We had a leisurely morning at the Inn at Saint Mary’s in South Bend, IN. It was a very nice hotel discovered on Priceline a week before the trip started. Before the morning rain shower (sprinkles), we visited the Clay City park to find a geocache and get a start on the days exercise.
Returning to the hotel we had breakfast and showers before departing around 9:45 AM for Chicago and the start of the actual Route 66 road trip. We continued on the Indiana Turnpike and I-90 West to get to Chicago. And this completed our race across the states just to access the starting point.
We lucked out with street parking just around the corner from an iconic place on historic Route 66–Lou Mitchell’s Restaurant at the corner of Jackson Street and Jefferson Street. After paying for meter time with a credit card we had about 50 minutes to make the one mile trek up to Michigan Avenue to caputre the historic marker for the Route 66 beginning (and ending). Out time was running out so we hustled back to the car and put another $5 in the pay station for another hour of time.
Now that we were not so rushed, we actually went to Lou Mitchell’s and sat down. Joyce ordered a root beer float (Black Cow) and a Black & White cookie. Gary just couldn’t pass up a chocolate milk shake and french fries–a combination he used to eat in the 60s at Fishburne Drug Store on the corner of Main & Wayne streets in Waynesboro, VA! Stopped in Union Station for a few photographs and then it was time to make our way SW on Route 66!
Following the instructions on the maps we had purchased, we made our way out of Chicago stopping along the way to photograph some historic buildings and gather a few geocaches.
Castle Car Wash was a closed abandoned building with a cache undiscovered. Henry’s Drive In had a big hot dog sign and another undiscovered cache. Our luck on caches was not so good this morning.
Joyce had decided upon Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket for it’s World Famous fried chicken. After the big breakfast in South Bend and those goodies at Lou Mitchell’s we were not hungry when we got there. While Gary was in taking pictures of the bar and restaurant Joyce ordered the smallest chicken basket they had and we saved it for later in the day dining.
Joliet was the next destination. We saw Jack.s Towing with four old cars on display and an ice cream stand Route 66 Kicks with the Blues Brothers statues. These were unexpected finds–not on our planned list of places!
Wilmington, IL was next where we saw the Gemini Giant (Paul Bunyon size) holding a rocket instead of an ax. Also an undiscovered geocache because there were too many people around the giant statue. We then located a nearby park that had a geocache. It took us a few minutes to find this one–it had a unique hiding place and was our favorite today.
Next up, Braidwood where we found the Polka Dot Drive In where we saw Elvis and Betty Boop. Following this, we made our way to Gardner, IL where we found the two cell jail and the Riveria Restaurant. The Riveria was a horse drawn street car that had been made into a diner.
An unexpected find in Dwight, IL was the a very nicely restored Texaco gas station. We met some Italians who were making the Route 66 journey.
Odell was next. This was the place where we found a Mobil Station and a refurbished Standard Oil station. Remember that chicken we had saved from Dell Rhea’s….? Well, Joyce decided that we should use the picnic tables at the Standard Oil station and she made me an offer not to be refused; join her for chicken dinner or wait in the car while she had dinner! I chose to join and reached into the box of wine we have been driving around for a nice French red–Esprint de Sarrail. This was near sunset and the light and clouds were beautiful.
Pontiac was our destination for the night. We stopped along the road to photograph some old barn buildings in a corn field with wind turbines growing there as well. We stopped at the Log Cabin Inn to get another cache. Then on to downtown Pontiac. We drove throuth town to scout out the activities for tomorrow.
Arriving at the Best Western we check in and found our room. We finished the bottle of French wine and made a few plans for tomorrow. Calling it another successful day. We made only about 200 miles today. There were just so many things to see!
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