Day 5 of our USA holiday and day 2 on historic Route 66. Today we would travel over both alignments and the only brick road section of Route 66.
Our first stop of the day was the Sugar Creek Covered bridge at Glenarm. It was constructed in either 1827 or 1880 sources on this vary. From there we would follow the original 1926-1930 alignment towards Chatham to just south of Staunton. Making sure we checked out the Historic Brick Road just north of Auburn. It is a 1.4 mile (2.25km) section of red brick road.
Both alignments are in good condition and both are worth checking out if you have the time. They sure grow a lot of corn in this part of Illinois.
Carlinville is a great town to check out from the town square to the historic jail that was used from 1869 to 1988. Once you get to the end of the 1926-1930 alignment you can head back up the post 1930 alignment to Mount Olive and the oldest service station in the world. The Soulsby Service Station, Mount Olive operated from 1926 to 1996.
Making our way back to Springfield our next stops were the Lincoln family home and Abraham Lincoln’s tomb.
After a day of sightseeing and riding Route 66 we settled in to our motel we stayed at the Best Western 3440 E Clearlake Avenue Springfield, IL
For dinner tonight we would be visiting Mario’s Italian Restaurant & Pizzeria a 1/2 mile (750 mtre) walk from our motel. The pizza was fantastic and the cold beers went down well. As Australians we did factor in the size of the pizz or the size of the beers. I think we surprised the Mario’s Pizza team with all the toppings and the size we ordered :D.
