Route 66 - Chicago to Missouri - RV podcast 381
Greetings from Route 66 - Chicago to Missouri - RV podcast 381
This week we share details of our first week touring Route 66 starting in Chicago and working our way toward Missouri. From drive ins to diners to dives to service stations and plenty of neon we recommend you join us here virtually so you can plan your own Route 66 adventure.
Other places to hear the podcast
Mentioned on this episode
Traveling Robert’s video about the first 100 miles of Route 66 from Chicago to Joliet
Our story about Route 66 from Chicago to Joliet, Illinois
Our story about exploring small towns on Route 66 in Northern Illinois
Our story about Dwight, Odell and Pontiac Illinois on Route 66
Our story about revisiting Muffler Men, diners and drive-ins in Northern Illinois on Route 66
Our story about visiting Springfield, Illinois on Route 66
Our story about the First 100 miles from Chicago on Route 66
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We have a podcast episode and video where you can learn more here.
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Automated transcript of StressLess Camping RV podcast episode 381
Tony
This week on the Stressless Camping RV podcast, we share details of our first week touring Route 66, starting in Chicago and working our way toward Missouri. From drive-ins, to diners, to dives, to service stations, and plenty of neon, we recommend you join us virtually so you can plan your own Route 66 adventure in real life. We have this week's podcast, along with the notes and all the stories that go with this episode, plus discounts, deals, helpful tips, and more, at our home on the web at stresslesscamping.com.
Tony
We really appreciate your likes and shares. Thank you for joining us, and hope you get your kicks and get some stressless camping. I'm Tony.
Peggy
I'm Peggy.
Tony
Uh, and she's on the other side of the desk, and we're two RV industry veterans who travel part-time in a Rockwood Mini Lite, looking to share big adventures, get our kicks, and help you with great tips, tricks, and discounts. Now, you might notice there's only one of us on camera at the moment, but that's about to change. We are trying something different just because of how this first week of Route 66 worked out. Uh, Peggy and I are each recording our own segments and kind of our favorites.
Tony
We even, we're traveling with our friend Kate, and Peggy and Kate did some adventures, and we did some as a group. So, uh, it's something a little bit different, but you know what? We're a little bit different. So anyway, without any further ado, let's go get some kicks on Route 66.
Peggy
Well, you know, the Route 66 should begin in Chicago, or end in Chicago, or whatever. But I have to tell you, uh, between the traffic and the crowds, and the big truck, and the low parking, and, uh, we did not see much in Chicago. Kate did jump out of the truck, take a quick selfie with the beginning sign while we were waiting for a signal to turn red, to turn green, and then jump back in, and everything else we just decided wasn't important enough.
Peggy
Someday, someone who knows Chicago might take us to Chicago, and we can get some pictures, and they can worry about the traffic and the parking, but this trip, that did not happen.
Tony
I'm coming to you from Route 66, and let's talk about Joliet, Illinois. Now, probably the most famous thing in Joliet is the Joliet Prison. We didn't go there, and the reason we didn't go there, well, we drove by it, but the reason we didn't go there is we watched Traveling Robert's, uh, video of about the same section, and he got to walk all through the Joliet Prison. It's 22 bucks, and it's, abandoned would be a, a kind description.
Tony
So we decided not to go. We did drive by, and so it's enormous. So if you haven't been there, um, yeah, there you go. Where we did go is a place called Harvester Park, and this park is a local community park that is a depiction of basically the whole of Route 66. It is so well done. There's a little muffler man. There's, there's the Sears Tower, which I know isn't called the Sears Tower anymore.
Tony
Uh, and we're traveling with our friend Kate, and she she tried to, there's a huge tube slide coming down the Sears Tower Building, and I know some of you guys are going, "Quit calling..." Oh, it's the Willis Tower. What you talking about, Willis? Uh, but anyway, she tried to get, uh, her dog Bailey, a golden lab, to go down this tube slide, and Bailey was having none of that. None of that whatsoever. Um, there are Cadillacs parked in this, in the playground.
