This is Where I Won't Be Stopping on US Route 6

There is plenty happening behind the scenes as I plan out my Route 6 itinerary.  I'm approaching this project as I would any other travel writing assignment;  contacting local Chamber of Commerce offices and Tourist bureaus in each of the 14 US 6 States, hearing from PR firms, scrupulously inspecting sites like Yelp and Chowhound for potential "best eats" restaurants and Tripadvisors for hotels.  Based on experience, though, I've discovered that nothing beats "being there" for accuracy and emotional connection.  In other words, I'm not the kind of writer who just phones it in.

I'm thrilled to do it, and I will try to be as unbiased as possible.  But here's the thing:  I live in a New York City commuter town and venture into Manhattan often.  I live in a coastal city - with the Atlantic Ocean (ok, Long Island Sound - which is an Atlantic estuary) within spitting distance and I grew up sailing.  I make frequent trips to the High Peaks in the Adirondack Mountains (NY), and have zigzagged over the Sawtooths (Idaho), hiked around the boiling cauldrons of Yellowstone, ridden rapids on the Rogue (OR), Salmon (ID) and plenty of other wild rivers. And that's just in the USA.   In other words, I've seen a lot, I've stayed in some incredible (and incredibly bad) places, ate memorable meals, and have partaken in singular, incredible experiences.  So, I'm not easily impressed.

This is where I won't be stopping:

1. Any restaurant with Garden, King or Factory in its name.  If I notice a Sysco truck backing up to kitchen's back door, I will run the other way. I want to find the best local, home-made, proud chef/owner type places.

2. Any mall, Promenade or Department Store (unless it's "the original" or notable somehow). Give me mom and pop shops with character.  I'm not an old fashioned girl, but Old Fashioned can be perfect in the right place.

3. Anyplace that smacks of a Tea Party or Lefty agenda.  This is not a campaign trail.

My goal is to create a coast to coast US Route 6 Travel Guide with the best that those 3,602 miles have to offer.  I'll be keeping my eyes open. You keep reading.

Route 6 Champion Lives 1,000 Miles From The Grand Army of the Republic Highway

Yes, it's true.  The man who spearheaded the cause to reawaken interest in what was once America's Longest Highway (and remains the longest CONTIGUOUS federal road in the USA) lives in Washington State - nearly one thousand miles from any point on US Route 6.

Russell Lombard, President/CEO/Founder of the Non-Profit US Route 6 Tourist Association grew up in Pasadena, CA - and in the 1950's would visit family in Nebraska by driving on the only highway that ran from California to Nebraska - Route 6.  Memories of these road trips remained with him his whole life, and after a career in city planning and retirement near Puget Sound, he thought of a way to preserve and enhance them.

In October 2000, a few neighborhood teens came to Russell with a question.  They were asked to design a web-page as a high school school project and believed that Mr. Lombard would have some ideas.  He did.  "Why not start a US Route 6 Association?" he recommended.  It was once the only road that ran coast to coast and no-one these days really knew about it.  The kids were intrigued.  And then obsessed.

"What began as a school project turned into something much more," Lombard told me.  "Those kids would come over every day after school into the evenings, contacting towns and cities along the Route.  They started getting invitations from communities, from mayors and selectmen."  By the summer of 2001, The US Route 6 Tourist Association had obtained IRS Non-Profit Status.

Russ called me recently to tell me this story.  Even though he has never traveled on 6 East of Council Bluffs, IA, he has a deep fondness for America's Highway.  "US Route 6 is a symbol of culture and time and history and experiences.  It is a symbol of our country."

My own travel obsessions take me on the road.  It's there I discover our great, diverse and rich land firsthand.  I can't wait until I get and STAY ON 6 later this Spring.  Sign up for this blog and come along starting May 20, 2011. 

Happy Birthday Harry Houdini! Learn About Him on Route 6

Harry Houdini is trending on Twitter today.  Why?  It's his 137th birthday - posthumously, naturally.  This son of a Rabbi remains one of the best, most entertaining magicians in history, and you can learn his story at the Houdini Museum in Scranton, PA.  Yup - a US Route 6 town.  Though a mile or so off the route on Main Street, this little museum is more like an intimate theater - open most weekends in the warmer months and daily in July and August.  Virtually hidden in a cozy home, the museum owners tell visitors all about Houdini and his talents - and then put on a smashing magic show.  It's quite the attraction - and well worth the stop.  

