The Mother Road, part 3…. Pontiac to Moro, Illinois

From Pontiac the next bit of the road took us most of the way across Illinois. First successful stop and photo grab was in Lexington. Memory Lane Lexington looked to be a part of the old road we could drive……until we got there……it’s a walking path. Fortunately, the road was quiet enough for us to pull over and take a couple of pictures…and the ‘sign’ was listed as another attraction…!!

I have to admit I was quite underwhelmed by the Lexington sign..LOL….hoping it was not a ‘sign’ of things to come.

Next town, Normal, IL. Sprague’s service station was the listed attraction. There seems to be a lot of disused, renovated service stations also…!!

Atlanta, IL was promising a bit more excitement…since we already knew that the Gemini Giant (who used to be in Wilmington) had gone to Atlanta for some restoration work (he had been spotted on the back of a trailer the day before…!!)

Atlanta did not disappoint. From the Giant Museum……

….to the JH Hawes grain elevator, of particular significance to us we thought…LOL…….

…..the mine shaft……which was both fascinating and horrifying….

….and into the town itself…….

It was a great little place to wander round…the museum had an arcade collection and is in the process of restoring bits of the old bank. It was one of the first places we have seen some of the 1926 photographs of the original road building.

Last but not least…we went back into the Giant Museum to inquire after the Gemini Giant…. the lovely lady in there shared a picture of him arriving. He is indeed there for restoration before he returns to a permanent site back in Wilmington.

…and of course we had to get the iconic picture of us with Mr Bunyan…. 😁….and with his pals at the museum….

It was a good place to stop for a bite of lunch and a wander…..and restore my faith that we would be looking at more than just abandoned motels and derelict gas stations. (not that those can’t be interesting and seem to be in plentiful supply.)

There were several places where my guide app had abandoned motels that have been demolished and cleared…..a bit of a disappointment when I managed to be all ready with my camera as we sped by.

In Lincoln, IL…we had to do a quick stop pulling of the road and circling the wagon to go see Lincoln driving his covered wagon…!! No surprise on 66, this is the worlds’ largest covered wagon.

Williamsville,IL…… another gas station stop.

We continued past Springfield IL on the bypass on the grounds that we had been here before. and we had somewhere to be.

We were booked in at a Boondockers Welcome site just off the highway at a very interesting dome house. (thanks Dennis)

So the plan was to stay there for a few days and double back up the road to some of the places on the list, and close to the state line for our next part of the journey into St Louis, Missouri.

After a good night’s rest in this beautiful, secluded spot we set off back up the road to the Soulsby station. I almost crossed this one off the list as ‘just another gas station’…..I was so glad I did not.

Soulsbys is in a tiny little town and the Soulsby family operated this gas station from 1926 when route 66 was built right up ’til 1991. The station has been lovingly restored by the local community and is an unmanned beautiful little museum.

An unexpected little treasure in Mount Olive was Mother Jones grave, located in the only Trades Union owned cemetery in North America.

I know that everything has to be somewhere…..but we did not know this was here…..until we saw the sign.

This is an area that has little bits of the 1926 route…then there’s the 1947 re-alignment…..and another bit over here…….sometimes you can take any road and its still part of 66..!!

Next town, Staunton promising the worlds’ second biggest rocking chair..!! and Henrys Rabbit Ranch.

The big chair was rather underwhelming but maybe the largest one is better…..the rabbit ranch however…!! Henry, the owner, has a rabbit rescue (the furry ones) but also has a VW rabbit-henge/Cadillac Ranch thing happening. Nice guy…it was a fun stop.

He also had Bob Waldmires original VW…….

As if we had not had enough fun for the day…the last stop was the Pink Elephant. Home of a huge antique mall and many, many giants.

Extra Pix