Greetings from Kingman, Arizona, where we arrived this afternoon following a drive along our favorite section of Route 66. Appropriately, our motel for the night is located on Route 66. Tomorrow we depart Kingman to visit the Grand Canyon’s South Rim.

During several decades of travel, the two of us have driven nearly all of old Route 66, the famed 2,500-mile east-west highway connecting Chicago with Los Angeles and, later, Santa Monica, California. Paraphrasing Bobby Troop’s “Route 66” song lyrics, we’ve gone through St. Louis, Joplin, Missouri, and Oklahoma City. We’ve seen Amarillo, and Gallup, New Mexico. We’ve been through Flagstaff, Arizona, and we didn’t forget Winona, although the latter was pretty much extinct by the time we arrived.

It’s not surprising a highway popularized by a hit song, TV series and best-selling novel (“Grapes of Wrath”) continues to draw public interest many years beyond its heyday. Sometimes called “The Mother Road” or “Main Street of America,” Route 66 is considered by many travelers to offer the ultimate road trip.

Truth be told, as an undergraduate at Purdue University, I (David) watched “Route 66” nearly every Friday night, always wishing it was me rather than Buz Murdock riding in Tod Stiles’ Corvette that somehow got updated every year. Tod and Buz often strayed from the Mother Road, but it all looked like a wonderful adventure and I wanted to be part of it.

The legendary road, born in 1926 as one of the nation’s first numbered highways, went through numerous realignments through the years as transportation officials attempted to improve and shorten the trip between the Upper Midwest and California. Although much of the original road has gone to seed or disappeared under interstate highways (Route 66 was officially decommissioned in 1985), the remaining stretches are fun to drive and rekindle the spirit of what a road trip should be. Enough of the old motels, neon signs, truck stops, gas stations and restaurants remain to offer a taste of what travelers encountered in decades past.

Much of Route 66 isn’t particularly scenic. Things improve in western New Mexico and further along in Arizona where travelers come upon Holbrook’s iconic Wigwam Village Motel and Winslow’s bronze statue of a guitar player standing on a corner.

Continuing west through Flagstaff brings travelers closer to the section of the road we consider the best of Route 66 – the 137 miles from Seligman to Topock near the California border. Of this, we favor the isolated 60-mile section of curves and hills sandwiched between Kingman and the California border.

This is the section we drove today, and it was every bit as enjoyable as when we first discovered it several decades ago. The going is slow with narrow pavement, hairpin turns, and few guardrails, but the scenery is outstanding. In addition to the wonderful vistas, unusual places along this section of the road make this an interesting drive that should be included in your bucket list.

Whether traveling from east to west or west to east, the Route 66 Arizona Museum in Kingman is a mandatory stop. Housed in an old powerhouse constructed in the early 1900s, the museum has numerous exhibits and artifacts related to the Mother Road. Set aside a couple of hours for exploring the museum.

Other interesting features along Route 66 between Kingman and Topock include Cool Springs, a former gas station and tourist camp from the 1920s that has been converted into a gift shop. The store is surrounded by old gas pumps and vehicles. During our stop, the silence was broken by the braying of a distant donkey. Further west is Ed’s Camp, an abandoned stop that served as an oasis for early travelers on Route 66. Ed was done in when the road’s alignment was altered in 1952.

The highlight for many travelers is the town of Oatman, an old mining town from the early 1900s that died when the gold played out and has been reborn as a quirky tourist town. Wild burros roam the street looking for handouts and mock gunfights take place on the main street at 1:30 and 3:30.

At Topock, where Route 66 funnels into Interstate 40 near the California border, the 800-foot Old Trails Bridge carried Route 66 traffic over the Colorado River until 1948. It is now used as support for a natural gas pipeline.

History remains alive on Route 66 as it winds from Seligman to Topock. We recommend you give it a try.