As the 100th anniversary of Route 66 approaches in 2026, join Pulitzer Prize winners Jonathan Bullington and E. Jason Wambsgans as they spotlight the stops and people who live along America’s highway.

Route 66 was created to connect us, a fused chain of existing roadways many unpaved that stretched 2,448 miles across eight states and three time zones, starting steps from Lake Michigan in downtown Chicago and ending near the Pacific Ocean and Santa Monica’s famed fishing pier.

Stop No. 1: The end of the road at Santa Monica pier
Stop No. 2: Visiting a desert ghost town
Stop No. 3: The Arizona Sidewinder, wild burros and a living statue
Stop No. 4: A rainy day at the Hackberry General Store
Stop No. 5: Meet the Mother Road’s ‘Guardian Angel’
Stop No. 6: In Albuquerque, a $13 million visitors center and a neighborhood in peril

Visitors pose for pictures at the Santa Monica Pier, where Route 66 ends, on June 1, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Visitors look out onto the Pacific Ocean at the end of Route 66 at the Santa Monica Pier, Sunday, June 1, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Clifton’s, opened in the early 1930’s, near the corner of Seventh Street and Broadway in downtown Los Angeles, the original terminus of Route 66, from 1926 to 1939, Monday, June 2, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
A tribute to Robert Waldmire, a well known Route 66 character from Springfield, Illinois, at the Santa Monica Pier Bait and Tackle Shop located at the tip of the Santa Monica Pier, on June 1, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Bagdad Cemetery with 17 graves in the California ghost town on Route 66 in the Mojave Desert, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Sign for the Henning Motel next door to the Bagdad Cafe in Newberry Springs, California on Route 66, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Kenneth Large, manager of Roy’s Motel and Café, which is currently being restored in the ghost town of Amboy, California, on Route 66, Tuesday, June 3, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Roy’s Motel and Café is a motel, cafe, and gas station, currently being restored in the ghost town of Amboy, California, on Route 66, June 3, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Route 66 winds and climbs through the Black Mountains near Oatman, Arizona, Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Outlaw Willie, also known as Rod Hall, 80, stages a gun fight on Route 66 in Oatman, Arizona, Wednesday, June 4, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Wild burros wander on Route 66 near Oatman, Arizona, Wednesday, June 4, 2025. The burros are believed to be descended from ones that served as pack animals from gold miners. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Ray Rose eases into an afternoon of busking on the porch of the Hackberry General Store in Hackberry, Arizona, on Route 66, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Memorials at Sitgreaves Pass, just east of Oatman, Arizona at elevation 3,586 feet on Route 66, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
The sky darkens during a rainstorm on Route 66 near Seligman, Arizona, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Angel Delgadillo, 98, know as the “guardian angel of Route 66,” visits his shop, Angel and Vilma Delgadillo’s Original Route 66 Gift Shop in Seligman, Arizona, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Route 66 enthusiasts visit Angel and Vilma Delgadillo’s Original Route 66 Gift Shop in Seligman, Arizona, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
A regular waits for his car club friends to turn up at the Hackberry General Store in Hackberry, Arizona, onRoute 66, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Austrian tourist Mike Antosch takes shelter from the rain under the porch at the Hackberry General Store on Route 66 in Hackberry, Arizona, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
A postcard drawn by Springfield native and Route 66 icon Bob Waldmire at the Hackberry General Store, which he owned for a time, on Route 66 in Hackberry, Arizona, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Austrian tourists Mike Antosch and his wife Galina Schultes kiss as they take shelter from the rain under the porch at the Hackberry General Store on Route 66 in Arizona, June 6, 2025. The couple are traveling across the American west on a rented motorcycle. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Horses graze near the Aubrey Cliffs on Old Route 66 on the outskirts of Seligman, Arizona on June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Friends from a local car club along with tourists passing through town mingle outside the Hackberry General Store on Route 66 in Arizona on June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Seligman, Arizona, Route 66 institution Delgadillo’s Snow Cap, built by Angel Delgadillo’s brother Juan, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Jerry “JW” Greening of Kingman, Arizona shows off his silver belt buckle that belonged to his great grandfather who came to the area in 1889 as a section foreman on the construction of the Santa Fe railroad, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Jerry “JW” Greening of Kingman, Arizona takes a break while visiting with friends at the Hackberry General Store in Hackberry, Arizona, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
A freight train passes through downtown Flagstaff, Arizona on Route 66, Friday, June 6, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Activity on the street off of Route 66 in the International District of Albuquerque, Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)
Central Avenue, aka Route 66, in Albuquerque, New Mexico on June 10, 2025. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

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