Autumn….warm days and cool nights. I’m already noticing it gets dark earlier than before and colors are starting to change along the route. The farmers tell me a summer like this is followed by a tough Winter. So much to do before the leaves complete their change, what a busy summer it was along the road.

Ernie Edward’s 95th Birthday Party was a resounding success due to the help of many of the businesses in the Lincoln/Broadwell area! The Pig Hip sign was restored by the Preservation Committee and rededicated.

The Litchfield museum project is well underway and on target for a late Fall completion. Martha Jackson and the Litchfield museum board has worked tirelessly to raise funds and interest to complete this new building. The Route 66 Associations of Illinois and Missouri under the guidance of Jim Thole (Neon Preservation Committee) will be applying for National Parks funds to redo the neon ‘Vic Suhling Gas for Less” sign that the new multi-use Route 66 Visitor and Welcome Center will have for its street sign. The center plans to be open 7 days a week and will provide a new home for 5 different historical groups from the Litchfield area in addition to its Route 66 heritage.

The Dixie has been sold and was reopened September 6th after an extensive remodeling. The new “Dixie” will have a Route 66 theme, and the new owners are featuring Michael Campanelli’s photos, two big screen TVs; John Weiss and Emmy Bates set up a display featuring the communities along the road. This is another “new” information center which will help direct tourists both up and down the road 24 hours a day. This is a one of a kind Road Ranger station – another first along Route 66 in Illinois.

Tremendous effort by the Preservation Committee this year resulted in Odell Station being spruced up for the Tourist season and the 2nd Relighting at the Luna Café with its seven neon-colored sign. Many articles were written about the Giant being repainted in Atlanta which cited how far people drove to come and help. Fall brings cleanups along the road, but remember, “We work for food” so come out and get dirty and play with your Preservation friends.

The new Illiana Toll Road will be crossing over some Illinois communities and the Mother Road herself. We have members who are going to these meetings as volunteers to remind the committee that Route 66 is on the national historic register and cannot be changed or destroyed.

We also have volunteers going to the High Speed train meetings to ensure unnecessary changes are not made to Route 66. The Federal Government is eyeing the original 66 pavement in Illinois to use again because the railroad will need more room to make their gates and train intersections safer and more compliant. Remember this is a single train track for now as there is not enough money to build two tracks at this time.

We are in the process of raising funds to work on Bob Waldmire’s land yacht. The roof needs to be secured and waterproofed. Volunteers are looking into either an epoxy water-proofing of the roof, or a cover of some sort.

Bob’s van will be going to the Springfield Mother Road Festival in Springfield on September 21-23, and then will be returning to the museum in Pontiac.

The Preservation Committee will be building a new display in the front entrance hall to the City’s museum complex. This will feature information about becoming a volunteer Preservationist and show some of the things we do. The only skills needed to become a Preservation Committee member are a sense of humor and the ability to move – not even fast or slow – just move!

Association elections are coming up in October. Come out and vote (or run) for Office. Several positions are up for renewal.

This year we’ve lost Frances Mowery (Pontiac Hall of Fame member), Ernie Edwards (Broadwell Hall of Fame member), Betty Estes (Unofficial Godmother of Route 66 in Illinois and former Pontiac Tourism Director), Rita Erickson (Hall of Fame member and former owner/operator of The Odell Shelter) and Jack Barrick (Barrick Transport in Lincoln, Illinois). These people were strong individuals whose dedication and hard work helped the road prosper. If you know of anyone who impacted your life or your community, remember that nominations for the 2013 Class of the Hall of Fame will be accepted January 1 through February 28.

Check your calendar! Pumpkin Chucking in Girard, The Mother Road Festival in Springfield, the Dwight Basset Waddle, the Blue Grass Festival in Pontiac! Think of the colors, the smell of burning leaves, the fresh hot apple pie at cafes and diners along the road. Take a ride – stop and wander. Make some new 66 memories to keep you warm during the coming cold Winter nights!

See you on the road!
~Cathie

As I write this letter, it’s almost tour time and the mad rush to the end is on with finishing touches of letters, passports, getting all the details worked out so the tour is seamless!

