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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…
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First Route 66 Trip Together Day 2 — January 28, 2001
Chicago to the Western Suburbs For our second day together on Route 66, we started the morning back in Downers Grove. We headed north on I-294 to the O’Hare Oasis, where we stopped for breakfast before continuing our sightseeing around the Chicago area. After breakfast we continued north on I-294 and exited at U.S. 19, which we followed through Skokie and into Evanston. We stopped at a park along Lake Michigan and took a walk by the lake. The neighborhood nearby was beautiful, with stately brick homes and an atmosphere that felt very exclusive. Exploring Chicago and Route 66 From Evanston we drove into the city to visit Hit the…
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First Route 66 Trip Together Day 1 — January 27, 2001
Chicago Suburbs to Springfield, Illinois After months of emails and conversations about Route 66, Pat and I finally planned our first trip together on the Mother Road. At the time, I was staying in the Chicago suburbs, beginning the process of looking for a job and apartment after deciding to move closer to Route 66 following my first trip in August 2000. Pat drove up from Indianapolis, and we planned a short winter weekend trip on Route 66 from Chicago toward Springfield. Originally, we planned to drive from Chicago into the suburbs on Friday evening, then start early Saturday morning and see how far we could get — hopefully all…