The S-Curve Pedestrian Bridge That Crosses the Missouri River; On US Route 6

The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge s-curves elegantly over the Missouri River, linking Council Bluffs, Iowa with Omaha Nebraska. Kerrey was the 35^th Governor of Nebraska (1983-1987) and then served in the U S Senate.  I'll be strolling over this treble-clef-shaped structure sometime early June, as both cities are, as per this blog, on Route 6.  For now, I'll leave you with this rendering of the new crossing and will be taking photos of my own once I'm there...

Buffalo in Brooklyn; Route 6 Bison

Oh give me a home where the buffalo roam, and I'll show you Brooklyn. That's Brooklyn, Connecticut - which isn't quite as urban as Brooklyn, NY but it ain't "where the antelope play," either. (It is, however, where the deer play, but that's another story).

Creamery Brook Bison, Brooklyn CT

Brooklyn, CT, like much of the state, is green and lush, with rolling hills, ancient stone walls and lots of farmland.  And it's here that the owners of Creamery Brook Bison decided to install herds of these admittedly strange-looking low-fat and low-calorie animals (what's with the Viking horns, wooly mammoth hide, camel hump and spindly legs?  Buffalo meat may be healthier than chicken, but bison looks haven't won me over).

Buffalo at Creamery Brook Bison

The farm is just a mile or so off of Route 6, and is open for group tours on Saturdays in warmer months.   A retail store (selling bison meat and other buffalo products) is open from 2pm-6pm most days.  Check the website for more information.  Or you can check back with me when I roll through Brooklyn in May.

Where Did the Pilgrims Really Land in the New World? US Route 6 Has the Answer

Historic Route 6 begins and ends at oceans and in flamboyant, artsy, entertainment-rich towns.  Beach resort, Provincetown, MA on the Atlantic Ocean is home to a proud gay population and draws tons of tourists every summer.  Long Beach, on the Pacific Ocean, for many just a suburb of Los Angeles, is rich in glitz of a similar sort.  What’s in between is a virtual time-line of American history; remnants of the Revolutionary War Era in New England, particularly northern Connecticut, gives way to living and historic sites of  Westward-Ho pioneers who made their homes in the plains and prairies of Iowa and Nebraska and rugged strivers who sought wealth in the stark silver and gold mining camps in Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California.

Tiny Route 6 towns are unabashedly proud of their offerings.  Some have to embellish a bit, but hey, that’s advertizing! Wilton, Iowa celebrates the “World’s Oldest Ice Cream Fountain.”  Rural Hudson, Colorado is home to probably the only 100-year-old roadside eatery with a CIA (Culinary Institute of America) trained chef- The Pepper Pod Restaurant.   In LA, the old Route 6 boasts the “largest concentration of pre-war movie palaces – built in the 20’s and 30’s – in America.” There are thousands of these stories.

Route 6 travels through two towns called Brooklyn, and neither are in New York.  It touches two oceans, traverses a Great Lake, crosses most of the country’s major rivers, runs through five state capitals, and climbs, exhilaratingly, up and over the Continental Divide.

I'll be starting out on May 20th from where the Pilgrims REALLY landed in the New World - Provincetown, MA. I'll climb to the top of the Pilgrim's Monument and describe the view......

The Little Feat Route 6 Connection

Last night, I attended a Little Feat concert - a small, intimate affair in Ridgefield, CT featuring two lead guitarists - and while they were blues'ing their way through "Willing," I had an epiphany.

Being a Romancing the Road kind of girl, I'd always loved that song - a trucker's anthem - and knew the lyrics well.  But as Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett wailed out Williin' I heard the beginning of the chorus as if for the first time.

In Nevada, Route 6 runs through just two real towns; Ely and Tonopah.  When I began my research, I had this strange feeling that I'd been to Tonopah or at least had heard of it enough to get excited about stopping there.  And last night I understood why:

I've been from Tuscon to Tucumcari
Tehachapi, to Tonopah
driven every kind of rig that's ever been made
driven the back roads so i wouldn't get weighed

Tehachapi to Tonopah!  Tonopah!


Once known as the Queen of the Silver Camps, Tonopah  was also, apparently, a favorite of Dallas Alice. I'll be making the reverse ride (Tonopah to just outside of Tehapchapi, CA), in June.  


Follow along.....