9/28/14 Backtrack to Pontiac

Today was a big day in Portland, OR.  The JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes happened this morning and it was a beautiful fall day for it.  Our Old Farts on Route 66 Team, that has been training and collecting donations for diabetes research, donned their team T-shits and walking shoes and joined the throng of walkers.  The event was fun, with a tasty breakfast, chats with super heroes, all kinds of photo ops, and unlimited free rides.  Thanks to Elisa, Andrea, Brian, Evan, Aria, Tyler, Hazel, and Dianna and all the well wishers and donors who made the event successful.

Here in Springfield we checked on some of the remaining cars downtown and then decided to head back to Pontiac to visit some places that were closed as we came through on Thursday.  Traveling north we were passed by hot rods that must have had broken speedometers.  We were doing a steady 5 mph over the limit, and they passed us like a Mercedes on the autobahn.  We caught up with and talked to a few at a rest stop and some in Pontiac. The fellow in the rest area had a '63 Ford  Galaxy with the same engine as the T-Bird. His car has had the same problem with fuel as the T-Bird.  We checked out his modifications and made notes.

In Pontiac we visited the RT 66 Association of Illinois Hall of Fame Museum, it was stuffed with memorabilia from the cities on the Route from the last 70 or so years.  See pix here.

Usually there is a vintage VW bus behind the gas pump but we heard that it was at the car show in Springfield. This museum is a three story building with very little room to maneuver.  I am not sure what it is like in the summer, or when the tourist bus stops by.  We adsorbed as much as we could and then wandered around town. The murals that adorn the town walls are very impressive.  There is even a side walk painting for everyone to walk around. We went into the Pontiac car museum where there is a vast library of Pontiac books and shop manuals available to study.  There are also training  videos and promotional films that have been preserved and are showing in a loop.  The Bonneville below had 3 twos for carbs and would get worse gas mileage then the T-Bird.  Dianna's family had a Bonneville.

We pointed our little rental car back toward Springfield to have dinner at Cozy Dog.  It was the originator of the deep fried corn dog in 1946.  Our mouths were watering by the time we got there, but we found that it was closed on Sundays. It is open for breakfast so we will go in the morning. Thank goodness for smart phones with GPS!  We programed one of our phones to direct us to the Chili Bowel, our second choice,  it has been serving the chili for 60 years.  The originator's daughter owns the Chili Bowl now and still uses the original recipe.  BUT when we arrived it was closed on Sundays to. So back to the Cracker Barrel, a place with reasonable portions and a dozen sides as options. Our waitress talked us into a desert to share and it was a good thing we only got one, it was huge! After that, back to hotel to do laundry and plan for our dash to Albuquerque to meet our lovely wives.