Route 66 Part Two: Day Three

If you recall from yesterday, we stayed with Buffy's friend Betsy at her place near the north side of Chicago. Other than a couple of emergency vehicles running their sirens early this morning, it was fairly quiet in the big city. Once we awoke, got cleaned up and a cup of coffee for Buffy, we were on the road.

We filled up, figuratively and literally, with breakfast and fuel in Willow Springs. And in the Chicago area, fuel can be purchased as high as $4.35/gallon regular unleaded. We got a bargain today in Willow Springs at $4.22/gallon. If you're running diesel, you luck out at an affordable $5.00/gallon.

This is where we more or less planned our route back home. We decided to take US Route 6 along the Illinois River until we hit Rt 29. You'd think a river route might be scenic. Not really so along here. But what do you expect... it *is* the Illinois River. In all fairness, there was a lot of nice wooded areas, but starting out, there was a lot of industrial property. Not all that scenic unless heavy machinery turns you on.

So like I said earlier, don't expect this trip to be as grand as last year's excursion on the Mother Road to California. In all though, a good time was had. I will leave you with additional photos from concluding our Route 66 journey.



Buffy and Rick with Tall Paul, the Buyon's Giant Hot Dog man in Atlanta, IL. Tall Paul originally came from Cicero, IL, where he belonged to Bunyon's Drive-In.










Buffy pretends to refuel Ringo at a refurbished Standard Oil station in Odell, IL. It was first built in 1932 and was refurbished to what it appeared during the 1930's - 40's.






Rick reads the paper at the Route 66 cafe near Gardner, IL. This was previously a horse drawn street car. Sitting behind the Riviera Roadhouse, it was converted to a diner in 1932. It closed in 1939. Recently restored, no food is served there, but the 100 year old trolley remains so history is preserved... and that people like me can get photos like this.


More photos available at my MySpace page at www.myspace.com/rlojr.



Stats:

Travel Time: 5.83 hours

Miles Travelled: 182

Avg Speed: 31.22 mph

Total Miles: 486.6

Fuel Mileage: 24.94 mpg