Route 66 goes south

It was good to get back onto the street today. Bank Holidays are great but if you don't get the weather, then this poor sap has an evolutionary trait of staying inside, guarding the fire. It is not quite the attitude to take - life should always be drunk while it is still fizzy! My photography isn't going to change the World just yet,and not everyone gets a chance to change the beat to the same old dance.
The weather was still inclement, but there were short periods when the rain decided to hold off. Town was busier, than normal today. The enforced lay off of the extended Bank Holiday had stored up a lot of all those menial chores for people. More footfall on the street meant more chances of 'out of the ordinary' within the ordinary.
I first noticed this shot at a bus stop, but before I could ready the camera, the bus pulled out and I could not get a shot square on. Fortunately enough, as with most urban traffic the bus didn't get too far down the road before the red and red/amber juggling traffic lights halted its passage.
Route 66 (aka US 66) was a legend as a highway , extending from Chicago to LA. It skirted across the great American Midwest and Southwest.
US Highway 66 no longer exists, but as the lyrics of musician Bobby Troup's eponymous tribute song, you can still "get your kicks" on the path it took through the United States on other highways and roads.
I remember 66 as a TV show of the 1960's. "Route 66", featured the exploits of two young men exploring America's highways. It was a must on a Sunday on our little 10" black and white, and I am not talking portables here!
Route 66 is one of the essential icons of America, both for Americans and for people abroad. It represents a multitude of ideas: freedom, migration West, and the loneliness of the American heartland.
The highway was first opened in 1926, although much of the route was not paved for decades afterwards.The author, John Steinbeck, in his 1940 novel Grapes of Wrath, chronicled the migration along Route 66 of thousands of farmers leaving the Dust Bowl of Kansas and Oklahoma during the Great Depression, trying to reach a better land in California. Steinbeck posited the road as an almost hostile force, draining money, energy, and enthusiasm from the optimistic Okies.
In the 1980s, the aging highway was decommissioned. Much of its stretch had been overlaid or routed around by broader, newer interstate highways.