Gettin' Our Kicks on Route 66

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Jim, Mike and I met up at Jackie's Pub in historic downtown Lockport, an old I & M Canal town. We stopped at a gas station to top off the tanks and get a cup of coffee before starting down the road.



We are taking as much of the old historic US 66 roads as possible down to St. Louis. IL Route 53 is the Old 66 for about a third of the way through Illinois, so we headed south on 53 into the old historic downtown of Joliet, IL. We made a stop in Wilmington about 30 miles south of Lockport to see some US 66 kitsch, the Gemini Giant. This statue is at the old Launching Pad restaurant. Old Route 66 parallels it's replacement, I-55 pretty much all the way to St. Louis. The only time we rode interstates was when we were bypassing pretty large towns.



We then stopped in the little town of Odell, which has a 1930's Standard gas station. It's one of the cooler spots along the northern part of US 66. After the mandatory photos there, we rode down to Lincoln, IL looking for a lunch stop. We found a nice bar that served sandwiches, called Alley-bi's. It was awful good to get inside an air conditioned place since the temps and humidity were both in the 90's. We stopped fairly often and drank a lot of water and it really wasn't that bad to deal with.



The riding was very enjoyable on the mostly two lane roads. Jim had booked us rooms at the Chase hotel in St. Louis which is a beautiful, historic hotel. After checking in and settling into our rooms, we walked a block to a very nice restaurant district and chose Gamlin's Whiskey House. They had many, many different whiskeys and we enjoyed an excellent meal there.



Tomorrow we head down to Jim's cabin in Heber Springs.

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Photos

Lockport
Jim and Mike

Nawton
And his trusty steed.

Gettin' Caffeinated
Before the ride.

Gemini Giant
Wilmington, IL. On of the many kitschy things you can see on Old 66.

Gemini Giant
Wilmington, IL

Gemini Giant
Wilmington, IL

Old Standard Station
Circa 1930's in Odell, IL.

Old US 66 Pavement
Just south of Odell, IL. This pavement is from the 1930's.

Meramec Caverns
If you look closely, you can see the old ad for Maramec Caverns painted on the barn. They had these all along the road back in the day.

Cool Falstaff Sign
At our lunch stop in Lincoln, IL. The place was caled Alley-Bi's.

Comments

[Dan Flaherty]

Looks like a fun guys trip so far ! If you need any help with directions let me know .

[D MJ Binkley]

Route 66
So historic

[HeatherLauren]

Love to see the Route 66 places! I remember stopping at the Standard Station a few years ago.

[HeatherLauren]

Love those smiles at Gamlin's Whiskey House!!

[Mike]

Nawton
Great picture! Name fits perfectly! He's got the laugh!