Product Details
Route 66 (Enthusiast Color)

Route 66 (Enthusiast Color)
By Tim Steil

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Product Description

More than three decades after Route 66 went by the wayside, so to speak, it remains a nostalgic signifier of a 50-year period when cross-country travel was synonomous with meeting interesting characters, absorbing marvelous new sights, and stopping to check the oil along the way. In this colorful biopic of the "Mother Road," author Tim Steil retraces the wandering path of Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica, returning home with a scrapbook of new color photography and evocative period imagery profiling businesses and attractions that continue to operate alongside Route 66 despite the demise of the legendary two-lane. The result is a unique look at motels, service stations, restaurants, truck stops, and museums, and the colorful folks who continue to whittle out a livelihood along Route 66 despite the death of the road trip as spelled out by the vapor trails overhead.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #53501 in Books
  • Published on: 2000-08-15
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Paperback
  • 96 pages

Features

Editorial Reviews

Review
"What sets this apart is the great narrative writing of Tim Steil...he bares his soul. You won't be dissapointed." -- Route 66 Magazine, Summer 2001

Customer Reviews

"A joy from beginning to end"5
Probably the best book to date on the subject, Route 66 is a joy from beginning to end. Referred to affectionately as The Mother Road, Route 66 was the first highway built for high speed travel in the United States. Due to the reliability of the cars and trucks using this road, it was lined with repair shops, diners, and tourist traps. The photography is excellent and the text is insightful and well written. Travelling from Chicago to Los Angeles via this book is a joy!

"A must have"5
Route 66, by Tim Steil, is a trip in present, but a journey back in time. There was a day and age when Route 66 was the heartbeat of the Western half of the United States. Unlike its predecessor the Lincoln Highway, Route 66 was modern road made offering fast travel from Chicago to Los Angeles for both automobiles and trucks. Because of the limitations of vehicles of the 1930's through the early 1960's, the road was lined with repair shops, cafes, motels and scenic wonders that range from simple statues or absurd monuments.

More than any other highway, Route 66 has a history and an allure that never ceases to draw the adventurous to it. These days traveling on Route 66 is sort of like visiting a huge living museum of automobile Americana. Steil, aided by photographer Jim Luning, take the journey and give their vision to this long familiar story. The nice part about this book is that MBI, the publisher, chose to offer it as part of the inexpensive Enthusiast Color Series rather than an expensive coffee table book. You can easily take this book with you for easy reading along the way and without taking up too much space at lunch counter. This was a good choice on their part and is sure to make give this book a long sales life.

The author is accurate in his descriptions and the photographer's keen eye caught quite a few features of Route 66 that have not appeared in other publications. Truckers are big part of this story, in fact the famous Dixie Truckers Home in central Illinois gets good coverage right in the beginning of the book. If the lore and legends of Route 66 are already part of your life, or you would just like a low-cost introduction to this famous highway then Route 66, by Tim Steil is a must have item.
- Gary Bricken

Worth a Thousand Words5
I recently received this beautiful color collection on "The Mother Road" Route 66. Having traveled West from Chicago to Kingman AZ in the mid 60's on Route 66 it brought back many memories. It also has left me with strong ambitions to repeat that journey but this time all the way to L.A. Wonderful photography and dialouge by the author. Even if you have never traveled on Route 66 you may very well want to after viewing this book.