Dream Ride – Let’s Go Trippin’! by Kustom Jeff Dailey

Do you have a trip that you’ve always wanted to take and are always looking for info about? Is there that one road you want to ride from one end to the other? Some people are fortunate enough to be able to arrange things to make these rides happen, and some of us keep on dreaming. If things go right, it happens, but we have to handle the things that we’ve accepted responsibility for first. Until then we keep on dreaming and planning, and the dream I keep having is to ride Route 66 from Chicago to California.

I’ve been collecting books and reading about “the Mother Road” for years, but so far raising kids and looking out for my family has ensured that the ride hasn’t happened yet.  But it will! I’ve managed to check out the starting point of Route 66 in Chicago (all 3 starting points actually), and I got to eat breakfast at Lou Mitchell’s in Chicago http://www.loumitchellsrestaurant.com/  so I’ve at least accomplished a fraction of my goal.

Why do we have crazy dreams like this?  We watched too many episodes of “Then Came Bronson” I guess? Or maybe it’s seeing the pictures of the way it used to be and wanting to get back to that more basic part of what helped build America? It could be the fact that the interstates are so sterile and boring and we long for the crazy roadside attractions that folks used to get to enjoy when they were crossing this great nation. And just maybe it’s because we dig old stuff, and what better setting for old stuff than old Route 66?

I have a book called “Route66 – Lost and Found”.  It’s full of pictures from back in the day as well as new pictures of the same places as they look now. I want to see these places with my own eyes. I want to find an old diner and have some old fashioned truck stop food, or stop at an old gas station and have a philosophical talk with Arlo Guthrie like John Doe’s character in “Roadside Prophets. Some of my friends have ridden parts of Rote 66, and they all get a look in their eye when they talk about it. I want that experience for myself.

I know some of y’all have similar roads and places that you feel this way about. Leave a comment and tell us about your dream ride.  Dream rides are why we tolerate the crazy days of dealing with local idiots on the ride to work. We know one day we’ll be out there where we belong taking our dream ride!

P.S.  Originally Route 66 started at the corner of Michigan and Jackson in Chicago. The current sign marking the beginning of the road is at the corner of Adams and Michigan, and is actually the final starting place of the mother road.

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