The starting point in Chicago

Originally route 66 was located on Jackson Street. But now that is a one-way street going east. So the closest physical routing to the old road is on Adams. This photo (at Adams and Michigan) marks the official beginning.


I feel good about that, because my former IIT/Chicago-Kent office was at 565 West Adams. So I was working on a part of Historic 66 nearly every day!!

(That location also is near where US 41 runs through, making its way from Lake Superior--where we were this summer--and down all the way to Miami. And it is close to U.S. 12, which goes northwest past Arlington Heights (Connie's home) and all the way to near Seattle. I made that drive once by myself).

We won't actually start down in the Loop, though, for this trip. The drive through Chicago is one of course we have done many times, and which I consider basically boring. It is necessary to get out of town a distance before there is old pavement that has not been superceded by Interstate 55, which closely parallels old 66 all the way down to St. Louis, and which it was built to "by-pass" it and the many small towns along the way. Often when one is driving on 66 in Illinois you can see the big trucks moving along on I-55, just a few yards to the west.

From St. Louis on I-55 goes south (rather than southwest) through Memphis, Jackson, and New Orleans.