Well, if you still officially existed.
The Rose Parade uses a stretch of former Route 66.
Ends at the Santa Monica Pier.
I’m not sure if I ever rode on a stretch of Official Route 66 in my lifetime, as it was not anywhere near where I have lived nor where my family drove when I was smaller.
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We stayed in Winslow, AZ on our recent road trip. It’s part of Route 66. Lots of touristy stuff there, but we stayed at a really cool hotel - La Posada.
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Coincidentally, the only part of Route 66 I ever saw was in Flagstaff Arizona. Made a point of driving on it as I faithfully watched Tod and Buz on the show in the early 60s. Loved the theme song.
I’ve been on Route 66 in Kingman AZ, somewhere around Upland CA, Pasadena, and the Santa Monica pier.
ETA: I have also been to the part that starts in the Loop in Chicago.
Happy Birthday, Route 66!! 
In HS and college I worked at the Old Riverton Store, Kansas has about 13 miles of Route 66. The store was built in 1925 and had gas pumps, when 66 can through they added lanes and the gas pumps had to go.
We stayed in Williams for a trip to Grand Canyon. Cute little town, if a bit MAGA.
I don’t know if there’s much left, at least in my part of the world. If you come through the Kansas stretch, there is still ‘rainbow bridge,’ built in 1923. It’s very narrow, if you’re passing a car coming the other direction, you’re gonna want to slow way down or risk losing a side mirror. In the 1990s they bypassed it with a wider bridge, but they left the old bridge up and you can (last I checked) still drive across it.
Took Route 66 many times when I was in NM.
They had some great diners with local green chiles available in the summer.
I think it was on the route just outside of Santa Fe, ever eat at Bobcat Bites diner? Killer green chili cheeseburger.
That one doesn’t sound familiar. We usually ended up going to La Choza (local place in SF thats been around for ages).
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“Official” meaning government-sanctioned Route 66, which was disbanded over 40 years ago.
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Never been near the Chicago end? I guess you could have visited and never rode on it.
It’s pretty unremarkable anywhere around that end of it.
I watched Cars on an endless loop when my son was a toddler…
There’s a connection there with where I grew up, when I worked at the Old Riverton Store I saw Dean Walker (in the article below) pretty much every day. He’s a bit of a character.
Within the last few months, Chicago “officially” changed the eastern end of Rt 66 from the Art Institute (Michigan and Adams) to Navy Pier. States have officially changed the exact specifics of Rt 66 many, many times over the decades.
Does riding the big Ferris wheel at the navy pier now count as getting your kicks on Route 66?
While there is some historic stuff on the eastern end, it doesn’t seem all that special historically. Maybe once you get beyond Texas, the history is more interesting as the population density really falls off and it represents the journey to the West.
I kinda think it does.
While the Northern Illinois stretch of Rt 66 might not be what you think about when you think about Route 66, I can assure you that in that area, people know about it, know the history, and there are still business that reference the route in their names and or products.
I’ve lived great stretches of my life quite quite close to it. I have spent years working in buildings actually ON Rt 66, not gonna say where. Without outting myself, I’ve been around the Rt 66 east end most of my whole life. We think of it as the 1st step in a traditionally long journey.
Actually, several large Paul Bunyan statues dot the trip through Illinois. Is that an Illinois thing or are there Paul Bunyan statues all the way out to Cali?
I grew up in Saint Louis and can’t count the number of times I have been on what was at one time route 66, as well as somewhat frequently on what was at that time route 66.
It does, now that the City of Chicago has recognized the starting point of a now-non-existent highway, even though the official route of Route 66 never started there. Perhaps the State of Washington can declare a splinter route through Walla Walla.
Does the City of Chicago have such authorization? To assume it does means that it means nothing. As the mayor suggests, it is a symbolization. Of what? Ginning up more Revenue for the Navy Pier is all I can imagine. New souvenirs and shit.
GoogAI-lia:
US highway routes are changed through a rigorous planning process involving state DOTs and the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), often initiated by upgrading existing roads to interstate standards, addressing congestion, or rerouting to avoid urban bottlenecks.