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ROUTE 66 STILL KICKS

Driving America's Main Street

Route 66 Still Kicks is an exhilarating, heartbreaking drive down a forgotten road through unknown America. Antonson and his travel nemesis, the inscrutable Peter, patiently journey 2,400 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles through eight states seeking -- and finding -- all the old parts that remain of Route 66.

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This travelogue blends surprising vignettes with obscure stories about Route 66: related personalities, among them Al Capone, the Harvey Girls, Salvador Dali, Mickey Mantle, 1930s photojournalist Dorothea Lange, Cyrus Avery (the Father of Route 66), and songster Bobby Troup "(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66."

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Antonson's fresh perspective on the route's harsh history, its ebb and flow of popularity and viability, along with America's economic and social upheavals, underpaints a canvas of stories about the road's rise to fame, its segmenting by superhighways, and its fall from grace with the gazetteers -- and Route 66's entrenchment in legend.

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  • September 1, 2012

  • ISBN: 9781510734708

  • Available in hardcover, paperback, eBook and audiobook editions

Reviews

“One of the best books of the bunch [2012 round up of Holiday Travel Books by The New York Times] is partly a homage to Bobby Troup, the lyricist who wrote the 1946 hit ‘(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66.”

Joshua Hammer, for The New York Times

“Antonson calls Route 66 "the highway of highways," and after reading his luminous travelogue, you probably will agree. A must for Route 66 aficionados.”

Chicago Tribune

“Antonson’s most impressive feat in “Route 66 Still Kicks” is how he incorporates history into the narrative. Even those familiar with the stories of Will Rogers, Cyrus Avery, Mickey Mantle, or Al Capone will find them rendered by Antonson in a fresh way. Highly recommended.”

Route 66 News

“There are travel books, and there are travelogues, and then, if you’re lucky, you come across storytelling like this that actually takes you on a history-filled, magical mystery tour that becomes a remarkably accessible journey.”

Peter Greenberg, travel editor, CBS Evening News

“His tale is a middle-age Woodstock in motion, an encounter with an America that isn’t as lost as we think…And in the end Antonson proves that Route 66 indeed still kicks—as does America.”

Keith Bellows, editor in chief of National Geographic Traveler

“The most impressive account of a road trip I have ever read.”

Paul Taylor, publisher of Route 66 Magazine

“There are many Route 66 books but none are a full-length road trip like this … If you plan to motor west and get your kicks doing it, I suggest you read it.”

David Knudson, executive director, National Historic Route 66 Federation

“By far the best book I have read about the Road in many, many years. Two guys went in search of Route 66 and found America. Highly recommended.”

Bob Moore, co-author of The Complete Guidebook to Route 66 and The Complete Atlas to Route 66

“I have traveled Route 66 more times than a long-haul trucker and this book is going to become one of the classics of the road … solid proof that Route 66 ‘still kicks.”

Jim Conkle, director, Route 66 Pulse newspaper and TV

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