Route 66
John Steinbeck referred to Route 66 as “the Mother Road” in his classic novel, The Grape of Wrath. Route 66, originally an interstate from Chicago to Los Angeles, proved to have quite a wrath of its own. Ever since a parallel interstate was built to replace Route 66, the historic Route 66 has been severely neglected!
Good news: very few cars travel on that road.
Bad news: there were approximately 13 miles of rocky unpaved concrete with large craters that made riders swerve through both lanes in an attempt to find semi-smooth riding surface.
Route 66 definitely left its mark on Ride for World Health riders (Cory has a pretty gash on his thumb, Carissa has a sweet bruise on her left thigh just like the one on the girl who slid into home plate in “A League of Their Own,” and I have a nice scratch on my chin after taking an Ang Lee style skid on gravel).
The best news of the day, however, is that all riders completed their first century ride (100-miles) despite the rocky start…literally. The Mother Road gave us some great battle scars but couldn’t break our spirits!