Day 4 - Chicago to Springfield

After a snafu with the rental van reservation, we began our Route 66 journey from the origination point on Jackson in Chicago. Our first stop was the famous
Launching Pad Cafe in Wilmington - home of the Gemini Giant statue. They had very cool tabletops printed with a map of Route 66 across them, though they need a new mapmaker since they put Albuquerque at about the level of White Sands, and Flagstaff had sagged down to Phoenix!

Next we stopped at an old Standard Oil Station in Odell - very charming, with a lot of Route 66 memorabilia and signage, as well as a 50's era travel trailer.

On to Funk's Grove, near Shirley, where the Funk family has been making maple sirup since the mid 1800s. (They spell sirup with an I as in the original English spelling). It is truly a grove - the store and a working maple sirup farm, along with their home. Unfortunately, because of our delayed start, we got there about an hour past closing time. We got out of the van anyway to take pictures. Pretty soon, a lady came out of the house and waved to us - asking if we'd like to buy something. She was Glada Funk (she is in the picture with us), and she opened the store back up for us so we could get some delicious maple sirup. She was a very friendly lady, and we had a nice conversation with her about Route 66 and the area. She came to the Shirley area during the Depression, and had lived there ever since. Thanks Glada for skipping your news watching time to come out and visit with us!

On to Atlanta (IL, not GA) for a quick picture with the Hot Dog Muffler Man, then on to Springfield!

We intended to get corn dogs from the Cozy Drive In - home of the Cozy Dog and the inventors of the corn dog, but got there too late. So we settled for a photo and then moved on to our motel.

We are staying in the Route 66 Hotel and Conference Center, which is a real hoot! It is a vintage motel (formerly Holiday Inn) that has been enclosed hotel-style. The full-front glass windows are still in place, so the entire front of the room is a window, complete with 50s style draperies to close it off completely from view of the hallway. The bathroom, while clean looks like it was decorated by the three blind mice - very cool deep red tile work, along with 80's mauve textured wallpaper and a flowery shower curtain straight from your grandmother's linen closet.

We ate at the Route 66 Grill, which is right downstairs. Surprisingly, they had some pretty good food - I had beef tips over penne with a side of mashed taters and gravy (don't ask) and Mark had a club sandwich (how can you mess that up, right?).

Tune in tomorrow for adventures with Abe Lincoln and a giant catsup bottle.