Travelling The Mother Road Route 66 was the reason for this blog so it seems only fair that I give it a whole page of its own. Here you will find blog posts relating to the planning of our road trip across the USA, links to websites we found useful and the unfolding story of our trip. Hopefully in time it will become a useful resource to others planning to do the trip so if you have any questions then feel free to drop me a line.
These three books gave us plenty of inspiration and help in planning our road trip
All Route 66 Books are available on eBay, Amazon and most good book shops
Our Route 66 Blog
The following blog posts are presented in ascending order so that you can follow our road trip from the planning stage and onwards. They are full of my musings on the places we visited, images of route 66, some stories of the people we met along the way and some tips. I hope you find them enjoyable.
Our Route 66 Itinary
The following is a list of the towns and cities we are visiting along with the hotels and motels we are staying in. Each location will receive its own page as we travel along the route on our adventure but this will give you an idea to start with
10 days until take off
It’s now less than two weeks till the big off and whilst my wife is organising and double checking holiday insurance, passports, tickets and ESTA’s I’m panicking about the more important matters such as
America here we come
We left Derby at 4am and by mid afternoon we were sampling the delights Chicago had to offer as we started our Route 66 adventure
Chicago walking tour around the Windy City
The day started with a traditional American breakfast at at the unofficial start to Route 66 in Chicago, Lou Mitchell’s. It’s exactly the kind of place a Brit would imagine if they were told to describe an all American diner.
Chicago to Springfield Illinois
Our first day on the route 66 in Illinois was an eventful one. Firstly the taxi driver taking us back to O’Hare airport to pick up the hire car spoke very little English and didn’t have much of a clue where he was going.
Springfield to St Louis
After a heavy night on the beer with an American couple last night and a short walk to see Abraham Lincoln’s childhood house and other period houses we finally left the strange town of Springfield Illinois to head to St Louis.
St Louis to Cuba Mo
Getting out of St Louis was slightly easier than getting in. We still managed to make several wrong turns before finding route 66 towards Cuba and heading for our first stop of the day
Cuba to Carthage Missouri and very special motel
The sky was still gloomy when we left The Wagon Wheel but the worlds biggest rocking chair in Fanning Missouri was waiting and we weren’t going to let a few grey clouds spoil that !
Carthage to Oklahoma via Kansas
The day began with breakfast in the local pancake hut which was occupied by a couple of camouflage wearing hicks who were obviously on there way out hunting
