All the good stuff. And a reminder, if you want any of these fun facts or the episode summary Delivered to your inbox. DM us on Instagram. We'll send them out to you. Thank you for supporting the show.
• 35:10
  Speaker B: All right, where do we go from here?
• 35:11
  Speaker A: We get our kicks. 66. Well, whatever. I mean, first thing I would say is go drive to it. Right? Do what you did. Go experience it. Find the closest place and go to it. Okay, that's. That's one. But if you don't want to get off the couch, because I get it, some of us aren't going to get up. Watch the documentary Horatio's Drive by Ken Burns. It's not about Route 66 specifically, but it's actually about the first cross country road trip and ever in America in 1903. It's incredible. It's on PBS. I think it's streaming too. It's just amazing to see what people can do when they have the will. Like, reminds me of 1883, the show that we were talking about, of how they brought their horse and carriage across country. So Horacio's Drive by. Horatio's Drive. I think I'd say Horacio's Drive by Ken Burns. Okay, then of course, if you haven't already read the Grapes of Wrath, I talked about a few times, John Seinbeck. Everyone says they've read it. I call bullshit. I don't think most people have read it.
• 35:56
  Speaker B: I mean, I've read it. I don't remember.
• 35:59
  Speaker A: I'm going to say most people pretend they've read it. Right?
• 36:01
  Speaker B: So we all write Cliff Note version. Yeah, if you're a millionaire.
• 36:03
  Speaker A: Yeah, okay, fine. Cliff Note version. But it will put you in the mindset of what people were thinking back then. And I think that's what I want everybody to get out of this episode. It's like, holy crap, what was going on at the time? Anyway, okay, that's all I got.
• 36:13
  Speaker B: All right. And if you don't want to do any of that, then just remember these details seem sort of sophisticated. Number one, Route 66 was designated in 1926 as a federal highway running 2,400 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica, California. It was one of the first highways in the national system and ran through the American heartland at a moment in history when the country was about to go through some serious epiphany. Number two, Three major historical waves define what the road meant. The Dust bowl migration of the 1930s, where over 3.5 million Americans drove it west fleeing poverty and drought. The World War II military movement of the 1940s, which built the infrastructure and the towns and the post War tourism boom of 1950s, which created the neon diner motel aesthetic that America is still nostalgic for today. Number three, writers and artists, especially John Steinbeck in the Grapes of Wrath, evidently Pete's favorite book, and Jack Kerouac in On the road turned Route 66 into mythology. The road became a symbol of freedom, reinvention, and the idea that if your life isn't working, you can drive west and start over. Which is maybe the most uniquely American idea there ever was. Number four, Route 66 was officially decommissioned in 1985 when the interstate highway system made it obsolete. The towns it ran through largely died, sadly. But the road itself survived, and today is one of the most visited tourist destinations in the world, driven primarily by international travelers who come to experience what they see as the authentic spirit of America. And finally, the road ends at the Santa Monica Pier. It's at the edge of the Pacific Ocean, which means every single person who drove it from the beginning ended their journey staring at the water with nowhere left to go. And somehow, for millions of Americans, that felt like freedom.
• 37:46
  Speaker A: And there you have it, dear listeners. We started today with a road and somehow ended up somewhere else entirely. Of course we did. Here's what I keep coming Back to. Route 66 was not the most direct route. It wasn't the fastest. It wasn't even the prettiest. It goes through Kansas, for God's sake. But people loved it because it was theirs. Because something about being in motion, heading somewhere new, choosing to leave, that felt like hope, like possibility. Yeah, sure, freeways and interstates made everything faster, but Route 66 is still out there, cracked and faded in a lot of places. Weeds coming up through the asphalt, signs that nobody reprinted since 1967. But it's still there. And if we did our job today, maybe that's the whole point. Some roads don't need to be the fastest to get somewhere. They just need to exist. So you know the option is there. As always. If you like what you listen to, hit, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who's been thinking about getting in the car and driving somewhere for no good reason. Because it turns out that's one of the most American things you can do. Until next time, stay curious, stay moving, and remember, the destination will always be there. But the road is only as good as how slow you're willing to take it.