USA - Route 66
08' 55"
Harley Riders preparing for ride |
| 00:00 |
| ROWLAND: It's a grey Saturday morning in Tulsa and the local Harley Davidson fanatics are getting ready to hit the road. | 00:08 |
| Their passion for rumbling horsepower and gleaming chrome is matched by another great love. These well-oiled machines have a date with Route 66. | 00:19 |
Bikers on Route | Music | 00:32 |
| ROWLAND: The highway known as the mother road runs for nearly three-thousand kilometres across eight states. Oklahoma boasts the longest continuous stretch. | 00:53 |
| Music | 01:02 |
| ROWLAND: Today's ride is taking the Tulsa Harley gang along a picturesque 150-kilometre strip of Route 66 through the lush green fields of north-eastern Oklahoma. | 01:12 |
Boyd on bike | For Road Captain John Boyd it doesn't get any better than this. | 01:27 |
| BOYD: It's a way of life, it's a style, it's being on the road, it's having a motorcycle under the seat of your pants. | 01:38 |
| ROWLAND: It's also a high-octane trip down memory lane. | 01:49 |
| For decades Route 66 was America's main street, a pathway of opportunity and leisure. | 01:54 |
| For John Boyd it's a reminder of life in the slow-lane. | 02:02 |
Boyd | BOYD: It's a time when things were slower and simpler. It's at time when you could, you could, your kids would get into a | 02:10 |
Diners and cafes | car with you and go for a road trip with you. It's a time when you would stop at a restaurant or café or diner along the way and go in and have lunch instead of driving through a McDonalds fast-food, just trying to get to the next destination. | 02:18 |
Boyd | It's the most important road in America. That's why they call it the mother road. And it needs to be preserved just for future generations. | 02:34 |
Roadside attraction signs | Music | 02:46 |
Bikers pull in to roadside attraction | ROWLAND: For John and his friends the ride is very much the destination, kitschy roadside stops and all. BOYD: Yeah you weren't supposed to go to the other side because of the alligators. ROWLAND: The Blue Whale at Catoosa | 02:52 |
Blue Whale attraction | is one of the unmissable Route 66 diversions that for decades helped break up the long cross- country haul. | 03:04 |
Bikers at Blue Whale | BOYD: It doesn't look any different than when I was here when I was 12. ROWLAND: The whale has seen better days. | 03:13 |
| BIKER: Hi guys it's beheading time. ROWLAND: So too have many other places along the iconic road. BIKER: World famous Blue Whale. | 03:18 |
Fast Food outlets | Music | 03:27 |
Interstate highway | ROWLAND: The birth of the interstate in the 1950s marked the beginning of the end for Route. It's gone from super-highway to the road less travelled. | 03:40 |
Old gas station | The petrol stations that kept many a Chevy or Cadillac motoring along have long since dried up. | 03:53 |
Old motels | Motels that once provided a haven for weary travellers are now nothing more than rusting artefacts. | 04:01 |
| FRANK JUGLER: What bothers me the most is what I think in the name of progress. | 04:11 |
Frank and Trudy | When they tear down, you know, icons that belong on Route just because they are not aesthetically pleasing like they used to be in the old days. | 04:14 |
Motel | That's the part that bothers me, because you can't replace that history you know I mean those old neon signs and the different things. | 04:21 |
| Music | 04:26 |
Frank and Trudy clean motel room | FRANK JUGLER: Trudy, I'll get the bed. ROWLAND: Frank and Trudy Jugler took over this Route 66 motel in the tiny town of Chelsea, Oklahoma about a year ago. | 04:33 |
| Their friends though they were crazy. But the Juglers are determined to play their role in keeping the old magic alive. | 04:43 |
Motel exterior | FRANK JUGLER: There's not very many mom and pop places left, really out on Route 66. Most of them are chain motels. And we've had people call us about wanting maybe if we wanted to sell. And we've said no, we're not interested. We're interested in doing it our way, not really that way. | 04:52 |
Frank and Trudy feed bison | ROWLAND: For the Juglers, who have their own roadside attraction, Route 66 is more a way of life than a business opportunity. | 05:13 |
| FRANK JUGLER: To me, every day I find out something new about it and you want to, you want to learn about it. But the people, the people that travel it and the folks that travelled it in the past. | 05:23 |
Frank and Trudy | And I like hearing old stories from people saying ‘ I stayed here years and years and years ago' and that's what's fun. And that's what's fun. | 05:32 |
Bikers on Route 66 | Music | 05:38 |
| ROWLAND: The Juglers aren't the only ones having fun. Back on the open road, the Harley riders are hitting their stride. | 05:41 |
| For towns along Route, road warriors like the Tulsa gang, provide an economic lifeblood. | 05:50 |
| Music | 05:56 |
Ku-Ku Burgers | ROWLAND: The burgers at the Ku-Ku joint near the Oklahoma/Kansas border have been fuelling hungry travellers for decades. WAITRESS: Double cheese, a corn dog, two rings. WAYLAN: Double cheese, a corn dog, two rings. WAITRESS: Yeah. | 06:15 |
Waylan cooking | WAYLAN: I've been here for 34 years. The Ku-Ku has been here for 42 but I've only been here 34 of them. | 06:31 |
Waylan | I've been in the restaurant business for longer than that. I started in '61 when fast food hamburgers, when the hamburgers were 15 cents and the fries was 10 cents. | 06:40 |
| WAYLAN: Here's your corn dog, double cheese burger. | 06:49 |
Waitress takes orders | WAITRESS: Coffee. | 06:52 |
| ROWLAND: The yellow Ku-Ku, like the Blue Whale, occupies a treasured place in the hearts of Route die-hards. | 06:54 |
Jones shows tattoos | JONES: Here is the tombstone of Cyrus Aviary... Triangle Motel... El Vado Motel in Albuquerque. | 07:02 |
| ROWLAND: But for one man it's left an indelible impression. | 07:12 |
| JONES: And here is the Ku-Ku burger in Miami Oklahoma. ROWLAND: Ron Jones has taken his infatuation with Route 66 and its icons to an entirely new level. | 07:15 |
| JONES: I've got 54 tattoos now. I got one, part of one, yesterday and that will make it 55 when it's completed. ROWLAND: So are you aiming for 66? JONES: I might stop at 66, | 07:28 |
Ron | because being only five foot seven, my canvas is getting pretty small. | 07:43 |
Ron's Chevy |
| 07:45 |
Ron lifts hood of car and cleans engine | ROWLAND: Ron, his tattoos, and his 1956 Chevy have clocked up tens of thousands of Route kilometres. | 07:51 |
| JONES: It's a sad day | 08:00 |
Ron | and they say it's progress, if that's what you want to call it. If we don't start teaching our kids or grandkids about it there won't be any 66 in another generation or two. | 08:02 |
Café neon signs | Music | 08:16 |
| ROWLAND: Route 66 may well be in its twilight years. Its neon delights may be dwindling. But for the keepers of the flame, this slice of Americana will never fizzle out. | 08:23 |
| Music | 08:43 |
| Reporter: Michael Rowland Camera: Dan Sweetapple Editor: Bryan Milliss | 08:55 |