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The
idea to ride Route 66 all started after talking to Russell
Harrison about his ride on Route 66 in 2011.
This is our experience:
After some 30 hours of travel we arrived at our hotel at Niagara
Falls just before midnight Sunday 23rd September. We decided
that a couple of days RNR was needed to get over the long
flight. We arrived at the Falls about midnight. What a sight we
saw when we opened the curtains in the morning. We were directly
opposite the falls the rising mist and the roar of the water.
Our next 2 days were spent just taking in the beauty of the area
and resting.
On the 26th it was onto another plane at Toronto flying to
Chicago on Lake Michigan. This is where our Eagle Rider Tour was
to start. We had an extra night so that we could take in a few
of the local sights. First thing we did after breakfast was hit
the pavement and didn’t take long to realise you had to walk on
the right side, just like driving!
Our hotel the Palmer House was only 2 blocks away from the
Sears Tower (now called Willis Tower) which gave 360 of the
surrounding area. From the top floor you could see all the roads
leading in and out of the city. What a maze it looked and
tomorrow we would be on one of them heading West on Route 66.
The start of the road is just below the tower we were in.
Next we went down the lift and hopped on an “on-off double
decker” tour bus taking in the history and looking at all the
different architecture. Chicago is the setting for lots of
movies. It will be fun trying to spot the landmarks in movies we
watch in the future. In the afternoon we decided to visit he
aquarium to see the Beluga whales (white in colour with a large
looking bubble on their heads) which were going to perform some
tricks.
What
are the chances of meeting some one you know in 3 million
people? Well we bumped into a young lady at the end of a queue
who we knew from Mt Barker. She had left home about 3 months ago
tripping about USA. We hadn’t seen any Australians up till then.
Small world!
Back at the hotel that night we met all the other riders and
organisers of Eagle riders. 33 riders in all which were broken
up into 2 groups European (English) and Brazilians (Spanish
speaking). We were originally booked to ride with the
Brazilians, but this was changed at the last minute. It was
decided that we would be the only English speaking people in the
group. The change was good and we ended up with a really good
mix of people. The evening was spent eating pizzas and getting
to know our fellow riders.
DAY 1: The following morning was the start of the adventure with
a bus trip out of the CBD to an original diner and bowling alley
for breakfast then onto the Harley Davidson shop. Here we signed
up and took possession of our transport for the next 2 weeks.
Chester was a little disappointed to not get a Gold Wing but had
to settle for an Electra Glide HD. Not much to be done about
that, but we wouldn’t let that spoil our ride. The seat’s not as
comfy for Trudy. She’s a bit spoiled with the Wing.
Our group had 17 riders plus 3 passengers (8 Brits, 2 Scots, 2
Americans, 2 Swedes, 4 Aussies and 2 Russians). All but one of
us were on various models of HD’s. There was one lonely but
lovely Gold Wing which was ridden by another Aussie.
Our tour leader was LaLa, a pretty wild looking woman. It was
LaLa who put together the Route 66 tour for the Eagle Rider
Company. With every trip they find new things to improve on it.
All of our luggage was transferred to a van which was towing a
trailer with a spare HD inside. Ty was our support man. He was a
dab hand at fixing problems and making sure no one got lost by
taking up the rear. Ty and LaLa were in radio contact all the
way. The weather was looking dark and threatening as we saddled
up and hit the highway, but fortunately that was the only time
we had bad weather for the whole trip. How lucky were we?
It was pretty intense riding straight out into what appeared to
be busy traffic that’s on the wrong side of the road. And they
drive fast. On the interstates and freeways the speed limit is
75mph and they all drive at that and more.
We were told there is a minimum speed limit too. It keeps the
freeways moving. So it’s best to just keep up otherwise one
might get flattened. It was a real worry when the pack got split
up by merging traffic and you had to make a decision to pass or
stay put until the vehicles in front moved off. We usually tried
to pass and catch up, often reaching speeds of 90mph and more.
It was white knuckles for most of the first day. Our first stop
was in Dwight, Illinois. This was the site of the last gas
station to close on Route 66. The local historical society
manned it for the tourists. They would sit out front in deck
chairs waiting for customers. None of them were younger than 80.
We travelled 324kms on to Springfield, birthplace
of Abraham Lincoln, stopping at the Route 66 museum in Joliet,
Illinois, lots of memorabilia. There was a brief stop to see
Gemini Giant standing guard at the Launch Pad, a diner in the
town of Wilmington.
Lots of the diners and stations used to stay open day and night
servicing travellers heading west. The Polka Dot diner was our
first lunch stop. It is set in the 60s and had statues of Elvis,
Marilyn Monroe, Blues Brothers, James Dean and many others. On
the walls were lots of old pictures and in the gents loos there
were Marilyn pictures looking at you every which way (took a
while for the young fellas to vacate.) Trudy said Elvis was
everywhere in the ladies! Great food and plenty of it made us
decide to share our meals from here on.