Tony
There's a Tow Mater. Uh, just it, it's a fantastic... You have to stop if you are in the area, Harvester Park, and it's so well done. And then just as a playground, there's like bouncy things, and the, the ground is that spongy rubber stuff. So really, really cool stop on Route 66, Harvester Park. Another place we stopped, and this is kind of typical of Route 66, is a place called the Castle Car Wash.
Tony
The Castle Car Wash is an old filling station, and it's reportedly was owned by, or run by, or had some interaction with Al Capone. Um, I guess there's some speculation whether that's true or not. It's a castle-shaped building. It used to be a filling station. It was then a car wash, and it's now closed. And truth is, you can stop at so many used to be filling stations, and closed filling stations, and, and things like that.
Tony
We stopped at this one because of the Al Capone, uh, tie-in, and it's just, it's closed . So there you go. Uh, it, it's still, it's a cool piece of architecture, but it's, you know, kind of unloved at the moment. And there is, there's a lot of those along Route 66. However, because it's the 100th year anniversary, there are also a lot of nicely fixed up old service stations and, and businesses too.
Tony
So there's both new life and old life on Route 66. Since we were driving essentially through Chicago, I thought of hot dogs, right? I couldn't stop thinking about eating Chicago hot dogs. And finally, we stopped at a place called Henry's Drive-In, and Henry's Drive-In has a big neon sign outside, and that sign has a hot dog with french fries piled all on it. And lo and behold, inside- You get a hot dog with french fries piled all over it.
Tony
And I have to say, uh, the hot dog was really good. The french fries were really good. It was... Oh, I'm, like, kinda wishing I were back there eating another one because it was, it was quite good. And this place has been around for years, and years, and years. So, um, it has a, you know, the neon sign and all, all the kitsch and typical, uh, Route 66 nostalgia, and a great hot dog with french fries on it. Kate also got, uh, a- an Italian beef sandwich.
Tony
I guess that's a thing there. It's thinly sliced beef, and I guess you can get it, uh, with au jus or without, and there's a bunch of variations. All I know is she split it with us and it was darn good, so there you go. Uh, last but not least, we made a few more stops, visited a few more things, uh, including a place called Home Cut Donuts. Home Cut Donuts is near Route 66.
Tony
I don't think it's quite on Route 66, but they have been making donuts, they have not closed at all since 1966. And so we figured, ah, it's coffee time. We'll go and, and get a okay cup of coffee and, and a donut. No, they were... It was a good cup of coffee and a really good donut too. And the place is just, the bakery is pretty big. All the donuts are made right there. And, uh, so I got a donut. Peggy got a donut.
Tony
Kate got a donut. And they're all very good. And again, the place is not closed since 1966, and on their website they have a counter of how many minutes they've been open, which is kinda impressive. Um, another thing, they have one of those, like, it looks like an odometer from an old car where it rolls over, so every person who likes, uh, the place on Facebook, the odometer clicks up one more number. Peggy was number 10,000, so that was cool.
Tony
So we were sitting there eating donuts and drinking coffee and watching the odometer click up when Peggy was the 10,000th, 10,000th like - boy, that's tough to say, and watch me say it - uh, of their Facebook page. So a- again, I wrote all about this in more extensive detail at stresslesscamping.com. We have a link below in the show notes to that. And now, a word from our sponsors. It's time for another segment of the Route 66 Adventure, and back with me again.
Tony
And the first place we're gonna stop is Wilmington, and we're gonna s- check out the new home of the Gemini Giant. The Gemini Giant is a space man, muffler man that was at the Launching Pad Restaurant, and had been until about 2022 when the Launching Pad sold and there was the muff- uh, the Gemini Giant went on sale with the Launching Pad.
Tony
Um, there was all kinds of goings-on about that sale. Ultimately, he sold for quite a bit of money and was resold to a local historical society, and he's there in Wilmington. Uh, there was talk that he was gonna go elsewhere and all of that. Well, they took down the Gemini Giant, took him, I believe, to Mark Klein, and they spiffed him up and he is spiffy. He has his own park and it's a nice spot for him.
Tony
So it, uh... We got to see the Gemini Giant at the Launching Pad in the past on our first trip through Route 66, and got to see him again this time and he, he's looking good. So, uh, anyway, that was our first stop on the Mother Road in this leg of the adventure. This was a wee bit shorter leg, uh, but we wanted to go to the Polka Dot Drive-In. And the Polka Dot Drive-In is one of those very Route 66 stories where after the bypassing of Route 66, it really started to go downhill.
