Brennen Matthews, the editor of ROUTE magazine, is originally from Kenya and has lived in and traveled to dozens of spectacular destinations around the world. For him, there’s one special place that he continues to return to year after year: Historic Route 66.
Matthews first discovered Route 66 in 2016, when he and his wife, Kate, and son, Thembi, moved from Kenya to North America in search of a new beginning. Unsure of what the future held, the family decided to embark on a road trip from Chicago to California. When researching routes online, they were enticed by what they found about Route 66. From the history and roadside attractions to the neon and restoration, they fell in love with the uniquely Americana flair the route offered travelers.
On that first trip along the route (he has since taken the same trip 10 times), Matthews took a tape recorder and captured all the scenery, conversations, events and interactions he experienced. At the conclusion of the journey, he ended up with 50 hours of recorded material that he has since turned into a book. Miles to Go: An African Family in Search of America Along Route 66, published in 2022, tells the story of his family’s cross-country adventure while shedding light on Route 66 culture, history and landscapes. We caught up with Matthews to learn about his book and what inspires him most about the historic route. (This Q&A has been edited for clarity and length.)
Tell us about yourself and your background.
I am the editor of ROUTE magazine, which is the country's leading classic Americana/road trip/Route 66 magazine. Before that, I was editor-in-chief with Destination Magazine, which was the leading travel and lifestyle magazine throughout Africa. I have around 15 years of senior editor experience with leading magazines. Miles to Go is my first published book.
What is something that most surprised you about your first journey along Route 66?
We started off not really being very big fans of roadside America in the sense of motels or diners, because we come from a big city, cosmopolitan background. But by the time we were halfway through the journey, those little roadside motels and diners were some of our favorite places, and we totally changed our perspective and fell in love with a side of America that we didn’t expect to fall in love with. Once we were out there, we realized just how magical those places really were —the story, the environment and the people.
You and your family traveled from Illinois to California via Route 66. Is this a trip you would encourage others to take?
Yes, most certainly. We're doing it again this summer and will be on the road for three months. The thing about a Route 66 trip is that you get to experience significant diversity in America. You get a lot of different personalities, cultures, history and landscapes. When you start off in big-city Chicago and you work your way through the cornfields and small towns of Illinois and back to big-city St. Louis and so on and so forth, you're constantly discovering something new. You constantly discover something new about yourself as you move along, too. Each of the eight states offers its own individually unique experience. For those that think they've already experienced the Midwest or the Southwest, I believe they haven't truly experienced it until they’ve taken Route 66.
What was your process like for writing the book?
As I traveled, I took notes, both physical and recorded, of everything I was seeing and conversations that we were having. We'd stop and read every single history marker and record it so that we had it verbatim. As I was speaking with people, I had a real hunger to know their stories. I'd spend hours with people just learning more about them, their family and their journey. When I finally got back, I had reams of notes. I went and I dug into the history for all the stuff I had learned to ensure I was accurate in all that I was sharing.
After completing a version of the book I was happy with, I started speaking to literary agents, and they liked the book but they wanted me to make changes that they felt would make it more evocative. … I felt it would make it a lie, so I didn't want to do that. I kept the book and I put it on the shelf. The magazine was very busy at the time, so I decided I’d come back to it. I eventually shared it with Michael Wallis, who wrote Route 66: The Mother Road, the book that really kickstarted the whole Route 66 revolution back in 1990. His work also inspired Pixar’s movie Cars, which he was involved in as well. He really liked the book and was very supportive. He offered to do the foreword and introduced me to his agent. We finally ended up publishing with the University of New Mexico Press.
What are some of your favorite roadside attractions along Route 66 in Arizona? Any favorite Arizona stops or memories that stand out from your journey?
Arizona is one of my favorite parts of the Route 66 journey. It's a state that is packed with roadside attractions and amazing historic stops. When we first drove into Arizona, we were slightly overwhelmed by the quirky DIY creations, rock and fossil shops as well as the very cool Wigwam Motel in Holbrook and the stunning legacy of Fred Harvey at the iconic La Posada Hotel in Winslow. Just west of Winslow, long forgotten attractions like the Meteor Crater Trading Post, Two Guns and Twin Arrows stood desolate, fading slowly in the desert heat. Everything had a story and colorful people behind these stories.
Arizona is blessed with one fantastic town after the next, and the scenery is both beautiful and surreal. Perhaps more than any other Route 66 state, Arizona offers a diversity that is undeniable. The desert in the east, small touristy towns like Seligman and Ash Fork throughout, airy aromatic pine forests in towns like Williams and Flagstaff, and then living ghost towns like Oatman with its wild burros and Old West atmosphere. We loved and still love traveling through Arizona and discovering and rediscovering all that the amazing state has to offer.
What do you feel makes Miles to Go stand out?
If you Google “Route 66” and look on Amazon, there's thousands of titles covering the topic. Many reviewers and readers have said that they will use my book when they're planning their Route 66 trips, because it is packed with history and suggestions. But it also presents Route 66 through a family's eyes — and not just any family, a mixed-race family from Africa. The book is filled with a lot of cultural comparisons, which I think is a unique way of exploring the concepts related to America, American values and the American road trip. The book is romantic, but it's honest. It's not always pretty, but it is always true. We don't romanticize everything that we see, but we certainly do celebrate it. The book isn't just a love letter to Route 66 — it’s a love letter to America and a look at what it means to be an American today.
To learn more about Miles to Go: An African Family in Search of America Along Route 66, visit routemagazine.us or purchase a copy on Amazon.