The Route 66 Chick

Now don't get me wrong, I do love a road trip. In fact, I love multiple road trips. But when I've got tons of work waiting for me at home, and somehow three trips end up scheduled in less than a two-week period, even I get tired out. The first trip (April 21-22) was a two-day retreat for all the Illinois Scenic Byways (we have seven!) directors, board members, and associated stakeholders, including, of course, the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway. The event was held at the scenic Pere Marquette Lodge on the Great River Road up north of Grafton, Illinois. Not a far drive for me at all, but I wanted to try out the lodging there (it was excellent) plus we had a scheduled soiree at the Grafton Winery (never to be missed!), and so I just stayed there overnight. The retreat sessions provided us with updates on Illinois tourism funding - or lack thereof - partnerships, byway programs, and a great chance to network with other Illinois tourism folks. Next up was a three-day trip (Apri...

Here it is - our tentative conference schedule! MILES OF POSSIBILITY : THE EDWARDSVILLE ROUTE 66 CONFERENCE Thursday-Saturday, October 29-31, 2015 Wildey Theatre, Edwardsville, IL Sponsored by the Illinois Route 66 Blue Carpet Corridor Coalition Hosted by the City of Edwardsville TENTATIVE SCHEDULE Thursday, October 29 12:00 noon – 6:00 pm Registration, packets/goody bags/info available – Wildey lobby Afternoon -  Edwardsville Historic Districts tours – by City of Edwardsville  Historic Preservation Commission Wildey Theatre tours – by Joan Evers , Wildey Theatre historian Evening -  Route 66 Pub Crawl – Stagger Inn, Springer's Creek Winery, Hi-Way Tavern, a couple newer Main Street establishments Friday, October 30 8:00 – 10:00 am Registration, pick up packets/goody bags/info – Wildey lobby 9:00 – 9:15 am Welcome – Wildey auditorium – Mayor Hal Patton 9:00 am Author Book Store/Artist & Col...

“ Miles of Possibility: The Edwardsville Route 66 Conference” EDWARDSVILLE, ILLINOIS, TO HOST MAJOR ROUTE 66 EVENT IN 2015 The City of Edwardsville, through its consultant/advisor, Edwardsville Preservation Commissioner and author Cheryl Eichar Jett, has announced that it will host a Route 66 Conference on Halloween weekend 2015 at the city's beautifully-restored arts venue, the historic Wildey Theatre on N. Main Street, just off Route 66. Edwardsville's annual tradition of the Halloween Parade, established in 1924, will celebrate the legendary highway with a Route 66-themed parade that weekend. Planning for the event has already garnered major endorsement. The conference is being supported by the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway organization, led by William Kelly, and the National Park Service Route 66 Heritage Corridor Program, coordinated by Kaisa Barthuli. by the City of Edwardsville, the primary venue for the conference is the beautiy-restorhistoric Wilde...

I made my escape last Saturday. From the Midwestern February cold. From a big approaching snowstorm. From the winter blahs.  And I headed toward my  long-anticipated annual visit with son and daughter-in-law amid warm temps and sunny days in Florida. Through southern Illinois there were still large patches of white remaining. As I drove out of snow-dotted ground, 6-8 inches of snow was bearing down on St. Louis and the Metro East.  I crossed the Ohio River, the  Tennessee River, and the  Cumberland River, and watched as the last small snow patches disappeared. Nashville is a good first day's drive and I had made a cabin reservation at the Nashville Music City KOA. My first time staying at this KOA, I found it was one of the nicest I've ever encountered and definitely rates first place for entrance sign. No keyboards in the cabins, however. Darn. "Bring your own linens, pillows, and sheet music."  On Sunday, my second day on the road through Tenness...

"Now it's one for the money, two for the show. Three to get ready, now go, cat, go. But don't you step on my blue suede shoes." Elvis knew that blue was cool, and so does the Illinois Route 66 Blue Carpet Corridor. I love it when a plan starts to come together, and 18 communities and a few of us organizational-officer-types are making it happen. It's been a productive and positive week in the land of blue carpet. The first exciting thing to happen this week was the reveal of the awesome 2015 Illinois Motor Tour/Blue Carpet Corridor logo! Some months ago, our BCC group voted unanimously to partner with the Route 66 Association of Illinois on this. We agreed to let the association use our official BCC theme - "Miners, Mobsters and the Mother Road" - on the logo design for the 2015 Motor Tour, in exchange for BCC using the logo on merchandise and publicity. Win-win! Don't you just love this design? Here's the link for the Route 66 Associati...

No, you haven't stumbled onto one of those home- and office-organization blogs with cute names. But it really hit me on New Year's Day - it's 2015 now and this is the year of the inaugural Blue Carpet Corridor event (June) and the Edwardsville Route 66 Conference (October). So I've been keeping my nose to the grindstone (or my shoulder to the wheel, whichever trite expression you dislike the least) so far in January. A quote attributed to A. A. Milne is, "Organizing is something you do before you do something, so that when you do it, it is not all mixed up." Well, I don't want either event to be mixed up, so this month I've stirred up a whirlwind of spreadsheets, lists, three-ring binders, emails, meetings, one-on-ones, letters, and phone calls with the intent of creating two great events. And now there's a dedicated conference phone line and a Twitter account.  So here's the scoop on what's new with the events. Just a reminder, the ina...

No tale of Route 66 this time! Instead, my holiday present to all of you - a Christmas Eve story that is purely fiction, but hopefully touches on the human connections that we all need to make. Enjoy, and may you all have a wonderful and blessed holiday - no matter which one(s) you celebrate! A NEW GIFT OF THE MAGI The snow falls fast and silent. It's the evening of promises – of the Savior, of Santa, of special significance. And in this particular small city, it's also the night of broken hearts, bleak loneliness, and barren spaces under spindly Christmas trees where toys and packages ought to sparkle. Edith glances longingly at beautifully framed photographs of her husband George - of George with their son Jeff when Jeff was small, of Edith and George on their wedding day, and so on. They are all arranged atop the grand piano which George played while he was still alive. This is the first Christmas Edith will face without him since they were married 53 years a...