Day 1

9th May 2006

Chicago – Springfield IL

26881 -27105 (224 miles)

Breakfast is at 7.30 and it is the first time that I meet my fellow riders, I sit at a table with the Swedish group and find that they speak very good English, we have a chat over breakfast which is bacon, eggs, sausage coffee and orange juice. After breakfast we are again greeted by Petra and David who then introduce us to Don Tomkins our tour guide and a retired fire fighter, he lives in New Mexico, he gives a briefing on what we can expect during the trip we have eight states and five biological regions to travel through. He stresses that this is going to be an adventure and to be prepared for alterations during the trip. We have over 2500 miles to travel and anything could happen. We can expect to have a break about every one to one and a half hours and gas up on every second stop, gas stops out west get fewer than the first part of the journey. He also says not to expect to follow all the signs for Route 66, as some will lead to dead end and parking lots, we have a support vehicle driven by Gary, who introduces himself, he comes from the state of Colorado. We also have a trainee guide coming along on this trip called Stuart; he is local and lives in Chicago.

Breakfast and briefing over we gather our things and meet outside the hotel ready for transport to Eaglerider to pick up our bikes. We are out on the pavement by 9am ready to go, the first problem arises they taxi’s have failed to turn up. Some frantic phone calls and shortly before 10 we are on our way. The first part of Route 66 is travelled by taxi, and 20 minutes later we arrive at Eaglerider, now we are late we have to wait while others are being given their bikes, eventually it is our turn and we are shown our bikes and run through the controls and check for damage. I have a blue Harley Davidson Electra Glide Classic, two years old with 26881 miles on the clock. A couple of the bikes have battery problems, we use the time to browse the nearby Harley Davidson shop and I find a pair of blue sunglasses with foam rims they seem ideal for the trip, eventually we are off instead of 10.30 it is now 12.20 pm. The sun is out and we are off on our adventure the first part taking us out on Highway 55, which replaced Route 66. We turn off and I say we when it was some of us turned off onto the old route, half our party miss the turn signal for whatever reason and carry on down Highway 55, not a good start to the trip. The support van follows them to ensure that we meet up again, the van and the tour guide are in radio contact but eventually the distance is too great and radio contact is lost. The front part of the group continue down the road and eventually we stop at Wilmington, to wait for the rest of the group and there is a historic landmark there of a giant spaceman outside a diner, a chance for photos.

Our lost party arrive and we are one group again, the weather is changing and there is a chance of showers to come so we get our wet gear out as a precaution and continue on our way. Some of the route has the old route 66 running parallel with the road we are travelling on it does not seem in too bad a state so why they built another road next to it the same size and all beats me. We stop for lunch around 2.30 everything is behind schedule due to the late start, and the servings are enormous. Then it was the first stop for fuel a top up was $5.64.

After that we carried on to our second historic landmark of the route, an old Philips Petrol station, preserved as it was first built in the 20’s. The old fuel pumps still stand outside, unfortunately it was closed, but just as we were about to leave the curator arrived and opened to open it up especially for us. Time unfortunately was against us and we had to push on, it was now 4.20 pm and we had miles to go before our first hotel.

A few more miles and another quick stop to allow a walk, yes walk on the old Route 66 which was realigned in 1952, there is a working non descript petrol station that was around when the road was originally running past. There are some information boards here with the history of the road here and a map painted on the road surface depicting the route from Chicago to Los Angeles. It is now 5pm and we still have over 70 miles to go so it is onto Highway 55 and straight into Springfield arriving two and quarter hours later. First hotel for the trip the aptly named Route 66 checked into the room and time for some diner it has been a long day with all the hold ups. The food is inexpensive and plentiful. Glad I got the sunglasses today they kept the dust out of my eyes and the threat of rain did not materialise. Scenery today has been very flat no crops growing yet and with the overcast sky anything very exciting.

I have settled into the bike well; feels like I was born to ride a Harley, no nerves riding a new bike, it is comfortable after a day of good riding, bring on the road. Food in the hotel was plentiful again and reasonably priced.