Days 2&3 Stroudsburg to Bloomington

Odell Illinois

So, off we went on a quick two day charge to Chicago on the Ohio Turnpike/Indiana Toll Road. It was a fairly uneventful couple of days as we stuck to the Interstate, but what struck us was that the countryside isn’t too different to England in this part of the states. Oh, and the weather was fantastic. First night we stayed in Elyria Ohio where we had a wonderful meal at a restaurant

called Reubens near the Best Western, then next day we hit the Chicago area mid-afternoon, took a wrong turning at Gary, Indiana and ended up in Chicago’s southern suburbs. The heavy traffic was a bit hair raising, but we made it through in one piece and before we knew it we were passing the Route 66 Raceway.

Yeeesssss! – we’d done it. Route 66 at last. By this time it was late afternoon and our overnight stop was to be at the Best Western in Bloomington. We stopped and looked at several small towns

 as we passed through – noticed all the closed down Rt 66 gas stations, motels etc. and took in the general dilapidation of the road in parts. Wonderful – just what we came to see. History at the roadside.

Don’t miss the restored Standard Oil gas Station in Odell. When we visited there were a lot of people visiting in classic 1950s cars and one kind man let me have my photo taken in his hotrod. Others chatted to us about their beautifully restored cars. Great folk like this make 66 what it is.

We checked in at the Best Western, had a Chinese meal and retired to bed to re-charge the batteries, anticipating a full day of Route 66-ing the following day.