It was one of the hottest days of the summer of 2024. Fittingly, I was on Route 66, somewhere east of Needles, California. I pulled over and got out of the pickup to squat by the side of the road like the Joads in Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. Even though I was traveling in an air-conditioned modern pickup, pulling a luxury trailer, for a moment, I could feel a bit of what it must have been like for the displaced Oklahoma and Great Plains farmers who ventured west in the 1930s to escape the Dust Bowl and seek work and a new life in mythical California.
The night I spent in Needles was the hottest night of my travels and the only sleepless one. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.
Editor’s Note: Over the next few months, Clay is shadowing Steinbeck’s 10,000-mile trek around the USA (and making a few detours of his own). Clay’s expedition is a central part of LTA’s big initiative to explore the country and take the pulse of America as it approaches its 250th birthday. Be sure to follow Clay’s adventures here and on Facebook — and subscribe to our newsletter.