What could have been depressing was Thirty-Six's piggybacking on I-72 for over thirty miles east of Springfield then remaining divided four lane even after it got its own pavement. Finally, as it escaped Decatur, the road narrows to two lanes. It runs southeast for a few miles, follows a couple of gentle curves to get its direction right, then heads due east in a straight and flat line to Indiana. The picture was taken near the midpoint of that line; Between Tuscola and Newman.

I counted ten cabins here and I imagine that the similar brick building just west of them was once part of the operation. Certainly a gas station and maybe the motel's office.

I actually got a second bonus here. I was familiar with Ernie Pyle's word from the front lines of World War II but did not know that he had previously gained fame as a writer of travel columns. In one of the museum's presentations, Charles Kuralt talks about him as an early influence. I bought a book of some of his columns, written in the 1930s, on the southwest.