ROUTE 66 ROAD TRIP (driving 2,500 miles across america)

This video was sponsored by Audible. We're Karen and Nate. We traveled full time for four years, visiting 100 countries. But 2020 brought us back to the US where we bought our first home, a converted sprinter van.

No.

After canceling our road trip down the Pacific coast highway due to new travel advisories, we decided to use our new blank calendar as an opportunity to make it back home for the holidays. That means driving over 2,500 miles from Long Beach, Washington, to Nashville, Tennessee. Just seven days.

Must make it back.

Instead of retracing our steps on the northern route across the country, we decided to add an extra seven hours to the trip so that we could drive home with different views on the historic Route 66.

What is it? What is it?

The first two days of the trip are already behind us. All right, this is the official start for 40 hours of driving.

Let's do this. Buckle up, baby.

Here we go.

It's already raining. Surprise, surprise. Goodbye, Washington.

You were good to us on day one. After leaving the rain behind, we made the long trek through the middle of Oregon, which looked absolutely nothing like the luscious green forest we experienced on the coast. After driving well into the night until we could barely hold our eyes open anymore, we finally decided to stop in the middle. Middle of nowhere in northern Nevada.

It was completely dark when we got in last night. We just slept in a field behind a rest area. But look at what we woke up to this morning.

Also, this is like a place you're allowed to camp. It's not just a random field on the side of the road. We got about 10 hours of driving in yesterday, and we're going to try to do at least another eight today.

As we traveled south through Nevada's completely empty roads, we met a few friendly.

Locals walking down the sidewalk. We're driving through this little town, and there are wild donkeys just walking through the road.

Oh, they're coming.

Hey. I'm pretty sure he's disappointed I don't have food. Oh, this just made my day. Bye, guys. They were so much friendlier than I.

Expected as we continued south, we drove through Sin City, then crossed into Arizona, where last night we slept in the deepest, darkest motel room in the entire world. That's where we're sleeping tonight. A cave 220ft below ground that we had all to ourselves while that bee just landed on my hand.

And that brings us to today.

From here, we still have 1600 miles and 23 hours of driving before we make it home to Nashville. But it. But it'll probably take Even longer than that, because we're going to take every opportunity we can to get off of the interstate and onto Historic Route 66.

All right, we're making our first official stop on Route 66 at a classic diner for lunch.

I'm so excited.

Is it open?

This place is awesome. It smells so good. How long has this place been here?

This is year 67.

67 years. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I chose the right handle this time.

Everything about this place embodies the quirkiness that I hope to find along Route 66.

This just felt like the right place to go with the classic burger and fries.

She did not hold back on the cheese.

Wow. After 67 years, they've definitely perfected the classic cheese curd.

All right, one last thing before we go.

These are the diner's bathrooms. They look like outhouses, but inside, they're like fully functioning restrooms with more quirky decorations.

So if you're ready to start listening to content that might just change the course of your life, Audible is the best place to get started. As a member, you get one credit per month that you can redeem for any premium title, regardless of the price. And it's not a rental. It's yours to keep forever. And now they're giving members even more value with their new Audible plus catalog, which includes thousands of select audiobooks, podcasts, Audible originals, guided fitness and meditation programs, sleep tracks for better rest, and more. To get started with the 30 day free trial, just go to audible.com karennate or text Karen Nate to 500500 to sign up today. Next, we accidentally stumbled upon a very special gift shop with a unique history.

Hi there. My name is Myrna, and you're at the original Route 66 gift shop in Seligman, Arizona. This is where the whole rebirth of Route 66 began. And the person responsible for that is angel the barber. This used to be a pool hall. When angel saw the need for bringing Route 66 back to life, the pool tables went to the wayside and Route 66 memorabilia came in. We're the first store to sell anything with Route 66 on it.

Tell you've never done that before.

So this is where people would sit in Angel's chair and angel would tell them, you know, I have an idea of how to get the economy back. And after 10 long years of just talking and talking and talking, one day he got tired. He jumped in the car with his wife, Vilma. They drove down to Kingman, Arizona. They stopped at all the little communities along the way. Angel told different business leaders in different towns, I have an idea. And those people said, angel, that's a great idea. So In September of 1978, he called a meeting. Fifteen people from different communities showed up and they formed The Historic Route 66 association of Arizona, which is the grassroots association organization to give Route 66 its rebirth. We're here to make sure that Route 66 is here for generations to come. Because it's so important in order for us to know where we're going, we got to know where we came from.

This is a can't miss stop on Route 66.

The reason Route 66 is what it is today is because of Angel. It's crazy.

It is crazy. It's amazing how, yes, one person can make a difference.

We also learned that Bob's brother Juan is the guy that started the burger place that we just ate at next door.

I don't think it gets any better than this stop. I think we started at the best part of Route 66.

We'll definitely be able to appreciate the history of what we're seeing so much better now.

That was so special.

These are like the little parts of travel that you can't plan. It's just stumbling up on places like this. Yes.

I was like tearing up, listening. Thank you, Angel.

Doing good.