Tony
Business was slow. You know, all of the, all of the, the same story of Route 66. New owners bought it, really kinda fixed it up and just kitched the heck out of it. It has got all kinds of... It's got Marilyn, it's got, uh, Elvis, it's got Superman. Uh, the interior has an old juke. You know, all o- all of this stuff. And they're famous for their cheese fries and of course, I had to get a Chicago hot dog again 'cause...
Tony
But unfortunately, what I did not realize is that at least the way they make it, Chicago hot dog has ketchup on it. Ketchup on a hot dog, I don't know. That's just not... No. It was still fine, but I just was, was a little surprised by that. So, uh, that's the deal. But the Polka Dot Drive-In, it, it's worth a stop. And interestingly, across the street is this, like, zoo, and the zoo has all these wacky, I mean, really wacky animals in it, uh, with spray foam fur and all.
Tony
It, it's, it's true Goofy USA, is, is what it is. So the Polka Dot Diner's Goofy USA and the, that zoo across the street is Goofy USA. It's, it's just a cute little town on Route 66. So, uh- Stop at lunchtime. It, it's a, it's a great place. I love how things change over time, and we stopped at a town called Gardner, Illinois, just because... And we've stopped here before. They have this little diner, it's no longer open, but it used to be a horse-drawn, like, street car, and it's, it's so small, and this guy bought it i- in the '30s, turned it into a diner, and it's, it's pretty well restored.
Tony
You can't go in it, at least not when we've stopped there. But it just shows how... Like, it didn't even have running water er- initially. It was just... And the, they were cooking up, uh, food in there, and no health code at all at that time, right? I mean, obviously it was fine, but, uh, we have certainly changed our ways. You could never serve out of this thing today without some serious modifications. So, but it's cute. There's some nice... Well, you'll see pictures.
Tony
And then that same little park where this diner is also has a jail that's like a two-person jail, and apparently it's really more for dealing with, you know, letting the drunks sleep off their benders more than anything, uh, kind of like Otis on The Andy Griffith Show. So anyway, it was a, it was a quick stop. This, we didn't do a lot of driving this day, but got to see some neat stuff on Route 66, including how things worked in the past.
Tony
We even saw a section of the old road, uh, kind of on the side of where the... You know, Route 66 has been aligned, realigned numerous times, and so there's a bit of old road next to the new road. Anyway, that's what we have for you, uh, on this segment. I hope you enjoyed it.
Peggy
Kate and I took another side trip, and on this day we started in the town of Dwight, Illinois. And of course we started at an old service station. I think there were so many service stations back then because cars didn't make it as far as cars can now without stopping for, I don't know, top off their radiator, top off their gas, get a new tire, new belts, all that kind of stuff. I think we're pretty lucky these days. We can, uh, drive farther distances, and we can drive with our air conditioner on and not worry about our radiators.
Peggy
Kate had a fun time at this stop. She rode the fire engine and rang the fire bell, and we met an author named Ann Morrow Slinina, and she writes children books about Annie the Mouse, who goes on Route 66 adventures, which was super cool. And I actually saw her books later when we were in a museum in Pontiac. So we had a really good time at that gas station, and we also stopped for lunch at the Old 66 Family Diner, no, Old 66 Family Restaurant, and had a really nice lunch, and they have this hu- great, huge mural that takes up the whole entire dining area.
Peggy
So you can enjoy that video while I talk along. The other thing that's in Dwight, Illinois, is a bank building that is still used as a bank, but it was actually designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. I am a big fan of Frank Lloyd Wright. As you'll see later, we have also seen a Frank Lloyd Wright designed home in Springfield, Illinois. The bank was really, really beautiful, and it just happened that I needed to get some cash, so I was able to make two stops for the price of one.
Peggy
The next town we stopped at was Odell, Illinois. It's a tiny little town, uh, with a tiny little lis- li- listing on the Roadside 66 app. We only ended up making one stop, and that was at a 1932 Standard Oil gas station, which is perhaps predictably a visitor center and a gift shop. I spent probably as much time in the building as I spent outside looking at this 1935 Winnebago travel trailer that was so cool.
Peggy
Very, very original. Really enjoyed looking at that. The lady inside the Standard Oil station was very nice. They have a lot of old service station equipment and stuff that they show, and then they have a little gift shop. On the way to Pontiac, Illinois, we took some video of some Burma-Shave signs. Hopefully if you're watching this, you'll be able to read the signs. Uh, maybe in the show notes I can put the text.
Peggy
Oh, the text is also written in our blog post of the day about, uh, I think it's called Girls Day in Illinois, and I wrote the text that I read 'cause I slowed down the video so I could actually see it to read it. But you know, we always love finding those Burma-Shave signs, and I love s- sticking my camera out the window and trying to video those. On the app for Pontiac, on the Roadside 66 app, it said that there were a whole bunch of museums, and I wasn't sure how in the world we were gonna visit that many museums.
Peggy
Well, as it turns out, in Pontiac, there's, like, six or eight museums in one building. So they're not huge museums. They're all, like, a floor or part of a floor of this building, beautiful old brick building, and there's a whole variety of museums inside. We went outside because Bob Waldmire's Land Yacht, which was a school bus with a wooden structure on top, with like a two-story RV, he used that thing to traverse Route 66 extensively.
Peggy
Unfortunately, it was put away in storage because they're doing some construction that they are hoping to have done for their big Route 66 centennial celebration in November. It's only a month away, you guys. You better hurry. But we did look through all the mu- through the museums, and that was really cool. We wandered around town a little bit, kind of looking for the land yacht, but which we never found, but that's okay. Uh, we did find President Lincoln leaning on a log fence, so we stopped and took a chat, had a chat with Abe.
Peggy
And we looked at some of the murals in town, including the one that Bob Waldmire designed, which is, like, oh, 66 feet long, I believe. So we had a really nice day in Dwight, Odell, and Pontiac, Illinois.
Tony
So this, uh, re- section of Route 66, for a lot of reasons, may have been my personal favorite. Uh, we started in Normal, which is something I've never been accused of being, and there we saw Sprague's Super Service. Now, Sprague's Super Service is another Route 66 gas station. However, this was built by a local contractor and is really an exceptional building because downstairs is the gas station, and it had a restaurant in the olden days, and then upstairs was living quarters.
Tony
Well, in 2016, it was purchased by a lady named Terry Ryburn, and she has lived there since then, since 2017, when she really fixed it back up, turned it into a gift shop, and, uh, they had some great items at really fair prices. I was quite impressed with the prices, and I bought some stuff, of course, so, uh, there you go. But Sprague's Super Service is ... It- it's a beautiful old gas station, and it's just been so nicely kind of brought back.
Tony
There's even an EV charging station there. Well, then, we went to what is truly one of my favorite stops on Route 66, and it's one of the ... Route 66 has a lot of the historical things, of course. It's why we kind of go there, but then there's new stuff, and this new stuff has old stuff, and that's the American Giants Museum. And I'm not gonna talk about it too much other than to say, uh, now, or since we spoke with the curator of the American Giants Museum in the past, it has been sold, and it has been sold to a gent named Lee Woods, who also has his own giant collection of giants, along with, uh, trucks and all kinds of cool petroliana and all of that in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
Tony
Uh, so Lee Woods now owns the museum, and he opened a shop across the street. Uh, so really cool guy, and we got to meet him, so that was kind of a, a, you know, fanboy moment for me. Uh, and they've added more giants to the American Giants Museum, and so we have pictures of that, and w- uh, we have all of this as a story as well, and we can put a link to our previous podcast with the curator of the American Giants Museum.
Tony
We also had to stop for lunch at a place called the Country Air Restaurant, and they have their own giant out front, Lumi. Well, Lumi is a depiction of the lady who bakes a lot of the desserts at Country Air Restaurant, and we finally got to meet her, and what a character. What a neat lady, and oh, boy, the food there is good, and the desserts, you- you ... Make sure if you plan to eat there, and you should, that you save room for dessert, or just start with dessert first.
Tony
I mean, that's the, that's the smart thing to do, I think. Uh, so anyway, really good desserts, really good food, and Lumi is a giant outside, too. But then possibly my favorite part of this entire adventure thus far, uh, is through Harvest Hosts, and you know, we're big fans of Harvest Hosts. And we got to stay at the Sky View Drive-In Theater, and we stayed for two nights, uh, because they, the first night they were showing Casper in honor of Halloween, and then the second movie was Ghostbusters, which I haven't seen in a long time.
Tony
I don't remember if I've ever seen it on a, you know, proper movie screen. So we watched that the first night, and then the second night they had the movie Cars right on Route 66, and then Christine, the story about the killer Plymouth. Uh, so it was just, I so enjoyed our two nights there, and we got to take advantage of our solar and lithium system from ABC Upfitters, of course, so that was also fantastic. It performed beautifully even though one of the days was really cloudy, and still got back up to full state of charge, and the, the system just worked flawlessly, and this is why we bought that system.
Tony
These kind of overnight stays are my favorite, and we love Harvest Hosts, and we love our system from ABC Upfitters, so this was sort of the culmination of that. But wait, there's more. While we were staying at the drive-in, the Saturday, it's the celebration of the first 100 miles of Route 66, and they had a car show. So while Kate and Peggy hightailed it out of there and, and went exploring, I was gonna stay and look at the cars, and I did, and there was some really fantastic cars there.
Tony
Uh, there was also a vendor fair and, you know, just kind of the whole type of community celebration at the drive-in. It was pretty full during the day of this kind of stuff. I also got to meet an author who has done a really beautiful book, uh- It's Luke Spanton, and he did this road trip diary book. It's, it's just beautiful. So what a, what a great couple of days at the Sky View Drive-In, and just another reason to have a really good solar and lithium system, and also to h- be a member of Harvest Hosts.
Tony
So those were, are my favorite days so far on this trip, and hopefully you enjoy them too.
Peggy
Kate and I spent the day in Springfield and a little bit on the road south of Springfield. We try to balance going to all the spots on the Roadside 66 app o- and with, uh, not bouncing ourselves too much on the rough roads when we have our travel trailer, also with spending a few weeks, not a few months, on the route. So that being said, we stopped and took a few pictures of things, stopped and actually looked at some things, but here is what we saw.
Peggy
We started in northern Springfield, where we saw a tattooed Bob, Big Boy Bob. He is actually advertising a tattoo shop. And then we found, at the Illinois State Fairgrounds, the Route 66 experience, and boy, what an experience it was. We really enjoyed walking through Illinois Route 66 on foot. Uh, it kind of follows the entire route through the state with Burma-Shave signs and kind of these barn-like buildings that have all sorts of maps and photographs and a whole bunch of just really cool stuff that helps you learn about Route 66 and what it is that we've driven through or we will be driving through.
Peggy
Well, now that we've all driven through because we're done with our Illinois trip. We really, really, really enjoyed that. And the, by the way, the Lincoln, I mean, the Illinois State Fairgrounds are absolutely beautiful, so I wouldn't have minded spending maybe twice as long walking around the experience, but we did have other things to check out, so we got through our experience, and then we got back in the truck and moved on. What you see a lot in Route 66, everything Route 66, is old service stations, old filling stations, and we try to at least take a snapshot of each one that we c- come to.
Peggy
Sometimes we go out of our way, sometimes we don't, to see some. In Springfield, we saw Mahan's Phillips 66 station, and we had to drive past it twice because it is so tiny and it is so close to the nearby Italian restaurant. I thought it was part of that building, and I thought, "No, I don't know what I'm... I, I can't find this filling station." And then we drove back the other way, and I finally figured out where it was. It was really, really cool. There was also the Shay's service station, and one of the other service stations in Springfield is now a Green Book museum, and I didn't know anything about Green Books until I heard Anthony Arno's podcast, Route 66 podcast, and he featured the, the Green Books.
Peggy
And I kind of wish that the museum had been open that day. We weren't able to go in and see. I guess they have a select- a collection of Green Books, which I think would really be wonderful to see, but unfortunately, it was closed that day. Another thing that you see a lot along Route 66 is trains, of course. Uh, there is a train track pretty much paralleling the entire route, and Tony and I really love trains, and we really love train stations. So as we went around the corner in Springfield and I saw the Union Station, which used to be a train station, but now it is part of the Lincoln Library instead of being a train station, but still really beautiful.
