Litchfield to Springfield, IL 05-13-2026 Day 33

It was a sunny morning and we were on the road at 7:10 AM. Although it was 56 degrees, the wind was already showing its presence. Yesterday’s elevation profile had us gradually climbing throughout the day. Today we were supposed to be slowly going downhill. Wind beats elevation changes. Yesterday we had moderate to good tailwind. Today we would have strong cross to headwinds. We finished yesterday doing 20 mph “uphill”. Today we struggled to do 10 mph “downhill”.

As we said goodbye to Litchfield, we passed by a drive in theatre. According to the lady at the visitor center, a young couple had bought it, done some work on it, and turned it into a popular attraction. They didn’t worry about having the latest run films. Instead they focus on making a themed evening at the show. Sometimes it involves costume contests. They seemed to be doing well!

Route 66 in its original form simply doesn’t exist. Especially out west, the route it took has been replaced by various interstate highways. Here in Illinois, I-55 between St. Louis and Chicago has overtaken the original path. At various places, you can see “original pavement” running either parallel to the interstate, a frontage road, or even a county road. Even before the interstate system wiped out Route 66, it was a “living structure” that changed its path to suit the changes of the local region.

The winds that pushed us into Litchfield yesterday were working just as hard to keep us from leaving. It was a tough ride most of the day, especially the first stretch on a frontage road that paralleled I-55 north past Zanesville. There wasn’t much to see besides the farm fields and the noise from the interstate was not pleasant. About 16 miles and more than 90 minutes of peddling let us turn away from the interstate to the small town of Waggoner. Though it had a population of less than 200, it did have the start of a bike trail. When we found its beginning, we weren’t sure we had found it.

The trail went almost 5 miles north, emptying us out at the south end of Farmersville. It did seem to get better the closer we got to Farmersville. There was less grass growing through the pavement. More importantly, the trees along the path gave us some shelter from the wind and made our pedaling easier.

We rested for a while at a park in thee town square of Farmersville. The town seemed pretty dead, but there always seemed to be someone doing yard maintenance in these towns. We saw a neat sign and mural.

As we left Farmersville, we ran into our riding buddies from yesterday – brothers John and Ed. (Correction they were doing Route 66 from Eureka, MO to Chicago, not Oklahoma City. One of them lives in OK city.) As we were comparing notes and complaining about the wind, another traveler came in from the north. Frank was from Woodstock, IL – north of Chicago. He was doing Route 66 the other way. Today, the wind was in his favor. As an experienced meteorologist, he assured us the wind would be better tomorrow. We’ll see.

Ron and I went straight into a large travel stop to get out of the wind and warm up after our meeting of the minds. Then we began a zig zag pattern of farm roads leading us north, then west meandering toward Divernon and a bike trail in Chatham.

It was on a road similar to the one pictured above where someone in a black sedan decided to play chicken with us. There were no vehicles in sight behind us. Coming south this black sedan decided to move from his lane to take up half of our lane, coming straight at us at >45 mph. After having his fun, he continued on his side of the road. Worst experience we’ve had that was so intentional.

In the meantime we continued our struggle to Chatham. When were in the open, which was almost always, the wind could have its way with us.

We were happy to get on the Chatham trail to Springfield. But before we continued, we stopped at Sangomo Brewing for some of their wares.

The whole time we sat there, we were trying to lay our plan for eating. It was well after 1 PM and we were 12 miles from our hotel. Our original target location had a convention going on and we couldn’t get a room at our target hotel. The alternative was not close to any good eating establishments. We made the decision to head for a good Mexican place just south of our hotel. We made the trip to the restaurant mostly on the trail from Chatham.

It would take us at least an hour to get there. By the time we got our food and another beer to give it balance, it was about 4 pm.

The hotel was less than 2 miles away. We were set for the night. We both made a run for a pint of ice cream to finish the evening. It was a short, but hard working day. We had fun meeting some new people and feeling part of a community of adventurers that are riding the Mother Road.

The ride stats are here. The 3D video is here.

The Not So Lone Rider