Michael Wallis, Route 66, and Stephen Colbert!

Image from JimForeman.com

This could be fun. Michael Wallis had done much to popularize Route 66, and since Oklahoma still retains more existing miles of the original road than any other state, it would seem a natural draw for tourists whether they're traveling on two wheels or four. I've bicycled on portions of the road between Tulsa and Claremore, and I've driven on it as far west as Edmond. Honestly, it's like stepping back in time.

There's another Oklahoma author, Jim Ross, whose Oklahoma Route 66 covers the road and its various alignments in great detail. For a bicycle tourist, this book is a treasure trove of imformation.

And finally, there's Jim Foreman's Riding the Joad Road that I've written about previously. It's an account of riding the old Route 40 as the Joad family did in Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath. Oh, go read Steinbeck too. Literature is good for you.

Tulsa author to appear on ‘Colbert’

(Link to full article)

By JAMES D. WATTS, JR. World Scene Writer
8/14/2007

Tulsa author Michael Wallis will explain the “truthiness” of old roads Wednesday, when he appears on “The Colbert Report,” airing at 10:30 p.m. on the Comedy Channel (Cox Cable channel 61).

Wallis recently published “The Lincoln Highway: Coast to Coast from Times Square to the Golden Gate,” a history of the cross-country highway dubbed “The Father Road.”