Next it was onto Pontiac, where we witnessed a homecoming
parade. Lots of mobile floats decorated up. It was a special
occasion to see this. Kids from all the schools march to support
their school football team that is playing at home that weekend.
It was here at another great museum of Route 66 that the T-shirt
collection started.
When it was time to get fuel, we all lined up either side of a
bowser. One after the other Ty and LaLa filled our tanks. Quite
a procedure that we got down pat by the end of the ride.
Trudy saw a lot more of the countryside than me the first few
days. It was eyes front and on the mirrors. She gave me a
commentary through the headset advising of the rich looking
soils and condition of various crops. There was evidence of a
dry season.
Late in the afternoon when we pulled up at our 4 star hotel, the Hilton. The bikes were all lined up and secured before we grabbed our bags out of the van. The esky came next and it was cheers all round before we set off in search of our rooms. As most of us were tired we dined in-house and hit the sack early.
DAY 2: Sydney won the grand final (that’s about the only news we got from home) Big deal! Off to St Louis today following the Brazilians (we alternate and stagger our departure time so as not to clog up diners and attractions) so at 8:30 it was stands up for us.
First stop was at a dinner “Cosy Dogs” famous for the corn dog, which is a sausage, dipped in corn batter then deep fried. Pretty tasty but not sure how healthy.
We
headed off to check out an old section of the 66 road which is
made out of bricks. There is only about 1 mile still usable but
as you can imagine it wouldn’t stand up to heavy transport like
today but was an improvement from just dirt back in the early
days.
Next stop was to visit Henry the rabbit man. Well he certainly
was mad about rabbits in a different way to me. There was a huge
statue of a rabbit out front plus lots of live ones (big pets of
course) - even had a cemetery. Best place for them I reckon! He
also had a few mini type cars half buried in a line. Art! Not
sure. Sometimes I just don’t get it!
We drove off through cornfields and I felt at home. There were
the odd farms growing pumpkins and no doubt they would have been
doing OK with Halloween due. Quite a few houses had decorations
on a big scale.
We stopped at a small town square “Carlinville”. The locals
were very friendly at the commerce centre and offered us morning
tea with homemade cakes. There was scandal in Carlinville about
1857. It seems the mayor took liberties with the town’s money
and built himself a bordello with a few bricks he syphoned off
the new court house that was being built. The $50,000 budget
blew out to about one and a half million.
After a fuel stop we crossed the Mississippi into Missouri, big
and wide as you can imagine. After being granted special
permission we rode over one of the original bridges on 66,
stopping in the middle to absorb the scenery, then it was on to
St Louis.
It was a free afternoon so after checking in to the Hilton,
Trudy and I walked down to the famous arch (like a giant horse
shoe). We thought to take the lift to the top but the queue was
a mile long. You need to book in advance for this, so we
explored the museum beneath which depicted the history of the
area.
After spending an hour or so here we took a walk along the
Mississippi back to town. There were brides everywhere and a
Cinderella carriage that you could take rides on. We ended up
downtown where the jazz musicians gather - but not until late at
night. So we dined with some of our crew and watched the
squirrels under the tables.
Lots of people were eating out wearing footy colours as there
was a big game in town that night. It ended up being quite late
when we retired for the night. Arriving at the hotel we took the
lift to the fifth floor and went to our room. The key card would
not work. It must have been faulty. Just in case we had the
wrong room, we tried every door on the floor before finally
going to the lobby only to find out we had the wrong floor.
DAY 3: Big day today have to cover some 460km to Joplin so
early away. We were the lead group today and headed off at 8am.
LaLa had the music blasting from her bike and we were dancing in
the street as we got ready to move off.
Fanning was our 1st stop to see the giant rocking
chair which doesn’t rock! It is alongside a store which has an
archery shooting range inside out back. The targets were deer
and bears etc - stuffed of course, as well as the usual round
targets. You could choose from all sorts of bows and crossbows.
On the bikes again we rode through some scenic country to the
Ozark's and Devil’s elbow. This is where the film Deliverance
was made. When someone said they could swear they heard a banjo
playing we mounted up and moved back onto the freeway to
Sweetwater BBQ. Here we had the best BBQ ribs in the country,
their claim to fame! We shared one huge serve between us. Four
giant ribs with sides for $11. Great tucker and plenty of it.
Next stop down the road was the Candy factory for dessert. This
was alongside the largest gift shop in the world. It was big. As
we were there before the Brazilians we got to choose. When we go
second there would be very little left in the shops. They were
continuously buying souvenirs and clothes and gifts and whatever
they could get their hands on. I would hate to have to carry
their bags. Thank heavens we had the support vehicles.
Sinclair was next stop. Gary and his wife own this restored
garage and museum. They must be close to 90 or better and they
love visitors. We all got a bottle of route 66 soda which we
could keep. Just had to buy something so purchased a Gary
bandana. It was here that we met the first character from the
Cars movie.
The old police car had prime position in the yard.
Joplin was to be our stop for the night. The roads were pretty
rough and varied as we were on quite a bit of the old road.