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Realizing how much fun I had in the drives I wrote about in the 06/05/2017 “Road Trips & Working” entry, seen via THIS LINK HERE, I planned another adventure for this past Saturday, 06/10/2017. While I had a bit of trouble deciding to take the drive (I still have many long-waiting projects to accomplish), driving my 2003 Mercury Grand Marquis LS won. The main goal of this trip was to drive a road I remember driving past many times & wondering just “where it went”. That developed into a drive that took me all the way south to Ottawa IL & back.  Take a look through the 9-photo gallery at the end of this post.

Chana Rd crosses IL RT 64 a few miles east of Oregon IL & just east of the Pine Rock Nature Preserve. Driving east on IL RT 64, you come up to the Chana Rd intersection as you ascend a small grade-hill. Signs mark the intersection, directing your attention to points & attractions south. Many times heading back from camp or visiting grandparents when they lived in Mt Morris in their last few years of life, I remember someone in the car voicing a query about where that road goes & someday we should drive it. I finally did.

My route, from Burlington IL where I stopped for gas prior to embarking on the full fledged trip; new-to-me roads are marked with “ * ” :
Base Line Rd W
Esmond Rd S
Lindenwood W
251 S
64 W
* Chana Rd / 38 (Lincoln Highway) / * Ashton Rd S
* Reynolds Rd E
* Brooklyn Rd S
* Spur Rd E
251 S
* US 52 E
* E 8th Rd S
* US 6 E
* E 29th Rd N
* E 29th Rd S (thanks to a mis-labeled closure of US 52)
* Marseilles Rd / N 30th Rd W
* 71 N-E (would’ve saved myself some time via E 24th Rd N to 71)
47 N
Main Street Rd E (my usual Bliss Rd was closed)
Fabyan Pkwy N-E
* Kaneville Rd N-E
* S Peck Rd N
Campton Hills Dr / 64 E
Randall Rd N
W Spring St E (to Beef Villa)

The entire drive lasted from ~12:55p to ~6:10p, when I finally arrived at Beef Villa, after multiple detours & quite a bit of unplanned backtracking.

The 1st 3 photos in the gallery below show the current (very sad) state of the “castle house” on Lindenwood Rd at the intersection of Mulford Rd (where I turned north the prior Saturday). ~2001-2002, when IL RT 64 was under construction, we routinely took either Base Line Rd or Old State Rd to Esmond Rd to pick up Lindenwood Rd to pass through the area of the IL RT 64 closure. During that time, a massive structure was being added to what had been a small farm house. We watched it become a castle before our eyes, & I remember marveling at how cool the house was becoming. Then, a few years later, we discovered the house had been abandoned. A few years ago, it looked as if it had been sold & was going to be refurbished, but that didn’t happen. Then, came the tornado of 04/09/2015 (read about it in the 04/11/2015 “Saturday Smorgasbord” entry via THIS LINK HERE). The tornado tore through parts of Rochelle IL & took out nearly the entire town of Fairdale IL. Between those stops, it passed by the “castle house”, damaging it further. Now, the red barn that had been to the left of the house & at the back of the driveway area is gone. The Mercedes-Benz sedan, now situated to block the driveway entrance, had been parked near the house, then moved to beside the tree next to the driveway at the entrance area where it sat during the tornado, with a tree branch crashing the windshield.

The 4th image in the gallery below was taken soon after I turned onto that “famous” Chana Rd. While it crosses IL RT 64, the section north of the state highway is brief & not really a main road. The southern part, tho, is considered a “main artery”, crossing Flagg Rd (which basically runs between Rochelle IL & Grand Detour IL) & connecting to IL RT 38 (Lincoln Highway at that point). At Ashton, 38-LH turns directly west again, while Ashton Rd flows south out of town.

The gallery’s 5th entry was taken where Spur Rd meets 251, just south-east of W Brooklyn IL. The windmills you see are just a small portion of a huge windmill farm that spans many places in this section of IL. Oddly, as I drove through W Brooklyn on Brooklyn Rd / 1st St, before turning east on Spur Rd, I saw a “warning” sign for a stop sign ahead. But, I never saw the stop sign … until after I was through the intersection. Whoops.

The 6th photo was taken as I approached the intersection of E 8th Rd & US 6, east of Lasalle IL, where E 8th Rd becomes IL RT 178 south of US 6. I’ve driven parts of US 6 where it passes through Morris IL along IL RT 47 (which shares pavement with Rt 66 farther south in Dwight IL & basically connects Rt 66 with the Lincoln Highway, US 20, etc.) many times; I also was able to drive parts of US 6 out west during my 2011 “Coast-to-Coast” road trip & out east during my “Nor’Easter Trek” road trip, 08/2010.

The 7th pic was taken just after I turned onto US 6 E. A picture I wish I’d been able to get: the view of the river while on the US 6 bridge over the Fox River in Ottawa IL, just west of where 71 continues north & US 6 continues east. The scene looking to my right (south) out to & above the river is cool. Way farther north, that same Fox River cuts right through Elgin IL, crossing the likes of US 20 & passing between IL RTs 31 & 25. The Fox River travels from Fox Lake IL (near the WI border) to the IL River in Ottawa.

The 8th entry was taken when I left US 6 to turn north out of Seneca IL. The road that goes off (& up a hill) to the left is E 29th Rd N. An electronic sign a bit farther north of what you can see in the image warns about the closure of US 52 … east. Knowing I had to go west to get to 71, I thought I was OK. So, I drove north. Upon arriving at the US 52 intersection, however, I discovered US 52 was closed in BOTH directions. So, after a bit of “recalculating”, I figured my best bet was to head back south to the intersection where I saw a sign directing travelers to 71, particularly since many of the crossroads between US 52 & N 30th Rd didn’t look all that promising to be completely paved roads. Then, driving west on N 30th Rd, I somehow missed E 24th Rd (which heads north out of Marseilles IL, where I’d stopped for a bathroom break & to contact friends) & missed a chance to save myself some time. Ah, well. I love to drive, so I’ll save that trek for another trip…..

The 9th & final image was taken at S Elgin IL’s Beef Villa, where a grand total of 2 vintage vehicles came for the cruise night. I’ve seen this 1957 Ford Thunderbird cruising the area roads the last few weeks, so it was cool to have the opportunity to see it up close & personal. The other classic car there was the 1966 Ford Thunderbird previously featured in the 06/09/2017 “Cruise Night Show”, seen via THIS LINK HERE.

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