CATL 2023: C-bodies At The Lake on Saturday-Sunday, Sept. 16-17, 2023 (Route 66 from Chicago to St Louis)

ayilar

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Mark your calendars: the fifth CATL Drive (aka the 2023 Edition) is on!

The first (2019) CATL ran from Rockford, IL to the old Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee and onto Racine, WI (for beers and car discussions with @70 Sport Suburban) in September 2019, with a stop on Lake Michigan's western shore. The 2020 CATL ran from Rockford via St Charles, IL and Hammond, IN to the Indiana Dunes National Park, on Lake Michigan's southern shore. The 2021 CATL ran from a spot on Historic Route 66 in Dwight, IL to a much smaller body of water in Fox Lake, IL. The 2022 CATL ran from Clinton Lake, IL to Chrysler's Kokomo Plant in Indiana.

Taking the lead on this year's event, with the theme of Route 66: @furious70 and @SGVert ! They will bring their Fury and Newport 'vert, and I shall bring a car as well (not sure which one yet -- might be more, if friends can drive too).

--> Date = Sept. 16-17: As in previous years, this run will start on the third Saturday of September. Unlike other years, this one is a 2-day event: the first-ever weekend-long CATL! Should the weather not cooperate that weekend, the rainy-day date would most likely be two weeks later, on Sept. 30-Oct. 1.

--> Type of event: This is not a stationary show -- Tim's annual C-Body Shows have that corner of the "market" covered in spades. As in 2019-2022, the idea of a CATL is to drive C-bodies through smaller roads to some nice locations. Along the way and at the end, of course, we park the cars/eat/shoot the breeze. The route is chosen so that folks can join or depart along the way, and thus not commit to a full day (let alone a weekend) if they do not wish to do so.

--> Itinerary: -- details to be provided by @furious70 and @SGVert


The starting point is close to Lake Michigan in Chicago, near here.

The advantage of this year's choice of mid-point (and overnight location) near St Louis, MO is that it allows folks from Missouri and Iowa to more easily attend at least part of the event.

Here is a partial list of members who may be close enough to join (apologies to those whom I am missing):

Illinois: @sixpkrt @71Polara383 @Xenon @BLIMP @70NEWYORKER @metaldad @swartzed @MarPar @Wonderwagon @furious70 @Cbodies69-73 @Billy Bats @Sport Fury 67 @Chopperbob1 @drh4683 @Biggie @Asleep at the Meal @sgtmac1 @300E @Air Force Polara @furyusvip @Grizzly's Garage @B to C @Popslavaz @Brian Parrino @70 Droptop @Ed Wagner @Skins69 @BUBBAZ488 @IAG @william @Dan Wolf @Jdlov @gkellm @plum360415 @Casey @blue88 @haywire 440 @chilsam @The Captain @moparblake @arkmorris @Shamu70 @badvs3vil @Casey @Clutch Carnage @Davews @blue88 @gregory cotten @Georges77 @SGVert @Sport Fury 67 @Imperial_Eagle_72 @B to C @300Hconvert @St.John @Ram50V8 @tallhair etc.

Indiana: @david hill @fury fan @traintech55 @Georges77 @73Gold @74newport @Jeffrey Cowell @jlcowell @Stoney 65 Fury @streetmachine @Patinad70Polara @Superlite1969 @SportFury etc.

Missouri: @Stanj @Imperialist @cruisinwithsusan @marty koirtyohann @Mingo @Grannys67 etc.

Wisconsin: @70 Sport Suburban @JPMODL @Don Stolfi @Owen11x @69Polara383 @glennb49 @GOLDMYN @loveshack @polara71 @Pete Kaczmarski etc.

Further afield: @Cags70PolaraConvert @Ripinator @Samplingman (and anyone else from further afield, who is interested and can make it)
 
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Having gone to Springfield and Branson in the COVID years, I've driven some chunks of the older alignments of the mother road and an excited about doing it with some old cars. Maybe this will be a test run for us going all the way out west in the future!
I'll share some stuff tomorrow.
 
