The Mother Road (Route 66 Strafford to Lebanon)

The Mother Road, as it was called by John Steinbeck, in his novel, "The Grapes of Wrath".

Highway 66 is the main migrant road. 66 — the long concrete path across the country, waving gently up and down on the map, from Mississippi to Bakersfield — over the red lands and the grey lands, twisting up into the mountains, crossing the Divide and down into the bright and terrible desert to the mountains again, and into the rich California valleys

66 is the path of a people in flight, refugees from dust and shrinking land, from the thunder of tractors and shrinking ownership, from the desert’s slow northward invasion, from the twisting winds that howl up out of Texas, from the floods that bring no richness to the land and steal what little richness is there. From all of these the people are in flight, and they come into 66 from the tributary side roads, from the wagon tracks and the rutted country roads. 66 is the mother road, the road of flight.



A little dramatic, but it is fiction. None the less, Route 66 became known as the mother road. In reality, 66 became the gateway to the West Coast, providing passenger and freight traffic a smooth mostly straight shot through the middle of the country, running from Chicago, Illinois to Santa Monica, California . It has been celebrated in song, on thousands of billboards, shop names, movies and all manner of trinkets since.

The "Mother Road" served us well until the interstate system was put in place, yet still today people take the trek down Route 66.  In many places the business minded  have either provided for or taken advantage of this fact. Either way, a jaunt down Route 66, no matter where, is a trip through the past. For me, it conjures up images of 40s and 50s model cars and motorcycles taking flight into freedom.

For me, the opportunity to ride down a section of Route 66 came up when I decided to make the trek to Ozarks Harley Davidson in Lebanon, Mo to try out some seats for my Harley Fat Bob.

Obligatory Motorcycle Pic.

Route 66 from Springfield, Mo to Lebanon, Mo follows fairly closely to I-44, in fact paralleling it for many miles. From what the maps tell me this is true all the the way through Missouri from St. Louis to Joplin. So if you plan to ride or drive Route 66 there is generally the option to skip some of the more out of the way section and take the interstate for a bit. I don't know why one would, they would miss out on the charm of small town Missouri, but the option is there in most places.

The route I took:


View Larger Map Route info: Total miles: 155 Towns in the loop: Sparta Strafford Marshfield Conway Lebanon Hartville Mansfield Sparta Road Level: 3 All roads, Good, clean 2 lane in good repair. (When Road construction is not an issue.)  US-60 is a Level 1 road, 4 lane. Hazards: Farm animals Wildlife Slow moving traffic As of 8/15/13 road construction of 5 south and US 60 west. As you can see from the map I did not ride Route 66 back to Sparta, that would be to much of the same road in one day, instead I went down 5 highway. This proved to be a disaster, there seemed to be road construction everywhere, so when I finally make it through enough detours to get to US 60 I took it back to 125, unfortunately it was rife with construction too. On to the pics:

The land near Lebanon really flattens out compared to just a few miles south.

The sign in Ozark Harley Davidson's parking lot, it's also on the back of many of their t-shirts.

The out house at Ozark Harley Davidson. (thankfully they have one inside too)

highway 5

Mo 125 Linden, Mo.

Just because I liked the pic. Mo 125S.