ROUTE KICKERS

Greetings all of you ROUTE KICKERS... how's the ROAD?

In 1960...there was a T.V. show called ROUTE (sounds like root) 66. It was a weekly adventure of of Tod and Buz...as they travelled around in their 1959 (starting out...they got new ones each season)...Corvette on Route 66. It starred Martin Milner (Adam 12) and Geroge Maharis (Naked City). This slab of pavement has been romanticized from songs, T.V. shows (Route 66), books, (Keorac, Steinbeck) movies (Cars). The road represents America...it's growth, it's sense of adventure...that is about the people along the road more than just the road. The oddities...tourist attractions...food...motels...people along the way on the way to some DESTINATION.

Woody Guthrie would sing songs of the land...but in 1946...a man named Bobby Troup wrote a song that was first recorded by Nat King Cole...and then later by everyone from Bing Crosby to Chuch Berry to Depeche Mode.

If you ever plan to motor west
Travel my way, take the highway that's the best
Get your KICKS on ROUTE SIXTY-SIX!
It winds from Chicago to L.A.
More than two thousand miles all the way
Get your kicks on Route Sixty-Six!
Now you go thru Saint Looey and Joplin, Missouri
And Oklahoma City is mighty pretty
You'll see Amarillo, Gallup, New Mexico
Flagstaf, Arizona; Don't forget Winona
Kingman, Barstow, San Bernadino
Won't you get HIP to this timely TRIP
When you make that California trip
Get your kicks on ROUTE SIXTY-SIX

John Steinbeck...in the Grapes of Wrath...called Route 66..."...the mother road...the road of flight."

"U.S. Route 66 starts at Grant Park in Chicago, reached accross more than 2,400 miles, three time zones, and eight states-- Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizone, Callifonia-- before it dead-ended at Santa Monica Boulevard and Ocean Avenue in Santa Monica. People like to say the highway started at Lake Michigan and ended in the roaring Pacific." (Route 66 The Mother Road: Micahel Wallis)
The Christian rock band PETRA, speaks of roads and journey in there music. On the Come and Join us album...the title song talks about a place that is out of the shadows...a place that is in the sunlight. "Come and join us in the sunlight...if you would reach you could touch the sky...come and drink from the well that will never run dry." (Come and Join Us: Bob Hartman)


Doc Brown...in the movie BACK TO THE FUTURE...declared at one point...when Marty McFly questioned...if they had enough road to get up to the required speed to break the time barrier...WHERE WE'RE GOING...WE DON'T NEED ROADS. It was a different mode of travel than they were accustomed to. Well...where we are going...we don't need the standard superslab of interstate...we don't even need the off the road ROUTE 66. Where we are going...we have a DIFFERENT ROAD to travel.

A later PETRA album was MORE POWER TO YA. This could be one of my favorite albums. There is a song on it based on Psalm 84:5-7:

How blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee;

In whose heart are the ROAD/HIGHWAYS to Zion
(who have set their hearts on PILGRIMAGE)

Passing through the vally of Baca (weeping/tears)...the make it a PLACE OF SPRINGS

The early rain also covers it with BLESSINGS

They go form STRENGTH to STRENGTH...everyone of them appears before GOD IN ZION.

Yes...songs about travel...journey...adventure...with a definite destination and direction. Route 66...Come and join us in the sunlight...Roads to Zion.


The PETRA song called ROAD TO ZION...was written by Mike Hudson, and again, it was based on Psalm 84:5-7.

Zion represents the dwelling place of God. A place in the light...out of the shadows... to be in the PRESENCE of the King...where REFRESHING is found (Acts 3:19)

ROAD TO ZION

There is a way that leads to life
The few that find it never die
Past mountain peaks graced white with snow
The way grows brighter as it goes

(Chorus)

There is a road inside of you
Inside of me there is one too
No stumbling PILGRIM in the dark
The road to Zion's in your heart...The road to Zion's in your heart

The river runs beside the road
It's waters living as they flow
In liquid voice the water calls
On thirsty knees the pilgrim falls

Sometimes a SHADOW dark and cold
Lays like a mist across the road
But be encouraged by the sight
Where there's shadow, there's a light

Sometimes it's good to look back down
We've come so far...we've gaind such ground
But joy is not where we've BEEN
Joy is who's waiting at the end.

Well...that's it. I have a hankering to set out in Chicago and go to Santa Monica...and visit all the places in between. Michael Card sings that it's the joy in the journey.

I started my other journey...back in the fall of 1970...when I made the choice to become a Christian....and Oh what a journey it has been. If you have not set out on the Road to Zion...Come and Join Me...come out of the shadows into the light.

Love and Kickin' Kisses
Rod "The Traveller" Boyd