Add me to the Missouri list; although I won't be able to do the full drive from Chicago, I will most likely intercept near St. Louis, and can roll into town and hang out here - once the itinerary is worked out....

Sounds fun!
 
I sure didn't include any more info yet per my plan lol. I will tho
 
I would rather do this than Power Tour...maybe when I retire.
 
So here's a link to photos of the IL pages of 'the' route 66 book
rt 66

Let me know if y'all can access those ok. I've driven parts of this to verify what he says and while the book is a little hard to read, I'm working on adapting it onto a google route...
 
Driving Route 66 - Illinois - JB - Google My Maps

I've only adapted the first few pages of the book to this map created by someone else (up to Gardner) - essentially I'm adding pins to force the route onto some of the older alignments even if they are just short segments (the jog NE of Elwood is an example). For me it's fun to see those and 'follow' them through the land - looking for tree lines and other clues of where the rest of the old alignment was.
 
This trip would check off one of the boxes on my bucket list, even if only taking old Rt 66 to St. Louis.
If wanting to start from DT Chicago, heading west on Adams, and if we can all meet up early enough, we can park our cars/wagons on Columbus Dr. until everyone is there, between Jackson & Monroe on the east side of the street.
Depart north on Columbus to Monroe and turn left. Then to Michigan Ave turn left, to Adams and turn right to the start of Route 66.
Once out the the Loop in DT Chicago, Adams will intersect with Ogden Ave. Once we turn left there, traffic won't be that crazy.

When looking at the route posted previously, while going through Normal IL, we should make a slight detour from the route park our cars for a picture in front of the Rivian Plant, like some of us have done in front of the Belvedere Assembly plant, comparatively noting how our older cars were once the way to travel, to the new technology of the electric vehicle, and the future of transportation.

Motorhead Bar & Grill restaurant in Springfield is supposed to have the largest Route 66 sign on the route.
Check this YouTube video at 7:10 for the location.

Another place that would be worth a visit is Country Classic Cars in Staunton, IL. Not sure if the itinerary allows for us driving that far south on Saturday, since they’re closed on Sunday. If passing through there on Sunday, maybe Michel can contact someone who works there meet us to let us in the gates.

I hope there are a bunch of us going on this trip. It sounds like a really good choice for the 2023 CATL drive.
 
Just where we start is a big open question for us to answer over the next couple months for sure.
 
I live 10 minutes outside Bloomington/Normal. If you need any help with location scouting in this area let me know. I would also be interested in hearing possible starting times for Chicago.
 
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Will need to work that. I think 6-7 hrs of drive time not starting all the way downtown for sure, maybe more with all the out of the way stuff
 
I've worked the online map down to normal/Bloomington. Still plenty to go. I also have to do some map time studies, I'm not sure there's enough interesting things to view in normal/Bloomington to be worth the time to drive through vs bypass. @73 New Yorker I could use some help with that
 
It all depends on what you consider interesting. We have the Rivian auto plant, two college campuses, a windmill farm, good restaurants. If nothing else it would be fun to roll down Veterans Parkway with a heard of C bodies. If you choose to cruise veterans it should only take about 15 minutes depending on how many vehicles we have and the time of day. At the end of veterans you could jump back on 55 south. Let me know if you need anything else.
 
Lincoln, IL - any opinions about winding through the downtown streets vs the edge of town bypass? The bypass has the Giant Abe statue that we'd double back slightly for anyway.
 
updated through Sherman, pending a possible edit for Lincoln. How to handle Springfield will be the next chunk.
 
I've been through Springfield a few times in the last couple years, I'm not that excited about driving through it vs either the east (Dirksen) or west (hwy 4) bypass.

Muffler man museum coming to Atlanta!
American Giants Museum
 
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