The Mother road route 66

The Route 66 is just under 4,000 miles long and crosses eight US states, starting from downtown Chicago and ending at Santa Monica Pier, on the Pacific Ocean, near Los Angeles. It was opened on 11 November 1926 and was only completed in 1938. It was sponsored by Cyrus Avery who also founded an association for the promotion of Route 66 making it immediately famous. Many also the books that contributed to its promotion, among which "Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck that refers to Route 66 as the Mother road, hence the nickname. The Rolling Stones also played the piece "Get your Kicks on Route 66" written by Bobby Troup in '46. In the early years it was truly an odyssey to undertake such a long journey, even full of pitfalls. The new road was in clay and in some places also very dangerous, in fact it was also nicknamed Bloody 66 for the many accidents that happened. Refueling points were rare, as few were the motels and restaurants where they could stop along the way. But despite all this, there were many who ventured into this mythical on the road already at the time. Americans but not only, simple travelers who came from all over the world to venture along the road, but also whole families who moved to embark on a new life and seek fortune towards the much dreamed west. One of the main reasons that triggered an exodus from the east to the west, was a terrible drought, which lasted several years, starting in 1931 and then forced thousands of families to move into more fertile areas.