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…