SMART, SMARTER, SMARTEST

Rupert Lloyd Thomas looks back at his Route 66 trip in his Smart car.

Here is the setup:  drive the smallest Smart car down old-time Route 66, in the US of A, to see the good old boys and find out what we make of each other.  The road stretches over 2,300 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles.  The trip is a kind of antidote to gas-guzzling in the land of pickup trucks.

My wife Annette and I missed our Smart car from Lewes days, so when they launched the car in Canada we splurged on a diesel version - the only model available in Canada - and took it to the States where the car is unobtainable.  We head through Michigan and Indiana to the start of Route 66 in Chicago at the corner of Michigan and Adams.  In the faded suburb of Cicero an old black man pulls alongside at a stoplight - "I like your car, man" - the Smart is an instant icebreaker and a conversation piece.

Mostly we meet folk who are intrigued and enchanted, although some are laughing at the car so much that they cannot speak.  The message is that fifty miles per U.S. gallon is possible here and now and most people "get it".

We are mobbed everywhere we go.  Most notable is that the car is attractive to women who think the car is cute.  In Gallup, New Mexico, a Navajo woman is practically in tears she wants the car so bad.  We make common cause with the bikers who are hip to our minimalist approach and tend to be alongside at campsites.

We visit the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo, Texas - a truly spiritual experience which works on all levels.  There are no opening hours, supervision, concession stand or anything else - just a bunch of old Cadillacs nose down in a field.  On to the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian Texas, half way along Route 66, and the lady owner rushes out to photograph the smart car in front of the midpoint sign.

We stop in Winslow, Arizona for the usual photoshoot at the "corner" made famous in the Eagles' song "Take it Easy".  They have thoughtfully parked a Flatbed Ford truck to add to the ambience.

We see endless freight trains with up to four diesel engines, pulling double-stacked container cars full of Asian goods.  The train whistle is the signature tune of the tour coupled with the background music of American country radio.

We cross the Continental Divide at 7,245 feet and tackle the Mojave Desert in California in daylight and the Smart takes everything we throw at it without missing a beat.  The trip balloons in the planning and eventually we cover 8,984 miles in 35 days, heading home via the Pacific Coast Highway and the Trans-Canada back to Toronto.

Route 66 is everything it is cracked up to be - I could do it again tomorrow.  I was in kitsch heaven with Americana run riot - old cars, motels, neon signs and gas-station memorabilia.  Do you want fries with that?