Culture
Get Your Kicks Biking Route 66
Cyclists are now rolling on U.S. Bike Route 66 in Missouri and Kansas, the first stretch of a route planned for the whole length of the historic 2,400-mile highway.
Decades after the interstate highway system wiped it off the map, Route 66 still conjures up images of the golden age of the automobile, when travelers cruised through the majestic landscapes and quaint towns of the American West on a ribbon of blacktop.
Those days are long gone. But the “mother road,” which stretched from Chicago to Santa Monica, has found a new life—as a bike route. The first section of United States Bicycle Route 66, a route that would roughly follow the 2,400-mile course of the original highway, was inaugurated in Missouri and Kansas last month, and it’s already hosting a steady stream of two-wheeled adventurers.