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Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- Foreword: America’s Road -- INTRODUCTION -- I. RAILROADS AND THE PREHISTORY OF ROUTE 66 -- Buffalo Hunting on Route 66 -- A Tour on the Prairies -- On the Western Tour with Washington Irving -- The Journals of the Superintendent of the Wagon World -- Railroaders’ Route 66 -- One Night in the Red Dog Saloon -- The U.P. Trail -- Recalling Route 66’s Trail of Tears -- A BIOREGIONAL APPROACH TO ROUTE 66: AN INTRODUCTION -- II. PRAIRIE 66: ILLINOIS, MISSOURI, AND KANSAS -- The Santa Fe Trail -- Too Many Midnights -- The Lost Boy -- The Boy: Okie Passage on Route 66 -- Blind Corner -- West on 66 -- III. PLAINS 66: OKLAHOMA AND TEXAS -- Working with Will -- The Autobiography of Will Rogers -- Back Road 66 -- Wild Boy of the Road -- The Negro Motorist Green Book -- ’53 Buick -- Black on 66 -- Mr. Route 66 -- Kicking 66 -- On Route 66 in Texas -- Cadillac Ranch -- IV. MOUNTAIN 66: NEW MEXICO AND ARIZONA -- Mining Along 66 -- Hot Saturday -- The Thin Mountain Air -- Laguna Exile -- The Grapes of Wrath -- Ceremony -- The Hitch-Hiker -- The Air-Conditioned Nightmare -- Hispanic on Route 66 -- V. DESERT AND COASTAL 66: CALIFORNIA -- Gunslinger -- The High Window -- Indian Farm-Workers on 66 -- The Music of 66 -- Soul in the Desert -- Blue Time -- Sleep in the Mojave Desert -- Some Dreamers of the Golden Dream -- Sleeping Beauty -- VI. THE FUTURE OF 66 -- A Rocket Scientist Looks at Route 66’s Future -- Rogue in Space -- Brave New World -- A Select Route 66 Bibliography -- Credits -- Acknowledgments -- About the Author Even before there was a road, there was a route. Buffalo trails, Indian paths, the old Santa Fe trace—all led across the Great Plains and the western mountains to the golden oasis of California. America’s insatiable westering urge culminated in Route 66, the highway that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles. Opened in 1926, Route 66 became the quintessential American road. It offered the chance for freedom and a better life, whether you were down-and-out Okies fleeing the Dust Bowl in the 1930s or cool guys cruising in a Corvette in the 1960s. Even though the interstates long ago turned Route 66 into a bylane, it still draws travelers from around the world who long to experience the freedom of the open road. A Route 66 Companion gathers fiction, poetry, memoir, and oral history to present a literary historical portrait of America’s most storied highway. From accounts of pioneering trips across the western plains to a sci-fi fantasy of traveling Route 66 in a rocket, here are stories that explore the mystique of the open road, told by master storytellers ranging from Washington Irving to Raymond Chandler, Joan Didion, Sylvia Plath, Leslie Marmon Silko, and John Steinbeck. Interspersed among them are reminiscences that, for the first time, honor the varied cultures—Native American, Mexican American, and African American, as well as Anglo—whose experiences run through the Route 66 story like the stripe down the highway. So put the top down, set the cruise control, and “make that California trip” with A Route 66 Companion
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