roadmaven

As Denny mentioned the Sit-n-Bull at Clark's Hill would be a good place to stop. I ate there several years ago and don't recall it being a bad experience, so it must've been OK. Since 52 was my route of choice from Indianapolis to Romeoville, IL when I was courtin' Mrs. B. when she lived up there, I know the route fairly well. However, I would leave 52 in Kankakee and take IL-102 from there to Wilmington, IL where I'd pick up IL-53/Route 66 and take it up to Joliet where I'd rejoin 52. A stop at the Launching Pad for a cheeseburger & vanilla shake for the ride up to Jennifer's apartment was the usual routine. Ironically, I'd make the same stop and get the same grub for the drive back to Indy. This stretch of 66 between Wilmington and Joliet is one of my favorite. It's a 4 lane, but it was nice and quiet, especially Sunday evenings around 6pm when I'd start my 4 hour journey back to Indy. Long story short, the Launching Pad would be my suggestion for lunch, although you'd have to leave 52 for a spell. Occasionally I'd take 52 from Joliet to Kankakee. I believe the round barn Denny mentions is in Manhattan, IL. The Route 66 Diner in West Lafayette was pretty good the one time we ate there. We're pretty sure it's still in business and is owned by the same folks that own the XXX Family Restaurant in Lafayette: Route 66 Diner We've been meaning to stop there again to see how things are going. Unfortunately it's not a roadside relic, as it operates in a non-descript strip mall. If it's not too late in the day, pick up old US-52 at Lebanon instead of using the current I-65 piggyback. It was severed twice by 65 in Lebanon, but at Exit 138 in Lebanon, 52 is the frontage road on the west side of 65, and it later becomes Indianapolis Road and eventually becomes Lafayette Road on the outskirts of Indy. Just curious, is there much of 52 left between The Cities and Sauk Centre, MN? I've followed what appears to be an alignment that roughly parallels I-94 from Fergus Falls, but after Sauk Centre, it appears to disapper underneath 94, unless I'm looking at the wrong road. Sounds like a great trip regardless! We've always said we're going to pick a US route from Indy and make a vacation out of it.

OK Dave, is our homework assignment to come up with a route for the trail consisting of current roads? So far I've got my route from Key West up to Kansas City. It's amazing what a US map and a ruler will do for planning a route!

Hey all....Just wanted to give an update on things. Due to some unanticipated medical bills and my company's HIGH deductible health insurance, we're going to have to back out of the cruise for the immediate future. Unfortunately we have to cut back on leisure to pay for medical. Everything's fine, but testing costs out the you-know-what, and that coupled with the high deductible means no fun for us! Probably scaling back our 66 trip to Litchfield in June as well to just one day. If you all still want to cruise, by all means do so! There are still plenty of you able to go the weekend of May 17th, so I highly encourage you to hit the road that weekend.

.....and a graduate of North Central High School just to the west of "his bridge".

Good news....it looks like it's about to be renovated: David Wolf Bridge (I never knew it had a name!)

I'm not aware of any "ticket cams" around here, other than those police cams that are popping up in high crime areas. To my knowledge they don't pay attention to traffic on those, unless there's an accident. Speedway's due to get 20 of those things in the near future. But as you know Jim, Central Indiana is becoming a haven for the evil traffic circle, so a ticket cam would seem to be a waste of $$$. There are a couple of circles over in the Avon area. I don't know if I mentioned this to you, but part of Speedway's redevelopment will involve TWO traffic circles in the soon-to-be realigned 16th Street. This is what the intersection of 16th/Crawfordsville/Georgetown Roads will look like (Dixie Hwy alignment, for those of you playing the home game): Knowing how busy this intersection is in the morning and evening, I cringe at the thought of going through this thing when it's done in a couple of years.

We've not yet experienced the camping life, but that's about to change. Jennifer got a two-person tent last year for being at her job 5 years. She picked the tent over the clock, so it's kind of forced to do it! We're rookies still, but we're going to try to get out a weekend or two this year to see if it's our cup-o-tea. I think most state parks in Indiana are around $8/night, so there won't be a great financial loss if all doesn't go well! Any good places in these parts?

It's looking as of now May 17th is the day!

Thanks Chris! Here's the link to our Madonna 2 Madonna Meet-O-Matic: Spring Cruise EVERYONE please enter your choices there. Thanks!

I sent Bucfan an e-mail regarding the Woodridge. I hope I'm not shifting the tide too bad, but I'm wondering if we might do better to swap our starting points. Reason being, one of the stops I wanted to make was at the Clabber Girl Museum and Bake Shop in Terre Haute, but alas, they close at 3pm on Saturdays and are CLOSED on Sunday. I'm sure we'd be there in good time on Saturday, as we could start the journey earlier on Saturday morning from Vandalia. Perhaps an overnight in Indianapolis? I'm pretty sure I know of a place in Indy where I could get a bed for the night.

