We had a leisurely morning at the Inn at Saint Mary’s in South Bend, IN.\u00a0 It was a very\u00a0nice hotel discovered\u00a0on Priceline a week before the trip started.\u00a0 Before the morning rain shower (sprinkles), we visited the Clay City park to find a geocache and get a start on the days exercise.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 We continued on the Indiana Turnpike and I-90 West to get to Chicago.\u00a0 And this completed our race across the states just to access the starting point.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 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\u00a0historic marker for the Route 66 beginning (and ending).\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Now that we were not so rushed, we actually went to Lou Mitchell’s and sat down.\u00a0 Joyce ordered a root beer float (Black Cow) and a Black\u00a0& White cookie.\u00a0 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\u00a0Main & Wayne streets in Waynesboro, VA!\u00a0 Stopped in Union Station for a few photographs and then it was time to\u00a0make our way SW on Route 66!<\/p>\n
Following the instructions on the maps we had purchased, we\u00a0made our way out of Chicago stopping along\u00a0the way to photograph some historic buildings and gather a few geocaches.<\/p>\n
Castle Car Wash was a closed abandoned building with a cache undiscovered.\u00a0 Henry’s Drive In had a big hot dog sign and another undiscovered cache.\u00a0 Our luck on caches was not so good this morning.<\/p>\n
Joyce had decided upon Dell Rhea’s Chicken Basket for it’s World Famous fried chicken.\u00a0 After the big breakfast in South Bend and those goodies at Lou Mitchell’s we were not hungry when we got there.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Joliet was the next destination.\u00a0 We saw Jack.s Towing with four old cars on display and an ice cream stand Route 66 Kicks with the Blues Brothers statues.\u00a0 These were unexpected finds–not on our planned list of places!<\/p>\n
Wilmington, IL was next where we saw the Gemini Giant (Paul Bunyon size) holding a rocket instead of an ax.\u00a0 Also an undiscovered geocache because there were too many people around the giant statue.\u00a0 We then located a nearby park that had a geocache.\u00a0 It took us a few minutes to find this one–it had a unique hiding place and was our favorite today.<\/p>\n
Next up, Braidwood where we found the Polka Dot Drive In where we saw Elvis and Betty Boop.\u00a0 Following this, we made our way to Gardner, IL where we found the two cell jail and the Riveria Restaurant.\u00a0 The Riveria was a horse drawn street car that had been made into a diner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
An unexpected find in Dwight, IL was the a very nicely restored Texaco gas station.\u00a0 We met some Italians who were making the Route 66 journey.<\/p>\n
Odell was next.\u00a0 This was the place where we found a Mobil Station and a refurbished Standard Oil station.\u00a0 Remember that chicken we had saved from Dell Rhea’s….?\u00a0 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;\u00a0 join her for chicken dinner or wait in the car while she had dinner!\u00a0 I chose to join and reached into the box of wine we have been driving around for a nice French red–Esprint de Sarrail.\u00a0 This was near sunset and the light and clouds were beautiful.<\/p>\n
Pontiac was our destination for the night.\u00a0\u00a0 We stopped along the road to photograph some old barn buildings in a corn field with wind turbines growing there as well.\u00a0 \u00a0We stopped at the Log Cabin Inn to get another cache.\u00a0 Then on to downtown Pontiac.\u00a0 We drove throuth town to scout out the activities for tomorrow.<\/p>\n
Arriving at the Best Western we check in and found our room.\u00a0 We finished the bottle of French wine and made a few plans for tomorrow.\u00a0 Calling it another successful day.\u00a0 We made only about 200 miles today.\u00a0 There were just so many things to see!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We had a leisurely morning at the Inn at Saint Mary’s in South Bend, IN.\u00a0 It was a very\u00a0nice hotel discovered\u00a0on Priceline a week before the trip started.\u00a0 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 … Continue reading Chicago Where Route 66 Begins<\/span>