It’s another beautiful morning when I rise. I woke a little after 8:00, which was later than I would have liked but I didn’t set an alarm and needed the sleep. Laurelin was loaded up by 9:00 and I was back out on the road. A couple of quick stops in town to grab a few photos before heading towards St. Louis.
The first stop is Pontiac City Hall. Directly across the street is a mural of five pictures depicting different times in history, including the future. A short drive through town brings me to a directional sign post for the towns of Cayuga, Chenoa and Lexington. There’s a museum here but I don’t have time to indulge and it may not even be open yet. Back to Route 66 and headed for Chenoa.
There’s not much to see in between towns today. It’s farmland all the way to St. Louis. Just a mile or so outside of Pontiac is an abandoned police station. The Illinois State Police was formed in 1922 and just 20 officer patrolled the entire state, on Harleys of course. The original road sits between the police station and the current old Route 66. The original road runs just off to my right for much of the next several miles.
The next town I come to is Chenoa. There’s not really anything here that piques my interest so I continue past town and head for Lexington. The landscape so far is mostly just more farmland and will be for the entire day. I pull off in Lexington to check for any good landmarks. Nothing much here either, but I do find the crazy presidential elephant which is actually right across the street from where I’m stopped. I didn’t get close enough to read up on it but it’s a large metal sculpture of an elephant. But what I have learned is that this elephant was part of a presidential campaign. The artist himself ran for president in the 2020 election and drove around the states with this elephant. There’s a few meaning and representations behind some of the pieces but I won’t bore you with all that.
The next town I come to is Towanda, and again, there’s really nothing here that merits a stop. The following town, Normal, does have a sign, but not much else. It does however have Burma Shave signs. The original road is still present in Normal and there are several Burma Shave signs along it. Burma Shave, if you don’t know, was a company that marketed their brushless shaving cream with sequential signs along the roadway. I should have stopped to get a photo but didn’t. I do remember part of one of them though. It said, “if you stick your elbow out too far it’ll go home with someone else.” Many of their messages had nothing to do with shaving but it was marketing gimmick that worked.
Normal is a northern suburb of Bloomington, home to Illinois State University. Bloomington is hard to navigate and at one point I u-turn four times on the same road. I finally keep going as I originally was and continue through a neighborhood until I reach a large Route 66 photo op spot. As big as Bloomington is, there’s only two places in the app I am using. Neither look like a worthy stop so I continue to McLean, my first gas stop for the day. I stop to fill up at the Dixie truck stop. The Dixie cafe was established in 1928 and still serves truckers today. Across the street is the McLean Route 66 sign and a chalkboard and metal art for people to sign.
Atlanta is the next town I come across. Atlanta is home of the giants. The American Giants Museum is home to multiple giants. There’s the Texaco guy, the Phillips 66 guy, a Native American, an astronaut, a Viking and the last one I’m unsure of. But he does remind me a lot of the Mad Magazine guy. Down the street is also a giant Paul Bunyan holding a hot dog. Not sure why he’s holding a hot dog but he would end up being some grief for me. As I headed out of town and towards Lincoln, I noticed my GPS kept trying to get me to turn right at every road I came to. As I neared Lincoln it start telling me to turn around. The directions I was given had specific stops in them, I thought maybe I had missed a good stop. I turned around and headed back to Atlanta, it wasn’t really that far. I got back to the stop and low and behold, it’s Paul. As it turns out, the stops added to the plan don’t go away as you reach them. Lesson learned for the rest of the day.
Turning around again, I get back to Lincoln. I pull off into a bowling alley parking lot to see what’s near. There’s a giant covered wagon in town so I punch the address into Google maps and head towards it. I head out the wrong way and have to turn around to get right back to the bowling alley and the Days Inn right behind it. The address is wrong somewhere. But I do find the world’s largest penny. It’s relatively new as it’s stamped 2026. On my way out I do find the giant wagon with Lincoln, as well as a giant watermelon.
My next stop is in Springfield. It’s lunchtime now and I find the perfect spot. It’s actually called The Spot. It’s a 90’s themed bar and grill. There’s posters of Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Brittany Spears, TuPac, Sublime and more. There’s beanie babies and burnt CD’s lining the rafters. And the music playing is all 90’s. The menu items are all a play on 90’s themes. My lunch is the Fried & Furious. It’s a buttermilk breaded chicken breast over mashed potatoes and covered in white gravy. It’s very good.
There’s a few things to see in Springfield but the only one I’m really interested in is Lincoln’s tomb. I head back north through town to get there. It’s located in a massive cemetery filled with some very large family headstones. Aside from the landscaping crew, it’s quiet, as a cemetery should be. The tomb includes a 170ft obelisk and four very detailed bronze sculptures. A sculpture of Lincoln’s head sits out front, his nose golden from all the hands that have rubbed it, for luck I guess. Above the door is a plaque with part of the Gettysburg Address. Inside are several small sculptures of Lincoln and in the back, the tomb itself. A large marble piece and opposite it, the tombs of his wife Mary and three of his children, Edward, William, and Thomas.
My next stop is in Raymond. It’s right off the road and sits in front of a farm house. It’s the Shrine of Our Lady of the Highways. It’s a statue of Mary and was setup in 1959 to remind motorist of the potential dangers of the road and to offer a place to say a prayer for safe travel. It is maintained by the Marten family who own the farm it sits on.
Continuing on the road becomes extremely rough. It’s bad enough for a car, much less a bike. I’m considering getting onto the highway when I come to T junction at an overpass. There’s no signage telling me which way Route 66 is so I take a left over the interstate. And there it is, the road jumped sides. I’m headed into Mt. Olive when I notice a vehicle keeping pace with me. The front end looks a lot like a trooper’s cruiser. I look at my speed and I’ve well over the posted 55mph limit. He hasn’t lit me up yet so I hold my speed a little lower than I was at. He follows for a few miles and I begin to think that maybe it’s just a car that looks like a cruiser, but then he lights me up. He gets my ID and ends up letting me off with a warning. Top speed on Route 66 is 55, but in the immortal words of Sammy Hagar, I can’t drive 55. I was also immediately reminded of a conversation I had with someone just a couple of days ago. I was asked if I ever get pulled over and I gave her some grief about jinxing me. I won’t name her though.
It’s getting late now and I decide to jump onto the interstate to get to St. Louis as quick as I can. There’s nothing else on this current route that I want to see and I want to have some time to walk around the Gateway Arch Park. It’s only about 40 miles away and I make pretty quick work of it. But downtown St. Louis is an absolute nightmare. It’s packed with cars and I spend 45 minutes trying to find parking. I never do and finally decide to just skip it. So once again I’m in St. Louis and don’t get a photo of the arch. Onto my final destination for the day.
I’m setup in camp just west of St. Louis, just outside of Eureka. Dinner is at O’dell’s Irish Pub. A lot of green in this joint and it’s fairly busy. I have the corned beef and cabbage, which is a favorite of mine. It’s served with a ton of new potatoes but is oh so good. I cleared the beef and cabbage but could only do so much with the potatoes.
Camp is pretty full but quiet. I actually get to have a fire this time, though the main office was out so I had to by wood from the gas station and haul it back to camp. Still, it’s nice to have a fire to sit by.
