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“66 On 66” 12/12/2016 4:01:58 PM
It took us two years to complete but we did it. A father/son motorcycle road trip over Historic Route 66. This is the story of the second leg of the epic trip. The second week in August 2016 my son, Richard, and I finished our epic Father/Son road trip. It took us two years and three months to complete. The trip, two years ago, began in St. Louis, Missouri and ended in Santa Monica, California. We travelled Historic Route 66 on our motor bikes for two weeks and had an absolute blast. http://www.commonmanadventures.com/adventure-on-route-66/ Sometime during the trip, we decided to make another road trip with the purpose of insuring we rode the entire Route 66. That meant we would have to ride the Illinois route to Chicago where Route 66 began. This year I turned 66 so what better time to make that ride. I decided to name the ride “66 on 66”. Our trip was to begin at my home in Southern Illinois and proceed north to Chicago.
Like before, the intent was to stick as closely as possible to the original route. No interstate. In Illinois, Historic Route 66 parallels I-55 all the way to Chicago.
Ordinarily it would take six hours to travel by car from my home to Chicago. But we scheduled two full days and two nights to insure plenty of time for exploring the historic sites. We planned to leave early Friday morning and return late afternoon on Sunday.
Unfortunately, Mother Nature does not care about anyone’s schedule. Rain, sometime heavy rain, was predicted. Our trip was already scheduled and if we were going to complete the trip in my 66th year it had to be done then. So we loaded up our rain gear and took off.
Fortunately, we did not have to use the rain suits. Unfortunately though, rain hovered over us the entire time. Either we thought we would be rained on if we stayed at a site too long, or we decided not to visit a site because of the threat of rain. It was quite warm and we didn’t really want to increase our body temperature by putting on those rain suits. We missed out on many sites.
This trip took on four predominate themes: stopping for photo ops, visiting the three famous muffler man giant statures, locating the Historic 66 End and Began signs, and going to the top of the Sears Tower (now called Willis Tower) in Chicago.
During Route 66’s heyday competition for business inspired many giant man statues. What better way to stand above the rest of the competition than to have a giant standing tall over yours? Today, though, only four of those original muffler man giants remain. Three in Illinois and one in Flagstaff, Az.
The first giant we saw was on Wabash Street in Springfield. He is the Lauterbach Tire Man. Originally erected in 1962 by Russ Lewis for his tire business at the corners of State and Laurel, he was sold and moved a year later to the Round Up Café in Farmersville. In 1978, when I-55 was built, the giant was sold back to the Russ Lewis family and moved to its current location.
When the Lauterbach Giant first appeared he was holding a tire in his right hand. Some of you earlier travelers on Route 66 may have seen him holding that tire. He now holds a giant US Flag.
An interesting side note to his history is that he once lost his head. A devastating F2 tornado swept through Springfield in 2006. The giant’s head landed four doors to the east. The head was returned and reattached. He has been doing quite well ever since.
The second giant we saw was Tall Paul. He is in Atlanta, a community of around 1,600 and also the mid-point of Illinois Route 66. But Tall Paul did not originate in Atlanta.
H A Stevens bought the giant in 1965 from International Fiberglass in Encino, Ca, had him customized to hold a hotdog and bun, and shipped him back to Cicero, Il to promote his hot dog stand. In 2003 Mr. Stevens sold his business.
Fortunately, Tall Paul’s career as one of the Route 66 giant icons was not over. In 2004 a deal was made between the City of Atlanta and the Illinois Route 66 association with the help of John and Lenore Wiess. He was loaned out to the city of Atlanta, where he stands tall today.
The third giant is located in Wilmington. Its population is approximately 5,100 and is located fifty miles southwest of Chicago. He is known as Gemini Giant. For forty eight years he has stood in the parking lot of the Launching Pad Restaurant. This giant is holding a rocket. His life began there in 1965 when John and Betty Korelc renamed their Dairy Delight business to the Launching Pad.
They customized a muffler man to look like a green astronaut and named him “The Gemini Giant” in honor of the Gemini space program. The couple retired in 1987. Others have kept the restaurant open until 2013 when it closed for good. The fate of the restaurant and the giant are still unclear.
The fourth Muffler Man Giant on this historic route can be found in Flagstaff, Az. He is known as Lumberjack and sits in front of Granny’s Closet. I did not know about these muffler men two years ago when my son and I rode to the West Coast, so I missed him.
No trip along the Illinois Historic Route 66 would be complete without a trip to the Route 66 Association Hall of Fame and Museum in Pontiac. It is there I discovered a traveler by the name of Bob Waldmire. He is an American artist mostly known for his art inspired by Route 66.
Shortly after Bob Waldmire’s birth in 1945 in St. Louis, Missouri his family moved to Springfield, Illinois. His dad, a former Air Force pilot in WWII, and his mother started the Cozy Dog Drive – in on Route 66 in Springfield. By the way, his dad invented the cozy dog, a corn dog on a stick. Richard and I enjoyed a cozy dog for lunch after visiting the Lauterbach Giant.
Bob Waldmire drove Route 66 in his 1972 Volkswagen van and sold his art from that same van. His van is the inspiration for the Filmore character in the Disney movie “Cars”. Eventually he bought a 1966 school bus which he converted to his residence, art gallery, and library. Occasionally he would be seen driving it on his beloved Route 66.
Bob Waldmire, I believe, embodied the spirit of Historic Route 66.
We planned to spend the night in Joliet, forty miles from the Start/End of Route 66. By the time we arrived in Joliet, the rain had caught up to us and it rained all night. Although not raining when we woke up Saturday morning, the threat was still there. Since we spent so much time the day before under that threat, we both decided to cut the trip short and get home a day early.
To bring an official end to this trip, however, we still had to get a photo of us under the Signs in Chicago. Before leaving Joliet, we agreed we would call the trip complete after a photo op at the top of Willis Tower, ate a lunch, and took our picture under those Signs. We then mounted our steeds and rode them to Chicago. Perhaps because we decided to go home a day early, and we would be dealing with the possibility of more rain, the Chicago portion of this trip felt like a letdown.
After completing our Chicago plans, we left there around 2:00 p.m., navigated the Chicago traffic to I-55, and rode it all the way to Rt. 4. Once on Rt. 4, it was nonstop to Sparta arriving home at 9:30 p.m. a day earlier than expected.
The Father/Son Historic Route 66 road trip was completed. No humans or bikes were hurt in the completion of this mission. When we started it, however, I had my doubts. The entire two year journey covered over 5,200 miles. Previous to that, I had never ridden more than 400 miles on a single trip. And in one of those I was in an accident and broke my ankle.
At age 64 and 66 this was quite an accomplishment. It was by far one of the coolest things I have done. Here is my You-Tube link to “66 on 66” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4UsHsegROA
For more information about Historic Route 66 check out these links I used in researching the Illinois Route 66:
