Small town fun in Northern Illinois on Route 66
Exploring small towns on Route 66 in Northern Illinois
We are interspersing days of tourism with unfortunate days of workism but that’s the only way we can get things to your side of this digital equation so that’s the way it goes. Yesterday was a work day and, good on Peggy, we recorded, edited and posted the podcast and video all in the same day. That’s unusual - it normally takes a couple of days.
So today we’re back on the road and here are some of the things we saw along Route 66.
The Gemini Giant at the original site of the Launching Pad in 2021
The Gemini Giant
These so-called Muffler Men started life as tools to promote a business which is how the Launching Pad in Wilmington, Illinois ended-up with one. Owners of the Launching Pad bought a space man giant at a trade show and then used a contest to help name the figure.
Since then the Giant has become absolutely iconic so when the restaurant was sold the current owners threaten to have the iconic muffler man destroyed if it didn’t sell for what they wanted. There was an auction where the Giant was ultimately sold to a local preservation organization and removed. At that point he got spiffed up and is now in a park in town.
We saw him at the original site when we went through here so we had to pay him a visit today and, let me say, he is fancy! As part of the move he was refurbished and that refurbishment included a new suit of paint with that paint being a very sparkly green. He looks terrific!
The Gemini Giant as he stands today on Route 66
We saw the Old Road
As we rolled along what is now Route 66 it was clear that there was a tired variant of the Mother Road immediately adjacent to this one. That original road seemed to find favor with walkers as there were a few examples of benches on the road but you wouldn’t want to put your vehicle on it - the surface had plenty of weeds growing up through it and was even rougher than the road we were on if that’s at all possible.
Yeah, road maintenance in this part of the country seems to be a low priority.
Tiny Diner and Two-Person Jail House
There’s a tiny diner on Route 66 in Gardner, Illinois that began its history as a horse-drawn streetcar owned and operated by the Kankakee Transit System. A sign tells the interesting story of this very small eatery - and here’s what that sign says.
It is believed to date back to the late 1800s. It was purchased in 1932 for $300.00 from Kankakee by Mr. George Kaldem with the intention of converting it into a roadside diner with his mother, Minnie Springborn, as the cook.
There was, at that time, a Texaco gas station next to it and an auto repair shop across the road. The shop remains are still there.
The conversion to a diner was simple - the removal of the seats and most equipment related to the carrying of passengers. A small addition was added to one side of the car and became the kitchen. Several windows on this side were also removed to become the "pass-through" from the kitchen to the counter. A small counter and several small booths were then installed.
The interior was painted light green with a dark green ceiling. The exterior was painted white. The parking lot was covered with coal cinders since regular gravel was too expensive. This was strictly a “no frills” operation. A small sign on the exterior was its only identification as a diner. But the good food and reasonable cost soon made it unnecessary to advertise.
There never was a running water supply or indoor toilet facilities. Water for cooking and washing equipment was carried in with containers supplied by local residents. Most homes in Gardner had only private wells and cisterns, No municipal services were available. The hours of operation were 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Lunch was the busiest time. A Blue Plate Special was offered for 35 cents. It included meat, potato, veggie, bread and coffee. Soup was offered only once a week, possibly due to the water situation. Fresh pies were made daily. Minnie Springborn, the cook, was known far and wide for her cooking. Her fresh pies, stew, fried chicken and homemade bread were considered some of the finest that could be found anywhere.
The Diner also served as the unofficial local bus stop for the Greyhound Lines until a new facility, including a restaurant, was built about a block East of the Diner on the North side of Route 66. The foundation of that structure still remains and is visible at the corner of Jackson and Route 66. The Diner's history ended in 1939. In 1937, sickness in Minnie's family made it necessary for her to leave her cooking duties and stay home and attend to her ailing daughter. Another family took over the Diner operation. Its demise was probably due to a number of causes; the new bus stop, the Gardner bridge and its lack of toilet facilities contributed to its closing.
There’s also a two-person tiny jail next to it all in a park and you can go into the jail and be glad this isn’t a place you call home (the jail, not Gardner - the town’s pretty nice actually). There’s a recording playing in the jail that says it was more intended to allow local drunks to sleep-off their bender rather than hold proper prisoners. We can envision Otis letting himself in and out depending on how the evening’s drinking activities went.
Polk-A-Dot Drive-In
There were a lot of places to stop and chow down and it was about time we did so but the only one listed on the app as truly kitschy Route 66-worthy was the Polk-A-Dot Drive In in Braidwood, Illinois. The diner originally opened in 1956 but, as with so many things along Route 66, its fortunes declined once the road was bypassed.
In 1994 the present owners decided that adding kitsch and statues to the business would turn things around and, since it’s still here, I would imagine that worked.
There are statues of Elvis, the Blues Brothers, Marilyn, and many others around and inside the eatery. There’s also a phone booth where Superman stands - you can imagine he just changed although this phone booth is intact. In fact there’s a phone in it but it doesn’t appear to work. That’s okay, it makes for a great photo op.
The restaurant’s signature item seems to be cheese fries which are regular French fries with cheese sauce on them. Yes, please. They were decent enough. I also got a hot dog and wanted a Chicago dog which they obliged me with. I had no idea that that order would mean ketchup on the dog. I can’t imagine ketchup being willingly applied to a poor, defenseless hot dog. Otherwise, though, it was fine.
Though I did come home and have another hot dog for dinner with mustard on it as God intended. Ketchup on a hot dog indeed. Harumph!
Across from the Polk-A-Dot is a silly “zoo” of creatures, some of which have spray foam coats on them. Now this is truly a goofy roadside attraction!
