Route 66 - Day 2
After our long and very wet first day, we woke up to great weather. We spent some time getting packed and cleaned up as we knew we were going to Bob Evans with our host for breakfast at 9 am. What we did not know was that THIS Bob Evans was the "real" original one ON the Bob Evans farm. Yup. This was the one that started it all.
Cool place and it is really in the middle of nowhere. Does not matter. Food was good. Company was good. Once we got done eating, we said our goodbyes, took a picture and thanked our host, and headed out for our nest destination.
Today was great weather. We started in upper 60s and finished in mid 70s. It was so nice to have such a pleasant drive (ie: no fricking rain). We got on the highway and knew we needed to put down some miles. We pushed it very hard taking our first break for gas after riding for 2.5 hrs.
We gassed up, stretched, had a quick snack and a drink then made our way forward. About an hour later, we stopped at a rest area for a bio break and again to stretch our legs.
Once back on the road, we pushed it hard. Traffic was hit or miss until we hit Indianapolis. Traffic jam. Not too bad but enough to slow down our schedule. After a 20 minute delay, we started pushing once again. Our goal was to make it to the "start" sign of Route 66 in downtown Chicago then head over to our hosts home.
We were making great time and needed to stop for fuel again. The area we were in was some kind of clean energy wind farm. There were 1000s of them everywhere.
The only issue was only about 10% seemed to be doing anything. It was not a windy day but enough to at least move the blades. We did not understand why so many of the wind towers were stationary. Oh well.
We left there and knew our next stop was downtown Chicago at the begin sign. Again, making great time, we thought all was going to be timed to perfection. Wrong.
The first problem was out exit. We need to get on I-80/I-94 West. The exit was closed. Great We decided to take the East exit and then do a u turn at the first exit. Wrong again. The traffic on the West bound side was backed further than we could see in either direction. New plan. We pulled off the next exit and told the GPS to route us to the start sign but do NOT use the interstate. This new route would delay us 30-40 minutes but we really did not have much of a choice. After about 20 minutes, we decided to change the GPS back to the interstate and it put on directly on I-94 PAST the wreck. Great call.
So off we go to the Begin sign....so we thought. We were 2.8 miles from the sign when there was a wreck on I-94. It stopped traffic to a stand still.
We were stopped for quite a while as they cleared the wreck. Once it cleared, we proceeded to the sign.
Now Chicago is busy...very busy. We followed the GPS to the spot and what did we find? The End sign for Route 66. We did stop and take a picture (illegally) but since we stopped in front a a stopped police car, we felt better. But the problem was that we needed to find the sign.
A bit a googling and we found the start sign was one block over. We went around the block (again) and found the sign. We stopped in the bus lane (again, illegally), got a quick snap and moved on.
Now we needed to head to our hosts home. We were really behind schedule.
We arrived at the hosts house and what a nice place. The couple were great. We could garage out bikes and since it was supposed to rain, they allowed us to setup our sleeping bags in their A/C out shed. They also transported us to the local restaurant where we got a few beers and and a very healthy meal. Once back, they gave us everything we needed to get cleaned up and get a good nights rest.
Overall, what a long day but totally worth it. Our Route 66 trip has officially begun.
Total miles today? 474.