Join Us in Our Adventure of Touring Route 66 and Celebrating Its 100th Anniversary
We will share the sights sounds from each day’s journey, as we travel along Route 66. Our first day of sightseeing and experiencing the sights on Route 66 will be Monday, 27 April. That’s when we will arrive in Chicago. We will visit 3 sights in Chicago after we arrive, and we will plan our official start of driving the route on Tuesday, 28 April.
Sunday, 26 April – We’re on our way to Chicago, IL!
We are on our way to Chicago, IL to make our Route 66 100th Anniversary Tour! We are excited and can’t wait to get started on Route 66! Today, though, our goal is to get to Des Moines, IA, and spend the night there before getting Chicago. We got a little bit of a late start, and it looks like we won’t get to the hotel in Des Moines until about 10:15 PM, local time.
Shakey is all dressed up and ready for her big road run!
Shakey is dressed up as a Plymouth Road Runner with touches of NASCAR and of gasoline stations that existed along Route 66 back in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
A little backstory about why I dressed her up in this manner:
When I (Michael) was 5 or 6 years old, my uncle had a 1970 or 1971 Plymouth Road Runner and as soon as I saw his car, and the sticker of the Road Runner on it, I fell in love with that car!! I had always wanted one, but by the time I was able to drive, Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth was no longer producing them and the original ones cost way too much.
Fast forward to 2014. Gayle and I were at the Denver Auto Show, because I wanted to find out what special 50th anniversary edition Ford was going to do with the Mustang, specifically the Shelby Cobra GT500 version. (I know, the Ford Shelby Cobra GT500 Mustang isn’t a Dodge Challenger, Shaker Edition. I’m getting there, so buckle up and hang on.) We’re standing at the Ford stage, looking at a dark green colored Mustang. Not a 50th anniversary special edition, nor a Shelby GT500. I asked the Ford representative about what Ford was doing to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Mustang GT500 in 2014. He responded that Ford wasn’t going to produce any GT500s. I was shocked beyond belief, and a little despondent. I had my heart set on getting a special edition GT500. I thanked the rep and then turned around to leave the Ford display, and then lo and behold, I saw her! A purple 2014 Dodge Challenger R/T, Shaker Special/Limited Edition!! Because of the body style, the color, Plumb Crazy Purple, and the black hood scoop sticking up through a hole in the hood, I was immediately taken back to 1970 or ‘71 when I saw my uncle’s Road Runner for the first time!!! I was instantly 5 or 6 again, staring at a beautiful car that was fierce, lean, exciting, and powerful! I was instantly in love with the car! I immediately went over to it and began to check her out. The engine filled the bay and was a HEMI!! 6 speed manual transmission!! Perfect for those that love to drive and want to drive! But the best part was yet to come. As Gayle and I were walking around the car, checking out everything, we reached the trunk. It was huge. How huge was it? Gayle exclaimed, “You could easily fit two bodies in there!” I was standing on her right side, and another guy was on her left. As soon as she said that, he leaned back and looked at me, with an expression on his face that showed he was definitely thinking, “What did she just say?!?!” Well, that made it crystal clear to me – I had to buy Shakey – because it was clear that Gayle had some interesting ideas of what to do with the car running through her mind! When we got home from the auto show, I immediately started calling Dodge dealerships to see if any had a 2014 Challenger Shaker in the Plumb Crazy Purple color with a 6 speed manual transmission. The answer was “No”. I gave up after several “No”s. That was Saturday evening. When Monday came, I started calling some more and found a Dealership near us that had one. We went to the dealership on Tuesday and bought her! It was the one we saw at the auto show! Since Shakey took me back to my uncle’s ‘70/‘71 Road Runner, I knew that I had to do an homage to that car for our Route 66 anniversary trip. Not only did I dress her up as a Plymouth Road Runner, I added stickers as an homage to NASCAR back when the cars driven in the races had to be cars delivered to the public for purchase. (That’s why NASCAR stands for “National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing”. Stock cars sold at dealerships and the auto manufacturers had to sell a minimum number of the cars to the public in order to be able to race the car in NASCAR races.) OK, time to look at Shakey’s pictures.
P.S. After a late start and long drive, we made it safely to Des Moines and got checked into our hotel for a good night’s sleep.
Monday, 27 April – We made it to Chicago, had some fun along the way, and saw our first Route 66 tour site!
We left Des Moines this morning and headed to Chicago. Along the way, Gayle saw a sign for The World’s Largest TruckStop, and we had to stop and see it!
Iowa 80 Truck Stop, The World’s Largest Truck Stop.
The plan for today was to drive from Des Moines to Chicago, and we didn’t have any sightseeing stops planned. But then Gayle saw a sign for the world’s largest truck stop, and we had to see it.
It was definitely huge. It was so big that there was a full size semi truck in it! Along with a buffet restaurant. And a Starbucks. And a Wendy’s. And a Pizza Hut. And a Taco Bell. And a Dairy Queen with Orange Julius. And a Blimpie Sub Shop! Lots of souvenir clothing; souvenir knick-knacks; snacks; treats; and tons of other fun things!
We had fun looking around, getting a couple of souvenirs, and enjoying a cup of coffee. We took some pictures and then resumed our drive to Chicago.
We arrived in Chicago!
We made it to Chicago and checked into our hotel. After getting our bags into our room, we walked over to the Willis Tower to visit the Skydeck! It was a lot of fun! We ended up arriving shortly after the clouds had cleared and we enjoyed the spectacular views! Of course, we had to stand where Ferris Bueller, Sloane Peterson, and Cameron Frye stood and leaned against the windows to look down upon the city! We thoroughly enjoyed walking out onto The Ledge! That was fun being outside of the building in a glass box! Did you know that the Sears Tower/Willis Tower is on Route 66? I didn’t before I started researching about Route 66 for our trip. After learning that it was on Route 66, we made that a mandatory sightseeing stop! We had a fun dinner at a nearby diner and headed back to the hotel to relax and get ready to go to sleep. Tomorrow, we officially start driving Route 66! Yay!!
Tuesday, 28 April – Today was the day we started our driving tour on Route 66!
We drove to where Route 66 begins, took pictures of the two Begin Route 66 signs and the newer “Chicago Route 66 Start Of The Trail” history sign, and then started our drive and tour on Route 66. Today’s leg of our journey was from Chicago to St. Louis. It’s the first day out of 9 days of driving Route 66! I’m need to make a change with how I post the stories, pictures, and videos. Because of the number of sights we see on Route 66 each day and the number of pictures and videos, and the stories that go with them, I will need to post them on a separate page instead of them on this page. I will post a single picture for each day’s entry, and when you click on that picture, you will be taken to that day’s journey.
Update! Day 1 of our Route 66 journey has been posted! Click on the Route 66 Begin Sign image to be taken to that page! I am working on the other pages now and will continue to post them as soon as I get them created.
Wednesday, 29 April – Today was the day we travelled from St. Louis to Springfield Missouri.
Thursday, 30 April – Day 3 of our Route 66 tour! We traveled from Springfield, MO to Oklahoma City, OK.
Update about getting Day 3 of our trip published: Long story short, Day 3 was our longest day so far, and has the most pictures and stories to upload. While I was creating the page yesterday, there was a slight mishap that caused half of my story and pictures to be deleted, and my editor application grayed out the Undo button, preventing me from undoing the unintentional deletion of my content. My ADHD brain couldn’t deal with that, and I stopped publishing Day 3. I’m now back to publishing Day 3 and have published the page while I am still working on it. Feel free to view, and hopefully enjoy the page while I continue to publish the content.
