Would you like to sleep in a wigwam in an Indian village? On a round bed in a historic auto court? In a grand Spanish hacienda in America’s desert Southwest or in a hotel where the likes of the King of Siam and the Vanderbilts, one of the richest families in America, have stayed? Would you like to drive through the California Mojave Desert with wildflowers in bloom and take a ride up to the Grand Canyon, down to the Red Rocks of Sedona, and through the Painted Desert in Arizona? How about surveying a mining boomtown, witnessing a gun fight, and exploring a ghost town? Shopping at Indian trading posts, eating in roadside diners, visiting sites where movies were filmed and celebrities have stayed, and being dazzled by urban streetscapes of neon lighting up the night? That is, would you like to experience a real classic American road trip down the legendary Route 66, US Highway 66, the Mother Road, America’s Main Street? If so, please follow my blog  on my travels along Historic Route 66 through America’s Southwest and I’ll show you how.

After a captivating couple-day introduction to Route 66 on a road trip in New Mexico, I returned for a more intensive and extensive 12-day venture following Historic Route 66 in three states in America’s Southwest: California, Arizona, and New Mexico. This site is the product of my research, photography, and travels on Route 66 through America’s Southwest. Beckoning back to and building on the tradition of travel narratives, my photo journal is a combination of both a travel narrative and a photo essay. I approach my research, writing, and photography through the lens of an anthropologist and an ethnohistorian, with a focus on the culture and history of my subjects.

I love to travel, I love to create photographs, I love to learn, and I love to share my knowledge and experiences. Please join me. Sign up (on the bottom of the page) for email notifications of new postings. Take a look at my prints and at other travel products. Share comments. I would love to have your company!
Denise Potrzeba Lett, Ph.D.