2024 EB Day 18 - Final Drive

Paul Mullan
Jun 1, 2024
2 min read

There have been a few firsts on this tour of Route 66, and wild city animals feature more than once. Deer running through the streets of outer Los Angeles… (no photo sorry) and now a small fox dashing through an old gas station in Bloomington Illinois!

We walked the walk at Towanda’s Mother Road state by state ‘sampler’ on foot.

We followed the road left and right…

…and drove down Memory Lane through Lexington, an original section of the mother road dedicated to snippets of the route.

There were gorgeous Pontiacs in Pontiac…

Bob Waldmire’s old Combie, that plied the byways of Route 66 carrying the dedicated artist from town to town.

Outside, his famous old school bus was on view, but development of the back lot meant no close up of that, or the postcard shot of the big Pontiac 66 wall.

In Odell we lined up at the Standard Oil Station…

before firing things up at the Texaco stop in the next town of Dwight.

There were plenty of new friends to be made here,

…pins to be dropped - the NZ map, a fresh canvas for the kiwis at least!

It was once Phil & Deb Becker’s gas station and they welcomed us to their home nearby,

after a drive through town (for a couple, in the back of Phil’s 56 Chev!)

…showing off some of the highlights, including the only Frank Lloyd Wright designed bank.

Dwight was also the site of the world’s first drug and alcohol recovery center… and yes, appropriate jokes were cracked about its need with this journey nearing its end, as we we were welcomed into an American family.

Deb presented an amazing spread for our team…

…Phil explained their life with the gas stations… and hot rods.

And that generated plenty of interest.

We dragged ourselves away and on to Gardner and the Two Cell Jail where some considered their future…

Before a shake at the Polka Dot Diner in Braidwood

and another super photo op.

The Gemini Giant from Wilmington has been rescued and is undergoing restoration, but the self damage to property by the owner continues regardless, one of the sader sides of life on the road.