My family and I once drove six hours to look for turkey tracks in the middle of Illinois.  No, we’re not super dedicated turkey hunters. We were searching for a forgotten road. These turkey tracks, in fact, are almost a hundred years old and embedded in concrete. They are part of the folklore of America’s fabled highway, Route 66.

In 1926, the federal government commissioned Route 66 as a national highway, running from Chicago to Los Angeles. In the early days of the highway, road crews paved a section near Girard, Illinois. Before the concrete dried, a turkey wandered across the wet road and was forever immortalized as a Route 66 celebrity.

The Hollywood Walk of Fame may have handprints from Tom Cruise and John Wayne, but compared to our fowl friend, those guys are a dime a dozen. Girard, Illinois has the one and only Route 66 turkey. 

So why did the turkey cross the road, you might ask. It’s difficult to say, but if he was looking for lasting fame and glory, he found it. Nearly a century later people like me, and tourists from all over the world, spend their vacation searching for his tracks.  

You may be wondering why anyone would take an afternoon to look for a 100-year-old turkey crossing. The answer is that this is half of the fun of a Route 66 vacation. It isn’t just a road trip, but also a scavenger hunt, archeological expedition and journey into the past.  

Along Route 66, you’ll find roadside marvels, restored mom and pop eateries, vintage service stations and plenty of historical displays showing what life was like in the heyday of what’s been called America’s Main Street.  

My favorite part of this trip, however, was searching for the oldest parts of the road. Just like our modern interstate system, Route 66 was constantly changing to accommodate more traffic. That meant that some sections of the route were forgotten even before the interstate put Route 66 out of business.  

It’s the forgotten roads that are most interesting to me. That’s where it’s the quietest and easiest to imagine what life was like before we were all rushing down interstates trying to beat arrival times predicted by the map apps on our phones.

This quest for these old, quiet roads led me to the turkey tracks and later to a mile and half section paved in red brick surrounded by farmland. Eventually it even took us on a trip down Memory Lane.

Memory Lane is located near Lexington, Illinois. It’s a one mile stretch of 1926 pavement lined with vintage billboards and classic Burma Shave signs. You can walk it at any time, but they only open Memory Lane to car traffic during certain days of the year. 

We lucked out and got to drive down it with no other cars around. It felt like a time warp. There was something magical about cruising on that original pavement, a touchstone to a simpler time. 

Maybe life wasn’t truly better in the old days of Route 66, but it sure does conjure up plenty of nostalgia for life the way it’s supposed to be. Old forgotten roads have a knack for doing that.  

In the Bible, there was a time when God’s people needed a serious reset on their journey.  Despite the fact that God had rescued them from their enemies and provided what they needed again and again and again, they turned away from God in pursuit of what they thought would make them happy. Instead, it led them to the brink of destruction.

God’s advice? Seek out the forgotten road. In Jeremiah 6:16, God said, “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls” (NIV).

Rest for your souls. I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty good to me. It’s so easy to wear ourselves out rushing after things that we hope will fulfill us but ultimately disappoint. I’ve done way too much of that myself.  

But the ancient ways? God’s good ways? That’s a forgotten road that’s worth searching out. It leads to life, and though not everyone will take it, it’s the one road that gets us to where we really want to go.