Breakfast with Lou...sort of

Hello Everyone!

In my last blog, I shared a Facebook Live link where I started on foot at the very beginning of Route 66. Then I shared some Geocaches I found including another Facebook Live link regarding my first find on Route 66. (If you haven’t seen that blog yet, please check out my last post)

Before I headed out to find those Geocaches, I stopped the Lou Mitchell’s restaurant for some breakfast. I shot that experience with my video camera and posted a YouTube video regarding it. Lou Mitchell’s in on Jackson Street which is one street south of Adams Street in downtown Chicago. Adams is the street you want to start on and which is a one-way heading away from downtown. Jackson is a one-way which heads towards Lake Michigan. The address is 565 Jackson. If you decided to eat there prior to your adventure, use one of you apps on your phone to locate it and it will tell you when to turn.

I thought it was a fun experience and I’d think you’ll like eating there as well. They greet you at the door with a donut hole to eat and they have Milk Duds for you to snack on if you have to wait for a table. It’s not too ‘Route 66ish’ on the inside, but just enough to get you excited for you trip. My YouTube video is down below. Enjoy.

In Illinois, along the Route 66 Byway, there a lot of little stops that you can make that have informational way-stops that inform you about what once was popular back in the day, but is no longer in existence. I found a number of Geocaches at these locations. If you like the history of ‘once-was’ during Route 66’s heyday, try to make those stops even if you are not Geocaching.

A Shout-Out to the geocachers, FlipperFamily, for placing a number of them (found 2 out of 4 of their hides). Below is a list of Geocaches I found along with links to geocaching.com.

GC32JTQ, Route 66 - Cruisin the Strip, by FlipperFamily  https://coord.info/GC32JTQ

GC32JTH, Route 66 - Easting on the Run, by FlipperFamily  https://coord.info/GC32JTH

I should mention how I developed my list of Geocaches for my trip down Route 66. I found a map on the internet (historic66.com) and cross referenced with the map of geocaches on geocaching.com. I have to admit I went hog wild when I made my list. I picked just about every cache that was remotely close the Route 66’s byway. When I was done with the state of Illinois, I had a list of over 420 geocaches. I suddenly felt overwhelmed. There was no way I could possibly find that many and still have time to enjoy all the sites Route 66 has to offer and make it out the state in two weeks. 

I did some serious weeding out. I kept all the caches that mentioned ‘Route 66’, ‘Mother Road’, or ‘Main Street’ in their title or cache description. For the rest of the geocaches, I weeded out any that did not have any favorite points (On geocaching.com, premium members get to award geocaches with a favorite point if they especially like the hide for any reason). Before I eliminated any of those, I did carefully read the description to make sure it wasn’t Route 66 related. Hopefully, I didn’t miss any. So I had 2 types of geocaches on my list: Route-Related  and Not-Route-Related Geocaches (but has favorite point(s)).

My list went down to 222 geocaches in Illinois. That was still a lot of geocaches to go for. On my first couple of days traveling, I developed few rules for myself...

One, If I was having trouble finding a geocache, I didn’t allow myself too much time to find it. Unless it was Route-Related, I’d give myself a little more time. If I couldn’t find it, I’d try my best to log a Did-Not-Find on the cache page.

Another rule I started was, before noon, I’d look for all the geocaches on my list as I drove down Route 66. After 12pm, I started to cherry-pick Not-Route-Related caches and went for all the Route-Related caches. Around 5-6pm I’d start looking for a motel to stay at for the night. Once I found one, I checked in, dropped off my bags, and then I’d open up the map for that town and start looking for popular Geocaches until dark.

It sounds like all I did geocache, but I did find time to eat and see the sites, but I’ll save that for future blogs.

Until next time, feel free to leave a comment below and please subscribe to my blog so you don’t miss future updates.

Also, feel free to friend me on Facebook (and I’ll friend you back). Follow me on Twitter @richhavlik. And finally, please subscribe to my YouTube channel, Rich Havlik.

Thanks for reading. I look forward in updating with my adventure in hopes that you will want to experience Route 66 for yourself.

Starting Route 66 With My Feet

Hello Everyone,

On Saturday, September 10th, 2016 I started my journey on Route 66 not by van, but by on foot.

Below is a link of my Facebook Live account of my start. I wanted to show you where, close up, Route 66 started. I parked about 11-12 blocks away from where Route 66 officially starts. I walked to the beginning and went live on Facebook. One thing that this video shows is that one major factor of the Mother Road is not just the road or the sites, but people. You'll see what I am talking about after you watch this....

https://www.facebook.com/RichHavlik/videos/10207566849471077/

Now, if the link isn't working for you, I'd suggest you friend me on Facebook and I'll friend you back. Perhaps that will help you see what I showed on Facebook when I went live.

After my walk back to my vehicle, I started to drive through the city of Chicago and into the suburbs. There isn't too many Route 66 icons or history. There was one geocache I really wanted to get to start out my geocaching adventures on Route 66 with and that was called, Castle Car Wash on Route 66 (GC1N9Z6).

