Leaving Saint Louis - Heading North Across Illinois · · PAGE 10. 

July 22, 2019:  My GPS ground track shows the morning arrival from our motel via Illinois state route 3 on the East side of the Mississippi River.  The parking garage is two blocks from Memorial Drive at the northwest most point of the GPS track seen here..  The departure from the parking garage was at 1:35:58 PM Eastern Daylight Time.  

The parking garage we used while at the Arch is seen here at the corner of Broadway and Walnut Street, just across the street from Busch Stadium.

Driving south on Broadway takes us to the on-ramp to connect to the interstate highways to cross the Mississippi River and then north on Interstate 55 on the Illinois side of the river.

Starting up the ramp to join the interstate highways and US 40 reveals this view looking north with Busch Stadium and the Arch.

Driving across the river begins at this point with these signs to be sure you are on the correct route.  We will start with the I-55 route toward Chicago.

This view looking north from the bridge just past the signs in the photo seen above reveals this "GOODBYE" view of the Arch and the city of Saint Louis.

This Garmin MapSource GPS ground track map shows our arrival to the Saint Louis area on I-64 at the bottom of the image.  Our motel was near Interstate 155 about a mile from the river southeast of the city.  The departure after our Arch visit takes us up into central Illinois via I-55 where we went looking for lunch up at Litchfield, Illinois.

Less than an hour north of Saint Louis is the town of Litchfield, Illinois.  The airport less that one mile from this road sign is the first fuel stop from the 2007 trip to Alaska when Wendell and Terry made their five-day trip to Anchorage, Alaska.  That is another adventure that begins with this MENU PAGE.  But today, Linda and I are starting to look for a place to get lunch as we are now only 52 miles north of Saint Louis.

Litchfield Exit 52 offered only fast food close to the exit ramp.  We started looking a bit further along state route 16 into town.

This four-lane intersection has signs pointing toward the airport south of town, another fast food place ahead, and the Route 66 Museum.  Turning LEFT here goes north parallel to the Interstate highway on the most recent version of US 66.  There is a Wal-Mart up that way with their Murphy Oil gas station.  We chose to continue East with hopes of finding a suitable home-style restaurant on route 16.

This is the same intersection seen above when you pull up to the stop line.  Take note of the OLD US 66 road sign at THIS intersection.

Just one block East of the four-lane intersection seen in the two photos above is this 2-lane intersection which is the HISTORIC US 66 highway that was used in the era before the four-lane highways were built in the 1930's and 1940's.

Here is what you see if you turn left here and start north on Historic US 66.  The local chamber of commerce wants to attract as many tourists a possible to the older main street business locations not on the four-lane route 66.  

Less than half a mile north of town is this classic old Sky View Drive-In Theater.  The highway here is concrete slabs below the pavement marked by the strips of tar that fill the cracks between the slabs.  The prices have changed with our modern times as it is now five dollars per person.  In the 1950's in my home town, it was five dollars per car load at the Cherokee Drive In Theater north of Dalton, Georgia.

Every drive-in theater has a marquee as seen here for the Sky View.  They are only open on Friday and Saturday nights.  This image from April 2018 shows the two movies running as a double-feature.  Are you old enough to remember those days from the 50's?  The grain elevators north of the drive-in attest to this area being the heart of agriculture in middle America.

Here is an aerial view of this area around Litchfield, Illinois.  The Wal-Mart is located on the four-lane US 66, while the Sky View Drive-In is on the historic US 66.