America’s ‘Mother Road’ offers a time-warped journey from Chicago to LA past neon-lit diners, drive-in movie theaters and roadside attractions that beg for a photo.
TRIP HIGHLIGHTS
14 DAYS
2400 MILES / 3862KM
GREAT FOR…
BEST TIME TO GO
May to September for extended opening hours at attractions.
ESSENTIAL PHOTO
The Gemini Giant, a fiberglass spaceman, in Wilmington, IL.
BEST TWO DAYS
California’s stretch of road offers tumbleweed landscapes and malted milkshakes.
It’s a lonely road – a ghost road really – that appears for a stretch then disappears, gobbled up by the interstate. You know you’ve found it again when a 20ft lumberjack holding a hot dog rises up from the roadside, or a sign points you to the ‘World’s Largest Covered Wagon,’ driven by a giant Abe Lincoln. And that’s just Illinois – the first of eight states on the nostalgic, kitschy, slowpoke drive west.
Top of Chapter
1 Chicago
Route 66 kicks off in downtown Chicago on Adams St just west of Michigan Ave. Before you snap the obligatory photo with the ‘Route 66 Begin’ sign (on the south side of Adams, FYI), spend some time exploring the Windy City. Wander through the Art Institute(
312-443-3600;www.artic.edu;111 S Michigan Ave;adult/child $25/free;
10:30am-5pm Fri-Wed, to 8pm Thu;
;
Brown, Orange, Green, Purple, Pink Line to Adams) – literally steps from the Mother Road’s launching point – and browse Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks (a diner scene) and Grant Wood’s American Gothic (a farmer portrait) to set the scene for what you’ll see en route. Nearby Millennium Park(
312-742-1168;www.millenniumpark.org;201 E Randolph St;
6am-11pm;
;
Brown, Orange, Green, Purple, Pink Line to Washington/Wabash) is just plain cool, with mod public artworks and concerts at lunchtime and many evenings June through August.
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The Drive » Stay on Adams St for 1.5 miles until you come to Ogden Ave. Go left, and continue through the suburbs of Cicero and Berwyn. At Harlem Ave, turn left (south) and stay on it briefly until you jump onto Joliet Rd. Soon Joliet Rd joins southbound I-55 (at exit 277), and you’re funneled onto the interstate.
LINK YOUR TRIP
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