I’m excited about some great new stops this year and a few dedications along the way. Nick Adam is joining us as the Grand Marshall as we cross over the Chain of Rocks bridge on Saturday morning, June 9th at 8:30 AM. We’re thrilled for this rare and limited opportunity to drive across this historic bridge!

There is also an end-of-tour party in Elwood at Lloyd Erickson park on Sunday, June 10th! Jim Hannah and the Country Boys with Ron Gonsoulin will provide the music.
Red Carpet was a wonderful success again this year. The weather was perfect on Saturday. Sunday was mixed but still well attended. There was a grand opening ceremony for the 1940s exhibit on the second floor of the Route 66 Hall of Fame and Museum. This is an amazing exhibit that really brings you into the 1940s the minute you step off the elevator. We are pleased to share our second floor space with such a wonderful collection.

There’s a lot going on this year along Route 66. Communities will start having their local events so make sure you check our website if you are looking for fun! Remember Catfish Days in Wilmington is July 26th – 29th and don’t forget the Taste of Joliet June 29 – July 1st. Pontiac will be celebrating their 175th birthday with a “Pre-War Festival” featuring 1940s music, car shows and more June 29th – 30th. Hopefully gas prices will continue to stay level and we can all get out on the road for a little R and R.

Preservation has been busy. There was the annual clean-up day in Odell, followed by a couple of days of painting on Tall Paul in Atlanta. The Pantagraph Newspaper had a nice article about the fact that people joined in to paint Atlanta’s giant from Michigan and Iowa. Come out and get your hands dirty and have fun at the same time. Remember we work for food!

Volunteers. Every Association needs some helping hands and some people to help us spread the word. If you are interested in being a Board Member or Officer, positions will be up for election in October.

John Lucchesi and Jerry Law went to Springfield with the Scenic Byway’s Bill Kelly to ask for more Route 66 signage in Springfield. The gentlemen fought the good fight however Springfield is hesitant to mark all the routes citing it could cause confusion. I know if its possible these three will get it done. We are grateful for the support IDOT has shown us all these years and we remain, according to our Route 66 visitors, the best marked state.

We’ve had an unusual Winter and Spring and the tourists are out in mass early. On one recent Saturday there were already 3 buses with over 150 visitors to Pontiac and our museum. These were International visitors and one thing that was commented on repeatedly was how “green” Illinois is. Sometimes we forget.

The Association is throwing their support behind an initiative that the North Litchfield Township and the Montgomery County Natural Areas Guardians are working on. The initiative seeks to get a grant to develop parking and signage and a year-round nature trail thru a natural grassland between I-55 and Route 66. This area is full of natural vegetation and flowers and grasses and it is important to save our native landscape as well as the adjoining concrete road.

Litchfield had a groundbreaking ceremony for their new Litchfield Museum and Route 66 Welcome Center. The Route 66 Associations of Missouri and Illinois will once again join together to pursue National Parks funding to redo the Vic Suhling Gas for Less sign that came with the property.

Our last mutual project, the Luna, will hold a Grand Relighting Ceremony on Friday, June 8th. There will be a caravan from the Mother Road Festival in Edwardsville at 8:15 PM down to the Luna where the owner and Association Member, Larry Wolfford, will hold a second relighting for all the tour goers and friends of Route 66. Both the Illinois and Missouri Associations will be participating.

So much to do, so much to see. Check the website for details on all this and more. We’re always glad to have new friends on our Facebook page.

Looking forward to a wonderful tour and summer on the Mother Road with you!

~Cathie

What a strange Winter this year! Snow has been here and there – and some days so nice it was hard to remember it’s still Winter! I would rather do Winter in February and March than snow in April, May or June. Whenever it’s too nice, I think 1967 and the snowstorm that landlocked many of us.

It’s going to be a HUGE year for travelers on the road! I have emails and phone calls of people planning on coming on the road, and wanting to line up their visit with festivals and events! I have to remind people not every town has a parade or festival when they’re visiting – it only seems that way!

