Our initial trip down Route 66 took us 7 days. After 8 years I can remember just about every day as if it just happened. Although Retrospective #1 is the first posting I decided to go back a few days to the start of our trip. The reason being so that you my readers can get a good understanding and benchmark of what the average day looks like traveling the Route in a week.
But Michigan Avenue can get its hooks in you with all the cool things to see and do, like it unique shops, and wondrous landmarks. So it was after 11AM by the time we got back to the car, and got on with our day. The drive down Adams is hectic through the loop, especially near Union Station, but once we got west of Jefferson the traffic died down and we found ourselves driving through quiet residential and light industrial areas.
June 22, 2005:
Packing 90% of our stuff into the car the day before, we where up early and quickly ready to go on the 22nd. We pulled out of the driveway of our house in Northwest suburban Chicago by 6AM, and made our way to downtown Chicago. After a small breakfast stop, and hitting morning rush hour traffic on I-90, we finally reached Adams and Michigan Ave by about 9AM. We parked in the parking garage of The Palmer House and walked up to Route 66's Eastern terminus at Michigan and Adams (yes we drove past it first).
But Michigan Avenue can get its hooks in you with all the cool things to see and do, like it unique shops, and wondrous landmarks. So it was after 11AM by the time we got back to the car, and got on with our day. The drive down Adams is hectic through the loop, especially near Union Station, but once we got west of Jefferson the traffic died down and we found ourselves driving through quiet residential and light industrial areas.
Eventually we got to Ogden Avenue and made the left on it to head Southwest. Ogden/Route 66 travels down city thoroughfares of commercial, industrial and residential all thrown together, and stays the same through the town of Cicero, once infamous for its gangster connections in the 20's and 30's. In Cicero we passed over railway tracks that once use to carry the famous Super Chief another West bound traveler to LA from a bygone era, that shared a crown with 66 for king of Westbound travel. This is the last time we will cross tracks (literally and figuratively) with the legendary passenger train till New Mexico. Looking off the the right or North of Ogden we see BNSF yards reminders of Cicero's blue collar roots.
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