It was up this morning and on the road to start Route 66 for Craig.
Unfortunately, we may have missed the very first section due to navigational errors by me, but we got ourselves to the first town we planned to stop at and Craig was still happy.
Joliet saw us look at the Collins Street Prison - realistically a place that has no particular meaning or significance to Route 66 except that it was used for scenes in The Blues Brothers movie, Prison Break and The Untouchables. We had thought that we would be able to do a tour through the prison prior to getting there but it turns out that's not the case.
We moved further into the township of Joliet and found the Joliet Museum. It had a little information about Route 66 and lots of historical information about surrounding areas which I actually found quite interesting. Funnily enough, they had a Star Wars 'convention' happening so there were a number of people dressed up in Star Wars costumes and they had hidden small figurines throughout the museum which the boys enjoyed hunting for. Back onto the road and the start of rain.
Lots and lots of small stops along the way today to see different Route 66 icons. Major ones we stopped at included the "Gemini Giant", "Polka Dot Drive In" where we stopped and had lunch and 'Dead Man's Curve' at Towanda. One fun stop in particular was at Gardner where we pulled up to see the two cell jail that is on the side of Route 66 and also a small diner cart (no longer in use). Whilst we were out of the car looking at them, an old tractor comes along and seeing us standing there, he pulls up on the edge of the road to let us take photos. Even let Craig and both the boys climb on and have photos on it. Definitely have to say that as soon as you get away from the bigger cities the people are SO friendly and both delighted and amazed to hear that we are "all the way" from Australia.
There are so many little old service stations (no longer running) and other diner type businesses and 'family restaurants' as they advertise them, along the Route 66 roads. It's sad to see how these small towns have just slowly wasted away since the opening of the Interstate and they are, in some cases, only a kilometre or so from the edge of it.
The murals in Pontiac were gorgeous and we took the time to wander through the Route 66 museum - the upstairs was set up with a lot of 1950's memoribilia and the boys were somewhat shocked when I walked through saying, "Gran's got photos of her and her uncle being washed in a big steel basin like that as little kids" and "ohhhhh, I used to play with some of these paper dolls when I was little that were Gran's when she was little!" (haha - sorry Mum, aging you there.)
Craig and Blake loved seeing the photos of what was still to come on Route 66 and we were all impressed with the detail that was in the War Museum, attached to the Route 66 one). Lots of volunteers in there prepared to tell you stories about different items and one young gentleman even went through all of the guns they had on display and let the boys hold them. Blake was kind of chuffed at holding a rocket launcher.
Back into the car and on Route 66 again - Craig happens to spot driving along the Interstate that's beside us, Speedway cars.
Found our hotel in Bloomington for the night and after a quick Google search, discovered that there was a Speedway track about 40 minutes drive back the way we had come that was running that night so back in the car and off to Speedway for the evening.
Craig and the boys were elated. They can now officially say that they've been to a small town dirt track race in America. Unfortunately it was very delayed starting due to heavy rain so we had to leave before it was all done but they were still happy they got to see it.