It’s All About Adventure—A Letter from Florian

The last installment of our Route 66 experience was recently published. We’d wanted to ride the Mother Road for a while, but the centennial finally brought the motivation to make it happen. On top of that, it was the 30-year anniversary of my parents’ Route 66 trip. 

With modern resources, it’s relatively easy to plan a cross-country trip. Marisa plotted the GPS tracks, complete with all the points of interests we wanted to see. She also worked ahead to secure hotels for every night. Finding lodging is always fun. Even with today’s technology, you can still be in for a surprise.

When my parents rolled into Amarillo, TX, and stopped at one of the first motels, a local police officer quickly rescued them. The friendly cop let them know they’re in the wrong part of town. Fortunately, the laughably large Austrian license plate screamed “we’re not from here.”

Our story was a little different. Of course, we had the iconic nightly stops on the itinerary, but some of the in-between towns were a gamble. On one of our first nights in Illinois, we rolled up to a questionable hotel. Judging it by its cover, we should have kept moving—fading paint, a swampy pool, severely cracked parking lot, no other travelers, and a shower surround next to the entry.