Motor Tour is on track – Jerry Law is working hard with Board Members and volunteers, planning a tour with new places and faces as well as some of our tried and trues.
We will be returning to the Edwardsville Mother Road Festival for our Friday night kick-off and Saturday morning we will cross over the Chain of Rocks Bridge. New stops include the Wooden Nickel Winery in Litchfield, Curve Inn in Springfield, our overnight is at Lincoln with the Hall of Fame banquet at Lincoln College where we’ve had some really fabulous food and programs.

Kudos to Marty Blitstein, Duke Cartwright, and Debbie Bates for meeting up with Geoff Ladd and Chef Warren Wendlandt and his staff in Lincoln and working on the room setup, menu and pricing. A lot of time is spent behind the scenes by volunteers so that the tour is “seamless” as much as a tour of several hundred can be!

Along the way we’re doing a tree dedication for the late Jim Allen in Hamel, visiting the new Pontiac-Oakland museum in Pontiac and ending our tour with great music and food in Lloyd Erickson Park in Elwood. (If you can’t make the tour, make sure you join us that Sunday for our end-of-tour festivities in Elwood!)

Red Carpet Festival is set – May 5th and 6th, 90 miles of fun from Joliet to Towanda!
This year each community will have a different key – so make your plans to celebrate and collect all 13 keys. The community of Elwood joins in this year adding another stop to your fun! The Route 66 Association of Illinois Hall of Fame and Museum is lending out their 2nd floor for a special exhibit, “Remembering the 1940s” so come for the fun, stay for the nostalgia. Bob Waldmire’s bus will be open for tours and photo opportunities starting Red Carpet weekend!

Workdays are planned – there is a workday at the Hall of Fame and Museum on Sunday, March 25th, our annual Spring clean up and Annual Dorothy Seratt McMullen and Cathie Stevanovich birthday/workday bash in April.

Watch the website for upcoming Preservation projects workdays. Come out and get your hands dirty! Preservation is fun!

Have you sent in your recipe yet for our 3rd cookbook? We’re looking for recipes that you hadn’t sent in for cookbook 1 or 2 – I just know you’ve got an aunt’s or cousin’s star recipe that you haven’t shared with anyone yet! Lori Killackey is anxious to get our new cookbook underway! Help make Lori’s job easier. Email is cookylady1215@yahoo.com. Recipes can also be sent to the Hall of Fame and Museum at 110 W. Howard, Pontiac, IL 61724.

When the first buds are on the trees you’ll see us on the road! Lucca Grill, Bloomington, celebrating 75 years of great food on the Mother Road, driving to Funks Grove for the fresh maple sirup.

The economy is still tough, politics is even tougher, but simple pleasures along the road are still the best medicine in the world for whatever ails you.

See you on the road!
~Cathie

It’s Fall and a time of changes – the leaves change color, the wind blows cooler and you just know Winter is on its way. “Black Friday” which used to mean the shopping day AFTER Thanksgiving seemed to happen this year the day after Halloween!

Autumn brought many changes. We’ve added Bob Waldmire iconic VW bus and school bus residence to our museum in Pontiac. Gray’s Towing gave their time and equipment to bring Bob’s school bus “home” to Pontiac from Rochester. Member Marty Lathrop brought the van from the Springfield Festival home to the museum. A huge thank you to these members stepping up and volunteering.

The Museum Committee is working on changes to be make over the Winter at the museum. International tourists as will as Illinois visitors continue to visit our Museum weekly. Come Spring there will be another museum added to Pontiac’s landscape, a “Pontiac” museum – as in cars and car memorabilia.

Plans are underway for the Red Carpet weekend honoring Bob Waldmire and the opportunity for everyone to come to Pontiac that weekend and paint on his last artwork. The Motor Tour committee is hard at work for the 2011 Motor Tour. The State Associations for Illinois, Missouri and Oklahoma are looking at putting together a 4 day tour from Oklahoma to Illinois in late Summer. So much in process but what about today?

The one thing that’s missing from our newsletters is our members’ participation. Each month our editors Kathy Miller and Jim Jones strive to put out a magazine full of stories and articles of interest. With all the changes on the road, we look to you, our members, for stories of your community or family or family history on the road to share. Kathy and Jim have dedicated years to giving your their best. They can’t do it alone!

