Route 66 does not end in a blaze of glory. After more than three thousand kilometres from Chicago, the old highway frays into the boulevards of Los Angeles, and its last stretch is a patchwork of Foothill Boulevard, Colorado Boulevard and Santa Monica Boulevard, ending officially at the pier in Santa Monica, with the Pacific beyond. The point on the map here is the old centre, where the city began in 1781 as a Spanish pueblo, and a few blocks of adobe buildings and a Mexican market street, Olvera Street, are still standing, near the grand Spanish-style Union Station, which opened in 1939.
The city is a sprawl of neighbourhoods more than a single place, joined by freeways that carry some of the heaviest traffic in the United States. Hollywood, Griffith Park and its observatory, the beaches of Santa Monica and Venice, and the downtown skyscrapers are all within an hour or so of one another, depending on the hour. The Arroyo Seco Parkway to Pasadena, opened in 1940, was the first freeway in the western United States, and its tight curves and short ramps look quaint beside later designs.
For a motorcyclist, LA has a particular pleasure and a particular hazard. California allows lane splitting, riding between lines of slow traffic, under guidance from the highway patrol that advises doing so at a modest speed difference, and it turns an hour of gridlock into a manageable commute. It also means drivers are used to bikes appearing between cars, though not all are careful. Rush hours are long and heavy, with mornings and late afternoons the worst, so plan to arrive and leave at off-peak times. Fuel is available everywhere, though prices are higher than in most states.
The weather is warm and mostly dry, with a marine layer of cloud on the coast in late spring and early summer, locals call it May Gray and June Gloom, and the hot, dry Santa Ana winds in autumn. Smog can be heavy in summer. The best way to end the Route 66 journey is a slow cruise west along Santa Monica Boulevard to the pier, watching the light turn orange, and then a late dinner by the water.