A couple of weeks back Andy and I hit the open road in an attempt to drive half of the Mother Road. Route 66. America’s highway!
While I took a ton of pictures with the “real” camera, I’m not ready to show those. Not by a long shot Chet. But I can start sharing the pictures I took with my phone. While it isn’t all that many, graded on a scale, this is where my food adventure pictures are at.
We loaded up into Andy’s RV and hit the open road a bit after 7 AM on Day 1. It doesn’t have a name. I didn’t give it one. I don’t believe in naming cars. It took us a bit to get out of Boone because the RAGBRAI traffic leaving Boone was fierce.
Route 66 begins (spiritually) in Chicago. But we decided to cut off a portion of the beginning of the road and join up with Route 66 in roughly Springfield. This actually ended up being Lincoln. But you get the idea. I am tentatively planning on doing a weekend trip to Chicago this fall to see the Obama Presidential Library and do the first few hundred miles of Route 66.
Despite not starting at the starting point our goal was still to get to the halfway point of Route 66 in Adrian, Texas. Did we make it? Only time will tell.
Here are the cell phone pictures of Day 1 of the Route 66 Road Trip. Phase 1.
The very first stop on Route 66 was in Lincoln, Illinois. Home of the World’s Largest Covered Wagon. In background.
Lincoln is named for Honest Abe who did the legal work to incorporate the town. He christened the town with a cup of watermelon juice.
Our first Route 66 food was donuts! Mel-O-Cream donuts.
They were pretty good, but I would be disappointed to find out that they are a franchise later in the trip.
What a view!
Our first Route 66 Friend. Wanda Lee! She worked at The Mill. It is a museum where an old restaurant used to be in Lincoln. She was awesome. She turned on the lights on the windmill, the robot, and the foot in the ceiling for us. She goes by Wanda Lee because when her mom was also named Wanda. When boys would call the house for Wanda Lee they needed a way to differentiate who the caller was calling on. Wanda Lee did not name her daughter Wanda. She named her Mercedes. In fact all of her kids are named after cars.
2nd town we stopped in. Elkhart, Illinois.
Yes, I’m wearing watermelon gear because of the christening with watermelon juice story.
The only must stop at restaurant on Day 1 for me was the Cozy Dog Drive In. In Springfield, Illinois.
The Cozy Dog was started by Ed and Virginia Waldmire. Ed wanted to call them Crusty Curs. But Virginia changed the name to Cozy Dog.
The Cozy Dog was delicious. I’d say it was the best corn dog I’ve ever had. The fries were not so great.
Cozy Dog!!!
Route 66 Friend #2. I don’t remember her name. But she served us at Chadito’s where we got dessert. She also sells insurance. But don’t worry, it isn’t for that terrible, terrible insurance company known as State Farm.
I got Apple Churro Chips.
“A crispy deep-fried flour tortilla covered with apple pie filling and cinnamon sugar, cut into wedges and sprinkled with cheese. Served hot.”
Last stop before the campground was Abraham Lincoln’s tomb. I got to be one of the first people to be on the balcony of his tomb in 20 years. It is considered good luck to rub Abe’s nose. I already had two of my grandpa’s buckeyes on the trip, but doesn’t hurt to double down. You can decide if we actually had good luck or not.
The RV with No Name. We camped at the Illinois State Fairgrounds on Day 1 because there was one last thing to see on Day 1 and it was on the grounds of the Illinois State Fairgrounds.
They have a new neon park. Tragically, this would be the only time I would get to photograph neon signs at night.
Sadly, it was not.
After that, we called it a night.
I would rate the Illinois State Campground as not bad. The shower was made for midgets, I mean dwarves, I mean little people. I mean not a full-sized human such as myself. But for a camp shower, it was pretty clean. There wasn’t much to do there, but we were just looking for a place to lay our weary heads and sleep the good sleep of road trippers.
Next Sunday we will cover the food adventures and cell phone pictures of Day 2 of the Road Trip. There are way more pictures from this day as it was the actual first full day on Route 66.