We live in a time of immediate information. We have not only a website but a Facebook page. This dilutes our article “pool” as information is online immediately, instead of coming out in print for our quarterly publication. Our editors work so hard on their personal time and don’t want to see the quality of The 66 News diminished. So we need your advice and help. We need your stories. We need you to volunteer to keep our magazine a “must read.” Tell us what you’ll do to help keep The 66 News strong.

As the snow starts to fly, I’ll be looking for you on the road. Try breakfast at Snuffy’s, fried bologna sandwiches at the Palms Cafe and “peet-sa” at DeCamp Junction. Bring a cup of coffee and volunteer your time on a Saturday at the Hall of Fame in Pontiac, meeting and greeting Route 66 roadies out looking to find their own story on the Mother Road.

Be safe, stay healthy, enjoy the holidays with your family and friends. Make (and keep) and New Year’s resoultion to be an active part of our Association. Maybe this is your season to shine?

See you on the road!
~Cathie

Well it’s still Winter, we had snow, snow and thunder and lightning and snow and now for a few days of pure Spring (read rain, rain, rain). Winter is not over. I want snow now, not in May or June. I like real seasons.

Winter brought many changes along Illinois Route 66. There are new businesses and a couple of new museums! Berwyn is building a Route 66 museum utilizing some of the displays that used to be at Anderson Ford. Pontiac is adding the Pontiac Oakland Automobile Museum about a block from our museum. Godley is going to build, with our Preservation Committee’s assistance, a mining museum!

The Preservation Committee met at Maria’s Route 66 Restaurant in Dwight. Over 50 people came and offered their help at upcoming Preservation Work Days! There will be a clean-up day at the museum in Pontiac on Saturday, March 19th! March 26th will be the first clean up day in Godley at the new museum. April 9th will be the clean-up day at Odell Station! If you’ve never come out for a preservation work day then come out and work (play) with us! A work day in Lincoln at the Mill is waiting to be confirmed! The Preservation Committee’s motto is “We work for food,” so lunch will be provided at all clean-up sites! Watch our Facebook page and our website for more info and how to RSVP that you’ll be there. Preservation involves maintenance – so whether you can give 2 hours or 6 hours your help is always appreciated!

The Red Carpet Corridor – the annual 90 miles of fun – will be using a passport this year to record your trip. Activities will be listed in the Passport for the entire weekend! Put May 7th and 8th on your calendar now! This year promises more activities than ever before including the painting (by everyone) of Bob Waldmire’s last artwork. The 66-foot long mural will be painted by the public over the RCC weekend and will be completed and dedicated during our Motor Tour in June. From Joliet to Towanda – its Elvis, car and motorcycle shows, tractor shows, auctions, flea markets, music and even bed races in Lexington, promise fun-filled weekend for all!

The combined efforts of the Missouri and Illinois Route 66 Associations are working on a grant to bring back real neon to the Luna Cafe. Our own Dorothy McMullen is hard at work looking at getting more Illinois buildings on the national historic register. It’s exciting to see that in the midst of an economic “downturn” the enthusiasm that continues to exist for our part of the Mother Road and the communities alongside it.

Don’t forget to mark your calendars for this year’s LOVE, PEACE, and the MOTHER ROAD Motor Tour! We will be honoring Bob Waldmire’s legacy June 10th, 11th and 12th. This year we go North to South, starting in Joliet and ending in Litchfield.

We look forward to a great Spring with you! I’ll be looking for you during Sirup time at Funk’s Grove, and at the quarterly meeting in Springfield in April.

See you on the road!
~Cathie

Seasons change – it’s part of life.

Our Association is changing too – our Junior Newsletter is launched! The web site has a strong presence online and the “Day Tripper” email flyer is a fantastic success. We’re on Facebook, Twitter, doing email and text messages. OMG it’s all change, change, change…

Thanks to everyone who showed up to our elections in Pontiac in October. We had new people come forward to run for office and we’ve already had a special Board meeting to go over committees and changes in appointments.