Alright, moving on. So if you're kind of clueless about what Route 66 is like I was a few days ago it was one of the original highways in the United States. And back in 1926 it went from Chicago, Illinois all the way to Los Angeles, California. But today it doesn't really exist because it's been replaced by new, more efficient interstates. Which is why it was so cool to get to hear Angel's story, because he was such a huge part in reviving the parts of Route 66 that still exist today.

We've just been driving down I40 and anytime we see one of those old historic Route 66 signs, we get off and drive through the town, then get back on the interstate. But we just stopped in the town of Williams, Arizona to get some ice cream.

Middle road.

So this is kind of a weird place to be arriving at sunset, but it has a super interesting history, one that an entire movie could be made about. But back in the heyday of Route 66, the story goes that an entrepreneur bought this place and attempted to turn it into a tourist attraction, but completely ignored the grim Native American history that had happened here, and went as far as selling skulls that he found in a cave as souvenirs. So Ever since then, this place has supposedly been cursed. People have been shot, things have burnt down. And this gas station right behind me is the last thing that anyone attempted to build on the property. And now all that's left on the property are remnants of this gas station, the campground, the zoo, and the original bridge that was built across Diablo Canyon.

Well, if we continued the rest of the trip, at the rate that we went today, I don't think we would get home until 2021, so we're gonna drive a few extra hours into the night.

We ended up finding a great place to camp just a little outside of Albuquerque last night. Slept in way too late this morning. And now we're continuing the journey east on I40, Route 66.

Morning.

All right, we're a little east of Albuquerque. We're back on historic Route 66. And legend has it that somewhere on this portion of the highway, if driven over correctly, it will play a song. But apparently all the signs have been taken down, and it can be a little challenging to find.

Challenge accepted.

How many guests? You get off here? Yeah. What do you think?

I mean, it says we're here. Like, it's like you're here right now, so maybe it doesn't even turn.

Definitely didn't play something.

Is that a road?

I think so.

Don't.

I was hoping Google Maps was gonna help us out, but we just come to a dead end. I guess we.

I am determined to find this road.

Don't think this is it. Oh, I think I know what it is.

What?

I think it's only going east, so I think we need to get on the other side of the road.

Brilliant. All right, we're going east.

Oh, listen.

I think this is definitely it. We gotta turn around.

This car is on the side of the road too. Was that it?

Let's switch.

Okay.

I'll drive. You safe.

Okay, your turn. Round two. Here we go. I hope you can hear it. Here we go.

America, you're not on it.

God shed his grace on thee. I can't really hear it. I was just singing.

That was a little disappointing. I expected more. All right, we're gonna try it one more time. One more time. Maybe with the window up.

Round three.

Here we go.

Okay, we'll roll the window up.

When it gets dark and we don't see anything else on Route 66, it's because we spent all day trying to get the road to put us on. All right. We can do better driving this time. Okay.

Ready for my performance?

All right. How's my will?

Maybe a Tad bit more over to the right.

All right.

Darn it.

I think I drove it pretty well that time too. We need to bring that back.

Yeah.

I'm glad we tried.

If it seems like we're breezing through New Mexico, that is because we are in an attempt to respect the travel advisories that this state has put in place. We are trying to stay in the van as much as we can and make as few stops as possible until we get to Texas.

So we've just crossed over the border from New Mexico into Texas, and on the border sits the ghost town of Glen Rio. This little town survived off tourists passing through on Route 66, but eventually I40 was built, passed the town up, and it slowly died and was left to ruin.

So sad.

We've also learned that this is the first motel ever built in Texas. So my whole life, I've just always thought you used the words hotel and motel interchangeably. But as I've been doing my research for Route 66, I learned that the word motel came from the combination of motor, hotel, and then they shortened it to become motel. So I guess hotels that motorists would stay in, or technically a motel. I still don't exactly understand the distinction, but that's where the word came from.

Wow.

That's crazy.

Kind of feel like we're back in Chernobyl. Yeah.

Oh, this is so sad.

Oh, we're in.

All right, I'm done with this. I like this about as much as I did the haunted cave. I don't like this at all.

So it looks like these are the actual motel rooms. They're all open. Which one do you want to go in?

None of them. I feel like it's a requirement that your motel must be one story.

Oh, look at this carpet. Oh, what is it?

What is it?

A bat?

Okay, that's. That's enough for me. We keep getting. We keep getting to these abandoned places right before it's about to get dark, and it makes them extra creepy. Apparently, my wife's braver than I am.

Oh, there's a mattress in here.

Oh, it smells so bad.

It's just a stick. Wow, that's so crazy.

Okay, I think I'm ready to go.

It really does feel like Chernobyl in the sense that it seems like one day people were here, and then the next day they were gone. Everything valuable has been taken, and it's just.

Trash left to decompose.

If you're looking for another book recommendation, I highly recommend the one that we're listening to right now. It's Called the Art of Resilience by Ross Edgley. And it's about his adventure, swimming around Great Britain without ever touching land. And it is so good. Unless you're squeamish. Then you probably don't want to listen to the part about his tongue disintegrating into his soup from the saltwater corrosion. It's pretty gross. But if you just want your mind blown about human potential and capabilities when it comes to physical endurance, this book is so good.

