The Main Street of America: Route 66 | Illinois | Missouri | Kansas | Oklahoma | Texas | New Mexico | Arizona | California

If you ever plan to motor west
Travel my way, take the highway that's the best
Get your kicks on Route 66
- Route 66 by Bobby Troup

The Main Street of America. The Mother Road. The Will Rogers Highway. Immortalised in song, glamourised on television, one of the most celebrated roads in the world, Route 66 was the American highway. Not merely a means of reaching a destination, Route 66 was a destination in itself.

From its starting point in Chicago, Route 66 covered 2,488 miles (about 4,000 kilometres) through Illinois, Missouri , Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas , New Mexico , Arizona and California, across three time zones, to Santa Monica. About 80 percent of the original road is still intact although decommissioned; it has been fractured by the dominance of the interstate highways and renamed virtually all across the US. These days, while you won't find Route 66 on any map, it is always there, just waiting to be rediscovered