2026年6月28日 / 美国东部时间上午9:23 / 哥伦比亚广播公司纽约站
位于得克萨斯州阿德里安的中点咖啡馆是“美国主街”66号公路的中点。单向距芝加哥1139英里，另一方向距洛杉矶同样为1139英里。正如我们的国家一样，这条公路也即将迎来纪念时刻，而庆祝方式只有一种。
CBS新闻
66号公路生来就是为了被驾驶的。你不必非得开着1957年款皮卡，但我们还是借了一辆，纯粹为了好玩。和我们一同随行的是记者、作家兼资深66号公路历史学家迈克尔·沃利斯。“66号公路的一切都无法预测，”沃利斯说，“‘可预测’这个词绝不该用在它身上。这也是我喜欢它的原因，它永远充满变数。”
纪念百年诞辰，需要我们频频回望过往。
20世纪30年代，66号公路是希望之路——正如约翰·斯坦贝克所称的“母亲之路”，承载着逃离沙尘暴灾区的移民。
沿66号公路向西海岸迁徙。 贝德曼档案社/盖蒂图片社
到了40年代，它成了人们寻求乐趣的去处；到60年代，驾车者发现这条漫漫长路意外地“好走”。
但66号公路也有黑暗的篇章。在受吉姆·克劳法管辖的州，非裔美国人会被提醒哪里可以开车、哪里绝对不能去。沃利斯表示：“有时候，这条母亲之路也会像一位严苛的母亲。”
早已被正式废弃的66号公路曾从伊利诺伊州一路延伸至加利福尼亚州，全长约2400英里，途经8个州。沿途遍布风景胜地和 roadside 奇趣景点——这一点我们的查尔斯·库尔特深有体会。
1975年的报道中，库尔特在阿马里洛以西发现了一处66号公路的奇景：“我说，你们快看那边！那场景活脱脱像10辆凯迪拉克车头朝下扎进了麦田。”凯迪拉克牧场至今仍是必打卡的景点。
位于得克萨斯州阿马里洛附近的凯迪拉克牧场，是1974年由一群自称“蚁穴”的旧金山艺术家沿著名66号公路打造的汽车雕塑。 弗朗索瓦·勒·迪亚斯科恩/Gamma-Rapho via 盖蒂图片社
继续沿公路前往塔尔萨，你会发现一片“巨人之乡”——路边矗立着众多巨型塑像，其中包括太空牛仔巴克·阿特姆，这一形象由玛丽·贝丝·巴布科克构思创作。她在一座旧加油站改造而成的店铺里经营着一家66号公路纪念品商店。
俄克拉荷马州塔尔萨市的巴克·阿特姆宇宙奇趣66号公路纪念品商店。 CBS新闻
哥伦比亚广播公司当然也曾探访过这条公路，结识过形形色色的人，比如亚利桑那州塞利格曼的99岁退休理发师安杰尔·德尔加多，我们1989年就曾采访过他。当时他在《哥伦比亚广播公司晚间新闻》中这样描述66号公路：“多年来，它触动了千千万万普通人的心弦。”
圣马丁·格里芬出版社
但1984年附近的40号州际公路通车后，一切都变了。“公路开通后，旅行者们纷纷涌向40号州际公路，就像鸭子入水一样自然，”他告诉我们。
66号公路从此成了少有人走的路。陈旧的汽车旅馆、酒吧和餐馆的残骸散落沿途，在岁月和沙漠烈日的侵蚀下日渐破败。
“有那么一段时间，66号公路被人们遗忘了，”莉莲·雷德曼说。1993年《48小时》栏目采访她时，她正抱怨生活节奏越来越快，匆匆掠过她位于新墨西哥州图克姆卡里的蓝燕汽车旅馆。“人们都在拼命赶路，想去任何地方，”她说。
即便如此，仍有一些游客愿意放慢脚步（至少偶尔会这样），这起初让安杰尔·德尔加多很困惑：“我终于问自己，这些人到底在寻找什么？我突然明白了。他们在寻找昨日的美国。”
他萌生了一个想法：如果将部分路段定为“历史路段”，或许就能吸引游客重返此地，就像观景台的指示牌会促使司机停车驻足一样。这个方法奏效了。如今，旅游巴士几乎每天都会抵达塞利格曼。
回到新墨西哥州图克姆卡里的蓝燕汽车旅馆，如今客房几乎总是客满——尽管莉莲·雷德曼已经离世，但这家旅馆仍由家族经营。“这里就像一个小泡泡，带你回到20世纪50年代和60年代，”唐·费德里科说，“我们称之为我们的快乐小泡泡。这是个很棒的地方。”
新墨西哥州图克姆卡里的蓝燕汽车旅馆，至今仍在迎接沿66号公路而来的旅行者。 CBS新闻
她和罗布·费德里科并不认为自己是店主；他们说，自己只是这段丰富的路边历史的守护者。数十年来，游客们作为陌生人走进蓝燕汽车旅馆，但在一同观赏日落之后，他们再次上路时往往已成了朋友。
“我们负责维持它的运转，但真正让它焕发生机的是每一位游客，”罗布说。
66号公路就像一幅铺在路面上的诺曼·洛克威尔画作——一条两车道的纽带，连接着东部的进步与西部的传统，成为了美国民族织锦的一部分。
“它一直都是一条受人喜爱的公路，”沃利斯说，“一直都是。”
如果你追求最快的出行方式，你的GPS大概率不会带你到这里。但如果你渴望这条开阔的公路，渴望它带来的所有可能性与惊喜，那么两条车道正等待着你，去探寻在路上的美国风情。
CBS新闻
Historic Route 66: Americana on the go
June 28, 2026 / 9:23 AM EDT / CBS New York
The Midpoint Café, in Adrian, Texas, is the midway point along “America’s Main Street,” Route 66. Chicago is 1,139 miles one way; Los Angeles is 1,139 miles the other way. Like our country, the road is celebrating an anniversary, too, and there’s only one way to celebrate.