So we can get a better idea of the weekends that do and don't work for everyone for the Madonna 2 Madonna National Road Cruise, please use the format below in your reply if you would want to join the cruise. Just copy the dates below and change your answers to "good" for a weekend you can do it, or "bad" for a weekend that conflicts with your schedule. The cruise will convene at the Old National Road Welcome Center in Richmond, IN at 10am ET on whichever Saturday we go with. I'll be looking at motels in the Terre Haute area for the Saturday night stop, as well as a Saturday lunch stop. Too bad The Diner in Plainfield had to close! Weekend of: March 29: Good April 5: Good April 12: Good April 19: Bad, but could change April 26: Good May 3: Bad May 10: Good May 17: Bad, but could change In the next week or so I'll be making a run of the route to find some places to stop, sleep, and eat. Denny gave me a suggestion over the weekend for a Friday night motel at The Golden Inn just east of Richmond in New Paris, OH. Their rates through March show rooms starting at $45. And since they get the Denny Gibson "Golden" Seal of Approval, that's good enough for me!

Great trip....well, at least what we saw of it! The weather was a little icy & dicey on the drive over, which was the main reason we didn't make it Saturday morning. We ran into rain in Springfield, and the temps dropped all the way to Hannibal, with temps hovering between 32 & 33 (yikes!). Thanks to a somewhat promising forecast, we took off at 2pm in time to meet everyone for grub at Bubba's (mac & cheese wedges are a pure slice of fried goodness!). Hats off to forum members Kip & Bliss for putting together a swell cruise. Very cool to see where Bliss & Mary Sue grew up as well. We heard Saturday night of the half dozen bald eagles that were seen along the river Saturday afternoon, and we were rewarded Sunday as well with the view of one that was hanging out in a field along the road. My first up close view of one, and it was a spectacular sight. Can't wait for our next cruise!

Unfortunately that's a bad weekend for us, as we've got tickets to see Jeff Dunham in Waukegan, IL on the 3rd. BUT, if that weekend's good for everyone else, don't change it on our account. There are enough "Road Scholars" to make it a successful weekend.

Per request, a few of us discussed at various times last year doing a Spring National Road cruise. In an effort to give it a catchy name, I've come up with "Madonna 2 Madonna". Well, OK, it lacks the "WOW" factor, but I never had any marketing classes, so you'll have to forgive me. My thoughts the last couple of weeks are as follow. The cruise would encompass the National Road between two of the "Madonna of the Trail" monuments. Starting at the Old National Road Welcome Center Saturday morning after a hearty breakfast at a local establishment. Then we cruise west to Glen Miller Park to pay homage to the Madonna of the Trail monument. From there, we continue the journey along the National Road, making various stops along the way, with the typical lunch "somewhere". I kind of thought of making Terre Haute the overnight stop. Then on Sunday, get some grub, continue into Illinois, and end the journey with an afternoon lunch in Vandalia and visit the Madonna of the Trail monument there. That's about all I came up with. The total distance is around 240 miles. However, I'm going to be upfront with everyone when I say my knowledge of some of the alignments of the National Road is quite inferior to others who might be willing to come along on that weekend. SO, if there are others who'd want to go and know the route better than I, your knowledge might have to lead the caravan. The last thing I'd want is to pass up some cool sections that I don't know about....which I know is the case, especially in Illinois. So there it is.....Discuss!

Chris, GREAT report! I had to laugh to myself when I saw your note this afternoon, as Madison Avenue was my "snow route" today. I typically take the interstate from Speedway to get to my job across from St. Francis South. But with the ice we had today, I took the city route and picked up Pennsylvania downtown and took Madison to Stop 11 Rd. Madison is one of our favorite day trips. Next time you're there, stop by the Madison Fudge Factory on the west side of downtown on SR-56. If you can get a copy, the 1958 movie "Some Came Running" was filmed in Madison, starring Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Shirley MacLaine. Most of the buildings used in the filming are still there. I was totally unaware of this road ever existed. We typically take both routes coming & going on our Madison trips....Michigan Road/421 one way & SR-7/US 31 the other way. Cool to hear the latter is of an historic nature. Great research!

Keepers, that would be a '62. I really dig the luggage on top! The train shot was a nice added bonus. Wow, I almost forgot what a caboose looked like!

VERY interested!

It turns out the event here WAS an F-0 tornado. Here are some photos from our fine town courtesy of the Speedway Navigator. Most of these are about a mile to the northwest of us: This ain't Kansas, Dororthy....

