A Guide Book to Highway 66
by Jack D. Rittenhouse

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Book Reviews of A Guide Book to Highway 66

Book Review: Wonderful artifact of the dawn of automobile travel
Summary: 5 Stars

While we're now accustomed to well-marked Interstates with easily located on and off ramps, early cross-country routes were less highway and more stitched and patched collections of local roads, filled in with connectors and dotted with small towns. The map was, in essence, the route itself. Following these early routes was not trivial, and drivers had to take caution not to find themselves stranded without food, lodging or fuel.

Rittenhouse's guide was the first comprehensive effort to assuage fears of long-distance car travel, and provide a mile-by-mile guide to services and sights along Route 66. While most of the sites (and most of the services) he documents are long-gone, the sense of wonder that is Route 66, and the thrill of coasting into the cities through which it threads, remains fully intact. No one should drive Route 66 without a copy of this in the glove box. Doing so would rob your of a good deal of the road's history.

Note to West Coasters: though the book is arranged from Chicago to LA, it can just as easily be read backwards for the Eastbound trip.

Summary of A Guide Book to Highway 66

The book is divided into nine sections, corresponding to the journeys between stops by the average motorist. In addition, this structure makes the book useful to the traveler who wishes to follow only part of old US 66. Rittenhouse includes altitude and 1940 population figures for each town, with information on reliable garages, tourist courts (the forerunner's of today's motels), and other local attractions.

This fascinating piece of Americana recalls a day before the arrival of franchised restaurants and hotels, when travel still held some surprises. Anyone driving in the West or recalling a trip in the good old days will enjoy it.

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