The Classic American Journey – Part 2
Article And Photos By: Marjorie Kleiman
What an idea—40 women on 40 motorcycles—the classic American journey on classic American machines! That was the concept for Chix on 66. It would be an all-woman ride across the iconic Route 66, from Chicago to Santa Monica.
The ride was conceived by my good friend, antique motorcycle rider Karan Andrea. She came up the idea while on her way to an AMCA road run in early June of 2021. During the ride from her upstate New York home to the destination of the road run in Utah, she traveled along parts of Route 66. She started to think that it would be a cool idea to ride the entire length of the Mother Road. Karan approached a few female motorcycling friends about the idea, and the enthusiastic response convinced her that there would be enough interest among other women to move forward with a plan.
From this idea, the Riveter Chapter was formed as the first woman-focused chapter of the AMCA. As Karan, now chapter president, explains, “By bringing female AMCA members together in a single chapter, we intend to raise the visibility of women in the sport… Many women riders are unaware of the rich legacy of female riders, and may feel disconnected from their contemporaries. Many women might have never seen a female mechanic, nor have they seen another woman ride or race a vintage bike. For these reasons alone, a chapter containing powerful, talented, dynamic women will help to fill that void, and it fills the, till now, empty space with inspiring role models.
Once the chapter’s event committee started publicizing Chix on 66, the concept spread among the female riding community like wildfire. Registration was limited to 40 riders, and spots filled up quickly. A few months into the planning, Harley-Davidson came on board as title sponsor, and invited us to begin our adventure at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee.
Another sponsor made it possible for us to utilize their mapping aid—the Route 66 Navigation app. Riders loaded the app onto their Android or iPhone, and were afforded routes that closely aligned, to the extent possible, to the original Route 66 from Chicago to Santa Monica. Included in the turn-by-turn GPS navigation were over 900 points of interest along the route. This app proved invaluable, although it could be a little glitchy, with a few of us ending up riding in circles on more than one occasion. Some Route 66 attractions were off the actual route, so the app was helpful in finding these hidden gems. This app was critical to the success of this ride and allowed each rider to follow the route at her own pace. Antique motorcycle riders tended to group together since it was necessary to ride at a more leisurely pace and stop for gas more often. Other small groups formed and reformed throughout the ride, as some women wanted to spend road time with as many other new friends as they could.
Chix on 66 riders spent the first few days at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee, where the Motor Company really rolled out the red carpet. The grounds were opened for us to use for motorcycle tech checks and ride staging. They provided free admission and guided tours in the Museum, and catered a kickoff banquet for Chix and staff. In keeping with the concept of developing self-sufficiency among the women riders, Tucker Powersports, our official oil change sponsor, shipped fluids and filters to two locations along the route. The first location was Create Milwaukee Moto Collective, a community driven motorcycle shop focused on teaching and providing a space for local motorcycling enthusiasts. Harley-Davidson University provided staffer Dave Swart who, along with Create MKE owner Kyle Kompas, assisted women with changing their oil and performing other technical tasks. On Thursday evening we were invited to Harley-Davidson’s weekly bike night at the Museum, followed by a visit to the Iron Horse Hotel’s bike night and then Nick’s Anvil Inn where our host Chris Tribbey, who also owns Bike Works LLC, showed us even more Milwaukee hospitality.
One unique feature of the ride was the inclusion of two female motorcycle technicians, Athena “Vagabond Chickie” Ransom and Vivian “Gypsy” Charros, who performed tech checks at the start of the ride as well as helping resolve mechanical and electrical issues that arose along the 2,500-mile route. In the months prior to the event, Athena and Vivian conducted a weekly series of Zoom sessions for riders that included topics such as how to prepare bikes for the ride, what tools to bring, and other helpful topics. Through the sponsorship of the Motorcycle Cannonball and Cross Country Chase, Jason Sims, and Jose Torres, drove a sweep vehicle towing a nine-bike trailer for any breakdowns that couldn’t be fixed on the road.
Saturday morning, amid much fanfare, we departed the Museum and headed to downtown Chicago. After our overnight stay at Ohio House in the Windy City, which was only about a mile from the official Route 66 starting point, we headed west to follow the Mother Road! For pretty near the entire route, my riding partner Cheryl “Mailbox” O’Brien and I tackled Route 66 together. I was on my 1982 FXRS Shovelhead and Cheryl road her Road King. We occasionally joined other riders, and other times we would just strike out on our own. We each had places we wanted to visit, and riding together really enhanced my Route 66 experience, and hopefully hers, as well.
