Road trips let tourists get the feel of an unvarnished US

LOS ANGELES — For decades, Route 66 captured the imagination of travelers the world over, offering a glimpse of a bygone era of US history, when people hit the road in search of adventure and a better life.

The two-lane highway established in 1926 and coined the “Mother Road” by John Steinbeck seemed to encompass the essence of the United States, threading through eight states from Chicago to Santa Monica.

But after it was decommissioned in the 1980s in favor of larger and faster thoroughfares, Route 66 appeared headed for the dustbin of history as the mom and pop stores, kitschy motels, diners and gas stations that lined the road gradually shut down.

“Entire towns folded up and what had been a 4,000-kilometer carnival became to a large extent a 4,000-km ghost town,” explained David Knudson, founder and executive director of the nonprofit National Historic Route 66 Federation.

In recent years, however, the iconic road that has been immortalized in countless books, movies, music ( Get YourKicksonRoute66), and a TV series has been experiencing a nostalgia-driven revival that is attracting tourists from around the globe.

“Foreigners come to travel the road because it gives them a chance to experience America before we became generic,” said Michael Wallis, a historian and author of Route 66: TheMotherRoad.

“It’s still the road of adventure because nothing on Route 66 is predictable,” he added. “I often say, ‘You know what you are going to get at McDonald’s ... but if you are on an old twolane such as Route 66, you could go into a cafe, a greasy spoon, a pie place, a diner and you don’t know what you’re going to get.’”

Wallis said the fastest growing groups of tourists on Route 66 are Chinese and Bra-