Sunday 22nd September

Today we set off for Chicago on Interstate 55. Along the way we saw a sign for an upcoming turn off to a town called Pontiac, and Tania said that it was on her list of things to look at, but couldn't remember its highlights. We checked and it was for the Route 66 Hall of Fame Museum located in Pontiac, the exit was coming up fast and Tania said .. "Do we ? Don't We? Quick, quick ... yes or no !" We had some time up our sleeves so I said "Yes!"

Well - it turned out to be a really interesting diversion, the Route 66 Hall of Fame Museum was located in the old City Hall / Fire Station / Jail / Police Station. It also housed a military museum, a photo exhibition, a gift shop, an example of a 1940's house furnishings and more, as well as the Hall of Fame memorabilia, all with very chatty attendants and volunteers.

In addition, there was a trail in the town for wall murals, and as we had been photographing murals in all towns we visit we just had to do these.

It also had painted model Pontiacs scattered around the town.

But .. there's more .. it just so happened that there was a Pontiac Car Club show in town today as well !

We spotted a sign to a swing bridge so we had to check that out as well ... together with a coffee stop we ended up spending 2.50 hours in this little town !

As we left the town, it started raining, and continued to do so for the rest of the day with some quite heavy showers passing through. This was the first rain we have had since Savannah and the temperature was lower as well with a day high of 24 degrees. We arrived in Chicago around 3.30pm, dropped our bags at our AirBnB apartment and then drove straight into Downtown. Got a brief taste of the city with its massive skyscrappers and pretty lakeside and river settings. We parked at Navy Pier and walked back into Downtown area for a while.

Decided to stay in town for dinner as the traffic was chaotic when we arrived and we wanted it to die down a bit. We had been recommended to try the Chicago deep dish pizza at Giordano's, so we found an outlet and treated ourselves! The pizza is a cross between a pizza and a quiche (without the egg). We even have left overs for tomorrow. Dinner cost us $40 and parking the car cost us $35 for 3 hours ! Got to find a cheaper way to do it tomorrow !

The skyline as we were leaving Downtown.