The first stretch of Route 66 in Illinois is when we started to see some of the roadside attractions the iconic road is famous for. There’s Dick’s on 66 in Joliet, which features vintage cars and other memorabilia, along with an original brick section of Route 66. Another cool spot is the Launching Pad Restaurant in Wilmington, home of the Gemini Giant, which is just one of the symbols of the incredible history of the route. It is a fabulous representation of true Americana. The Gemini Giant is an original “Muffler Man,” which are fiberglass sculptures created in the 1960s and placed across the U.S. as advertising icons, each was customized for its intended purpose.
That night in Pontiac, Illinois, we invited local AMCA members and other riders to come and meet us at the courthouse square for live music, food, and conversation. The next day would take us to Missouri, with a stop at Schlafly Bottleworks in St. Louis, for a meet and greet hosted by the Gateway Chapter of the AMCA. This was a welcome respite as the mercury hit 100. Our stay that night was at the Magnolia Hotel St. Louis. This is a magnificent structure which opened as the Mayflower Hotel nearly a century ago.
Favorite stops all along Route 66 included many old filling stations—some of which were nicely restored vestiges of the past, others were more recent reproductions, and a few were still in operation. There are some pretty strange attractions on Route 66 as well. For instance there is the Uranus Fudge Factory in Robert, Missouri. The complex offers a general store with about a million flavors of fudge, lots of fun trinkets for sale, and there’s a circus sideshow museum where I arranged a special Chix tour with my old sideshow acquaintance Katya. What a fantastic collection of weird and wonderfully freaky objects!
A special event was planned for Tuesday evening in Springfield, Missouri, where we’d helped to arrange a screening to kick off the summer tour of Route 66: The Untold Story of Women on the Mother Road created by filmmaker Katrina Parks. This documentary describes how women overcame segregation and gender discrimination on this iconic road. As women riders who face the same types of bias both inside and outside the motorcycle culture, we could certainly relate.
Wednesday was another memorable day as we followed Route 66 through southwest Missouri, through a spit of Kansas, and into northeast Oklahoma. Some of the locations in the Cars film were inspired by a few of the motels and souvenir shops along the way. There was the Wagon Wheel Motel in Cuba, the “mural city,” and in turn, the movie itself inspired other Route 66 displays, such as Mater and his friends parked somewhere in Missouri. We also made a stop at Gay Parita, a former filling station that is now a wondrous tourist attraction near Paris Springs. Of course you can never complete a road trip without a “road closed” sign. Fortunately, we figured out how to detour around the closure before we ran out of gas.
And then we were ‘On to Tulsa!’ But first was a stop at the Blue Whale of Catoosa, another popular Route 66 attraction, which was followed by a nice treat to top off the evening: AMCA members Anna Weinschenk, Cindy Whitten, and Greg Lew hosted a dinner for us at our hotel. In the morning, we rode to downtown Tulsa for a refreshment stop at Buck Atom’s Cosmic Curios where a Space Cowboy Muffler Man resides along with some unique and funky gift items in the store. Like many locations, this section of Route 66 offers fabulous signage and magnificent architecture defining historic downtown buildings.
We also stopped at the Seaba Station Motorcycle Museum in the tiny town of Warwick, Oklahoma. What a treasure! The building started out as a gas station five years before Route 66 was certified as a national highway in 1926. Around 2010, it was acquired to house a fascinating collection of antique motorcycles and memorabilia. The owner hosted a refreshment stop there, and although we could have stayed all day perusing the cool bikes and related paraphernalia, we had to hit the road to get to Oklahoma City that night.
June 17 brought us to Amarillo, Texas. But first we stopped at the expansive National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Oklahoma, as well as the Slug Bug Ranch—the baby brother of the more famous Cadillac Ranch. Yup. We tagged some Volkswagens there. Another fun stop was a photo op at the sign for the old Cotton Boll Motel in Canute, Oklahoma, where a woman who worked at the bank across the street ran out to present us with two cold bottles of water. This gesture was truly appreciated on this 100-plus degree day. And we were delighted when she told us that she knew we were coming through. This was a recurring theme across the entire route—via our public relations outreach, many towns knew we were coming through, and all welcomed us with open arms.
Our route had us hit the halfway point of Route 66 on June 18, so follow along in the next issue as we take you through the Texas Panhandle, New Mexico, Arizona, and California!