Peggy
And then I also asked Kate to go a little bit out of the way and go to the Chatham train station just so I could take a couple pictures, 'cause, you know, it looks like our house. Another place that we visited, which isn't necessarily related to Route 66 that much, but we went to the Lincoln Home National Historic Site. It was where Abraham Lincoln and his family in the 1860s lived while he was running, I believe running for president. Don't come at me, I'm not that much of a history buff.
Peggy
Uh, but really, really cool little walking area of the neighborhood. There was one of the guides that told us that some newer homes and buildings had been built up over the years, and they've actually taken those back out so that everything left in that area is just houses that existed in the 1860s, which is really, really cool. I know that you can get a tour, and I think it's a free tour, but you can't go inside any of the buildings without being on the tour.
Peggy
I thought we had done it before and gone inside, but I don't have any photos of being inside the building, so apparently I don't remember that properly. The other thing that we did tour when we were in Springfield a few years ago was the Dana-Thomas house, which is a beautiful residence that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Again, we did get to go in that one, I know we did, but you're not allowed to take pictures inside, so I have no pictures to show you. So if you want to see the inside of Lincoln's home or the Dana-Thomas home, you'll need to go and just take your own tours We stopped and ate two times.
Peggy
One time was at the Cozy Dog Drive-In. We learned about that from the Roadside 66 app, and we learned that that is where corn dogs were invented, and not only where corn dogs were invented by in- invented by Bob Waldmire's dad, Ed. So two pieces of fun for that one. So Kate and I went in and had a cozy dog, and took some pictures, and looked at the gift shop, and then I did bring Tony a co- a cozy dog home. I don't know if it tasted as good cold, but that's what he got.
Peggy
The other place that we didn't stop to eat, but it is an eatery that Tony and I have been to twice in one day because we liked it that much, is called Motorheads. And the reason that we stopped this time is that Motorhead's got a new addition in the parking lot, and it is Big Ron. Big Ron started out life as a Big John with- at the Big John Grocery Stores, and then more recently, his arms got re- re-adjusted, re- reattached, and now he holds up a big Route sh- Route 66 Motorheads shield, and beckons hungry travelers to stop for a rest and a meal.
Peggy
Our, quote unquote, "dinner," I guess, is the, the place that we stopped later in the day, and that's in the c- town of Girard, Illinois, which h- has a family, uh, attachment for me, the name Girard, uh, and also chocolate ice cream. So Whirl-A-Whip apparently is a method of making ice cream that can be served like soft serve, but soft serve has such a limited way of flavoring, uh, whereas Whirl-A-Whip can be any flavor that ice cream can be.
Peggy
It was really, really good flavor. We really enjoyed it, and it was like 5:00 PM, so it was kind of our dinner. On the way back to the, uh, where we were camping at a Harvest Host at the Litchfield Drive-In Theater, we stopped. We did two more kind of drive by areas. One was we drove on original brick section of Route 66 for like a mile and a half, which was really cool to think about, you know, these are the same bricks that people drove on 100 years ago, and it looks great.
Peggy
It's a great ... It's pretty good quality road. The other place that we took a little detour is a place where there are turkey tracks in the concrete. And I guess what happened was while the concrete was trying to cure, a turkey got loose from the local farm, and wandered all over, and left these tracks. So both of these places, we were driving along, we just stopped in the middle of the road, and Kate got out and took pictures. I stayed in the car because I figured if another car was coming, we didn't wanna make it too big of an ordeal to get back in the truck and move on.
Peggy
We did have a good time driving on the brick road, and I will say that the road to the turkey tracks is a little rough. I'm glad we did not do that towing our travel trailers. So that was our day in Springfield. Now let's see what our sponsors have to say. Well, this is our final driving day out of Illinois and into Missouri. Uh, I worked hard to keep looking at the Roadside 66 app, and take pictures out the windows, and tell Tony which way to turn.