According to the cache page, "Castle Car Wash was built in 1925 and is the last remaining historic gas station structure on Route 66 (Ogden Avenue) in the city limits. Chicago was the eastern terminus of Route 66. Originally Murphy's Filling Station, the building stopped functioning as a filling station in 1966 and later became a car wash. The Route 66 Corridor Preservation Program of the National Park Service recognizes this building, with its unique castle design, as one-of-a-kind along the roadway and in April of 2005, the building was determined eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places."

There happened to be a church next door on Ogden Avenue and there was a lot of people dressed up and there was a lot of cars parked out in front of the Castle Car Wash and church including a hearse. 

Dang, a funeral was about to happen.  Had to skip this cache.

Six blocks further down was another geocache (RT66:IL - Henry's Drive In; GC12FNB) that I decided to go for. According to the cache page, "In 1953, all they served was hot dogs. They have an expanded menu now--fries served on the bun. Henry’s has been in its current location since the 40's. The original stand was at Austin and Ogden, dating back to the 30's. Henry's isn't in the Route 66 Hall of Fame, but it's an interesting historical stop along The Mother Road."

I Facebook Live'd my find here. Enjoy...

https://www.facebook.com/RichHavlik/videos/10207567372644156/

Again, if you are having a hard time hitting the link above and cannot see my Facebook Live recording, please friend me on Facebook, I'll friend you back, and see if that works

There is a number of other geocaches I got before I totally got out the Chicago suburbs, but going to save those stories for next time.

I had the time of my life on Route 66. You'll enjoy too. But don't take my word for it; experience it for yourself.

Drive Safe Everyone,

Rich Havlik

Until next time, feel free to leave a comment down below. I'd love to see what you have to say or answer any questions you may have. Let this blog be a community of Route 66 enthusiasts and/or Geocaching enthusiasts. 

Feel free to follow me on Twitter: @richhavlik

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The Trip before by Route 66 Trip

Hello Everyone,

It's Friday, September 9th, 2016 and I am heading out to Chicago to stay with my aunt and uncle for the night before I take the trip I have been dreaming about for almost a year and a half.

One thing I believe I have done before leaving was (way) over prepare for this trip.

Every scenario I played in my head I wanted to be prepared for...

What if I don't have enough money for gas, food, gifts, etc...?

Well, I could sleep in my van somewhere if I want...right?

What if I could find a camping spot? Should I pack a tent?

How much should I eat out while on the road? If I eat out at all....

How safe is it doing any of the above?

Going for over 2 weeks, how much clothing to do I bring?

So what did I do? I packed not just one, but two tents along with a couple of sleeping bags, two of those chairs that you can quickly fold up and put in a bag, and pillows....just in case I can find a place to camp out.

Filled a bin with safety items; first aid kit, jumper cables, blankets, etc....

Decided not to do any laundry while on the road, so I packed a duffle bag with enough clothes so I am covered for 18 days...in turn, I have a bin, with a very tight lid (those who have experience what my feet can do will fully understand) for dirty clothes.

For food, I packed a cooler and a bin for dry foods. My plan is to stop every once in awhile to purchase food from a local grocery store and 'picnic' my meals.

To make a long story short, the back of my van is layered with bins for every situation I can think of.

In terms of my driving trip to Chicago, I did plan to stop at a couple of 'Travel Bug Hotels' to pick up some trackables to drop off on Route 66.

The first one, Giants TB Hotel (GCV04F), got pictures of. It was basically located at a park-n-drive. It was a neat cache in terms of a great disguise. Pictures below....

The Ducks I picked up are from a Geocaching.com rubber duck race that is now done, but decided to grab them and move them along aways.

My second cache I found (my favorite one of the two) was pleasantly well done. It is called, 400 Club Travel Bug Resort (GC3Y4W6). It was made to look like a weather station, but turned out to be a 'gadget' cache. A gadget cache is set up so you have to figure out a puzzle of some sort to get it open. In this case, it turned out that I had to figure out a combination of a lock. I won't give away the answer, but it turned out to be an easy one for me to figure out. To tell you the truth, I am not very good with these kinds of caches and for me to solve it, almost feels like a miracle. It started to rain, so I didn't take the camera with me, but took a picture of the trackables I gathered on my dash. Enjoy...

I choose the dragonfly travel bug in honor of my girlfriend. She loves them.

That's my trip before my trip. Watch for more blogs come in different forums; photos, video blogs, and Facebook Live links.

If you like what you see, please subscribe to get notifications of new blogs. Feel free to friend me on Facebook, follow me on Twitter, and subscribe to my YouTube channel. They are all under my name, Rich Havlik

Please leave a comment down below. Let's turn this blog into a community of lovers of Route 66, Geocaching, Life in General, and yes; even fantasy football.

Thanks for reading

Rich

Almost time and a few fun pictures

As I write this, I am just a few days away of finally going on my trip of Driving and Geocaching Route 66.

To tell you the truth, I am a bit nervous, excited, and over prepared. I have no idea what the day to day will look like for those couple of weeks.

One thing I do know is that this trip is about the journey and not about the destination. I  know I will not reach the end of Route 66 in this trip. But, when I stop and head home; I will start at that place the next year.

One thing I am planning is to record a lot of my journey on here, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. I  am encouraging you to follow me on all those social media locations (search Rich Havlik) and please share what you see.

In meantime, enjoy the pictures below and have a great September!!!