Sentimental Journey Traces Legendary Route 66

A two-week, 2,288-mile tour designed for older travelers will follow Route 66--the famous path that once stretched from Chicago to the Santa Monica Pier.

Two years of research and planning went into the tour organized by John (Giovanni) DiPonzio, owner of Giovanni Tours and a senior tour specialist who also has been working with historians and community groups to promote Route 66 as a bit of Americana.

“It’s really been a labor of love for me,” DiPonzio said. “I’m sure many of this area’s seniors made their first motor trip to California down Route 66. So we created this leisurely tour just for them. Other groups might do this trip in seven days. We take two weeks.”

Not only was it well traveled, Route 66 was made famous by John Steinbeck’s book, “The Grapes of Wrath,” as the route that the Joad family took to California. It also was immortalized in the 1960s television series “Route 66.”

For more than 35 years, Route 66 linked California with the Midwest through a path that snaked through seven states. It was gradually replaced in the late 1950s by the interstate highway system, chiefly Interstates 40 and 45. Much of the original highway remains, but after the route itself lost national highway designation, gradually, during the last decade, route signs were taken down.

Much of the planned motor-coach tour will travel over the original route.

The tour will start with a flight to Chicago and a two-night stay at the downtown Palmer House, plus local sightseeing.

From Chicago, the route winds south through Illinois cornfields to the state capital of Springfield and the tomb of Abraham Lincoln. At St. Louis, Route 66 heads west through the Missouri Ozarks, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Texas, Gallup, N.M., and Flagstaff, Ariz.

One of the few departures from the original Route 66 will be an overnight in Laughlin, Nev.

“We’ve planned stops like the original ’66 Diner’ in Albuquerque, where the jukebox tunes haven’t changed since the 1940s,” DiPonzio said. Among hotels and inns visited will be the El Rancho in Gallup or the Little America Hotel in Flagstaff. All accommodations on the tour, except in Laughlin, are on or near the original path of Route 66.

“The Santa Monica Pier was deemed the official end of Route 66,” DiPonzio said. “So our final night and farewell dinner will be at the Holiday Inn at the Pier.”

There will be two tours this year--March 16-29, and Aug. 31 to Sept. 13.

Cost, including air fare to Chicago, first-class hotels, sightseeing and most meals (23 in 14 days), plus pre- and post-tour group meetings, is $1,966 per person, double occupancy.

For more information, call Giovanni Tours at (818) 889-3156.