Just checking in with everyone here in the midwest to see if everyone made it through this storm OK. Temps have dropped nearly 40 degrees over the last 4 hours, with a possible tornado landing a little over a mile west of us. It was 54 shortly after 7pm, and now at 11:30pm, it's 15 with a -2 wind chill. Hope this isn't a sign of the coming Spring!

From today's Indianapolis Star Finally, after a few years on the road for others to see, the original manuscript of Jack Kerouac's most famous work is slated to be at the Indianapolis Museum of Art from July 29 to Sept. 21. Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay purchased the "On the Road" manuscript at auction in New York City in 2001 for $2.4 million. Kerouac typed the novel on sheets of paper that he taped together, resulting in a 120-foot scroll. Full story can be read here: http://shortenurl.com/1sluo Directions to the IMA can be found here: http://shortenurl.com/2uwjb If you're in the area, by all means check this out. I had the opportunity to view it a few years ago when it was on display at Indiana University in Bloomington, IN. However, I don't recall the photo exhibit along with the upcoming tour, so I'll have a reason to check it out again.

Since it's 12 degrees with a -4 wind chill this afternoon, my mind has taken me to the warmer months ahead. I've got many a place planned and dreamed for this year. I'm really hoping I can make Bliss' Sweetheart Cruise in February, traversing north of St. Louis in Mizzou and Illinois. As always, weather will dictate a weekend jaunt like that, as it's fairly easy on the pocketbook. There have been rumors of an American Road National Road cruise sometime in April between Indy and St. Louis. Nothing's been mentioned of late, but it's early yet. I'm not the most proficient when it comes to my National Road alignments in Illinois, so if someone would like to carry the torch on a weekend cruise...you'll have my full support! I'll probably take a Saturday some weekend this year and traverse our friend, the Ben Hur Route. I may be the only one who does it this year, but I'll just do my part to keep that old route alive...at least for a day. I'm really looking forward to June and the national Route 66 festival in Litchfield, IL. This event draws thousands and aside from the car show I'll hopefully have the Corvair in there, I'm really looking forward to seeing all the Route 66 friends all across the U.S. that I've met over the past 10+ years who'll be there. I'll tell you folks, and some of you know what I mean who've been at an event with like-minded roadies, there's nothing better than the camaraderie sitting around a fire or poolside at a motel swapping road stories. After June, my schedule's somewhat sparse. If funds allow, I'm really going to make an effort to make it to Minnesota in September or October. Our vacations as a kid were loading all eight of us in the '68 Bel Air wagon with dad's hand made wooden luggage carrier bolted on top, which stretched the entire length of it and was adorned with stickers from roadside attractions we visited. I wish he still had that thing. The Bel Air was a white version of this: We rented a cabin on a little lake right next to US 71 in Park Rapids. I'd lay awake at night listening to the occasional car or truck drive by and listen to the rhythm of their tires hitting each seam in the concrete. Ahhh..... Those are my dreams for this year. Of course, probably the best ones will be those I don't even have on my radar that'll pop up out of nowhere.

Now that you've let everyone about your rallies, I just want to let you and everyone else know how cool they are! Jennifer & I ran the "Hills & Howls" rally in 2005: http://www.scenicroadrallies.com/photos.asp?category=19 That's our silver Corolla there on the end in the photos at the staging area. Cold and rainy that day, but we still had a blast. We're still checking out our schedule this year to see when we can fit one or two in. For the rest of you all, if you're in the midwest I HIGHLY encourage you to visit Sal's http://scenicroadrallies.com site and try one. They are fun, educational, challenging (still haven't found a 1972 dime yet!) and this gent knows his backroads!

Welcome back! I was thinking just last week where you drifted off to. It was on my list of stuff to do to drop you an e-mail to see how things are going. We've even hooked another well-traveled Hoosier to the forum in the form of Chris Rowland, who has many a tale to tell. If we don't hear from you for another two months, we'll just assume you're still catching up on two months worth of posts!

We took advantage of a rare, somewhat mild midwest January day and made a loop trip over into Illinois. The goal was geocaches and corndogs. We started out on the Dixie Highway out of Speedway and headed west into Illinois. With time slipping quickly by, we jumped on the "Evil I" and made our way to Springfield for a late lunch at the Cozy Drive In for my yearly innoculation of hotdog and batter on a stick.....the original corndog mastered by Ed Waldmire decades ago. From there, we headed south on Route 66, picked up a geocache near Lake Springfield, then enjoyed 66 the rest of the way. At 6pm, we lost our daylight in Mt. Olive and ventured back east to home. A few photos can be seen in the gallery here. The actual sequence of the day starts with the last photo. One of these days I'll remember to start uploading photos in reverse to get the right sequence!