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December 2001: New York, New York
Being originally from Connecticut, trips to NYC were something I did frequently since childhood. After I moved to Illinois last year, I knew I would not get back to NYC very much. When I visited my family in Connecticut this first Christmas after moving to the midwest, I knew I had to go to New York! Especially after the events of September 11, I wanted to go and see Ground Zero, as well as the memorial wall at St. Paul’s Chapel. For all the times I visited NYC, I rarely took pictures, since I lived nearby and didn’t feel the need to. This time was different, since I don’t live…
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July 2001: Oklahoma Route 66 Cruise
Pat and I decided to attend the Oklahoma Route 66 Association’s annual cruise this year, held on July 13 – 14, 2001. Cruisers have the option of travelling eastbound or westbound, with festivities centrally planned in Yukon. I had just moved to the Chicagoland area back in January and Pat lives in Indianapolis, so we thought about the most efficient way we could get together, to start our drive to Oklahoma. I was able to get a very inexpensive flight from Midway Airport to Indianapolis, so Pat picked me up there and we headed out to Oklahoma. Since we were coming from Indiana and didn’t have alot of time, we obviously cruised west,…
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Michael Wallis Booksigning at Hit the Road Travel Store
On June 21, 2001, I had the pleasure of attending a reading and booksigning by Michael Wallis of the updated version of his wonderful book, Route 66: The Mother Road. The updated version was done for the 75th Anniversary of Route 66 (and the entire U.S. Highway System, for that matter). The booksigning was held at a very cool travel store called Hit the Road. Unfortunately, it closed several years ago. I shopped there alot to try to support the efforts of the two owners, Annice Tatken and Maureen Geoghegan. I had the pleasure of meeting again (or for the first time) many roadies whom I would see often over the…
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June 2001: Illinois Motor Tour
This was my first time (but not my last) attending the Illinois Motor Tour, an event organized by the Route 66 Association of Illinois each year. Slideshow of All Photos For more details about a particular photo, click on it in the slideshow and it will open in my Flickr site. [flickrslideshow acct_name=”roadtripmemories” id=”72157609128414342″ width=”500″]
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April 2001: Restoration of Meramec Caverns Barn (Day 2)
We met up with members of the Illinois Route 66 Association in the lobby of the motel, and everybody was really nice and friendly! We all headed over to the barn, and it was such a great day! It was a wonderful experience to help in restoring a Route 66 landmark like this. There were plenty of people there to help, so there wasn’t always something to do, even though we wanted to help more. But when there was something to be done, we pitched right in and helped. We even managed to climb the scaffold and paint some letters, way at the top of the barn! I guess I…
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April 2001: Restoration of Meramec Caverns Barn (Day 1)
After a little late start this morning, Amber and I were on our way. We’ve been on various sections of 66 from Chicago to Romeoville several times since moving here, but this would be Amber’s first trip on Route 66 south since our first trip on vacation in August 2000. We had with us an excellent book, written by John Weiss – The New, Historic Route 66 in Illinois. It’s an excellent resource, not only for Route 66, but side trips too. We were heading to southern Illinois to Hamel, where there is an old barn with a Meramec Caverns ad painted on it. I read a post on the…
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April 2001: Route 66 – Romeoville, IL to St. Robert, MO (Day 2)
When we awoke Sunday, our Wayfarer Inn experience wasn’t over. When we discovered there wasn’t any hot (or even lukewarm!) water coming out of the shower, Jennifer decided she’d had enough and called the front desk. When she told Mr. Patel we weren’t getting any hot water, he said it would get hot if we left it on “for 5 or 10 minute”. At this point, Jennifer vowed to never take a chance on an independent motel she hadn’t previously stayed in. So, feeling a bit peeved at Mr. Patel’s remedy for hot water, we just decided to end this nightmare and leave. (I won’t tell you that we left…
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April 2001: Route 66 – Romeoville, IL to St. Robert, MO (Day 1)
After Jennifer got back Saturday morning from the airport, we met at her apartment in Romeoville to begin our weekend excursion. The plan was to take 55 to St. Louis, and 66 in Missouri. After a “grab & go” at Burger King for breakfast, our first stop Saturday morning was Funk’s Grove. We had the chance to talk with Debby Funk and pick up some sirup, maple candy and a few other trinkets. Jennifer never had their sirup before. On her first trip last August with Amber, they were closed for the season. We found out from Debby that during that season, they had less sirup than normal, only 800…
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The eve of a new Route 66 trip!
Our weekend started off late Friday night, when I (Pat) checked into my motel in Joliet. After meeting up with Jennifer & her daughter Amber in Romeoville, we went cruising looking for a place that had ice cream. The places we had in mind were either closed or didn’t have ice cream, so we settled on a Blizzard from a local Dairy Queen. Since Jennifer had to get up at 4:45am Saturday morning to take Amber to Chicago Midway Airport for a 7:00 AM flight back to Connecticut for spring break, we cut our Friday night short.
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Second Route 66 Weekend Together February 3–4, 2001
Springfield, Illinois to St. Louis, Missouri Since our Route 66 trip through Illinois had been cut short the previous weekend because of snow, Jennifer and I decided to finish the second half of the journey the following weekend. We started the trip by leaving Indianapolis and heading west on US 36 toward Springfield, Illinois. The main goal for the afternoon was simple: return to Cozy Dog Drive-In and see if Jennifer could finally try her first Cozy Dog. The weekend before, the Cozy had mysteriously been closed even though it should have been open. Fortunately, this time our luck was better. When we arrived Saturday afternoon, the Cozy was open…