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Day 1: March 28, 2009 - White Lake, MI to Chicago, IL
So after a bonfire that lasted until 4am the night before (thanks Rod, Tim and Mellissa!), I was up by 9am to finish packing and hit the highway. While letting the Vista warm up and sharing one last beer with Tim and Rod, we noticed a puddle of green forming under the bumper. Yeah, three weeks of breakdowns and perpetual maintenance, and on departure day it’s still leaking bodily fluids. A loose hose clamp was fixed and I was my way. 150 miles later (and some 8800 miles to go) I pulled out of a rest area only to discover that I lost second gear in my transmission. Fortunately the 350 Rocket has enough snot in her to overcome this failure, but it does make me question the integrity of the two gears that remain. Only time will tell. Then in Indiana, rolling down a six-lane stretch of I-94 divided by a 3’ median, a good-sized doe hurdled the concrete barrier and was headed right into my driver’s door. I hit the gas and drifted a lane to the right, opening a small gap between me and a work van behind me. Somehow, at 65mph and with no more than 50’ between the two vehicles, that lucky doe arrived on the shoulder unscathed; and so did the Vista!
At 7pm I arrived in Chicago and was welcomed by Doug and Luke. We had a quick dinner and then went bowling with friends (this bowling alley took your picture as you set up your lane, and each time it was your turn to bowl, it flashed your goofy mugshot up on the screen – how fun is that?!?). After that went out for a few drinks at a bar called “Moonshine”. I would expect hillbillies on wooden stools passing around a ceramic jug – but apparently in Chicago that means that $10 for three drinks is a really good deal and as the crowd thins out the booty music gets turned WAY up. Oh well, even though my head is STILL pounding (from the music, not the booze) it was a good time. On our way there we drove past this really trendy-looking bar called “Cans” – turns out, this bar found its claim to fame by serving beer in a can. (dramatic pause…) WHAT?!?! Where I’m from, those classy little gems are better known as The Elks Club. Hell even the VFW serves bottles.
Day 1 was finished off with a late nite jam session on Guitar Hero… Day 2, after waking up to 3” of snow on the ground, was spent running some errands around the city (the Vista got a Kenwood CD/MP3 player and a hand-me-down iPod, and my laptop got a bonus upgrade in the form of a Sprint Wireless card for “extensive testing along Route66”) and taking care of a little last minute trip planning. i.e. I opened a map for the first time and figured out where Route66 began, and how to follow it out of the city and into central Illinois. And after a few hours’ sleep, I was ready to start down the Mother Road.
Day 3: March 30, 2009 - Chicago to Mackinaw, IL
I dropped Doug off at work around 8am and headed down Jackson to Lakeshore Drive. Where five lanes of Lakeshore meets four lanes of Jackson, it’s hard to picture this being the origin of a two-lane blacktop road that had so much to do with the westward migrations of this country. But as I worked my way through the streets of Chicago, the vibrations of this great Road slowly became noticeable. A turnoff onto Joliet revealed a curving four-lane lined with trees, the traffic all but disappeared, and the pressure of “keeping up with traffic” slipped away as my speed slowed to a leisurely 40mph. I decided right there I will not hit 60mph for the duration… even in Los Angeles, I will be that right-lane grandpa pissing everyone else off. I like this pace.
I was driving down Ogden when a large black man in a Tahoe pulled alongside of me and honked… I looked up and he yells over (at 45mph it took some volume to be heard) “I LOVE that car, brother – what is it?!” We proceeded to talk over the next three or four blocks about the car and about my trip, we introduced ourselves and discussed backgrounds, until he looked up and said “I gotta turn off at this next light… but Dan, it was great meeting you, and have a safe trip!” So ended the 45mph meet-and-greet with Kevin.
The pictures say more about this trip than the words will, so I’ll just post a few here and let them tell the tale of the 160 miles between Chicago and Bloomington.
1. Leaving Chicago’s Snow Behind… 2. Breakfast at Snuffy’s 3. The Blues Brothers in Joliet
4. The Gemini Giant 5. An Era Gone By … Route 66 in all her glory!
6. Dan, Jeff and Britta Jost and Me, Mackinaw, IL
But the part of the story that can’t be illustrated (well, except for that picture right there ^ LOL) is meeting up with Jeff and Britta Jost, friends of mine from the golden days of Michigan Tech whom I haven’t seen for five years. When Jeff learned three months ago (thanks to Facebook) that I was heading down 66, he told me they were living 20min off the Route in Mackinaw. Two days ago I finally responded, that I was leaving Chicago and did he want to grab a beer Monday night? So with all of 18 hours advance notice, Jeff met me after work at Dunkers, a nice little dive off Route 9, which ironically has Shiner Mondays, where my favorite beer Shiner Bock is $2.00 all day. I got there early, and was apprehensive before walking in – small-town America is historically not very receptive to things like dreadlocks and hippie-wagons – but two minutes after my entrance … two SILENT minutes for the whole bar as I settled in and got a beer… this guy walks in behind me with a handlebar Fu-Manchu and says “That your wagon out there? Man last time I was in one of those I was so high on mushrooms I didn’t know if we were moving or not – until my buddy hit the brakes and my head hit the dashboard”. By the time Jeff got there two beers later, we were ALL friends in that place. So we had dinner and one or two beers (wink, wink) and headed back to check out his projects – an LS-powered ’71 Chevy on airbags and a 454-powered deathtrap on water ;-). His brother Dan was hard at work (should I feel bad that Dan was working on Jeff’s truck while we stood around and drank beer? No, but maybe Jeff should!) while we visited the night away – pouring over Route66 guidebooks, talking horsepower and reminiscing about Tech. Later Britta came home, not knowing that I was in town - you should have seen her face when she walked into the garage! So the stories and laughter continued on for a few hours, but since they have to work for a living we eventually turned in. I was gifted with another night in a warm bed (I’m getting spoiled, but since I’ll spend the majority of this trip sleeping in the Vista, I’ll take the luxuries as they come), woke up to hot coffee and running water, and we parted ways as I headed back to Bloomington to rejoin Route 66 for another days’ travel. So thanks for your hospitality, Jeff and Britta, I had a blast and hope we can do it again sometime, maybe not five years down the road!