Route 6 Sliced, Diced and Respliced; A Patchwork Road

You can go crazy searching Route 6 "road-fan" sites (thanks, Matt Selek for this one).  You know, those guys (and yes they are mostly guys) who put a considerable amount of time into studying the history of every  highway in the country - stamping each case of alteration, bypass, detour, and renumbering on the page like physics formulas. Reading one of these reports is like reading a calc textbook; your eyes go blurry after awhile.

Sure, Route 6 has changed course in many places over the years.  So have plenty of other roads (I can think of a few major ones around me). And all these changes might lead you to believe that Route 6 is no longer relevant, that it's no longer a continuous route clear across the United States.  I even heard from a couple of women travel bloggers who decided to cruise and write about Route 66, because "6 is too segmented."  I'm not sure what they mean.  Route 6 twists and turns and lazes through some pretty small towns - but still sails all the way across the country.

I'll be following Route 6 in a zenlike fashion; letting that curvy single number guide me.  Stay on 6, everyone.