Las Vegas had hardly changed over the intervening five years. When I’d visited Las Vegas five years previously, I’d written: “I loved visiting it for a couple of days, but would hate to return!” Well I had returned, as it was a convenient place to drop off the rental car and catch a flight. But once we’d driven a few miles up the road from this tourist hotspot, a nostalgic calm descended, broken only by the sounds of the occasional lonesome Harley-Davidson and long railroad trains running parallel with the road. Railroad Running Parallel to Route 66Īt Seligman, coachloads of sightseers were being disgorged near decorative old diners and gift shops. It is now signposted as the ‘Historic Route 66’. Only a few parts of the original highway remain, including the 67 miles we drove along in Arizona from Seligman to Kingman. Route 66 only existed as a US Highway from 1926 till 1985, but this Chicago to Los Angeles road acquired exceptional fame from the Route 66 song and TV show. And then we’d blow all our remaining dollars in Las Vegas! Route 66 Enough of seemingly endless Interstate dual carriageways this time we were going to take a leisurely drive along the Historic Route 66.

However, we intended our final fling to be in style. The Rusty Bolt Gift Shop at Seligman on Route 66

After seeing some of the most spectacular scenery that the USA has to offer, plus some surprisingly interesting cities, it was now just a matter of driving the final couple of hundred miles or so from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas. All good things must come to an end, and so it was with our Road Trip USA.

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