Our High Level Itinerary

Here's our schedule, our route, and where we will be staying.  If you have the opportunity to meet up with us somewhere along the way... Please Do !

Our First "Wrinkle in the Plan"

Our travelling friends, Debbie and Rod, will become grandparents in June.  The current due date is June 16th, just 2 days before our scheduled departure.  So you can only imagine the conflicts this creates.

Having just experienced the arrival of our own first grandchild in December, Debbie and I know how much they will want to be here to spend time with their daugher and grandson.  But what if he comes early?  What if he's late?  Argh ! ! !  It's been suggested that maybe we postpone our departure by one week.  That would work, but takes away our plan/desire to be in Santa Monica for the 4th of July.  Another suggestion is for Debbie and I to leave as planned, and Rod and Debbie can "catch up with us" a few days later by taking the highways until they reach us.  While they would miss part of the trip, they could probably catch us in one, maybe two days. 

As of now, no changes are being made to the schedule (which I will post soon).  If we stick with the original plan and the new arrival makes it a week or so early, that's the best of all worlds.  We shall see, so stay tuned.

Itinerary Inspiration

Our itinerary is inspired by a trip that some fellow Corvette owners did back in 2004. We plan to stay at many of the same hotels, and after our "catch-up" because of not starting in Chicago, we plan to spend the same number of days on our way to Santa Monica.

Please visit Get Your Kicks on Route 66 for the details of their trip (Thanks Buzz, Chaz,Jackie, Gael).

I'm Getting the Urge.....

to do the entire route.  However, as previously posted, due to scarce vacation days, I might do it in two parts.  Our planned journey in June will still start in Litchfield after driving the day before from Dayton.  I am yearning though, to see this sign "up close and personal":

The only way to see it, though, is to start in Chicago.  But no, that's not true.  The wife and I have discussed, and will probably do a weekend trip this spring; Dayton --> Chicago --> Litchfield --> Dayton.  Up to Chicago on a Friday night, Chicago to Litchfield on Route 66 during the day on Saturday, then home on Sunday.  Maybe the purists will think this is cheating, but at least I'll be able to say (after our June trip), that "I drove the entire route!".

And I got to see the sign !

Finally have the route finshed...

I've been working on and off to identify the route we will take and get it into a format that can be input into my TomTom GPS. I've used the Jerry McClanahan and Jim Ross maps Here It Is! The Route 66 Map Series for all the turn by turn instructions. It was tediuous making sure the GPS would take the route I wanted, but I prevailed. Of course, a great program for doing this, Tyre, was a most valuable tool.

We will not be traveling the entire Chicago to Santa Monica route, but will pickup Route 66 in Litchfield, IL. This is in the southern part of Illinois, and just made it easier for us coming from Dayton, OH, and saved me another vacation day (or two). I'll post a graphic of our route some time in the future.

We will leave Dayton on June 18th, and spend the night in Litchfield.  We expect to arrive in Santa Monica on July 3rd; just in time for the 4th of July.  We'll sepnd 3-4 days in the Los Angeles area, then head back to Dayton on the southern interstate routes, with a planned stop at Carlsbad Caverns.