Get Your Kicks

Someday I'd like to start in Chicago and follow Route 66 it's entire length.

Route 66 runs through our town, although I have to say there isn't much of interest here. Some towns in Illinois have made the Route 66 connection a tourist attraction. For instance, this cute gas station in Dwight, Illinois has been refurbished to it's 1940's best. Just down the road in Pontiac is the Route 66 museum, which we toured last summer. Lexington, Il has Memory Lane, a one mile stretch of the mother road complete with Burma Shave signs. Tiny Towanda even has a stretch set aside. South of us, in Atlanta, they have one of the muffler men holding a giant hot dog. And so it continues.

I'd like to travel the road, not for the scenery, but because of these attractions. They give us a little glimpse into the not-too-distant past and let us imagine what life was like in what we believe to be simpler times. It's a slice of kitschy Americana at it's best. I find it fascinating.