I remember when Vice TV’s “Abandoned” episode about Route 66 first aired in 2016, but the full 43-minute program was uploaded to YouTube just a few weeks ago.
The gist is two skate punks travel Route 66 from west to east, seeking assorted abandoned places to use their skateboards (natch), talk to the locals, and muse over what exactly is the American dream.
Watching it again this month, it’s a better and more thoughtful program than I remember:
Lest you think a seven-year-old episode wouldn’t garner much interest, au contraire: The video has gained about 2.5 million views since it was uploaded in mid-May.
Seven years may not seem like a long time, but Route 66 veterans will note a few changes that have happened since that broadcast, such as:
— The twin arrows at Twin Arrows, Arizona, are now down to a single arrow after one of them collapsed last year.
— The Texas-New Mexico ghost town of Glenrio in the last year has seen more activity than any time in 40 years because a marijuana dispensary and other related developments are under construction there.
— The fabled Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico, changed owners a few years after the episode, though the motel itself remains preserved in time.
(Screen-capture image from video of the “Abandoned” Route 66 episode in Texola, Oklahoma)