When I’m on an airplane, I always like to sit by the window. The kind of people who sit on the aisle just baffle me: sure, you can get to the bathroom more easily from the aisle seat — but you can go to the bathroom anywhere. Most places do not have a SIX-MILE-HIGH VIEW.
Anyway, while on an airplane over Illinois today, I got a good view of the small town of Chenoa. Here is a crappy iPhone picture taken through clouds:
North is to the bottom left. This is the Midwest; the long straight roads run perfectly north-south or east-west (or as perfect as the surveyors could get them in the 1800s, anyway). The roads running from left to right are, from top to bottom: old US Route 66, and Interstate 55. Just north of Route 66 is a railroad track now part to the Union Pacific Railroad. The train runs through the center of town; both 66 and 55 bypass it.
Here’s the Google Earth version, with north at the top:
The old Route 66 is nearly as visible as the much newer, larger Interstate 55 because of the peculiar way Route 66 was redeveloped in much of Illinois. The old pavement wasn’t renovated, or torn up, or anything like that — it was itself bypassed. Here’s a detail of Route 66 just northwest of Chenoa:
The old pavement was removed only where another road needed to cross, or where it was cleared to build the Interstate. Because I-55 in Illinois was built along the 66 alignment for most of its length, nearly all of the towns along the highway have these strips of once-famous pavement now full of cracks and weeds.
