April 6th – Woke up to a beautiful, but chilly day, packed up and headed out for breakfast. We ended up finding the Old Log Cabin Inn, which has been in business since 1926. In additional to our great breakfast, Shannon who took care of us gave us some great tips about the area and was so eager to talk about our journey. She also turned us on the the Route 66 Illinois Passport. This is a commemorative booklet celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Mother Road, it has about 17 stops and you guessed it, at each stop you get a stamp. Corney, yes, but isn’t that makes the trip! The Log Cabin also has a guest book, flipping through a few of the pages, it was clear to see their reputation is worldwide as we saw many entries from numerous countries, France, Germany, Sweden, as well as all the states! We made sure our names were part of that book. A great stop and highly recommend.
Next up, we headed back into Pontiac to check out all the murals and the Route 66 Association Museum. We were fortunate it wasn’t too cold, as the best way to see the murals, is to park and walk. I’m sure we missed some, but the ones we did see were great. After our walkabout, we hit up the museum (another stamp). This place is four floors and packed with memorabilia telling the story of Route 66. The top floor is the Livingston County War Museum honoring approximately 250 locals who answered the call of duty. It was an honor to see their uniforms on display and read their stores. There is also a large area dedicated to American artist Bob Waldmire. He traveled 66 and the rest of the country in a 1972 VW Bus (not the way I would want to travel), which was donated to the museum and is on display along with numerous pieces of his incredible artwork. If you want more information on him or to see his artwork, check out his website at www.bobwaldmire.com
We said goodbye to Pontiac and continued down the road. Our next stop was in the town of Normal, IL. This is home to Illinois State University as well as Sprague’s Super Service, a 1931 gas station that had been fully restored in 2006, photo op. They were closed, so we missed our stamp here. 😏 We breezed in and out of Carl’s Ice Cream for a photo op with the Carl and Marge and another stamp.
Next up was Atlanta, another of the small quirky towns. This one had a spot dedicated American giants; they were originally call “Muffler Men”. You’ve seen them, Paul Bunyan, the Gemini Giant, etc. These were all made by one company, The International Fiberglass Company out of Venice, CA. We didn’t miss this opportunity to take a bunch of corny pictures and get another stamp (is this getting old yet).
Winding down the day, a quick stop off in Lincoln to see the largest Railsplitter Covered Wagon, per the Guiness Book, complete with Honest Abe at the reins. No stamp here, just a photo. And while we were on the Abe Lincoln kick, we finished up our day in Springfield to see the Lincoln home, along with a few other older restored homes in the area. Believe me this was a quick stop, you can only look at old doors, windows and furniture for just so long.
Our day ended with an overnight in Edwardsville, our last stop in Illinois. We found a nice sports bar to watch the Championship game, ☹️ not much to say about that except, maybe next year fellas.
Don’t forget to go to the photos page, you won’t want to miss these classic shots!
See you down the road.
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