After breakfast, a walk along the beach with beautiful sand dunes and a power generating plant in the distance we finally decided that we had to start our Route 66 track right at the beginning, right downtown Chicago. Off we went to Chicago! The Interstates were fine, the 200km trip went smoothly. The toll routes to downtown Chicago were a bit stressful, the ticket machine ate the credit card, but thanks to a help button and a friendly voice on the other end we had it back quickly and could proceed. Wow, I love Chicago!!! The rails in the air, beautiful old buildings, art in the streets, restaurants, stores, all with a story to tell! And all decorated with US flags, it was Memorial Day Weekend after all. And thank God it was a Sunday which made the drive through the city with an RV possible.
Yes, we got the crucial shots: The signs of the beginning and the end of Route 66!

And we had a nice Greek lunch at Santorini’s and then dessert on top of it at Lou Mitchell’s Restaurant and Bakery, a downtown Chicago eatery since 1923 and a land mark on Route 66.

The first t-shirt was purchased 🙂

We left Chicago on Route 66, passed Castle Car Wash, Cindy Lyn’s questionable motel and ended up at the White Fence Farm in the Joliet area after passing by prisons onward on the older of the two Route 66 in the direction of Joliet, Elwood, Wilmington and Braidwood. The chicken outside was huge but nothing in comparison to the chicken dinner in the restaurant.

Most of it is now in our little freezer compartment in our RV fridge. Time to rest our weary bones! We ended up at the State Kankakee River State Park. We never got to see the river, it was raining so hard even Pepsi didn’t want to go out.