Route 66 was born on November 11, 1926, so it turns 100 this month. Here is its first chapter, stop by stop.
How far is Chicago to Bloomington on Route 66?
It depends on which Route 66 you mean, because the road was moved many times. This measurement follows the original 1926 to 1940 alignment out of Chicago: Adams Street, Ogden Avenue, Joliet Road and Illinois 53 through downtown Joliet. From there it follows the road signed today as Historic Route 66 to Bloomington. Distances were measured along OpenStreetMap's "Historic US 66 (IL) westbound" route and rounded to the nearest half kilometre.
| Pace | Chicago to Bloomington |
|---|---|
| Distance | 214.5 km (133 miles) |
| Steps, at a 75 cm stride | about 286,000 |
| At 5 km a day (about 7,000 steps) | about 43 days |
| At 7.5 km a day (about 10,000 steps) | about 29 days |
| At 25 km a day | about 9 days |
What are the stops between Chicago and Bloomington?
These are the 25 stops in the first chapter of Caravan, with the distance from the Begin sign. Bold stops are the big ones, where the app unlocks a treasure.
| Mile | Km | Stop |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | Begin Historic Route 66 sign, Adams St, Chicago |
| 0.9 | 1.5 | Lou Mitchell's, Jackson Blvd, Chicago |
| 5.6 | 9 | The castle on Ogden Avenue (a former filling station) |
| 8.7 | 14 | Henry's Drive-In, Cicero |
| 14.3 | 23 | The closed "lost mile" of Joliet Road, McCook |
| 20.2 | 32.5 | Dell Rhea's Chicken Basket, Willowbrook |
| 28.3 | 45.5 | White Fence Farm, Romeoville |
| 33.6 | 54 | Lewis University, Romeoville |
| 39.1 | 63 | Downtown Joliet and the Rialto Square Theatre |
| 48.5 | 78 | Elwood and the former Joliet Army Ammunition Plant |
| 52.8 | 85 | Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie |
| 55.9 | 90 | The Gemini Giant, Wilmington |
| 60.3 | 97 | Polk-a-Dot Drive In, Braidwood |
| 63.1 | 101.5 | Godley and the Route 66 Mining Museum |
| 67.4 | 108.5 | Gardner's two-cell jail and streetcar diner |
| 78.0 | 125.5 | Ambler's gas station, Dwight |
| 86.1 | 138.5 | The Standard Oil station, Odell |
| 91.0 | 146.5 | The Meramec Caverns barn, Cayuga |
| 96.3 | 155 | Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum, Pontiac |
| 102.2 | 164.5 | The Cayuga to Chenoa road segment, near Ocoya |
| 105.9 | 170.5 | Chenoa |
| 114.3 | 184 | Memory Lane, Lexington |
| 122.7 | 197.5 | Towanda parkway and Dead Man's Curve |
| 128.6 | 207 | Sprague's Super Service, Normal |
| 133.3 | 214.5 | Downtown Bloomington, the old McLean County Courthouse |
Why does Route 66 start on Adams Street?
US 66 originally began at Jackson Boulevard and Michigan Avenue. The westbound Begin sign stands on Adams Street only because Jackson became one-way eastbound in 1955. Across Michigan Avenue, two bronze lions by Edward Kemeys have guarded the Art Institute since 1894.
A block and a half away, Lou Mitchell's has served breakfast since 1923, three years before Route 66 existed. By old tradition, staff hand out donut holes while you wait.
What is the "lost mile" of Route 66?
At McCook, Route 66 once ran as Joliet Road between deep quarries. In May 1998 about a mile of it was closed because the roadbed had become unstable, and it has stayed gated ever since. Travellers detour around it: a stretch of the Mother Road nobody can drive. In 2010 the state transportation department and the quarry owner settled over the closed road for $40 million, with no admission of liability.
What is there to see around Joliet and Wilmington?
- Joliet, mile 39. The Rialto Square Theatre opened here on May 24, 1926, the same year as the highway. It's a Rapp & Rapp movie palace nicknamed the "Jewel of Joliet".
- Midewin, mile 53. In 1996 Congress set aside about 19,000 acres of the old ammunition plant as the nation's first national tallgrass prairie. In October 2015, 27 bison arrived: 4 bulls and 23 cows.
- Wilmington, mile 56. The Gemini Giant is a fiberglass spaceman nearly 30 feet tall, named for NASA's Gemini program. He stood at the Launching Pad drive-in from 1965. After it closed, he sold at auction in March 2024 for $275,000, and since late 2024 he has guarded South Island Park.
What are the old gas stations on Route 66 in Illinois?
Three of the best are in this chapter:
- Dwight, mile 78. Built in 1933, Ambler's sold fuel until 1999, 66 years on Route 66. It's one of the oldest continually operated stations on the road, and today it's Dwight's visitor centre.
- Odell, mile 86. A 1932 Standard Oil station built to a 1916 "domestic style" design, like a little house with a canopy. It's now Odell's welcome centre.
- Normal, mile 129. Sprague's Super Service, built in 1931 in Tudor Revival style, held a station, a cafe and a garage, with apartments upstairs. The National Park Service calls it "part manor house and part gas station".
Where can you walk on the original Route 66?
At Memory Lane in Lexington, mile 114, nearly a mile of the original roadbed has been kept for walkers and cyclists since 1990. It has vintage-style billboards and rhyming roadside signs. At Towanda, mile 123, the old southbound lanes of the four-lane highway are now a walking and cycling parkway, planted with trees and accredited as an arboretum.
Can I walk Route 66 virtually?
Yes. In Caravan, the walking your iPhone already records in Apple Health moves a camel down Route 66. When your distance reaches a stop on the list above, you get its postcard, with the history checked against at least two sources. At the big stops you unlock a treasure from the road, such as the US 66 highway shield in Chicago or Bob Waldmire's VW microbus in Pontiac.
Caravan can show miles or kilometres. Chicago to Bloomington is free, and your health data stays on your iPhone. Get Caravan on the App Store.
Prefer another road? See how many steps the Camino de Santiago is and how long it would take to walk the Silk Road.