Earlier this spring, it was reported that English rugby star and World Cup winner Steve Thompson was going to embark on a motorcycle ride on all of Route 66.
A sports reporter from The Independent of London caught up with Thompson, 32, and asked him how it went. Thompson replied:
“[…]It was a dream trip, everything I imagined and more. We went through Albuquerque, Texas, up to the Grand Canyon. It reached 46C, driving across Arizona and New Mexico, up to 300 miles a day in the full sun. The people were so friendly, and all the more so when I said I was English and doing Route 66.”
Were there any hairy moments? “In some states you can ride without a helmet, and I just had my bandana. But we got the states wrong and were pulled over. Luckily the policeman was a biker and he directed us to the local Harley garage to buy a helmet.
“We ate huge beef and pork ribs in a barn in Texas, a shrine to cowboy world. We ate in little diners where possible. I asked for fruit in one of them to go with my pancakes, and the waitress looked at me and said, ‘There’s nothing that healthy here’.”
Thompson said he first got the idea for a Route 66 trip from a previous team’s younger teammate while discussing it “over a few beers with the lads.”
Nice. And what I mean to say is. Nice,
One thing people don’t seem to broadcast or take into account is which time of year is probably the best to ride the route. For my money, the period of right now, between 9/15-11/30 is the best.
In it you catch the best weather uniformly across Route 66, plus the change of seasons and that variation going east to west. The colors, the crisp mornings, usually brillant sunny days are the best.
Ron Chavez told me a few years back that people who travelled then seemed to be the best tourists, took their time and were enjoying the ride. He recalled many couples who would stay over in Tucumcari as a base then visit area, eventually ending up at his place in Santa Rosa, NM. He said after the hectic summer months, he always looked forward to the fall, the slow down and time to rest up.
I done the Route in all seasons. There are examples of each that are fun: winter in Grants to Flagstaff, summer in western deserts (west of Flagstaff), the drag of innocence in midwestern summer, lazy days at Munger Moss with temps and humidity in the 90’s. Great food places, whacky stops and reasons galore to make one enjoy the trip.
The guy who did this trip has found out something we all already know: that the Route is, when left to its own devices, basically Americana. And that, I think, is leaving with each passing day. Soon, we may wonder where it went.