Day 4: October 21, 2023
Final Conferring
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T. Lindsay Baker, author of Eating Up Route 66 and many other books, got the last day of presentations started with "Roadside Food and Mother Road Travelers". Then Rochelle Gridley and Jeff Woodard teamed up on "Bloomington-Normal Breweries: Then and Now". Rochelle talked about the area's significant brewing history and Jeff reported on the several breweries currently operating close by. He named six McLean County breweries including one I'd not yet visited. I fixed that on the way home.

Terri Ryburn's presentation was on "Saving Two Route 66 Icons". One, of course, is Sprague's Super Service Station where she currently lives and where Thursday's hot dog roast was held. The other is a tiny (<300 sq. ft.) former gas station which she has positioned beside a small lake and into which she claims she will move the next time she retires.

After the lunch break, Marián Pavel, in "Post-Pandemic Route 66", suggested that travel on Route 66 has almost recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic that crashed it in 2020. This was supported by statistics I believe were gathered by Touch Media, a company he co-owns. Route 66 Navigation (which I reviewed here) is Touch Media's flagship product.

Cheryl Eicher Jett's "Dreams, Dares, and Driving: Early Women Cross-Country Motorists", which offered some peeks into her forthcoming book, was the last presentation of the conference.

Conference attendees had all received a raffle ticket at registration and these were now used to distribute a table full of prizes that included a cool Sprague's Super Service Station print won by me. The final official conference event was the passing of the MoPmop which ended up in Cheryl's hands for next year's Miles of Possibilities Conference in Edwardsville.

Several locals and attendees who were spending another night in the area gathered for dinner and other activities Saturday evening and one final gathering was planned over Sunday breakfast but I hit the road after a round of goodbyes to old and new friends. I'm now in a position to go for three in a row but it's too early to make any predictions.

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