Route 66 Self Guided Motorcycle Tour - Albuquerque to Chicago

The eastern half of Route 66, ridden towards Chicago. Eight days, seven nights and around 1,365 miles from Albuquerque, across New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri and Illinois, finishing where the Mother Road officially begins.

This is the half where the roadside is the attraction. The first day alone takes in the neon of the Blue Swallow Motel at Tucumcari, the Midpoint Cafe at Adrian which marks the exact halfway point of the route, and Cadillac Ranch outside Amarillo, where ten cars stand buried nose-down in a field and visitors have been repainting them since 1974.

More of the same follows. The Route 66 Museum at Clinton, then Oklahoma City and El Reno on the way to Tulsa, then the Blue Whale at Catoosa, a 1970s roadside swimming hole with a concrete whale in it, before the Ozark Plateau carries the route into Missouri. St Louis and the small Illinois towns of Staunton and Carlinville lead to Springfield, and the Pontiac museum sits on the final run into Chicago.

EAGLERIDER provides the motorcycle in Albuquerque and takes it back in Chicago, with Harley-Davidson touring models and Triumph and BMW sport machines available, and books all seven nights. Fuel, meals and insurance are separate. Days are long, up to 290 miles, because the plains are wide, but the stops come thick and fast. For riders who care more about diners, motels and Americana than about mountain passes, this is the half of Route 66 with most of the stories still standing beside it.