Travel Journal

Our thanks to John Holod for providing this lovely 30-minute video of his Route 66 RV Adventure. It's sure to whet your appetite to purchase the full-length, 90-minute DVD from www.rvadventurevideos.com. What a great tribute to and travelogue of Route 66! He really gets it.

John writes: "Route 66 is also know as "the mother road." It's history has helped shape that of America. Commissioned in 1926, it was the first highway to link Chicago and Los Angeles. Route 66 became America's main street. No longer necessary for cross-country

By Jim Robinson

On Christmas 1996 my wife Twila gave me the book “Route 66 Remembered.” Inside the cover she wrote “…For help in planning our own journey over the Mother Road.” We had done several Illinois Route 66 road trips and one Missouri Route 66 trip but we had never done the big trip until 2012.

On Saturday April 21 of this year, Twila and I slid into our rented 2012 Camry and with our luggage and Tom Snyder’s “The Route 66 Travelers Guide and Roadside Companion” we began our journey in front of the Art Institute in downtown Chicago. Immediately hitting detours and traversing some questionable neighborhoods, we made our way toward Santa Monica. We stayed the night in Bloomington, IL and Sunday morning we headed toward St. Louis.

By Josh Friedrich

It has been a whirlwind of travel on the ol' double sixes these past few months. When we last checked in we had just wrapped up a memorable Motor Tour in June.

Our thanks to our Association Recording Secretary, Emmy Bates, for writing up this travelogue of a trip she took with her sister, Debbie, along the Mother Road in April, 2012. Enjoy this firsthand account of their trip!

My sister, Debbie, and I decided that we’d like to take a road trip and since we are members of the association, maybe it would be fun to learn more about The Road. We planned to drive from Illinois to California, with a few side trips. I did some homework by looking on the internet (reading blogs), reading books, and talking to people in the association. Making a list of “must sees” and things that interested me, we were ready to go. Good reference books are by John Weiss (for Illinois) and Jerry McClanahan. Just remember that things have changed since Jerry’s book was written. Some places are no longer there.

This charming reflection was written and submitted to our website by Association Member, Bob Jenkins. Thank you, Bob, for sharing your memories of the Mother Road with us. Thanks to you, we proudly present this slice of Route 66 life and connection for our readers' enjoyment.

My mother was born in Odell, Illinois during the latter part of the century before last. The family then moved to Pontiac where she and her brothers and sister were raised. After her long life I sprinkled her ashes in the Vermillion River.

The Route 66 Association of Illinois is very pleased to share the experience of a recent journey across Route 66 by a couple from England. Peter was kind enough to submit the following travelogue to us on our website feedback form.

Hi

I am taking the liberty of sharing my own experience of this great American institution having completed the 2,500 miles plus Chicago to Santa Monica journey with my wife Jill at the end of last week. For the last leg we were accompanied by our friends Margaret and Derek Smith who are UK residents but came up from their home in Venice Florida to join us.

Read one family's adventure along Route 66 from Santa Monica, CA to Las Vegas, NV. This delightfully detailed travel journal will make you want to pick up and go for your own ride along the Mother Road!

Click here to read about their trip on their blog, One Journey at a Time.