It’s the world’s favourite road trip… but get your kicks on Route 66 in an electric car.
In the style of this site, of course, I’m working backwards!
At the end of Route 66, Santa Monica Pier, Southern California, on a scorching summer day.
Or a motorbike
Your motorbike, the cooler choice, will have to pull up before the pedestrianised pier, and landmark.
We were first introduced to Route 66 from the classic song where we were encouraged to get our kicks.
As an introduction we are told it’s 2000 miles from Chicago to LA.
Smalltown America
And in time-honoured American songs fashion a list of smalltown US follows and states.
We get Saint Looey, Joplin Missouri, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico, Flagstaff Arizona, Winona, Kingman, Barstow, San Bernardino…
You get the picture.
And yes, I still have to get those stickers for my luggage.
Although I have a clunking keyring to fool people into thinking I‘ve done the hipsters’ highway.
Why am I flagging up Route 66 today? Well, why not?
But it also tops a survey commissioned by Continental Tyres for the new Extreme-E.
The Great Road Trips
Route 66 holds off Pacific Coast Highway and the Great Ocean Road in Australia for the top spot.
While a cursory glance of the top ten also highlights Ireland’s Wild Atlantic Way and South Africa’s Garden Way.
Now like all of those with adventure in out blood I have relished getting out on the road though perhaps not the iconic ones.
Snow in Mississippi
And so I drove/was driven through the flatlands of the Blues Trail in Mississippi on my Deep South odyssey.
Where I fell asleep through the repetition and woke up with the fields covered white.
And, no, I wasn’t dreaming. Mississippians call cotton Snow.
Driven around the bend
Or our own circuitous route around Monaghan’s townlands trying to find the Patrick Kavanagh Centre.
And being driven aimlessly around a South African park in the Eastern Cape late at night.
And that’s why the Lord gave zebras white stripes
Continental Tyres runs down the top 10 UK road trips and Scotland takes the plaudits with its North Coast 500.
While it’s good to see the Coastal Circuit in Northern Ireland getting a namecheck too.
The vital spark
Now electric cars are to be commended but I’m not sure how popular they would be with the Route 66 set.
I mean how many charging points would you need over that 2,000 mile expanse.
Never mind keeping up the cool quotient.
But the highway’s going nowhere and you’ll get longer to enjoy it.
So Get your kicks on Route 66 in an electric car.