Take This Tune - Life is a Highway

Jamie is the host of TAKE THIS TUNE and today she offered Rascal Flatts singing "Life is a Highway." Now I had to think of something inspired by her post, the song in the post, or the lyrics of the song.

The first highway that came to mind was "Route 66." Of course I think most of you know that it was the title of a 1960s TV series and a song.

Route 66 was also a “super-highway,” thought of in 1926, and it represented unprecedented freedom to travel across the American West. Spawned by the rapidly changing demands of America, entrepreneurs, Cyrus Avery of Tulsa, Oklahoma and John Woodruff of Springfield, Missouri conceived of the grand idea of linking Chicago to Los Angeles and began lobbying efforts to promote the new highway. While other East/West highways existed at the time, most followed a linear course, leaving out the rural communities, dependent upon transportation for farm products and other goods.

No doubt a daunting task for the pair, the federal government finally pledged to link small town U.S.A. with metropolitan capitals in the summer of 1926 and designated the road as 66. Unfortunately, shortly after work began on the Mother Road came the depression, halting progress on the new “Super-Highway.

However, in 1933, thousands of unemployed men were put back to work and road gangs paved the final stretches of the road. By 1938 the 2,300 mile highway was continuously paved from Chicago to Los Angeles.

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"Route 66" was the name of an American TV series in which two young men traveled across America. The show ran weekly on CBS from 1960 to 1964. It starred Martin Milner as Tod Stiles and, for two and a half seasons, George Maharis as Buz Murdock. Maharis was ill for much of the third season, during which time Tod was shown traveling on his own. Tod met Lincoln Case, played by Glenn Corbett, late in the third season, and traveled with him until the end of the fourth and final season.

The series is best remembered for its iconic Corvette convertible and its instrumental theme song (composed and performed by Nelson Riddle), which became a major pop hit.

I have to say that I didn't know what to do because I never really liked the song as it played on the TV series. But I found on YouTube, The Rolling Stones singing it and , boy, it made all the difference in the world!! Listen to it!

LYRICS
Well if you ever plan to motor west,
Just take my way , that's the highway that's the best.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.

Well it winds from Chicago to LA
More than two-thousand miles all the way.
Get your kicks on Route sixty-six.

Well it goes through St. Louie down to Missouri
Oklahoma City looks oh so pretty.
You'll see Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona, don't forget Winona,
Kingsman, Barstow, San Bernardino.

Won't you get hip to this timely tip
And think you'll take that California trip.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.

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Well it goes through St. Louie, down to Missouri
Oklahoma city looks oh so pretty.
You'll see Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaff, Arizona, don't forget Winona,
Kingsman, Barstow, San Bernardino.

Well you get hip to this timely tip
When you make that California trip.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.
Get your kicks on route sixty-six.

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