Cuba by midnight!

That was our mantra for yesterday and we hit the Cuba city limits at 11:59 p.m.

We went out to the Budget location in Oak Park where a very nice young man named Genaro (?) set us up with our Montana minivan. Ann and I drove back into Chicago to pick up Jen and Sherrie, and we set out for downtown, the start of the road.

The official start used to be on Jackson, but since it's a one way heading towards the lake now, you start at Adams and Michigan. We parked in the underground parking [insert the usual tourist griping about Chicago parking prices here] and walked over to the lake to take a few pictures. Then we walked over to Adams and Michigan to get our picture in front of the official "Begin Route 66" sign before heading back to the van to hit the road shortly after noon.



After all we'd been through that morning, we were ready to go! We pulled out of the parking garage, circled around on Randolph (I think) to Lake Shore Drive, with the intention of taking Monroe to Michigan, hanging a left on Michigan and then turning right on Adams. We paused at the stoplight at the entrance to Lake Shore. Sherrie offered up a quick prayer. We zoomed onto Lake Shore, crossing five lanes of traffic to get in the right lane, turned onto Monroe, headed for Michigan.........and discovered you can't turn left onto Michigan. [I know, four women from Iowa who have been to Chicago a gazillion times should know this.] So, we turned right on Michigan, drove to Randolph, back to Lake Shore Drive, zoomed across five lanes of traffic and turned right on Jackson. [At which point Sherrie piped up, "My guidebook says, 'Getting out of Chicago is simple!'"] We turned onto Michigan and popped in the CD with the Brian Setzer version of "Route 66." We turned onto Adams, hit play on the CD I had lovingly burned Friday morning and...and...and..........nothing.

We were off to a great start! I made an attempt to sing the song in my not-great voice. Hey, you make do. [Note to Dave: Maybe our CD burner is broken?]

God bless the EZ66 Guide for Travelers. With that, the individual state maps, an overall map I picked up somewhere along the line in the past few years, the Lonely Planet book and a few others, we made our way along the road with minimal turnarounds.

Our first real stop was the museum in Joliet. It's funny - you walk into that first souvenir store and want to buy everything. I succombed to the Route 66 board game [and had a brief moment of panic in the bathroom a minute later when I realized that I just bought a board game that I now need to get home on a plane from L.A.].

We're preparing to hit the road for the day, so I'll have to post more details and pictures tonight. Suffice it to say, we are having a wonderful time and have enjoyed the personalities we've met along the road so far. I'll try to type up yesterday's recap in the van today [I'm taking the day off from driving] and hopefully we'll find access in Chandler tonight. We have another long day planned today before we cut back and take a more leisurely pace.