Road trip completed

Just got back from a week-long drive across the country. My wife and I flew to Phoenix, Arizona on business late last week, then rented a car and drove back to the Chicago area, more or less along the historic Route 66. I say more or less because much of it no longer exists, having been replaced by a series of interstate highways in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

What’s left of the fabled roadway parallels most of the modern Interstates 40, 44 and 55, appearing as a frontage road along the main highway or a snippet of roadway preserved by local municipalities. Purists can access turn-by-turn directions to access every last vestige of the road bed, but I chose to adopt a close-enough-is-good-enough approach to the trip.

So in the days ahead, I’ll share some photos taken along the way and offer some perspective gained from long hours driving across America.

Photo: Classic car show, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Color desaturation, vignetting and blur added. Photograph © 2006 James Jordan.