And as an added bonus, Ross is actually from Britain and he's the one narrating the story. I'm probably. Bless you. I'm probably offending every British person watching this video and I'm truly sorry. Trying to get better.

Alright, we just made it to Amarillo, Texas, which is where we are going to sleep tonight. And we just parked in the biggest, most lovely Walmart parking lot I've ever seen. Now we're gonna listen to every song on Spotify about Amarillo, which is apparently a lot, and have some noodles. So we will see you in the morning.

Look at this. I've never seen a tumbleweed in real life before.

There you go. We are officially in Texas.

Apparently we weren't the only ones who thought spray painting something would be fun this morning. I think this is the most people we've seen on the entire Route 66.

This place is called Cadillac Ranch and it's an art installation done by a group out of California, funded by a rich guy here in Texas. And they've halfway buried 10 Cadillacs. At some point people came out here and started defacing them and they just kind of embraced it and made it okay. So now it's the thing to do as you're driving down Route 66 is stop at Cadillac Ranch and leave your mark. I'm gonna attempt our logo on this wheel. Never spray painted anything in my life.

That wasn't a very good start.

Looks like a black blob. I need a bigger canvas.

Whoa. I think you nailed it. You feel like you're vandalizing.

Yeah, yeah. This all feels raw, but it's kind of fun.

The amount of paint caked onto these cars is insane.

There are inches of spray paint on this car and as soon as you get within 10ft, you're just hit with the smell of paint. All right.

There we are.

Also, if you come, there's no reason to bring your own spray paint. There are about 500 half use cans lying all over the ground. Another fun fact, I didn't know that you needed an ID to buy spray Paint in Texas. Or maybe the entire US So had to run back out to the car this morning. Maybe I wasn't mischievous enough as a kid. To the next stop.

There's not a, like, certain thing I'm going for. I just kind of want something that's not your typical cappuccino or.

Yeah, thank you.

Just grabbed a quick coffee before heading out of Amarillo from this place called the 806. It's right here on Route 66. And we heard that they made their own homemade whipped cream. That's caffeinated.

Coffee is so strong and so good. All right, Zaga.

The run.

Whoa. Gosh. Almost lost the door.

Oh, my hat.

Okay, we're about an hour outside of Amarillo in Ruth. Oklahoma City. I don't know if you can hear anything because it is super windy here, but our next stop is the Leaning Tower of Texas.

Unlike the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy, this was intentionally built to be leaning to attract tourists like us. This is crazy. This is as.

My teeth are cold.

No wonder. No wonder it was so hard to keep the van on the road.

You must make it back to the van.

Oh, that was nice.

Oh, wow.

I've never experienced wind like that. My face is frozen legitimately.

It took two hands to shut the door.

I can't believe you saved your hat.

You were running so fast.

No wonder there's tumbleweeds in Texas. That was awesome.

That was a rush.

That was a rush.

All right. Three hours to oklahoma city.

Goodbye, texas.

We are five minutes away from completing the longest road trip of my entire life. Route 66 was fun, and it sounded like a good idea at the beginning, but I think if you're gonna try to do that, get off. Every time you see a Route 66 sign, you need to about triple the time that you see on Google Maps. It was slow going, but it was fun.

It feels so weird driving our van in our hometown. We haven't been here since.

Oh.

We did it.

G. Are you gonna come see uncle nate?

Run? Bastard.

Hey, Gally.

Hey. Hey.

Peppa.

Peppa. You seem more excited to see him than me. You saw him five minutes ago. You haven't seen me in months.

Whoa. It is 66 degrees while we are driving down Route 66. Whoa.

Mind blown. What in the world?

The road is almost completely white.

This came out of nowhere.

Two seconds ago, the sky was blue. Ah, it's getting me.

Whoa, baby. That's some big old hail.

That's some big old hail. We're in Texas.

Everything's bigger in Texas.

Isn't it?

We are going to take this as a sign that we need a coffee. Our diesel engine is so darn loud. I can barely, barely hear it. I need to be in a Tesla for this.

That would be the perfect.

You're on it. You're on it.

A little more.

I can barely hear it.

I don't think so.

I can't decide if it's. We going to four? Try number four. Well, I just can't decide if I'm a really bad driver or if it just doesn't work that well.

So I get to listen to his accent the whole way home. Makes me very happy. Nate is probably tired of me practicing my British accent, but I love it.

This is the most geese I've ever seen at one time.

What in the world? I feel bad painting over other people's art. Like somebody, like, just did this. Yeah, that's still wet.

I can't.

That's too fresh. Gosh. Let's do another one. I think this is the first time I've ever spray painted. Oh, I think I'm painting you. It's very windy.

Wow.

Art is obviously not our strength. Physical art. Yeah.

Did you not learn your lesson?

Obviously not. And one last thank you to Audible for sponsoring this video and also keeping us entertained on this trip. I somehow managed to finish the book about five minutes ago as we were pulling into our hometown.

That was not on purpose. Mind blowing.

If I do any crazy physical challenges within the next year, it was probably because I listened to this. What are you sitting down for?

Christmas lights.

Have you not got any shoes on?