9/19/17 - Pontiac, IL

Another adventure begins.  Several weeks ago my daughter, Shannon, and I attended a Cirque d'Soleil performance in Chicago.  I took advantage of being in the city to document my first leg of the Route 66 journey.  This plan started to gel in July as I celebrated my birthday.  It seemed like fate to be living near the origin of "the mother road," wanting to visit the West again, and turning 66.

So this afternoon, Bungie and I took off from our home in Lake Zurich to meet up with Route 66 at Ogden and Harlem to begin the next leg of the journey.  This time I was pulling the camper through the city, a bit more of a challenge.

The first iconic restaurant of the trip was Henry's in Cicero.  I should have looked at the sign better before ordering two hot dogs to go.  I figured I was going to share with Bungie, but never dreamed each dog came with an enormous order of fries.  So we have lunch planned for Wednesday already.  I also had a diet RC cola.  When have you ever seen that on a menu?  

Henry's Drive In

After leaving Henry's parking lot, the GPS called for a U-turn to begin our trip west.  Not easy to do when pulling a camper, so I just thought I would find a quick alternative and somehow ended up in a very small parking lot for a small factory of some sort.  I should have taken a picture to show what a mess I had gotten myself into, but I was too flustered to see the humor in it then.  I was able to maneuver out of the lot and hit the road.  But I have to be honest, there was a moment that I just thought about heading home.  Maybe I am too old for this trip...

But it's hard to stay down when your travel companion is looking at you with this smile every time your head turns to the right.  

So between my Route 66 phone app and Jerry McClanahan's very helpful book, EZ Route 66 Guide, I was able to stay on the route through a number of small towns and villages going southwest from Chicago.  I saw some cool sites and was proud of myself for not getting lost.  Navigating was easier than I had anticipated and I have all the time in the world to pull over and double check myself.

A highlight of the afternoon was a stop at the Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery.  Although visiting cemeteries is not new for me, this was my first visit to a national cemetery.  Quite a moving sight on a lovely day.

My research before the trip had helped me find a campsite for our first night out.  That's really the only plan that I had for the day, but I never made a reservation because I just wasn't sure how much I would be stopping along the way.  I called the Livingston County 4-H Campground from the cemetery and found that I could just pick out a site, plug in and stay as long as I liked.  So I jumped on I-55 for a bit and ended up here.   Campground

Although I had intended to try to cook on this trip, I have not made it to a store yet.  So we got carryout from a Chinese restaurant that was in a building from the heydays of Route 66 and I wouldn't recommend, so I won't include advertisement for them.

Happily, I was able to connect my Amazon Firestick to my iPhone hotspot and watch Ken Burn's VietNam's 1st episode.  

As you can see, my travel companion was ready to call it a day also.