Day One: June 6, 2010

What a first day on the Mother Road! We made it to Jackson Street in Chicago to eat breakfast at the famous Lou Mitchells Restaurant. We were able to get photos of the End Historic 66 sign on Jackson and the Begin Historic 66 sign on Adams. The traffic in Chicago was already picking up so we decided to head out of the city. In Cicero we saw Henry’s Drive In and in Berwyn we saw the Robin Hood muffler sign and Route 66 Beverages. We also stopped at the western side of the Joliet Road detour around a quarry mine that is cut a little too close to the Mother Road. We also made it to Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket and White Fence Farms for some great photos.

Joliet was great. We checked out Route 66 Park, saw many of the replica gas pumps throughout town, but the Joliet Museum was closed. I nearly got us lost on the old Elwood alignment, but Mike saved the day. We had to have a shake at the Lunching Pad in Wilmington and check out the Gemini Giant! We drove through Braidwood and Gardner (the Riviera is still there but it looks like it’s in rough shape) and found the 1906 Jailhouse.

In Dwight, we found out that a tornado had touched down in town last night on the old 66 alignment. We met some great folks at the Ambler Becker’s Marathon Station. The 1932 Standard Station in Odell was really cool and we almost missed the Meramec Caverns Barn sign (I drove by it then took a wrong that led us to a dirt road). We also saw the Old Log Cabin Restaurant (it was closed) and the Route 4 North Creek Bridge (Route 4 became Route 66) in Pontiac. We stopped at Memory Lane in Lexington and the Walking Tour in Towanda. I was hoping that we could get to Funk’s Grove Maple Sirup before it closed but we were 20 minutes late. We are going to head back tomorrow morning so I can pick up a jug! We ate supper at the Dixie Truckers Home and are crashing in McLEAN for the night.

Pictures from Day One