Following the Ghost of Tom Joad

"The bank is something more than men, I tell you. It's the monster. Men made it, but they can't control it." - John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

"Yes as through this life I've wandered I've seen lots of funny men
some will rob you with a six-gun and some with a fountain pen"
- Woody Guthrie, Pretty Boy Floyd

Leaving Little Rock early in the morning, I rambled West through the Ozarks and then into Oklahoma. I passed through Woody Guthrie country and then Oklahoma City, where I caught up to the old Route 66. From there, I followed the route taken by many before me - in the Dust Bowl times particularly - on the way to the Garden of Eden called California. I simply had to get off the interstate several times to check out some of the few still existing sections.

Although the historic highway more or less remains only in memory, there remain sections of the old road here and there all the way to California, with one particularly long section in western Arizona. In other places, one can see glimpses of the old road bed in the median strip of I-40.

Pushing ever West.

It was very quiet.

They called it "The Mother Road."

The West Texas Panhandle.

Along part of old 66 in Santa Rosa, New Mexico. Happy Motoring!

One can see a long way off.

The La Mesa Motel in Santa Rosa.

The precursor of the Visa card.