Route 66 St. Louis to Chicago

We left pretty early Monday morning from our overnight stay in Springfield, Illinois, to finish our Route 66 St. Louis to Chicago trek. In fact, we weren’t even sure we had enough time to see it all before the end of the day.

These signs give me goose bumps. Okay, not really, but I find it fascinating to be riding on the Mother Road. The interesting thing to me is that Route 66 runs parallel (for the most part) to the interstate, no matter what state you are in. I don’t truly understand a few things about this infamous highway. Since it does follow the interstate, why was it so devastating to local businesses? And why replace the road at all?  Just between you and me, I was doing 65 on that infamous highway, keeping up with the interstate traffic for the most part. But the biggest question I have is why let a part of this nation’s history go by the wayside?

There are lots of murals along the way on Route 66. A thing of the past. I loved this one in Atlanta, Illinois.

This museum  in Williamsville, Illinois was closed but an interesting sight to see on Route 66.

I loved this café in Atlanta. The owner and waitress were so friendly and helpful, and the pie was pretty good too, at the Palms Grill Cafe, although I’m truly not sure why it was called this. Not a palm in sight in Illinois!

I love the signage that lined the downtown areas along the way.

How cool is that? Driving on Old Route 66.

This is an old strip of Route 66, complete with Burma Shave signs (find more Burma Shave signs here), that was turned into a walking path. We stopped briefly on the road even though there was a No Cars Allowed sign. Hey, I had to turn around!

I have a video sharing the Burma Shave signs.

And speaking of video, we toured Famous Dead Man’s Curve shortly thereafter. It called for another video.

Not sure what all the hype was about…Dead Man’s Curve, really? And you’re welcome for letting you tag along for the ride. Just between you and me, I don’t think this was the Dead Man’s Curve of  the Jan and Dean tune.

We had arrived in a very picturesque town that played the Route 66 thing for all it is worth, including museums and the infamous Bob Waldmire’s  (a well-known Route 66 artist) van and bus.

This is how they do it in a small town when the railroad crossing goes awry. We found another way around…just saying.

The murals were incredible here.

Bob’s van. He lived here until he moved on up to this:

The military museum was amazing.

The whole floor was dedicated to all branches of the military. There were uniforms with names, dates and wars of the fallen. It was somber and humbling experience; a place to pay respect to those who have served and the families they left behind to do so.

It became quite apparent that we weren’t going to finish our trek to Chicago today. Tomorrow we were heading home. The question remained; do we get up early, finish the sights and end in Chicago as planned or head home first thing in the morning.