Customer Reviews

A Guide Book to Highway 66

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This reproduction of the original 1946 guide to Route 66 is an invaluable companion for any trip on the Mother Road. Not only does it give you a feel for what the road was like at the dawn of America's love-affair with automobile traffic, but it gives you a feel for the psychology of those pioneers who attempted to drive the Route.

While we're now accustomed to well-marked Interstates with easily located on and off ramps, early cross-country routes were less highway and more stitched and patched collections of local roads, filled in with connectors and dotted with small towns. The map was, in essence, the route itself. Following these early routes was not trivial, and drivers had to take caution not to find themselves stranded without food, lodging or fuel.

Rittenhouse's guide was the first comprehensive effort to assuage fears of long-distance car travel, and provide a mile-by-mile guide to services and sights along Route 66. While most of the sites (and most of the services) he documents are long-gone, the sense of wonder that is Route 66, and the thrill of coasting into the cities through which it threads, remains fully intact. No one should drive Route 66 without a copy of this in the glove box. Doing so would rob your of a good deal of the road's history.

Note to West Coasters: though the book is arranged from Chicago to LA, it can just as easily be read backwards for the Eastbound trip.

This book reads like a good fireside friend, or an uncle, or even Tom Snyder in his famous Roadside Companion. It's a wonderful spin back in time to the period just before "Getting your kicks" became the American pastime, and provides a postcard view of the towns, cities and countryside that was America not so long ago. As an 8-time veteran of Route 66 roadtrips (and all within the last 5 years), I have to admit I'm chomping at the bit to get back out on the road and try to find traces of some of the landmark places and hamlets Rittenhouse has recorded in this highly usable travel guide. Kudos to the U of New Mexico Press for reissuing this book as a facsimile of the original (no updates save for a warm intro to the new edition by the author himself!), and doing so at a very accessible price point. A must have for any 66 roadie's collection.

The road out west from Chicago to LA can be tedious at times, and this cheap and fun little guide was a great way to pass the time. It's an exact reprint of the 1946 first edition about HIghway 66. I was able to call out towns and gas stations that were now in a shambles or abandoned on the side of the road. Fun book, right price, and it made my trip more interesting.

First off, this book is not a map. It's a guidebook to Route 66 written in 1946. However, it's something you WILL want on any Route 66 trip. Why? Because you'll be passing ruins and dried-up blown-away towns, and this book was there before they blew away. This book will tell you what you're seeing now though the eye of "then".

Team this book up with the "Route 66 Adventure Handbook (3rd Ed) by Drew Knowles, and you'll really add something to your trip.

We used the "Adventure Handbook" to tell us what's in each town now, then referred to the Rittenhouse to see what each town used to offer many years ago. It was facinating! Some towns offered so much back in '46, and today there's nothing there, or very little. Other towns seem to not have changed much in 60 years. I give it 5 stars for the history it will impart to you along the way.

It's a cheap addition to anyone's arsenal for travelling Route 66, and one you really will be glad you had when you're done.

I bought this great little historical guide book in preparation for my Route 66 adventure. While no one should use this as a guide book to their destination, it's the perfect companion to today's guide books, especially "EZ 66 Guide for Travelers" published by the National Historic Route 66 Federation and "Route 66 Adventure Handbook" by Drew Knowles. While those two contemporary books tell you how to get there and what's there now, along with some history, the little "A Guide Book to Highway 66" fills in lots of the historical blanks, telling us what many of those ruins were that now stand along the route. It gives some background, along with the names of long-gone motels, gas stations, cafes, etc. Also included are populations and elevations of the old towns and some which are still in existence.

The author's tour begins in Chicago but he doesn't forget the eastbound traveler, adding mileages for both directions, and several reminders when he speaks "incline" for westbound travelers, it will "decline" for those heading east. I backtracked a lot on my trip and had no problem following either of his directions.

It's a fun read, a great addition to anyone's trip, and a wonderful keepsake for your bookshelf. I recommend it.

I picked up Jack Rittenhouse's book in the gift shop at Little America in Flagstaff. Although you would be hard pressed to make reservations at the Palace in Winslow, it gives an idea of what the traveler had for choices. Most of all it gives you a close up of the highway and its countryside.

You can't use this as your primary guide for finding Route 66 in the twenty-first century. There are at least four better sources for that: 1) EZ66 Guide for Travelers by Jerry McClanahan; 2) Route 66 Traveler's Guide and Roadside Companion by Tom Snyder; 3) Here It Is! map series by Jerry McClanahan and Jim Ross; and 4) Google maps.

So why get this little book? Because it is a town-by-town description of the Mother Road as it was. It's a voice from the past. As you travel in your air-conditioned bubble, following GPS and listening to your multi-speaker sound system, you also travel with Jack Rittenhouse in 1946, rolling down his window on hot days, checking his road atlas, and listening to the tinny sounds of the AM radio on his chrome-covered dashboard. As you travel deserted, by-passed sections of 66, Jack travels the busy Main Street of America in its heyday, pointing out landmarks you cannot see, but only imagine. Maybe you will see overgrown foundations of demolished buildings, on sections of long-deserted pavement. That's 66.

Of course it would be impossible to retrace Rittenhouse's exact route, but if you want your trip to match his as closely as possible, you would not begin your trip from Chicago itself, but from Plainfield, Illinois. He crossed the Mississippi on the Chain-of-Rocks bridge (now closed) and took the north loop around St. Louis. In New Mexico, he followed the direct route into Albuquerque rather than the Santa Fe loop.

Regardless of the alignment of 66 you choose, your experience will be enriched by having Jack Rittenhouse as your traveling companion.

I will be traveling cross country and bought this for that purpose. It's smaller than I expected but I will use it as a reference.

maybe it is just a confusing trip but this book didn't help a whole lot.

This book was outdated, I purchased it based on customer reviews. It was way outdated and many of the places listed were no longer standing or in business.
I missed a lot following this book, and turned back to my "Here it Is" Route 66 map series (which I also reviewed) to get back on track.
Poor choice if you need navigation.