Neon, Fuel, Pavement and Americana on Route 66

For 13 days, I drove across Route 66 armed with my camera and laptop to record the whole adventure.

Neon, Fuel, Pavement and Americana on Route 66, chronicles the people, places, gas stations, kitschy roadside attractions and feeling of having stepped into a time machine that made it the most memorable road trip of my life.

Bright and vibrant signs adorn the sides of the majority of Route 66 across America, like this one for the Desert Hills Motel in Tulsa, Oklahoma

On a lonely stretch of the highway in Amarillo, Texas, 10 brightly spray-painted Cadillacs stand tall in the desert at a Route 66 hotspot known as Cadillac Ranch.

Located in Lebanon Missouri, the historic Munger Moss Motel still looks and feels just as it did during the heyday of Route 66.

I truly enjoyed my evening there, even if I did have an unfortunate run-in with bedbugs.

For one night, I actually slept in one of these cement wigwams at the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, Arizona.

The motel is a part of a once-mighty chain that now only has a few links remaining, one of which I also came across just outside Hollywood, California.

By far one of my favorite stops on Route 66, the Catoosa Blue Whale in Oklahoma is a relic of the type of Americana that used to dot the entire drive.

Still in operation, Roy’s Cafe, Motel and Gas Station is the only stop for miles in either direction on Route 66 in Amboy, California.

The motel may be shut down, but the Dr. Pepper soda machine in Tucumcari, New Mexico, still offers the promise of a quenched thirst.

Classic Route 66 remnants sit just outside the Totem Pole Trading Post in Rolla, Missouri.

Pulling off the freeway in New Kirk, New Mexico, I came across this stretch of historic Route 66 at a 4-way intersection.

Hobos in the Ghost Town of Two Guns, AZ

Located in the ghost town of Two Guns, Arizona, I stopped to take photos and wound up having a conversation with a hobo.

Hidden just before a dead-end in Farmersville, Illinois, I was fortunate to stumble across Art’s Motel and Restaurant at just the right moment of sun and clouds to capture this image.

My drive through Kansas on Route 66 was a cloudy one, though that just gave me something different and fun to work with when stopping to photograph this emblem painted on the road.

The Cool Sprints Service Station in Cool Springs, Arizona, is the last place to get gas before a windy and intense drive up through the mountains to California.

It also was completely destroyed for the movie Universal Soldier and has since been rebuilt and turned into a tourist attraction.