CBS News
Route 66 begs to be driven. You don’t have to do it in a ’57 pickup, but we borrowed one anyway, just for the fun of it. Riding shotgun with us is Michael Wallis, journalist, author, and longtime Route 66 historian. “Nothing about Route 66 is predictable,” said Wallis. “It’s a word you should never use. That’s why I like it. It’s unpredictable.”
Celebrating its 100 years requires a lot of looking back in our rearview mirrors.
In the 1930s, Route 66 was a highway of hope – the “Mother Road,” as John Steinbeck called it, for those fleeing the Dust Bowl.
Migration to the West Coast along Route 66. Bettmann Archive/Getty Images
By the ’40s it had become a place to get your kicks, and by the ’60s, drivers found its endless expanse a pretty “easy ride.”
But Route 66 had its dark stretches, too. In states shrouded by Jim Crow laws, Black Americans were advised where and where not to drive. Wallis said, “Sometimes, the Mother Road could be an abusive mother.”
Long since decommissioned, Route 66 once stretched from Illinois all the way to California – some 2,400 miles through eight states. And along the way, it offered scenic vistas and roadside curiosities – something our Charles Kuralt knew a thing or two about.
Reporting in 1975, Kuralt found one such Route 66 curiosity west of Amarillo. “I said, would you look over there? That looks for all the world like 10 Cadillacs nose down in a wheat field.” Cadillac Ranch remains a must-stop to this day.
The Cadillac Ranch, near Amarillo, Texas, car sculptures created in 1974 along the famous Route 66 by a group of artists from San Francisco calling themselves “The Ant Farm.” Francois LE DIASCORN/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
If you go up the road to Tulsa – you’ll find a land of giants – towering characters lining the road, including Buck Atom the Space Cowboy, imagined by Mary Beth Babcock. She runs a Route 66 gift shop in what used to be an old filling station.
The Route 66 gift shop Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios, in Tulsa, Okla. CBS News
CBS has been down this road before, of course, meeting all kinds of people, like 99-year-old Angel Delgadillo, a retired barber in Seligman, Arizona, whom we first met in 1989. Back then he described Route 66 to “The CBS Evening News”: “It touched millions and millions and millions and millions of people, for years and years and years and years and years.”
St.Martin’s Griffin
But once nearby I-40 was finished in 1984, everything changed. “When they opened that highway, the traveling public took to I-40 like ducks take to water,” he told us.
Route 66 became the road less travelled. The bones of old motels and bars and restaurants litter the route, beaten by time and the desert sun.
“For a while, Route 66 was forgotten,” said Lillian Redman. When “48 Hours” visited her back in 1993, she was bemoaning that life had somehow sped up – whizzing past her Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico. “People went as fast as they could, everywhere they could go,” she said.
Even so, some tourists did slow down (from time to time, anyway), which at first puzzled Angel Delgadillo: “I finally asked myself, what are these people looking for? It finally dawned on me. They’re looking for America of yesterday.”
He got the idea that if parts of the road were designated “historic,” it might just bring people back, like scenic viewpoints signs that convince drivers to stop. And it worked. Tour buses now arrive in Seligman almost every day.
Back in Tucumcari, New Mexico, at the Blue Swallow Motel, rooms are now usually booked solid – and while Lillian Redman is no longer here, it’s still family run. “This is a little bubble, back into the 1950s and the ’60s,” said Dawn Federico. “We call it our little happy bubble. And it’s a neat place to be.”
The Blue Swallow Motel in Tucumcari, New Mexico, still welcoming travelers along Route 66. CBS News
She and Rob Federico don’t call themselves owners; they’re caretakers, they say, of a rich roadside ritual. For decades, travelers have pulled in to the Blue Swallow as strangers, but after watching the sunset together, they often hit the road again as friends.
“While we’re the ones keeping it rolling, it’s the folks that keep it alive,” said Rob.
Route 66 is a paved Norman Rockwell – a two-lane thread where the progress of the East meets the traditions of the West, and became part of our national tapestry.
“It was always a beloved road,” said Wallis. “Always.”
If you’re looking for the fastest way to get somewhere, your GPS probably won’t bring you here. But if it’s the open road you want, with all its possibilities and surprises, there are two lanes waiting for you to find Americana on the go.
CBS News
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