Morgan Creekmore- Route 66

When we first started discussing Route 66 I wasn't sure what connection it had to our class, but as I started to write my research paper, I began to see the connection. We spoke about how Route 66 was the gateway to the west and the west was unexplored territory, therefore Route 66 was, in a way, the gateway to the unknown. Well, we've been discussing all throughout the year about how wilderness serves as a place to drop everything we know about ourselves and take on a deeper level of existence. The "deep, dark forest" has its appeal because it is unknown and unexplored, because it presents challenges for the traveller to overcome. In a sense, route 66 has the same appeal, people travel it not only to discover new places, but to rediscover themselves. It's the same with any new place, you have to drop a part of what makes you the way you are or discover maybe something new, like that you have an accent. That's why Professor Redick told us all those stories about hitchhiking the route 66, because it was a pilgrimage. Think about it, they had the same sorts of hardships like exhaustion and hunger, as they would on the trail. Meeting new people and sharing the experience was the same almost as the communitas on the trail. I get it now, route 66, the blacktop wilderness.