The trip is going so well - and I can only thank the people here for the great advice given as I planned all this.

So far we have driven the following legs:
Chicago to Springfield Il.
Springfield to St Louis.
St Louis to Springfield Mo.
Springfield to Amarillo.
Amarillo to Albuquerque - where we are right now.

Driving here is fairly straightforward - although I have twice missed a stop sign and trundled through - luckily the roads are really clear! I also missed a random person trying to cross the road where I probably should have "yielded"...

The car is incredible. A Ford Expedition Limited with the back row folded down so we have acres of luggage space. Captains chairs in the second row offer the youngest great comfort, car play and all the extras anyone would want.

We are using the Route66 Navigation App which has a few bugs (such as missing a turning either intentionally or accidentally - the app seems determined to get me back to that turning - meaning if I have worked out the remedy I need to reset the destination from my current position) but is pretty accurate.

The people we have encountered have been amazing. We are trying to hit the majority of the sights on the route however what this does mean is I have bitten off more than I can chew - especially in the earlier stages. Chicago to Springfield is a long trip along Rte66 - we have already decided to do this again at some point but to be less planned - get in the car in Chicago and drive until we want to stop.

We have seen some really hot weather - it touched 106 deg F yesterday, so thankful for the AC! Have also seen some mental rain - as we left Merman Caverns the rain was super torrential - but here in Albuquerque it is glorious!

One sketchy moment - driving to Springfield Mo - we encountered two rather beat up cars - one over took us and pulled in front - we were sort of sandwiched between them - am fairly sure they were trying to slow us down but we simply just rapidly over took them and sped away. I might be wrong in my assumption and it was just circumstance butt was not taking chances!

The car is filthy, so here in Albuquerque we visited the Breaking Bad locations and put the motor through the A1A Car Wash! So cool!!

We branch off Rte 66 today and head for Santa Fe before heading up to Colorado!

More to come!