Route 66! How did they do it before GPS? 

I'm the navigator armed with a GPS, a CAA
triptych, a CAA map, and numerous guidebooks but still couldn't follow the 
nebulous, tantalizing directions for Route 66.  It's really just a fiction:  a roadway
that existed until 1985 but lives on thanks to Americans who still look for a simpler
way.  They publish maps and tour books to direct dawdling drivers to the fossil road.
The problem is, it disappears in many places leaving the hapless navigator tearing her 
hair out trying to figure out where it's likely to re-appear.


We started our day at Lou Mitchell' restaurant:  buried at ground level in the shadow of Chicago's
skyscrapers. 

We drove in from Indiana, taking advantage of the empty freeways on Saturday
morning.  It's a classic diner.  They give you a timbit when you come in (the holes from the 
doughnuts they make.)  There are as many locals there at 8 am as tourists. 

The food is good and filling..I had pancakes and blueberries.



Lou's is supposed to be the start of Route 66.  But where exactly?  It took us an hour to find our way
out of town...thank god there was no traffic.  It's a miracle we didn't kill each other as I drove Blair nuts with contradictory instructions from the GPS computer and the guidebooks. 


By noon we'd made it to Joliet where one of the Blues Brothers spent time in prison.  And HIghway 66 stretched ahead of us with no ambiguity.  We knew we'd made it to that geography of space and time when we found the Gemini Giant where Blair had an excellent burger at the Launching Pad diner.

We kept driving south, past hundreds of hectares of soybeans and corn...products of the subsidies supporting biofuel production.  The price of gas is going down, though.  Not a good equation for the earth, but helpful to us.  


Several hours later we stopped at the Route 66 Hotel and Convention Center in Springfield.  It's the birthplace of Abraham Lincoln and the capital of the state. 

And this weekend it's home to an impressive display of antique cars.  What better place for them, then on an Antique Highway.

Tomorrow we're on to St. Louis, Missouri - home to the big Arch - and a bridge that was featured in Escape from New York.   The weather's cool with intermittent showers.  Life is good.