The 2010 Motor Tour will be a huge change for us – we are taking our Tour on the road into the sister state of Missouri. We’re going to make the tour a more in-depth look at our southern counties and instead of racing the einire state, we’re going to do quality time and less mileage. Our theme is “We are Family” and this year we will be selling Illinois license plates for the tour. The color theme will be red and black – and red tour shirts this year in response to all our loyal tour goers who have asked for a moratorium on white tees.

The next year will be a heavy tour season as many families are changing to daytrips and weekends instead of traditional vacations. We will be posting everything we get from Chicago to St. Louis on our calendar. Info on museums, historical societies, events, festivals and car shows will be available online. Our 66 communities are never charged to post on our web site “happenings” or info on their part of the road.

Our museum was 5 years old in June and in January we’ll be making some changes to freshen up our displays and set up our Preservation Research Library. We’re excited to be able to provide an area for research on preservation. Books and pamphlets will be able to br reviewed onsite in the museum only.

My thanks to the members who hae served the Association for the past 21 years – for their countless hours and dedication to making our grasssroots group into and “effective association.” I look forward to the next 2 years as we expand the museum adding the preservation library, a film library and eventually being able ato broadcast from the 2nd floor radio station at the museum complex.

With our county reps keeping an eye on their section of th road and the continued maintenance of our already existing preservation projects, we can keep our part of the Mother Road in good shape. As noted by Editor Gina on the recent “Day Tripper” – the Mother Road is 83 this year and doesn’t look a day over 66.

Our beloved authentic hippie and legend Bob Waldmire has come home to Illinois to spend his final days with his family and friends. Bob has been interviewed far and wide and in every instance, in every video, he is as he always was – a gentle, gracious man who lived his life with honor and respect following his heart. Never known to be loud or violent or to try to impose his opinions and views on anyone, he spent the last 10 years taking care of business although he knew he ws sick. Bob lived his life taking care of the Mother Road, his art and his huge extended family of choice. Our prayers are with him. Bob’s VW van will eventually be parked in a museum to give others a glimpse of a life well lived and a tribute to a man who touched the life of everyone he met.

In Waldmire’s own words, “Come as you are, leave different!”

Cathie

What a Summer it’s been! A real Summer with heat – tropical at times! Rain – torrential at times! Everyone who complained last February about wanting Summer got their wish! We had a great Motor Tour and have been enjoying festivals, car shows and celebrations all Summer long!

I’m a “Fall” girl – I love the changing seasons, the Fall festivals and parades: Threshermen’s Reunion in Pontiac and the phenomenal “Bassett Waddle” in September in Dwight. The “Waddle” is the closest thing Illinois has to the running of the bulls – only with a couple hundred (yes, like 600+) Bassett hounds accompanied by their loyal owners as part of a wonderful parade full of marching bands and floats. I love the crunch of leaves underfoot, the changing colors, the smell of leaves burning in the air (where permitted by law). I am hoping for a long, fabulous Fall!

In October is Girard’s Pumpkin Chunking/Fall Festival. Air cannons and pumpkins. Woo-hoo! Also, this Fall, our Association, in conjunction with the City of Pontiac, will be bringing Bob Waldmire’s van and bus to our museum complex. Pontiac is giving Bob’s “mobile” homes a place to rest – out of the sun and mud, off to the side, resting, “retired,” at our Hall of Fame and Museum. Our thanks to the Waldmire Family for sharing Bob’s vehicles with us. We look forward to sharing them with our visitors. We also came upon a collection of videos and interviews with Bob Waldmire over the years and these are being transferred to DVD so that we can show our visitors who Bob was and what he stood for, how he lived and all about his art. I’ve gotten many emails about Bob, telling how people used to love watching that little orange VW bus appear on the skyline. Bob traveled about 45 miles an hour max so if you saw him coming, you really had to wait to talk with him.

Waiting and talking seem foreign and out of sync with today’s world. Yet that’s part of the Route 66 experience: Stopping just to say hello and realizing much, much later that a lot of conversation flowed and a road friendship was made while everyone exchanged information effortlessly. Somehow we existed as a nation without cell phones or iPods or iPads or kindles or texting or tweeting. Route 66 stated, grew, flourished, dwindled down and re-emerged all before technology became an accepted, intricate part of life like it is today.

