Last But Not Least: Route 66 In Illinois

In my past posts, I shared stories from the journey across California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, a little corner of Kansas, and Missouri. Now, it’s time for the last state we crossed on Route 66. Starting with a pretty metal bridge and ending with Chicago, Illinois was anything but boring.

The Chain of Rocks Bridge

During the heyday of Route 66, before the interstates and even before modern four-lane improvements, Route 66 was a totally different beast. As I saw in Missouri and before, narrow roads would often cross rivers on even narrower steel bridges. This was true even for the biggest river Route 66 ever crossed:

The Chain of Rocks bridge is named for an underwater obstacle steamers would face on their way up the river. Quite literally, there was a row of rocks under the water that could destroy a boat and sink it in minutes. Later, when a bridge was built to carry highway traffic across, it inherited the name that the spot had earned.

Let’s talk about the history briefly. The bridge was originally a privately-owned toll bridge, built in 1929. Not long later, it was turned over to the city of Madison, which kept charging for admittance. Eventually, after a lot of dispute and disgust, the city reluctantly stopped charging tolls and Route 66 was routed across it when it was routed to bypass St. Louis. By 1966, there was far too much traffic for a narrow two-lane road, and Interstate 270 was routed across an adjacent four-lane bridge (also named the Chain of Rocks bridge. It was closed completely in 1970, but not torn down because demolition would’ve been too expensive.

After years of crime and even murders on the bridge and its use for the film Escape From New York (as the “69th Street Bridge”), the state ended up opening it to pedestrian and bike traffic. Since 1998, that’s been its main use, with classic cars only occasionally allowed on for photo ops and car shows. E-bikes are now a popular option.

My First Time At A Love’s RV Stop

In the months leading up to the trip, I heard from various YouTubers that Love’s truck stops had some pretty decent places to stop for the night. The only one I had really seen was near my house, and I’m obviously not going to go camping there. After we finished at the Chain of Rocks bridge, we decided to give the one in Hamel, Illinois a try.

I didn’t get any pictures, but the experience was overall positive. As you’d expect, there’s some road noise and noise of people coming and going from the truck stop, but it had full hook ups. The AC drowned out most of the sounds, and I woke up to a fully-charged Silverado EV. Showers were included in the price of getting a space.

Was it as good as an RV park situated away from the freeway or set in the trees? No. But, for a quick overnight stop, it did the job.

A Classic Route 66 Town

After a short stint on the freeway, we jumped off onto the backroads of Route 66 for a while again. Our next stop was Carlinville, Illinois. There, we found a classic Route 66 town. Old architecture, a brick plaza/roundabout, and a town hall that rivals state and national capitals were all within spittin’ distance of the Mother Road. If you look closely at the video above, you can see where we stopped to check out the plaza.

Route 66 Preserves The Memory Of A Turkey From the 1920s

Normally, you look for attractions next to Route 66. But, this time we found one that was part of the road itself:

On an original concrete patch of Route 66, you can see a problem that the road crew didn’t know how to deal with. Every night, the men would go home to let the cement dry. Every morning, they’d find animal tracks. Try as they might to keep animals out, turkeys were basically impossible to stop. Even a fence can’t stop an animal that can take short flights! Today, these turkey tracks are commemorated by a sign and a little turkey art installation.

Follow The Red Brick Road

The last special thing we saw in Illinois before nightfall was a section of Route 66 made of bricks. I’d love to be able to say that this brick road was an original section of the highway, but it’s actually something locals did after traffic left the route. It was a cool experience, even if it vibrated my truck and camper up a little bit.

Charging at Wally’s With A Fellow GM BT1 Owner

Our next cool stop was at Wally’s in Pontiac. As of the trip, there were two Wally’s locations, this one and another that we stopped at near St. Louis. Both locations have an iONNA station with a mix of CCS and Tesla/NACS plugs. In both cases, we had to use the NACS adapter to charge where the truck and trailer would fit without blocking business access.

At this stop, we met a guy who had just picked up a Cadillac SUV. He had no idea that EVs could tow, especially over long distances. We talked about our journey from New Mexico to California and up 66 to Illinois, and then I pointed out that his SUV has the same parts and underpinnings as the truck. He had been considering getting a camper and a boat, and thought he’d have to use his gas truck to do it, but he came away thinking that his Cadillac might be the better to vehicle.

Travel Trailer + Chicago = NOPE

After leaving Pontiac, we couldn’t quite finish Route 66. Why? Because I didn’t think that hauling a trailer around downtown Chicago was a great idea. So, instead of going to Chicago that night, we pushed on to Indiana Dunes National and State Parks. There, we found a nice place to stay the night and (more importantly) a place to leave the trailer for our adventures in Chicago the next day.

Be sure to follow me and subscribe to see the next article, where I talk about the official end of Route 66 and where I think it really starts.