ROUTE 66 (DAY 3)

Well, it's Saturday morning and I woke up in an empty house. Rick and Candy left around 6:00am so no fabulous omelets for me this morning.
It felt strange being on my own in somebody else's house. I strolled down the hall in my underwear and made myself a nice cup of coffee to get the juices flowing. By 8:30 am I had shaved, showered, packed up and was rumbling down their driveway. Now that my technical problems were solved and I was going to be camping out for the next couple of weeks it felt more like the first day of my "epic saga".
It was already letting me know that it would be another scorcher. The sun was out but there was a kind of sultry haze that hung above me. As the day unfolded the wind picked up from the south and I actually got the odd sprinkle as waves of clouds would build and then pass. Bikers refer to highway travel as riding the "slab" referring to the slabs of concrete or asphalt. I spent a lot of time on the slab which became somewhat tedious as the geography in Illinois is mainly flat with great expanses of farm land. I had never intended to visit Chicago so I skirted the big city and jumped on Hwy. 55 southbound which skirts the old Route 66. At one point I decided to get off the hwy. and ride the actual Route 66 which was the point of this trip in the first place. Up till this point I had been literally riding along a new hwy. that was right next to the historic version. Unfortunately the old hwy. is not in the best shape so I rapidly grew tired of all the potholes and bumps in the old pavement and got back on hwy. 55.
My destination was Springfield, Illinois so I started doing a search for a nice camp ground. Here is a photo I took near Springfield on the famous route.

I found a perfect camp ground  but they only took cash so I needed to find an ATM and do some grocery shopping before I checked in. I found a handy Shop-n-Save store and was able to not only buy my groceries and get some cash but they also sell liquor. Truly one stop shopping. An hour later my camper was all set up and I was enjoying my first vodka tonic on the road. Here is my camp site.