Celebrating Route 66's 100th Birthday

One road trip that’s always been on our bucket list over the years has been driving the entirety of Route 66 from beginning to end... Chicago to Santa Monica... but we’ve never managed it. This year, however, is Route 66’s 100th birthday, and it only seemed right to make this the year that we cruise along the Mother Road. It was famed American author John Steinbeck who dubbed Route 66 ‘The Mother Road’ in his 1939 novel, “The Grapes of Wrath.” Cyrus Avery, American businessman, oilman, and highway commissioner, referred to it as “The Main Street of America” during a meeting of the U.S. Highway Association back in 1927. Today, Avery is celebrated as the “Father of Route 66.” Once one of the USA's first continuous stretches of paved highway, a major thoroughfare and a migratory path during the Dust Bowl and Depression years, the original highway has been rerouted over the years, now sharing the pavement with interstates I-55, I-44, I-40, and I-15. Most of the iconic highway has been…