66 Motor Palace

In California they change the plants every week so they're fresh and look the same year round. Here they seem to keep the same ones and we got to see some leaves turning red and gold. Small piles formed and whirled in the draft as Lori rode by. It's only been a week and a half and it feels like another place. We stopped at Shelly's Route 66 Diner after another comfortable stay at the Wagon Wheel. The food is down home and delicious. We saw a couple cute Pit Bulls running around outside and joked about them being "motorcycle eating dogs." Lori immediately made friends but they liked her so much they didn't want her to leave. When she tried to roll they would lunge and bite her front tire. Shelly and a customer came out and held them 'til we could escape. At the next stop sign she still had slobbery chomp marks! We pulled up to the Elbow Inn with a German Tour group on their way to Chicago. One of the Germans was walking my way and yelled "De Kat...

Guess! Another less than fun time in Chicago resulted in a premium experience in Pontiac. This time it was Chicago traffic. We traveled 40 miles in about two hours because of traffic. We don't think it's legal to split lanes in Illinois so we played car. This put a big dent in our 300 mile goal. Anyway Lori wanted to stay in Pontiac IL. since we passed through last week but it's only 200 miles out. We were beat from the heat and traffic and Pontiac was looking like a good place to rest. As we removed our helmets I spotted a sign for Lydia's loft so we asked if they had a room. We about fainted when we saw the place. It was beyond our wildest dreams. Check out the pictures. We want to live in it. Pontiac is a great town with friendly people excited about their part of Route 66. They have lot's of cool museums that are just the right size, well organized, and staffed with enthusiastic and knowledgable people. Thanks Pontiac! I'll have more details whe...

Covered Bridge in Illinois. It was a cool 66 degrees as we left the Wagon Wheel, our clothes still damp from Thursday's storm. The interstate was built beside 66 here and the old road is still maintained. It's used as an access road and connects the main streets of the towns as it may have even before it was designated "Route 66." It's an easy ride and you have the opportunity to reflect. We were rolling along on Sportsters about 50 mph while the cars on the highway were doing 70 when I thought about the guy at the Totem Pole Trading Post in Rolla. He pointed out when they were building Route 66 the Model T was Fords newest car. On some of the narrow 1926-1930 alignments it's easy to imagine chugging along in a column of Model-Ts at 25-30MPH, pulling over to eat a sandwich while the car cools after a long grade...and no other option. Anyway, we had a nice visit at Henry's Rabbit Ranch where we got some good tips on older and abandoned sections. Ro...

Wagon Wheel Cuba, MO. Cuba, Missouri that is. The Wagon Wheel Motel to be exact. We left Carthage after a nice breakfast at the pancake restaurant next to Boots and hit a detour about a mile down Route 66 and missed the old alignment around Kellog Lake. That's life on the road. We stumbled across the town of Spencer which was purchased and restored by the Ryans. The road was nice and we were able to make good time. We lost Route 66 again before Springfield and picked it up again at the city limits. We've since figured out we missed Paris Springs near Spencer. We had a good tail wind but it was bringing thunderstorms with it. While fueling up we were warned by three people a big one was coming and the race was on. We saw the Elbow Inn near the Devils Elbow and met the nice guy who owns the Totem Trading post in Rollo between wrong turns and missed intersections. We wanted to stay on Route 66 and beat the storm. The storm won the race and drowned us the last twenty miles...