Peggy
I was very multitasking on these driving days. Our first stop was Mount Olive, where we saw a Bob's Big Boy, and then, guess what? A service station. This was Sulzby's Shell station in Mount Olive. And we were just gonna drive by and do a little bit of video, but then I saw all the stickers in the windows, so we decided that we better pull over and stop so that I could go add another sticker to their window. So I did that.
Peggy
Tony and Kate stayed in the truck. I just ran over, stickered up the building, and then got back in the truck, and ran away as if I had done something bad. The next stop was the Pink Elephant Antique Mall, and this place is pretty famous, whether you're a, a Route 66 person or not. This is just off of the interstate, so the Pink Elephant Antique Mall in Livingston, Illinois is pretty famous regardless of why you're going through that area.
Peggy
They do have this Futuro house, which I don't know if all future homes are gonna be built by aliens, but the Pink Elephant seems to think so. I don't know if they'll be as scary as the ones there or not. The antique mall yard pr- uh, property has all sorts of fun to look at, statues, and things, and, and a zoo, and American giants, muffler men. But of course, they're famous for their giant pink elephant.
Peggy
You might have guessed that by the fact that that's what it's called. They have all kinds of fun, fun stuff to look at, and they do, as promised, have an antique store inside. They also have a little snack bar called the Twisty Treat Diner. We did not get anything to eat, it wasn't really lunchtime, but we checked it out anyway, and I got my rubber stamps in my passbook. And then there was a candy, and fudge, and gift shop.
Peggy
Uh, we also didn't buy anything there. We j- well, I think I bought something. Oh, I got a penny smashed, that's what we did there. Uh, but we just really enjoyed all the weird stuff going on that we could see at the Pink Elephant Antique Mall in Livingston, Lino- Livingston, Illinois. And I put a sticker on the van outside the antique mall. You know, it's a little hard to traverse Route 66 old route with two travel trailers, so There might be things that we missed, and that's why sometimes we take back trips and side trips, but in this case, we did take the trip into Granite City, which is just on the eastern side of the Mississippi River, the, kind of the last thing you can do in Illinois, and even though it was getting off the freeway and driving on the roads, we went ahead and did it because this was too far to backtrack, and we really wanted to see some things in Granite City.
Peggy
One of the things that we just was a must-do before we left the St. Louis area was to get St. Louis-style pizza. So we went to Imo's Pizza and introduced Kate to fried ravioli and Imo's St. Louis-style pizza. Is it the best pizza? No. Is it an experience you should have once? Absolutely. But another favorite part about Granite City is that there are quite a few muffler men, American giants. There's an Abraham Lincoln, there's a firefighter, there's a guy with a sledgehammer, all kinds of stuff, and also, there is a corner kind of park that's a neon park, and it was ...
Peggy
We didn't get out again because parking and, you know, time-wise and everything, but we did take some video and pictures as we passed by. Actually, Tony did a three-point turn with the travel trailer in one of these little residential streets so we could go back and take more pictures. Really, really cool neon park. Um, I, I mean, we saw pretty much everything we needed to see out of the windows. All in all, a really fun stop, and then the next thing that we did was drive over the river and into Missouri, which we're going to talk about next week, but Tony did stick his arm out the window and get some video of the old Chain of Rocks bridge, which I don't think that we could have parked there to go look at it.
Peggy
Uh, it's an old bridge. Of course, it's not used by cars anymore. You can walk on it, but it's kind of notable because it has this 22-degree turn in the middle of it, and that was made so that the people in the boats below could navigate around the, I guess, chain of rocks, like a big pile of rocks in the river. So that was our trip through Illinois on Route 66. Next week, we'll talk about Missouri.
Tony
Well, that's what we have for you this week. Hopefully, uh, you enjoyed this little bit different way that we recorded the podcast, and of course, we sincerely appreciate your being with us. Uh, don't forget that we do have our weekly newsletter full of tips, tricks, and discounts, and also, it'll have recaps of this trip. We've written an article for each day of the adventure that we've been out, so, uh, lots of great content, and it's all free, including being free of spam.
Tony
Well, thank you so much for being here. Oh, and most of all... Stressless camping.
Peggy
Stressless camping.
Tony
I liked it
