Someone called Michelle emailed me with some questions about the trip, because she was planning to drive Route 66 herself. I started writing a reply, then decided that the answers might be useful to other people too, so here they are. I also answer some questions I've had in the past.

How much driving did you do in a day?

I can't actually remember how many miles we generally travelled in a day. If you look at the diary and cross-reference it with an  atlas you could probably get a good idea of the distances.   A quick calculation of 4000 miles divided by 25 days gives 160  miles/day but that sounds quite low to me.

Most days we probably drove for three hours or so, but that's gentle driving with lots of photo stops, drink stops etc.  Generally we'd set off at around 11am, and be looking for a motel at around 5pm. The missing 3 hours are sightseeing time...

One day we drove right across Arizona, and that was something of a marathon.

Remember that distance isn't everything, there are other factors that contribute to how long it takes and how comfortable you are. Freeways are fast, but you need your wits about you because of the other traffic. The stretches of old road, once you're out of Chicago, are generally very straight and empty of traffic, so driving is easy. Speed limits are lower than on the freeway, but that just means you get more chance to look around you.

It's all a lot less strenuous than driving similar distances in the UK, simply because the roads are straighter and emptier. If you're in a modern hire car, it'll be automatic and air conditioned, with cruise control, and you'll be able to go for 80 miles at a time without touching any of your car's controls beyond keeping a fingertip on the steering wheel to stop it veering.

To me, the drive is as much a part of the pleasure as the destination (and I don't particularly enjoy driving at home). If you see the drive as being a chore, perhaps this isn't the trip for you.

Is it tiring staying in a different hotel every night?

I'm not sure why it would be.  On a typical day, at around 5pm we'd start looking for a motel. If we saw a cool looking motel earlier than that, we might check in early, then do some sightseeing nearby. If there was a recommended motel in one of the books, we might make a beeline for it. Otherwise we'd just cruise around a likely town looking for somewhere, and it usually worked. Sometimes we had to make do with a chain motel.

What we wanted from a motel was: Americana (neon, etc.), a clean, comfortable bed, and TV. We didn't tend to do much in the evenings: we'd go out for a meal, then come back and watch TV, and I wrote the day's diary and looked into what lay ahead tomorrow. We did look out for signs outside motels saying "free HBO and Showtime"...

Did staying one night in each place give you enough time to see everything?

Maybe not, but we never got bored, or ran out of things to see. There are plenty of places along the route that I'd love to go back to and explore in more depth (particularly Santa Fe).  The focus of the trip was breadth, not depth, and we didn't have a problem with the fact that our visits were always so brief.  Having said that, we had no advance hotel reservations to make, and our only fixed place and time was the plane journey home, so we were free to linger anywhere we took a particular liking to.

Many of the places we stayed didn't have much to see in any case. A lot of the towns along 66 are essentially a row of motels that sprung up in the 40s and 50s to accommodate travellers who wanted a bed, food, and no more.

I want to make the trip with four children.

I know that's not a question, but it does trigger an answer...

I wouldn't fancy doing it with kids at all, but then I don't fancy having kids at all, so your mileage may vary! I don't know a great deal about childcare, but a few thoughts come to mind:

• If you have the "Illustrated Guidebook to the Mother Road" book, you could let one of the kids read out the landmarks you're expecting to see, and encourage all the kids to take an active interest in the road. That might make the long drives more interesting for them. If you can persaude them to take an interest in bridges, then so much the better.
• Think harder than we did about where to stay every night, because I imagine they'll want something more stimulating than a TV, a restaurant and a bed every night.  No child should be denied the opportunity to sleep in the wigwam motel in Williams, AZ...
• Give them cameras, and if they want you to stop the car so they can take a picture, then do so.
• They'll like attractions such as Meramec Caverns
  
• Take them to the Grand Canyon, but keep them on leashes ;)

May I use your pictures in my school project/whatever?

Somebody really asked this. I was chuffed. You may use any of my pictures for any purpose, as nobody makes any money out of it. If there's money involved, I want in!

---