On Route 66 - Chicago to Springfield

Finally have access to the internet again so will post a few of these to get everything up to date. It was good to be back on the road again after two nights in the same place. Having said that it was also nice to have two nights in the same place, and Milwaukee was a lot of fun. We made the decision to avoid Chicago and head staright down to Bllomington to pick up "The Mother Road". This was absolutely the right decision as Chicago traffic is diabolical on any day, and the thought of dealing with the morning rush hour just so we could say we started the ride at the very beginning of Route 66 just didn't appeal. On the way we passed though another Clinton (we have been through three now) so a photo opp seemed to be presenting itself.

Once we hit Bloomington the original Route 66 was very easy to find. It was well sign posted and in remarkably good condition. We had been led to believe it was run down, and while it is not to the standard of the main freeways and interstates it would still give our State Highways arun for their money. We had three nights to get back to Dallas, so we rode hard direct to Bloomington and then picked up the original Route 66 all the way to Springfield.

Our first stop out of Bloomington was Dixie's Truckstop. This is an iconic diner just out of Bloomington and the place where we picked up a good map of the whole route and some souvenirs. Armed with the map and the trusty GPS we found it pretty difficult to go wrong but we gave it a good try. North of Springfield we

ended up in a little town  that could have come straight out of the fifties. Utes parked on an angle, US flags flying, locals meandering around and an absolutely bloody marvellous little bar called the Blue Moon. It was late in the day, we were both thirsty and this was just too good not to have a look. There were four locals sitting at the bar and the very friendly barmaid immediately introduced everyone to us and we all got to talking.

We hit Springfield late in the day. Springfield is historically recognised as the final resting place for Abe Lincoln and his museum and library is situated here. The centre of town is quite beautiful and our overall impression was very positive. We picked a pretty cheap motel, unpacked the bikes, showered and then headed off to a local mexican cantina for what turned out to be a pretty nice (and once again cheap) meal. This was a great day's riding for both of us. The bikes are running beautifully and we find we hit a rythm pretty early in the day that sets the pace for the rest of it. This is biker heaven.