Day 1 - June 12, 2015

Somewhere along I-57 in Illinois - headed north.

He packed everything on the list I gave him, and then

he added a few (?) more things.

Somewhere along I-57 in Illinois - headed north.  There is a lot of this 

in Illinois.  And then there is Chicago.

Day One.  Overnight tonight is in the south suburbs of Chicago. 

The trip from my home in West Tennessee to the south suburbs of Chicago was uneventful, but it took most of the day astride my Honda Goldwing.  

There was rain ahead of us for the last one hundred miles or so, but the rain passed in front of us, from west to east and we traveled along freshly drenched roads under a blanket of clouds.  The rain reduced the temperatures from a 93 degree high to the mid to low 60's.  We stopped along our route of wet pavement in Kankakee ( 36 miles from our destination) and added a layer of clothes.  I also put on a rain jacket, but that was not needed for the rain, which we never encountered.

Tomorrow morning we will meet with our Chicago friend who will join us for our ride as we travel along America's most famous byway, through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mew Mexico, Arizona, and finally California.

Route 66 was created in 1926 (the year before Lindbergh soloed across the Atlantic).  The first road given the US Highway designation of 66 was a patchwork of several roads along the way.  In 1926 some of the roads were little more than dirt roads and/or trails, and many were unnamed.  It morphed into many forms, with straightening of some roads, route relocations, new roads, and paving.  Finally the interstate systems that began in the 1950's made much of the old road irrelevant.  This road west for millions became even more usurped in the 1960's and beyond.  Route 66 was finally de-certified in 1985 after Williams, Arizona, was bypassed in favor of a new interstate and the building of three interchanges for Williams in 1984.

Route 66 was first called "The Mother Road" by John Steinbeck in his book Grapes of Wrath.  In Grapes t was the road Tom Joad and his family traveled on their way out of drought stricken Oklahoma during the Great Depression.  In 1946 Bobby Troupe (Julie London's husband - or at least one of her husbands) sang about "Get (ing) Your Kicks on on Route 66".  It was also the road of Todd and Buzz in their Corvette, following never-ending adventures in a TV series in the 1960's. 

One book says 85% of the old road is still there.

The US Department of Transportation may have de-certified the US Highway, but Route 66 never died.  It has long represented so much to travelers who remembered it from years ago, and today it is revered as an unofficial National Monument.  It has hobbist, preservationist, and historians keeping the theme alive from one end to the other.  It is more than a magic journey. It is a destination;, a badge of honor that is worn on the soul.

Yes, there is still a Route 66.  In its physical form it is not like the Route 66 of another era.  But in spirit it is everything it once was and more.  

And tomorrow the journey is taken up again, to be forever a part of our life experience.

Another good day.