My Rte 66 Trip

I have always had a dream to drive Rte. 66. I think it's because I've heard the Chuck Berry song way too many times. To me, Rte 66 always seemed like that little piece of old-fashioned Americana that has been dying out with the invention of bigger and better things (i.e. I-40). I used google maps to create a map that pinpoints all the major cities that Rte. 66 goes through.


View Maureen's Route 66 Trip in a larger map

I marked some general feelings I have when hearing the city names and my sort of plans for each major city. Since I haven't been to many of the cities, I would have to do research to figure out exactly what I want to do (I'm a sucker for tourist traps like "The World's Largest Ball of Twine").

One thing that I really liked about marking my trip down in google maps is the ability to turn on photos, videos, webcams, and wikipedia articles for my map. So simply by clicking "More" at the top of the map, I can choose these things. This is nice to get a sense of what people felt was worth a photo. Plus, after my trip, I would be able to add in my own Rte. 66 trip photos.

I have never played with this part of google maps before, so this was very interesting to me. I have a Garmin gps device that I never leave home without, but it only gives bland directions and shows roads. If google maps could combine with my gps, I could have photos of what I am looking for, satellite pictures, wikipedia pages that might recommend some of my tourist traps. This would be a far cry from the vacations I took with my family as a kid, where we had a paper map that could never get folded the same way again. I think that this newer technology would make it very difficult to get lost or to remain lost for too long. This is where I see cell phones taking over the gps market since it doesn't make sense to have a bland gps unit when a cell phone can do all that and more!