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2014 Illinois Route 66 Motor Tour – 25th Anniversary
The Route.. Below is an interactive map of our trip, tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. You can zoom in, or click the link above for a bigger, fullscreen map. Photographs This blog contains a sampling of the photos from our trip. To view all of the photos from our trip, view the slideshow at the bottom of the post or visit our Road Trip Memories page on Flickr at the link below. Saturday, June 14, 2014 Long story VERY short, a change in plans allowed us to be able to attend the 25th Illinois Route 66 Motor Tour. We had been on the tour several times before, but…
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Plans change; relax and go with the flow…
Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans…OK, we didn’t really have an actual trip plan yet; just a general declaration that we were going to go west instead of east this year, and our destination would be South Dakota, and we’d travel in September. We’re still heading west, only now we’ve bumped up the trip to July! After talking it over, Pat and I decided that since I was planning on taking two weeks off work to watch our grandson, we might as well just take him on a road trip, rather than me just using two weeks off to stay home. Pat only has a…
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July 31-August 4, 2013: International Route 66 Festival, Joplin, Missouri
Day 1: Wednesday, July 31, 2013 Below is an interactive map of our trip, tracked using my Trimble Outdoors Navigator iPhone app. Feel free to browse and refer to the map for details about where we traveled, the photos were taken, etc. You can zoom in, or click the link below for a bigger, fullscreen map. Today’s the big day – we’re finally hitting the road for the 2013 International Route 66 festival, to be held this year in Joplin, Missouri. While I highly believe the Route 66 festivals should be held alternating in all of the various Route 66 states, for us and work schedules it’s obviously easier for us to…
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Tri-State Route 66 Festival — Day 2
Sorry for the lack of posts! Unfortunately my internet connection at the Joplin Holiday Inn was AWOL until yesterday morning before we left, so I’m just now able to get a new post up. Oklahoma is HOT this time of year! It was in the low-mid 90’s and it felt it. We stopped off in the morning at the World’s Largest Rocking Chair where we met a couple from Minneapolis who were cruising Route 66 from Chicago to L.A. We found a neat little diner in St. Robert where we had a late breakfast. After a visit with Ramona Lehman at the Munger Moss Motel in Lebanon, we jumped back…
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Tri-State Route 66 Festival — Day 1
After getting a somewhat late start out of Indy this morning, we made it to Springfield, IL in a record 3 hours for lunch at the Cozy Drive In. Afterward, we picked up Route 66 and headed south through Farmersville, Litchfield, and Mount Olive before arriving in Collinsville. I was on a mission. It’s been more than 6 weeks since we ordered our Serro Scotty trailer, and I needed a fix…bad. The first time I saw one in person was at an RV dealer there back in November. We arrived at Randy’s Trailer Town to a scorching 92 degrees, but that didn’t stop me. I was pleased to find not…
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Tri-State Route 66 Festival — The Prelude
Here it is Wednesday morning and we’re getting ready to head off for five (hopefully) peaceful days on the road. Our day will start off with a drive out to Springfield, Illinois where we’ll have lunch at the Cozy Dog Drive In, well known as the restaurant where the corn dog was invented 50-some years ago. From there, we pick up that grand old two-lane highway, Route 66 and take it south into St. Louis, where chances are we’ll be diving into a concrete from Ted Drewes Frozen Custard, another Route 66 icon dating back to 1941. After that, we meander our way through the Ozarks of Missouri before picking…
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Portland Concrete, Bridges, and Lucille’s…
If asked where my favorite section of Route 66 would be, I’d have to say all 2448 miles of it. But, if I was forced to pick a favorite section where I like to drive, I’d say it’s the section between El Reno and Hydro, Oklahoma. It’s got a nice ribbon of Portland concrete that dates back to the 1930’s, complete with curbing, like this mini section that’s housed at the National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Oklahoma. This cool section brings back memories of roadtrips when I was a kid, when two-lane highways were made of concrete and the tires hitting the seams of the road created a perfect rhythm. This section has the same…
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Christmas on Route 66 — Greetings from Stroud, Oklahoma!
What a morning! Here in Stroud, Oklahoma, about 50 miles southwest of Tulsa, we’ve had a heck of a storm roll through here. It was 65 degrees this morning before the storm rolled through, and just 40 miles west of us it was 42. Tornado watches, thunder, lightning…we had it all! Right now it’s just raining here in Stroud at the the Skyliner Motel. Had a nice drive on Friday from Amarillo. The National Route 66 Museum in Elk City, Oklahoma should be a must-stop for anyone traveling out this way. Passed Oklahoma City, we stopped by Jim Ross’ Arcadia pad for a couple of hours. He suggested we stop…
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Christmas on Route 66 — Greetings from Amarillo!
Just pulled into Amarillo, Texas about an hour ago and have set up at the Big Texan Steak Ranch & Motel. We’re here in the “Cattleman’s Hotel” wing of the Big Texan Motel. The winds today in the Texas panhandle have been intense! Dad’s Impala only got 20mpg today after a tank of 22mpg on Wednesday. We should have the wind at our backs on the way home, so the mpg should improve. The Big Texan is packed right now, but it’s slowly starting to thin out. We’re heading over there for some flame broiled goodness after I post this. More pics of dinner to follow!
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Christmas on Route 66 — Greetings from Claremore!
We made it from Indy to Claremore, Oklahoma today. The weather started off quite miserable, as it rained most of the trip through Indiana & Illinois. Once we got into Missouri, the clouds parted and the sun was shining throughout the afternoon, and provided one heck of a sunset as we entered Oklahoma. We stopped for lunch at the Circle N in Bourbon, Missouri for a fine grilled ham & cheese and then in Phillipsburg for a stop at Redmon’s for a bag full of road food (candy). We pulled into the Will Rogers Inn in Claremore tonight following nearly 630 miles of travel today. By the time we got…