Day 1 involved very little of US 6. The drive from Bloomington to Joliet was IN 46 to US 231 to I-74 to US 41 to US 52 to IL 102 to IL 53. Generally...
The fall colors were gorgeous on the drive. The route followed a particularly hilly stretch of landscape that defines the area around the White River and just east of the Wabash River, only settling out in what I call the Great Lakes Plains, where the rolling, sandy remnants of the lakes' reach is used for corn farming and a large wind farm in Northwestern Indiana. I found a new favorite town: Attica, Indiana. I may have been here in the past, but I don't remember for certain. The fall colors may have made it prettier, but it was full of wonderful architecture, including a string of old Italianate commercial buildings in its Downtown area, and large houses throughout all under grand oaks and maples. I'll have to go back at some point.
I visited Kankakee for the first time, snaking through the city on US 52 to wind up at a CD store, Chicago Records, where I rifled through a plastic tub full of $1 CDs of unknown country bands, Jesus Jones, The Cardigans and Primal Scream. I could have gotten four for $1, but I left empty-handed. I honestly don't think I could have found four to buy. But it was in that parking lot that I found out Kankakee (or, more specifically, Bourbonnais) has a brewpub, Brickstone. The beer was actually very decent, was $3 per pint, and there was a half-off special on wings. I miss being in reasonable states.
After that, I chose to drive up the Kankakee River to the small town of Wilmington. Wilmington featured more suburban development than I expected, maybe foremployees from nearby DuPage County, or even Joliet itself, since it's not considered a desirable place to live in general it seems. I took a back road to the interstate, only to be snarled in traffic due to a lane closure. After about a mile of 7mph average speeds, I left the interstate and went to Downtown Joliet. The plan here was to find and photograph the post-1940 US 6/US 66 junction, which is now the US 6/I-55 interchange, as I-55 took over the right-of-way when it was constructed in the late 1960's. I may try again tomorrow since I'm now on the right side of the canal.
The plan was to spend some time at a beer bar in Downtown Joliet, Chicago Street Pub, but a web site (most likely Yelp) lied to me, and they are not actually open on Sundays. So off to the hotel. But it gave me a chance to do a preliminary drive on US 6 as it first crossing then follows the Illinois and Michigan Canal. It was a heavily-industrialized area, with just one small tavern and a couple of neighborhoods just off the highway. The speed limit got up to 55mph while I was still in the city limits. There is very little going on in that area. You can actually see the canal quite well at times, as well as the barges and tugs that line its banks. Eventually I went out to a beer store, finding a 22oz bottle of Lagunitas Imperial Stout for $5. I miss living in a reasonable state.
I realized today that I have no way of downloading pictures from my real camera for these daily blog posts. The camera uses a mini USB plug while I only regularly carry a micro USB, mostly for my phone. I may try and find one at a thrift store tomorrow. I have seen them before, as they're becoming less useful, so it's worth a shot. Maybe in a wealthier Chicago suburb. Or I may try to take cell phone camera photos. The problem with that is that my cigarette lighter has stopped functioning. This may just be a fuse, and I'm going to attempt to take a look tomorrow morning because, today, my fancy new phone shut down finally at the end because the battery level got so low.
Missing the Route 66 junction was a disappointment, but I had also planned to at least take a look at the Joliet Prison park. By the time I reached Joliet, the sun had set and it was fairly dark. The actual prison closed years ago but the city has turned the space into a public park, including interpretive signs ringing the walls. You cannot go inside, but you can at least check it out. So that's also on the growing agenda for tomorrow morning.
On the plus side, I did drive through the pre-1940 US 6/US 66 intersection just south of Downtown Joliet twice today. US 66 took an odd course after 1940, completely avoiding Joliet, and its more rural routing seems less true to the nature of the road, so I would consider its Illinois State Route 53 routing to be a more "genuine" representation, at least in terms of how people imagine the road.
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