Day 3 - Route 66 Miles of Possibility 2022 at DennyGibson.com

Day 3: October 22, 2022
Conferring Continues
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Before Stephanie Stuckey headed to the airport and before the day's conferring got started, Stephanie stopped by for a quick photo shoot with the event organizers. As I often do, I took advantage of the real photographer's efforts by grabbing a shot from the side while they were managing eye-lens contact. That's Geoff Ladd, Debyjo Ericksen, Dr. Terri Ryburn, Stephanie, and Cheryl Eichar Jett.

The well known Route 66 historian, David Clark, died in January and this conference was dedicated to his memory. Saturday's opening presentation included Dave's 2021 video "Chicago's Route 66 Connection", video interviews with "Lulu" Bagdon and Ron Warnick, and a live panel discussion with Geoff Ladd, Cheryl Eichar Jett, Jim Hinckley, and Steve Clem.

I believe I first met "The Windy City Road Warrior" in Springfield, IL, in 2003 but the earliest evidence I have is from 2004 in Tulsa. I enjoyed his book, many of his video presentations, and managed to take in one of his very impressive Chicago walking tours.

LaWanda Henry Matson's presentation covered "State Trooper Chester Henry & the Illinois State Police (100th Anniversary)". Chester was LaWanda's father. He patrolled Route 66 for all of his 27+ year career and was inducted into the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame in 1993.

Today I went with my more common routine and skipped lunch in favor of a walkabout. I started with several of the murals and painted fiberglass cars. That long mural with Bob Waldmire in it is something special. As explained here, it was the last mural designed by Bob but was painted by others. Someone hit on the idea that hand prints could be used to give the mural something of the appearance of the watercolors Bob had used in his design. More than 500 Pontiac residents and friends of Bob added their prints to the mural. A few can be seen here. As I took my photos, a lady with two very young children paused to tell me the story of the hand prints and let me know that her oldest son's print was on the wall. Both mom and son were understandably proud and I was proud she stopped to share that with me.

Pontiac also has a great welcome sign, some larger than average wind chimes, and a statue of Abe without a beard but with a stovepipe hat at the ready

The Museum of Gilding Arts was listed in conference handouts but I didn't know what it was and did not seek it out. However, when I came to it on my walk, I stepped inside and was quite impressed. When I asked if this represented a statewide group, I was told no, it's international. The museum displays some seriously antique tool used in a ancient craft.

The afternoon sessions began with a discussion titled "Pontiac and Route 66 -- Past, Present, Future" by a panel of past and present city officials including BobKarls, Bob Russell, and Ellie Alexander.

Jax Welborn's "Route 66: Hometown U.S.A." and Jim Hinckley's "Cooperative Partnerships and Community Transformation" filled out the afternoon's presentations.

A long table of door prizes were awarded based on numbers on the backs of our name tags and I won this snazzy pair of Stuckey's socks. A Stuckey's "beanie" (a lightweight stocking cap) had also been awarded. When the drawings had been completed, the person winning the beanie approached me about a trade. Having doubts about fitting into either, I told her she was welcome to the socks without a trade. To head off her protests, I pointed out that I still had the yellow socks placed in every attendee's goody bag. With that, she pointed out that she was already wearing those and I immediately knew that my prize was in good feet.

At one point there were plans to announce host cities for all Miles of Possibility conferences leading to and including the 2026 conference. In the end, only next year's (Bloomington-Normal) and 2026 (Springfield) were announced. The 2026 conference is special since it is the centennial of the United States Numbered Highway System.

Skipping lunch paid off by allowing be to enjoy a fine Italian meal at Bernardi's II. I didn't get a picture of the restaurant or my meal but I did get one of my table mates. That's Fred Zander on the right with the beard and Andy Machen on the left. Andy traveled to the conference from California by train and was a welcome passenger on my drives between the motel and conference sites.

Any place advertising "Home of the Great American Raod Trip" probably deserves a visit from those attending a historic road conference. We made our visit between dinner and the final events at the theater. I've never been to a Buc-ee's but Wally's seems to pretty much match what I've heard about them. That includes enough pumps that no one waits and every thing you might want inside. This is Wally's first location. It has 72 pumps and four EV charging stations. It's 30,000 square foot interior holds things like a complete Winnebago and a wall of jerky. There is a second location in Fenton, MO, and one is rumored to be slated for somewhere around Indianapolis, IN.

Back at the theater, I failed to get any pictures of a presentation on the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum but did get a picture of some rock & roll provided by singer-guitarist Tim Dial.

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