One year later, 11Alive’s Carnes recalls lessons learned on Route 66 retirement kickoff

DUNWOODY, Ga. — Historic Route 66 turns 100 this year, but a year ago — fresh off retirement — longtime 11Alive transportation reporter Jerry Carnes marked the milestone in a deeply personal way.

Carnes and his wife of 41 years, Cady, set out to drive the entire length of the legendary highway, trading traffic jams and deadlines for back roads, classic motels, and lessons they’ll carry into retirement.

The road trip felt like a natural next chapter for someone who spent years helping Atlantans navigate their daily commutes. But Jerry Carnes says the idea had been brewing long before he signed off for the last time.

“I’d been thinking about it a long time,” Carnes said. “Because I had never taken a road trip across the United States.”

What started as a dream quickly turned into a logistical challenge. Driving Route 66 isn’t as simple as logging miles on a single stretch of pavement. The highway has been rerouted, rebuilt, bypassed, and broken into pieces over the decades.

That’s where Cady took the lead.

The couple wanted to avoid Chicago’s lingering winter, the Southwest’s extreme heat, and the crowds expected for Route 66’s centennial this year. April proved to be the sweet spot.

“I map it out and I see where all the hotels we have to stop at and I think about how far we can drive each day,” Cady said. “That’s a puzzle. And I love a good puzzle.”

Her one condition? Along the way, they’d make time for national parks. The Carnes have now visited roughly two-thirds of the nation’s 63 parks.

To follow Route 66, the couple relied on a mix of old-school and modern tools — guidebooks, a Route 66 app, GPS, road maps, and even artificial intelligence — to find the exact stretches they wanted.

“It’s fractured,” Jerry said. “There are parts of it from different eras that have been right next to each other.” This fact made following the signs alone quite confusing, so the Carnes’ Route 66 turn-by-turn, landmark-by-landmark guidebook became a lifesaver. 

That fragmentation told a story. Many towns that once thrived along the “Mother Road” faded when interstate highways rerouted travelers. But taking the slower path brought unexpected rewards.

The Carnes stayed in historic hotels once frequented by movie stars, slept in rooms without televisions, and met motel neighbors and characters they never would’ve encountered at 70 miles per hour.

After a career spent tracking congestion and helping viewers avoid backups all on a speeding news wheel, Jerry Carnes found something freeing about embracing the road less traveled.

“It’s an adventure,” he said. “It’s not really driving. It’s not drudgery. It’s not boring. You’re looking here and there. I like that.”

The full journey spanned five weeks: from Atlanta to Chicago – the start of Route 66 – then more than 2,000 miles southwest to the route’s end in Santa Monica, California, before cutting back east across Texas and heading home.

It wasn’t without challenges. The couple navigated tornado warnings, freezing temperatures, hail, a 108-degree day in New Mexico — and Jerry even caught COVID along the way.

So what do you learn after weeks on the road and decades together, as you enter retirement side by side?

“Give grace,” Cady said simply.

Jerry added, “Allow the other person to be who they are.” And they both feel they did just that. 

“Reporter Jerry” is now finishing a book about the Route 66 journey and the parallels he found with marriage. He also is working on another book about trips and relationships – an easy metaphor. As for the best meal on the trip? Jerry didn’t hesitate: the steak at the Big Texan Motel and Ranch in Amarillo, Texas. No, he did not do the 72-ounce challenge there. 

Later this year, the Carnes plan to fly to South Dakota and on to the Pacific Northwest — but once they land, the familiar pattern will return. There will be plenty of driving. And plenty of looking.

Doug Turnbull covers the traffic/transportation beat for 11Alive with Rachel Cox-Rosen. Watch their live reports from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on 11Alive+. His Gridlock Guy column also appears on Sundays in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Subscribe to the weekly “Gridlock Guy” newsletter for the column here.