Route 66

A few weeks ago, my kids were watching Pixar's Cars (2006) which showcases a small town inspired by real places along Route 66. It's a visually beautiful movie and it reminds me of growing up in small town America and being surrounded by historic old-town facades from the late 19th and early 20th century. While Route 66 didn't go through my childhood hometown of Grove, Oklahoma, many of the neighboring towns such as Afton, Vinita, Miami, and Joplin did host a stretch of the highway.

This Thanksgiving we'll be heading to Oklahoma for the holidays, and I will be taking a few days to travel some of these stretches of road from Texas to Missouri. I'm doing as much research as I can, but Route 66 is almost 2500 miles and most guides are written for travelers - not for artists, not for photographers, and not for me. This will very much be a trip of exploration, and even the stretches of road I have been on in a previous life, I'll be seeing them with new eyes.

Some of the things I'll be looking for are historic and forgotten buildings, pasture vehicles, and original signage from the mid-20th century. Americana. The heart of our nation. That's what I'll be looking for, but often it's the unexpected that makes my favorite photographs.