Why these classic cars drove Route 66 cross-country to Detroit
'You see ... incredible neon signs at night,' and it restores 'faith in humanity'
When Hollywood features Route 66 in the movies, the road and the freedom it delivers are always main characters in the story — from “The Grapes of Wrath” and “Easy Rider” to “Thelma & Louise” and “National Lampoon’s Vacation.”
To honor the 100th anniversary of the highway that American families have traveled for generations, a cross-country caravan of classic cars made “The Drive Home” from California to Illinois, followed by a trek east to open the 2026 Detroit Auto Show this week.
Doug Fox of Grosse Pointe Farms and his daughter, Kiki Fox, were among those making the 11-day trip. They rode together in a 1960 Chrysler 300 F Coupe.
Their experience is bittersweet because they’d planned to make the trek four years ago, but Kiki went solo in a rented Mazda crossover instead. During her two-week exploration, Kiki received a call while (on a hike) in the middle of nowhere in New Mexico with news that her father had been hospitalized with a pulmonary embolism.
Her dad not being on that trip was a saving grace, she said. “I have that in the back of my mind.”
Doug Fox, chair of the 2010 auto show, used to own Ann Arbor Automotive that sold Acura, Nissan, Hyundai, Kia and Mitsubishi. He’s now an at-large board member of the Detroit Auto Dealers Association.
“I’ve had a love of cars since I was a kid in Detroit,” he told me. “I went to college in Arizona and drove Route 66 to school, probably 15 or 16 times back and forth over four years. I haven’t done the trip since 1973. It’s just cathartic for me to see those mountains and come out of those valleys, then the flats and plains. The sky is gorgeous. The towns are wonderful. I drove when the interstates weren’t completed. Now you see independently run hotels with incredible neon signs at night. The bright, bright pastel colors — pinks, blues, greens and stucco finishes on the walls.”
Kiki Fox, a freelance travel writer based in New York City, said, “He’s dug up old photos of himself driving Route 66, which has been fun for me to see, to try to picture what his trips might have looked like back in the day.”
Historians and car collectors left Santa Monica on Jan. 3 and arrived at the end of Route 66 in Chicago on Jan. 11. They continued onward, arriving Tuesday afternoon at Big Rock Italian Chophouse in Birmingham for snacks before getting a police escort for the final stretch down Woodward Avenue.
‘Land that time forgot’
“This trip has been a combination of beautiful, nostalgic and a little bit sad,” said Madison Tully, a wine sommelier from Los Angeles. “So many of these towns popped up out of nowhere out of necessity, but once the interstates were built, there was really no purpose anymore. There are a lot of abandoned spaces, gas stations in the middle of nowhere. This is definitely the land that time forgot. Then you have pockets where people have preserved and restored this part of American history with pride.”
She immediately agreed to the adventure with her father when he called. They saw cousins in Albuquerque on this, her first Route 66 trip. They stopped at Pops 66 diner and gas station in Arcadia, Oklahoma. The night before? Lucille’s Roadhouse in Weatherford, Oklahoma, is known for its chicken-fried steak.
Memories of family road trips inspired Geoffrey Tully, a technology consultant from Los Angeles, to invite his daughter. They drove his 2005 Ford Thunderbird, a special 50th anniversary edition that commemorates the original 1955 model.
Tully, who attended Michigan State University in East Lansing, hadn’t driven Route 66 since 1967. This was a homecoming for him in a different way.
Born in 1950 and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, he enjoyed a childhood defined by family road trips with two sisters in an Oldsmobile station wagon pulling a camper trailer to visit national parks and relatives when their father racked up weeks of vacation at the Tennessee Valley Authority, Geoffrey Tully said.
“The sights are incredible,” he said.
Route 66 adventurers came from cities on both coasts, as well as Florida, Missouri and Illinois. Madison Tully noted they stopped at the Heartland of America Museum in Weatherford for a bit of road history.
During the Dust Bowl era of the 1930s, Route 66 was the primary route for migrants heading west. Travel continued during World War II because California offered opportunities, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation historical page. By the 1950s and 1960s, Route 66 had become a major tourist destination with shops and restaurants popping up. Many went out of business when the interstates opened.
In 1999, President Bill Clinton signed the National Route 66 Preservation Bill to provide $10 million in matching grants to restore historic features. In 2008, the World Monuments Fund listed Route 66 on its Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites.
‘Restoring my faith in humanity’
Justin Rose, a videographer from Detroit’s historic Brush Park neighborhood, documented the journey of drivers with interviews and images that will play on the screen at the Detroit Auto Show. (They’re also posted exclusively on Instagram, which had nearly 50,000 followers @detautoshow on Monday.)
“There’s a genuineness to the people you meet on this trek that has been restoring my faith in humanity,” said Rose, a former WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) sports reporter, while on break along Route 66 in Oklahoma City.
“There’s so much stuff going on in the world, it feels all negative. When you touch some grass and hit the open road and talk to human beings making a livelihood off of something being restored, well, if you’re a true American, it will connect you back to why we feel so good about this country,” Rose said. “If everybody did that right now, it would be helpful to a lot of people.”
During this trip as a business development lead for Make the Turn digital marketing firm in Detroit, on behalf of the auto show, the St. Clair, Michigan, native took time to mark his hometown on a Route 66 map in Shamrock, Texas.
Which classic cars will be at the show
Nearly 100 car enthusiasts joined for a few hours along the way, getting a taste of the historic moment and then returning to work and other commitments.
These cars led the convoy — coordinated by America’s Automotive Trust based in Tacoma, Washington, and the National Route 66 Centennial Commission:
1934 Buick Series 60 Club Sedan
1952 Chevy 2500 Pickup
1960 Chrysler 300F
1965 Ford Country Squire
1967 Pontiac GTO
1969 Chevy Camaro SS
1969 Mercury Cougar
1991 Ford Fox Body Mustang
1992 Land Rover Discovery
Jake Welk, communications director for America’s Automotive Trust, switched up between driving the Chevy pickup and orange Camaro along the Route 66 journey.
“We’re driving back to where it all started, the automotive capital of the world.”
The classic cars are now displayed at the Detroit Auto Show through Jan. 25, not all polished up but with authentic Route 66 road dirt.
Celebrating freedom
Car culture historian Jonathan Klinger of Traverse City, Michigan, and Allentown, Pennsylvania, joined the drive in Amarillo, Texas, behind the wheel of a 1934 Buick. As executive director of the NB Center for American Automotive Heritage in Allentown, he split the drive with a workmate.
“The romance of Route 66 is everything we want to associate with American optimism,” Klinger told me. “When this road was initially stitched together, it became the first paved effort to connect the east to the west (in 1938). One of the great things about America is we have this amazing ability to go explore of our own free will in cars our automakers have built. That’s really what this represents.”
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Interesting article, I lived right on Route 66 in Missouri just prior to the building of the interstate. Between a Stuckeys and a Nickerson Farms.
Fun story on the historic road to the west. In 1971, we moved to Bloomington / Normal Illinois where I attended Illinois State U. We drove ‘66 daily, as our apartment was on the east side of it in Bloomington. Actually, my wife was a pre school teacher at La Petite Academy, and frequently walked across Route 66 to get to the school. I also did roofing work on a brand new apartment complex which was 75 feet off of ‘66, and in January, with the wind blowing I thought I was going to be blown off of the roof!
We not only drove ‘66 we walked it!!!
Always good reading.
PEACE
Gregg