Wade Harlan
Founder
Wade grew up in Sapulpa and spent 14 years as a newspaper features reporter in Tulsa before starting Neon Motel Road. He still designs new routes and drives each of them before they go on sale.
Tulsa, Oklahoma, since 2014
About Neon Motel Road
A small Tulsa company on the 11th Street stretch of Route 66 that runs guided road trips through all 8 Route 66 states, from Chicago to Santa Monica.
How it started
How Neon Motel Road began
Neon Motel Road started with a borrowed pickup truck. In 2012 Wade Harlan, who grew up in Sapulpa, Oklahoma, a few blocks from Route 66, drove the whole road with his father in his father's 1966 Ford. They took 19 days, ate too much pie and filled two notebooks with the names of motel owners, museum volunteers and cafe cooks who had stories to tell.
At the time Wade was a features reporter for a Tulsa newspaper, and he wrote a series about the trip. Readers wrote back asking how to do it themselves, and a few asked if they could come along next time. In the spring of 2014 he led eleven of them from Tulsa to Santa Fe in a rented van. That was the first Neon Motel Road trip.
The name comes from John Steinbeck, who called Route 66 the Mother Road in The Grapes of Wrath. We liked the idea of a company that cares about every mile of it, not just the famous ones.
Today we are a small company with an office on 11th Street in Tulsa, on the old alignment of Route 66, a short walk from the restored Meadow Gold sign. Five people work in the office and eight road captains lead the trips, each living along the stretch of road they know best.
We still work the way Wade did on that first trip. We stay on the old road wherever it survives, book the family-run motels and cafes that keep it alive, and leave time to talk with the people who run them. Groups stay small so we fit in a diner booth, a museum gallery or the gravel lot of a 1930s gas station.
We are not the biggest Route 66 company and do not try to be. We would rather run sixteen trips well than sixty in a hurry.
What we believe
How we run our Route 66 trips
The old road first
We drive the surviving two-lane alignments, brick and concrete included, and use the interstate only where Route 66 lies under it.
Small and local
Up to 14 guests, fewer on convertible, motorcycle and photography trips. We spend money with the family motels, cafes and museums that keep the road alive.
Honest about the road
Some stretches are empty, some towns are struggling and some famous sights are a sign and a parking lot. We tell you which is which, and why it is still worth the drive.
Room to stop
Every itinerary has slack in it. If a museum volunteer wants to show you the back room, there is time.
In Tulsa
The office team in Tulsa
1347 E 11th Street, Suite 200, Tulsa, OK 74120. Email answered Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 17:00 Central Time.
Tasha Greene
Director of operations
Tasha books every motel, vehicle and driver and keeps the convertible fleet's paperwork in order. She visits each motel before we use it and reads every guest's feedback after the trip.
Luis Ortega
Trip advisor
Luis grew up in Albuquerque and has driven the Southwest stretches of 66 more times than he can count. He answers most questions about New Mexico, Arizona and the motorcycle trips.
Kim Nakamura
Trip advisor
Kim handles bookings for the full route and the Midwest trips, and is the person to ask about flights, extra nights in Chicago and joining two section trips together.
Jordan Pruitt
Private and group trips
Jordan plans private departures for families, car clubs and alumni groups, from a Tulsa day out to a two-week trip with the group's own cars.
Write to the team
Every email is read by one of these five people, usually the same working day.
On the road
Our Route 66 road captains
They meet you on day 1 and stay with the group until the last morning. Museum curators, park rangers and motel owners along the way fill in the rest.
Ray Lindqvist
Full route trips
Ray grew up in Joliet, Illinois, and has led the whole road from Chicago to Santa Monica more than 40 times. He knows where every alignment change is and which cafes open early.
Darlene Moss
Illinois and Missouri
Darlene was a small-town librarian in Pontiac for 25 years and helped catalog the collection at the Route 66 Hall of Fame. She leads the Illinois and Missouri trip and the museums trip.
Earl Whitfield
Oklahoma and Texas
Earl grew up in Clinton, Oklahoma, a block from the old highway, and remembers the traffic before I-40. He leads the Oklahoma and Texas section and the Neon and Diners trip.
Joe Begay
New Mexico and Arizona
Joe is Navajo and grew up near Gallup. He leads the New Mexico and Arizona sections and brings the history of the Navajo and Pueblo lands the road crosses to every trip.
Sandy Ruiz
California and Arizona
Sandy was born in Barstow and knows the Mojave in every season. She leads the California section and the Grand Canyon add-on, and carries extra water for everyone.
Hank Delgado
Motorcycle tours
Hank has ridden for 30 years and led motorcycle groups across the Southwest for 12. He is a certified rider coach and runs the safety briefing on every motorcycle trip.
Mike Tillman
Classic car drives
Mike is a mechanic from Amarillo who restores 1960s cars, including several in our convertible fleet. On the convertible trips he drives the chase truck and fixes things at the roadside.
Annie Cho
Photography road trips
Annie is a photographer based in Santa Fe who has shot the Southwest for 20 years. She leads the photography road trip and is generous with tips on every trip she joins.
In their words
What our guests remember
Told to us after their trips and shared with permission, first names only. We do not publish star ratings.
The Blue Whale at sunset
I had seen the Blue Whale of Catoosa in a hundred pictures and expected to be underwhelmed. Earl timed it so we arrived in the last light, with the pond like glass, and it was lovely. The whole Oklahoma stretch was like that: he knew when to get somewhere, not just where. The onion burgers in El Reno were the best thing I ate all year.
Linda K., Ohio
Route 66 in OklahomaFifteen days, every one different
We did the whole road for our 40th anniversary. Ray had a story for every town and never told the same one twice. Highlights for us were the Chain of Rocks Bridge, the night at the Blue Swallow and standing at the end of Santa Monica Pier after two weeks. The motels were small but spotless, and the coach always had cold water.
Robert and Ann M., Minnesota
Route 66 in IllinoisNeon in Tucumcari
I live in Texas and thought I knew this road. I did not. The Neon and Diners trip showed me signs I had driven past at 70 miles an hour for years. The evening walk in Tucumcari with the motel owner explaining how the tubes are bent was a highlight, and so was the MidPoint Cafe pie.
Carol D., Texas
Route 66 in New MexicoRiding Sitgreaves Pass
I have ridden for 20 years but never in a group. Hank ran it like a good airline: clear briefings, no drama, and he knew every gas station in the Mojave. The ride over Sitgreaves Pass into Oatman was the best hour I have had on a bike. The van took my bag and once took me, on a windy afternoon near Barstow.
James P., North Carolina
Route 66 in ArizonaSince 2014
The old road, in good company
16 trips in 8 states, all built on the same idea: stay on the two-lane road, stop often and sleep where the neon still works.