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The Crown Victoria Association was formed in 1977 to promote the preservation, restoration, and enjoyment of all 1954-1955-1956 Ford Automobiles, Canadian Meteors, Mercury Automobiles, and Ford & Mercury trucks. We went "online" in July 1997 and would like to encourage you to look around, find out a little about our club and if interested - join our growing community
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Traveling Route 66: Part Two
Submitted by Phil Meek, Austin, Texas
“The West is not a place,……It is a state of mind.”
(Tom Mix, a very popular cowboy star of the silent movie era.)
I love the American West! Anyone who has traveled by highway through the vast expanses of our western states has surely marveled at the sheer beauty before them, whether the Rocky Mountains, rolling prairies, desert vistas, the spectacular Grand Canyon, or the Pacific Coast. One of the best ways to experience our beautiful west is to drive Historic Route 66, the “mother road,” from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, to its terminus at the Santa Monica Pier, California.
In August 2022, my brother, Gary, and I drove from Texas on I-35 North to Oklahoma City, OK, turned left at the intersection with Route 66 and resumed our journey westward to Santa Monica. (See FoMoCo Times, Vol. 45, Number 1, Jan 2022: “Traveling Route 66 - Part 1.”) A few miles west of Oklahoma City is the geographic 98th Meridian West (longitude). For the United States, this line runs north-south from the Canadian border through a point a few miles west of Oklahoma City and thence down to the East Texas Gulf coast.
The significance of that geographical marker is that 80% of the US population lives east of the 98th Meridian West line, and only 20% of the US population lives west of the 98th Meridian West line. One important reason for this wide disparity of population density between east and west is the lack of sufficient water to support large populations, agriculture, transportation, etc., west of the 98th West Meridian. It is, in effect, a climatic barrier.
The effect of this climatic barrier on the terrain was stark on our journey on Route 66 as we compared the “feel” of driving westward from Oklahoma City to the prior drive from Chicago to Oklahoma City the previous year. Driving through the rural midwest from Chicago, the farms, croplands, houses, barns and other structures were close to the roads. The views down the winding Route 66 ahead were limited to a few thousand feet at most. The small towns were relatively close together. And the road signs for Route 66 in its various alignments over the years were frequent and easy to follow. There was a certain intimacy with Route 66 and the landscape as we motored along. Importantly, we were able to drive almost the entire distance to Oklahoma City on Historic Route 66, avoiding travel on the interstate highways except for a few miles.
