THE ONLY COAST-TO-COAST ROAD RALLY HONORING AMERICA'S 250TH BIRTHDAY

Stage 2: Route 66 — Washington, DC to Chicago to Santa Monica

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Stage 1 of the 2026 Rall4Vets America Grand Tour ran more than 7,000 miles from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. Stage 2 brings us home and closes the loop.

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We leave the capital in early October and head west across the Alleghenies and the farm country beyond, arriving at SubieFest Midwest in Joliet, Illinois on October 10th. From there, we double back to Chicago to pick up the Mother Road where it begins, on  Adams Street at Michigan Avenue, and point the nose west for good.

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Two anniversaries meet on this asphalt. America turns 250 this year, and Route 66 turns 100 on November 11, 1926. Both stories run through veterans. The highway moved troops and materiel to western training camps and airfields during the Second World War, and when the war ended it carried a generation of servicemen west with their families to build something. The motels, diners, and filling stations still standing along 66 were largely built by people who had just come home. That's the road we're driving, and that's who we're driving it for.

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From Chicago it's roughly 2,700 miles over fourteen days, on as much original 1926 pavement as still survives. Four hard days out to Albuquerque through Illinois, Missouri, a thirteen-mile clip of Kansas, Oklahoma, and the Texas Panhandle. Then we slow down and take the Southwest properly: Petroglyph, El Malpais, El Morro, Petrified Forest, Walnut Canyon, Sunset Crater, Wupatki, the Grand Canyon, and Mojave National Preserve. Ten national parks and monuments before the pavement runs out at the Santa Monica Pier.

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We'll be stopping at VFW and American Legion posts and Rotary Clubs in the towns we pass through — a coffee, a handshake, an hour with whoever's around.

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If your post or club sits on the route, tell us. We'd rather spend an afternoon with you than another hour behind the windshield.