Well after reading the recent post about people trips, I thought I would finally start on my thread about our recent trip. We arrived a day early as we fancied going into Chicago and seeing what all the fuss was about. Took a couple of pictures and I could imagine Spiderman slinging his webs between the buildings.
Day 1 of the ride. Most of the tours Traci and I do, we do alone as we have been on a lot of organised tours and it gets very clique and we normally end up on own any way. So for a change I thought we would give the Orange & Black tour a go. Not cheap, but I have to say well organised and a great bunch of people on the tour. To the point that a few of us are looking at to doing the Rocky Mountain tour in 2027. Our tour guide Bear and his side kick Brad; who was driving the support van were brilliant. And I told Bear he had the patience of a saint in regards to one of the people on the group who could barley ride a bike. I would highly recommend getting the book EZ66 Guide For Travelers, as it explains about the various roads and places to go on your trip. We stayed at the Aloft hotel that is near the airport so we had about an hours ride to get into Chicago to start the trip. Our destination for the first day was Springfield Illinois. Note every state in the USA has a Springfield and that is why the Simpsons live there. We got our bikes and set off for the Route 66 sign in Chicago. A lot of traffic as expected getting into Chicago and the obligatory picture was taken.
Oooh, this is gonna be good! Thanks for posting a thread about this trip, @Bolosun. I love the overhead photo of the bikes and the group shot in front of the Route 66 sign. I'm looking forward to following your travels! What bike(s) are you on?? Also, thanks for the book recommendation. As close as we live to much of Route 66, there's a lot we've never seen and would like to make a full length trip of it one day.
@Bolosun Fantastic write up and fabulous pictures. Route 66 i think must go through every bikers mind.
Our bike was the Ultra Glide, 3rd from the left at the back in the picture. It had done over 83K miles but never missed a beat on the trip.
Day 2 of the ride. We headed for Rolla Missouri. The mileage was approx. 250 miles and not many photo stops. We did drive past the jail that Joliet in the Blues Brothers was released from at the beginning of the film. We did a brief stop on one of the few remaining Route 66 brick roads. But our main stop was on the original bridge (that is closed to traffic, but our tour guide has "permission" to go on there) that crosses the Meramac river. There was a small derelict part of another bridge next to the visitors centre. We did stop briefly at the Meremac Caverns that Jesse James hid out at, but we were late getting there, so didn't go in.
Day 3 Today we head for Tulsa, Oklahoma, again via another Springfiled. As we did over 320 miles, not a lot of opportunities for picture taking. We are here about to head off And the only picture stop we did - which was closed when we turned up for refurbishment was the Blue Whale in Catoosa.
Loved that whale, @Bolosun! I'm thinking that's worth a road trip from Tucson. So how many riders are in your group? It looks fairly big. Do you travel in smaller groups and meet up or are you all in one big group?
The group was 14 bikes in total including the tour guide, and we all stuck together. If you do have a trip out to the Whale, make sure it is open. Not sure how long the work on the site is on for, and the car park is all gravel.
We set off today heading for Weatherford Oklahoma. Only 200 miles, so not a long day. We first of all called in a local HD dealer for people to get the HD memorabilia etc. I bought some gloves as mine had started to come apart. Next stop was McJerry's gallery, the author of the EzRoute 66 book. Really nice guy and I bought this picture (which he signed for me) as he had run out of the books, so I got mine later at another shop.
After a coffee stop we called in the Seba Station motorcycle museum in Chandler for a look around and more t-shirt buying. Last stop before the hotel for the night was the Cherokee Trading Post in Calumet
Well day 5 and this is were it can go a bit pear shape if you are not prepared for it. Fisrt off, when I was looking at what riding gear to take before we went I checked the weather to see the likely hood of rain and hot conditions for the trip. Do I go in my jeans and take over trousers or wear my gortex trousers that have vents. Checking the route and historical weather I went for the Gortex trousers. Because it can get very hot and it can rain. I did it get hot and did it rain. A few of the group did not take any wet gear, which they came to regret. We headed for Amarillo Texas with about 200 miles. We went to the Oklahoma Route 66 museum in Clinton first. Carried on in the next post.
Our next stop at Harley and Annabelle, 'The Mediocre Music Makers' at the Sandhill Curiosity Shop in Erick Oklahoma. We were treated to a show by Harley who is as mad as a box of frogs.
That guy was on Henry Coles route 66 programme, I think he was anyway. Enjoying this trip. Thanks for taking the time to post this.
