Book review: “Road Trip USA Route 66”

I should preface this by saying I have been a longtime fan of Jamie Jensen’s travel guides. I still possess a 1999 edition of his “Road Trip USA” (subtitled “Cross-Country Adventures on America’s Two-Lane Highways”).

Jensen, by all accounts, has driven hundreds of thousands of miles to scout out the best road trips in America. His concise but informative guides to the Appalachian Trail, U.S. 50, U.S. 80, the Great River Road and, yes, Route 66 became influential to Route 66 News and scores of roadies.

So I was excited to hear a few weeks ago that Jensen and his new publisher, Avalon Travel, were coming out with a new book, “Road Trip USA Route 66,” that focused on the Mother Road. It and  Jensen’s “Road Trip USA Pacific Coast Highway” were released this month, with a full, new edition of “Road Trip USA” coming later.

“Road Trip USA Route 66” is a 130-page paperback book, priced at a budget $9.95, that’s compact enough to fit into a car’s glovebox. It’s sprinkled with color photos and graphics, including basic maps. Those looking for detailed maps or turn-by-turn directions should look elsewhere. “Road Trip USA Route 66” is meant to be a concise overview of the Mother Road to novice travelers, not a comprehensive guide for hard-core roadies.

In addition, the book contains entertaining factoids on the sides of its pages and full sidebar stories about Chicago, St. Louis, Santa Fe, Los Angeles, Cadillac Ranch, books on Route 66, Buddy Holly, songs of Route 66, Grand Canyon National Park, London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, Ariz., and the “detour” cities of Las Vegas and Branson, Mo. (side trips are mentioned and encouraged).

Although Jensen’s text is often necessarily lean because of the book’s concise format, his enthusiasm for Route 66’s eccentricities shine through:

Just east of the Texas/Oklahoma border, Texola has all but dried up and blown away since it was bypassed by I-40, but a few remnants stand, awaiting nostalgic photographers. The only signs of life hereabouts are the shouts and swears emanating from the combination pool hall and beer bar housed in a large metal shed on the south side of the old highway, where you’re welcome to watch the most passionate domino games this side of Yuma, Arizona.

However, during a casual reading of “Road Trip USA Route 66,” I kept noticing errors in the text. When you pack a lot of information into a guidebook, I realize a few mistakes are inevitable because of deadlines or oversights. But my discomfort turned into frustration when the errors that should have been easily caught kept popping up. Such as:

• Jensen mentions that KMOX-AM in St. Louis carries St. Louis Cardinals baseball games. In fact, KMOX hasn’t aired the Cardinals since the end of the 2005 season.
• Jensen cites “old-fashioned milk shakes whipped up” at Eisler Bros. Old Riverton Store in Riverton, Kan. The store has never made milk shakes that anyone there can recall. It is famous for its hand-made sandwiches, however.
• Jensen mentions the Route 66 Lounge in Cuba, Mo., “serving the coldest beer on old Route 66.” However, the Route 66 Lounge has been closed for years, and the building has been converted into a completely different business use.
• The book lists KVOO-AM in Tulsa as a country-music station. However, that frequency has been occupied by KFAQ, a talk station, since 2002.

There are other errors, questionable phrases or inexplicable omissions I haven’t listed. And it’s not as if I ran a fine-toothed comb through the book; it was a casual reading that revealed these problems. It makes me wonder what other errors exist in the book that I missed. Incidentally, these same errors are in the new “Road Trip USA” in the chapter on Route 66.

It was Jensen who made these mistakes, and he should be held responsible for them. But it seemed odd that these errors would go through, considering that Google searches or phone calls by the publisher’s staff would have prevented most of them.

But Jodee Krainik, publicist for Avalon Travel, acknowledged in an e-mail that the publisher did not fact-check the manuscript because Jensen was essentially a well-established author. She said reprints of the book would be corrected.

It would now seem advisable that Avalon fact-check all its manuscripts from now on.

And although “Road Trip USA Route 66” and “Road Trip USA” are decent thumbnail guides for two-lane adventures, the buyer should beware.