Finally! Route 66! After our detour back to Indy to repack we caught up with Route 66 in Springfield, Illinois. Just south of Springfield is a small town called Litchfield, Illinois where we met up with Route 66 and followed it down to Mount Olive, a distance of about 10 miles. 

It was a beautiful sunny spring day and we stopped at the beginning of the Route 66 stretch of road in Litchfield for a photo opportunity. Above you can see Sofi with some of the signs for Route 66.

Here you can see me standing on the railing at the end of the old Route 66 road. This section of the road was built back in the 1930’s and has not been driven on in quite a while. There are grasses and wild flowers growing up through the concrete.

After driving down to Mount Olive we sauntered through the old part of town before coming upon this old filling station. It’s an official Route 66 roadside attraction, and despite it’s age is in pretty good shape. The old pumps have small plaques on them indicating that the gasoline was leaded. They’re old.

After hopping back on Interstate 55 and heading towards St Louis we pulled off in Collinsville, Illinois and drove for a bit to find the world’s largest catsup bottle. Why does such a structure exist? According to their website, the catsup bottle is a water tower that stands above the old catsup factory. About 60 years ago the company needed water for plant operations and a newly installed fire protection sprinkler system, so they decided to build their water tower in the shape of their most famous product - the catsup bottle. And now it makes a very interesting roadside attraction.