This year we will all be able to donate $1.00 off our State tax returns to Route 66 and this money will go to the Illinois Route 66 Fund. I imagine these funds may help the Route 66 Scenic Byway finish the kiosk signage program along Route 66. It may also help the city of Springfield and the Route 66 Scenic Byway renovate the old Bel-Aire Motel in Springfield into a visitor’s center (ala Disney). Yes, there are many things that may seem more necessary but tourism dollars help keep communities and people along our part of the Mother Road viable.

Enjoy the changing seasons, the “lasts” of Fall, the coming of Thanksgiving and then Winter for a while. Check the website and our Facebook page often for progress reports on the Waldmire exhibits. Great things are in store for next year – but don’t forget to enjoy today!

See you on the road~
Cathie
Cathie Stevanovich, President

Happy Spring! Rainy, sunny, windy, it’s a real season! The grass is getting greener and the bushes and flowers are starting to  bloom. With spring comes Road Trips! We’ve just finished the very successful Red Carpet corridor weekend. At the museum in Pontiac we had over 800 people visit during this event. We did free photos of anyone who wanted to pose with the world’s largest Route 66 shield (the back of the museum). A big thank you to Cyle and Ryan Blitstein for their help with the photos on Saturday and Johnny Miller for his photo expertise on Sunday.

This is our Hall of Fame issue. What makes our Hall of Fame so special is that the people who are inducted into our Hall of Fame represet good will, service, ingenuity and drive. We welcome the new “Class of 2010” to our 20th Annual Hall of Fame Banquet in Carlinville in June. The Hall of Fame Committee, headed by Johnny Miller, submitted to the Board a revision of some of the rules and guidelines of our Hall of Fame Committee. It will allow more flexibility into the nominating process as we need to look out for those who are coming on the road and starting businesses to help keeep our “66” Communities viable. The “years” limitation will be lifted. Look for more info in the fall newsletter.

Several of our board members did a Road Triip into Missouri for the Route 66 Association of Missouri’s April meeting. It was very informative. The Missouri Association has a Neon Heriteage Preservation Committee who would like to work with us on projects of interest near the Chain of Rocks Bridge. We listened to a presentation of the ongoing Scenic Byway project on Missouri Route 66. It was a great time which, of course, ended up at Ted Drew’s before heading back into Illinois.

The meeting in Carlinville was fantastic. Wer met at the Carlinville Best Western and were happy to see so many members turn out for our meeting. We had 3 speakers. Stephanie Wonderlin from the Hampton Inn in Linclon and Litchfield told us if you’re traveling on the Road, tell the front desk at either the Hampton Inn in Lincoln or the Hampton Inn in Litchfield that you’re a Route 66 Association member. They will give you special pricing. Guest speaker, Kaisa Barthuli, from National Parks Services, talked about the Road and current happenings, grants and funding along 66. Mayor Trevor Clatfelter of Sherman, Illinois, spoke about his plan to presserve one of the last true (authentic) rest stops on Route 66. The mayor talked about and showed us his planss for taking the original rest stop and utilizing somer of the actual Route 66 pavement in its development. This piece of land is a national treasure. I was very impressed at the zeal and energy of Mayor Caltfelter and I hope Sherman realizes what a great mayor he is and keeps him on board. We told the mayor that we’re available to help if he needs us.

The Motor toru will be here soon. This will be our 21st Tour. This year New Mexico will be hosting their 1st Motor Tour and the Missouri Association will be having their 21st also! There is something for everyone out on the road and whether your write a story for the newslwtter, Tweet or post on Facebook, we are always glad to hear from you. I got my pork chop dinner at the Crossroads, breakfast at the Itty Bitty and Ted Drew’s pizza at Lucca’s Grill! I am content to be back on the road wandering the two lanes, fat and sassy, checking out our “66” comunities. There’s no place like home.

See you on the road –
Cathie Stevanovich