The Route 66 Chick

The cast of Aprons Away:  Women's Work on the Mother Road salutes the audience and crew at the end of a performance at the Eagle Performing Arts and Conference Center in Pontiac, Illinois, during the June 22-23, 2019, weekend. Photo by Mitchell T. Fransen, courtesy of the City of Pontiac. Aprons Away: Women's Work on the Mother Road , my stage play had its world premiere in a one-act version October 28, 2018, at Blackburn College in Carlinville, as part of the fourth annual Miles of Possibility Route 66 Conference. But the new two-act, theatre-length version with original music and lyrics debuted in Pontiac, Illinois, on June 22-23, enjoying a successful two-day run at the Eagle Performing Arts and Conference Center! The performances were sponsored by Pontiac Tourism and the Route 66 Association of Illinois. The Eagle Performing Arts and Conference Center in Pontiac, Illinois. Photo by Cheryl Eichar Jett. With the tag line “The most famous highway in the world....

This was the third year fellow author Joe Sonderman and I attended the International Mother Road Route 66 Festival in Springfield, Illinois, as "itinerant Route 66 book mongers," to quote a Route 66 friend's clever comment.  Kudos to Bill Kelly and Stacy Conn of the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway organization for terrific planning and execution of the Illinois Travel Expo. And many thanks to them for taking Joe and me under their wing as we work on our new book, "Route 66 in Illinois," and in so doing help to promote Route 66 in the great state of Illinois - where the road began. The layout this year for the Illinois Travel Expo was great and we contributed some 'eye candy' to the intersection of Washington and Fifth Streets as Joe parked his '57 Chevy Bel Air next to our booth. The car would prove to be a magnet for a number of diverse photo vignettes during the weekend.  Our booth at the International Mother Road Route 66 Festival. (Joe Son...

Friday morning found my fellow author Joe Sonderman and I headed for Springfield, Illinois, for the International Mother Road Route 66 Festival. We planned to take our time driving up the older alignment, shunning the interstate for the day. To my delight, Joe decided to drive his '57 Chevy Bel Air and had spent a couple evenings polishing, putting on new tires, and all the other things one might do to a classic car before taking it out on the road.  With our book stock and show equipment stowed in the trunk, we took off. First stop - Weezy's (the former Tourist Haven roadhouse, established in the 1930s) in Hamel. There, members of a car club were just getting ready to leave. We parked alongside some of the other classic cars and here's the lineup. (Joe's is the tropical turquoise.) Lunch was great  with good food and good service. Owners Karen Wiesemeyer and Coleman Weissman do a great job. From Hamel we headed north on Route 66 and from the Worden Wye we took t...