Day 1 - Chicago to Springfield (October 11th)

So, on the day my adventure starts for real, I go out with Chot the night before and get absolutely wasted. It only ever goes one way when we are out together. Was worth it though, an awesome night and welcome.

After finding the start of Route 66 on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, I followed the route from 11h10 and reached Springfield, IL just after 19h30.

My first stop was a food one in Cicero at Henry’s Drive In (“It’s a Meal in itself”) where I had their famous hotdog and fries with all the works. It only cost like $4 but was worth it!

I then continued through Romeoville to Joliet. Checked out the Route 66 visitor centre and spoke to the woman looking after the gift shop. It’s funny that she has never travelled the route, and sounded like she had no interest in doing so – but she was nice to speak to and I bought a calendar.

There was a town called Gardner (pop. 600) that so reminded me of the town in Back to the Future. It was like the town had just stopped in the 50’s. It was a ghost town and was so charming and super olde skool!

Onto Wilminton and the first of the three giants in Illinois – Gemini Giant at the Launching Pad In. Then continued into Dwight and Odell and saw some amazing restored petrol stations. “Ambler’s Texaco” was really impressive! I picked up a couple of t-shirts at the Odell 1932 Standard Station.

After quickly checking out the Route 66 Hall of Fame Museum in Pontiac, I realized that I was running out of daylight for pictures and I wanted to get a picture of the giant in Atlanta so I joined the Interstate 55 for about 40 miles until Bloomington. I got to Atlanta in time to get some pictures of the Bunyon Giant. I love these giants! The town itself is total Americana of the 50’s and 60’s – small mom and pop stores, lovely landscaped areas and such a nostalgic feel to it.

It was very dark now so after a quick stop at Sherman, I sped into Springfield (almost smashed into a tractor that turned without signaling) and checked into the Route 66 Hotel and Conference Center. It’s a lovely clean room and the whole place has lots of Route 66 memorabilia.

Overall it was an amazing first day of driving the Route 66. The small towns really appeal to me – it feels like such an ideal place to live – but at the same time you can see that people are suffering on the money front. There are so many empty buildings, closed stores and repossessed homes for sale. Also, I knew that Halloween was massive here but did not appreciate just how much. So many houses have been completely decorated for the festival - pumpkins, scarecrows, toilet rolls in trees! Final note on the Abe Lincoln Memorial Center. It houses a lot of dead US military solders and is massive. It was quite an emotional time being there and thinking of all those people that lost their lives fighting for their country!

Map of the route travelled today (202 miles...)

I’m going to start early tomorrow – checking out the last of Illinois and then onto Missouri…