COUNTYWIDE : Still Getting Their Kicks on Route 66

Dan Harlow remembers standing on Route 66, in the heat of Kingman, Ariz., his thumb out in hopes of catching a ride home to Wichita, Kan.

“Oh, it was hot,” Harlow said.

That was more than 20 years ago, but his affection for America’s first national highway has been in high gear since.

“Like other historic trails, it tells the history of America,” he said.

Walter Willey recalled his first trip on the old highway in 1956 when it took him 3 1/2 days of nonstop driving to get from Hartford, Conn., to Los Angeles.

With three children in tow, his wife helped drive. They made stops only for gas and sandwiches.

“In the past I traveled the road and went to many of the towns such as Amboy, near Needles,” reminisced Willey, 63, of Fullerton.

“Now there’s nothing; there used to be a diner and gas station. . . . It’s all deserted now. The freeway left them out in the cold.”

George Watts, 70, grew up in the Hollywood area and remembers when Santa Monica Boulevard was on Route 66.

Watts drove the highway when it was the only road to Chicago.

“It’s just nostalgia for the old days when we used to travel it and we knew it so well,” Watts said.

For these Orange County folks, traveling Route 66 is now a trip to bygone days.

“It’s 66 years old and still kicking,” said Harlow, 42, an Orange resident who is president of the California Historic Route 66 Assn., a nonprofit group working toward preserving the highway.

And to relive the memories, they’ll take part in a nationwide celebration of the 66th anniversary of Route 66 that begins Oct. 11 in Chicago.

The event will end Nov. 11, the day the road was commissioned in 1926, where the highway dead-ends at Ocean Boulevard in Santa Monica.

An all-day festival is planned Nov. 15 at Santa Monica Pier.

Harlow plans to drive the entire 2,500-mile or so stretch of the highway in a 1992 Mustang convertible, loaned to him by the Ford Motor Co.

Willey, who used to live two blocks from Route 66 in Glendora, will drive his 1988 Hyundai from Topock, Ariz., to Santa Monica.

And Watts, a Villa Park resident, plans to meet with Route 66 enthusiasts in Pasadena and drive his 1936 Ford Roadster into Santa Monica for the last hurrah.

“I wish I could make the trip from Chicago, but I wouldn’t drive the car that far,” Watts said. “It has no windows, no air conditioning and it gets pretty rugged.”

The relay and tour, which will cross eight states, is being organized by Historic Route 66 associations.

People who want to participate can join at any point in the motor caravan, Harlow said.

“We’re going to travel every foot of the route that’s left,” Harlow said. “Everyone thinks it doesn’t exist anymore--and our organization was (started) to let everyone know that Route 66 is still there and to begin . . . preserving what’s left.”

Harlow said the highway is still dotted with roadside diners, curio shops, longstanding motels and landmarks such as the Mayfair Theater, built in 1911, on Santa Monica Boulevard.

“The experience of traveling on a two-lane highway and stopping in a diner is something people don’t experience because we travel too fast,” he said.

“We want to invite people to slow down, and get off the interstate; stop at a diner and get a sense of where America was in the ‘40s and ‘50s.”

For more information about the local association and the event, call (714) 639-2911.