Back: Rick Mullin, Dave Schultz
On September 4, 2019, a group of ICOD Associates and Customers met in Flagstaff, AZ for our annual gathering. After a welcoming dinner we set out on the Historic Route 66 towards Las Vegas.
Route 66, created in 1926, is a 2448 mile journey to the heart of America.
Contrasted with the other highways of its day, Route 66 did not follow a traditionally linear course. Its diagonal path linked of rural communities across eight states and became the principal east-west artery. Like the country that the road traversed, history was made and imprints were left by the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, the war years, and the road trips of the fifties and sixties.
Route 66 experienced the single greatest wartime manpower mobilization in the history of this nation, followed by a new generation of postwar motorists packing up the family for summer vacations.
By 1984, Interstate 40 was complete and the small communities along Route 66 were bypassed. Thanks to the efforts of the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona, today the lure of rediscovering the bones of America has put Route 66 back on the map. One of the most unique towns we encounter was the town of Oatman on mile post 25. This is an old West gold mining town in the Black Mountains where burros own the streets. The drive was enjoyed by all.