Route 66

NOTICE!

 Reading these next and upcoming Blog spots needs to be done while humming to yourself "get your kicks on route 66" or even better! click the following link and let the song play in the background as you read this!

Wikipedia:

U.S. Route 66 (US 66 or Route 66), also known as the Will Rogers Highway and colloquially known as the Main Street of America or the Mother Road, was a highway within the U.S. Highway System. One of the original U.S. Highways, Route 66 was established on November 11, 1926—with road signs erected the following year.^[2] The highway, which became one of the most famous roads in America, originally ran from Chicago, Illinois, through Missouri,Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California, before ending at Los Angeles, covering a total of 2,448 miles (3,940 km).^[3] It was recognized in popular culture by both a hit song and the Route 66 television show in the 1960s.

Well as for me I started driving the Route 66 from Chicago on the 12th of October and to get a proper start to the journey I decided to drive back to Downtown Chicago and find the "BEGIN" sign of the historic Route 66. I thought that it would've been a little 45 minutes detour. What I didn't realize was that it was morning rush hour time! so it ended up being a 2 hour detour. Well worth it though. I found the sign on the first try and got my picture taken with it (and an "angry bird video").

I knew that lot of the original road had been moved or replaced with modern highways so I decided to just get to the south bound highway and catch the road from there. And very soon the first marks of "historic Route 66" started appearing. I followed them as much as possible but very soon it got clear to me that I really need to have a proper separate"Route 66" map in order to follow the road proper. 

So after couple of "funky turns" and getting lost twice I found a nice little Route 66 diner from the road.  From there I got my first taste of a catfish and a basic map for the road. Quite quickly I noticed as well that for lots of time the original historic route 66 went right next to the highway. With the biggest difference that on the route you had a speed limit of 55 mph (80km/h) while on the highway it was for the most parts 70mph (110km/h). So... I found myself juggling between the two to make some distance as well.  I went through lots of small towns on the route and had one bigger stop in Springfield, IL. A very nice town and also very known as the hometown of Abraham Lincoln. Even though it was dark I decided to find the house he used to live in (might as well). 

On the first day I must say that the dark creeped on me. Since it was already 1:30 pm when I left from Chicago and the sun set roughly 6:30 pm. It didn't really leave me much daylight to drive and see the places. So once it got dark I decided to just get on the highway and make some good time and distance. Around 10pm I got so tired that needed to find a place to stay for the night in Troy, right outside of St. Louis.