Route 66: Bloomington to Springfield

Before leaving Bloomington we went to see the mansion that belonged to David Davis. He was a judge who supported Abraham Lincoln through his political career and had a very important role in his becoming president of USA. We went way too early to be able to visit the mansion, but admired the wildlife around it (lots of turkey vultures on the roof, a raccoon hiding in an oak tree hollow, squirrels, cardinals), and the lavender and veggie garden.

Next Stop was Funks Grove where they make delicious maple syrup – apparently the most southern place where they do it. We were able to taste some samples and bought some that had been stored in bourbon barrels and was just amazing. Funks Grove used to be much bigger in its golden days – all that remains of the official buildings are the old country store and the rail station house.

There were more giants to be met today – we said hello to the Bunyon Giant in Atlanta

and looked through the window inside what will hopefully one day open as American Giants museum.

We saw some other interesting bits and pieces between Funks Grove and Atlanta in Illinois and learned some interesting things about Atlanta’s links to Lincoln.

In Lincoln we stopped to see Abe’s Giant Wagon (Abe was missing in action though, since a storm a few weeks previously)

and an antique store which used to be a gas station along route 66 and where they have lots of memorabilia, including an iron strong box that was allegedly used by Al Capone and other gangsters for clandestine transactions en route to and from Chicago.

Lincoln had a few other interesting sights

including the building where Abraham Lincoln first practised as a lawyer,

a phone booth on top of Lincoln City Hall that was used by weather spotters to phone in sighted storms

and the place where Lincoln christened the town with watermelon juice when he agreed to lend his name to the place. Still couldn’t find why he chose watermelon juice and not another type of juice.

Springfield was our final destination this day and it turned out to be quite a special place. We first went to the Abraham Lincoln Museum which is quite extraordinary. The displays are really well done and we were impressed that they included newspaper excerpts from the time which were not very kind to Lincoln or his wife (and made me think of comments made about Melania Trump a few years ago – and the only comparison implied between the two is that they were both unpopular presidents of the USA at the time). We learned a lot about politics at the time, including the fact that Lincoln’s supporters believed that the black slaves would move to South America once freed!

As we were leaving we were met by Mr Lincoln himself – an actor with a scary resemblance to the president and who learned to play his role very well. He’s been doing this for more than 40 years and interestingly said that he had to learn about international politics in the time of Lincoln as people would ask him about it as if he were Lincoln (so obviously doing a very good impersonating job).

Next stop was a neon-making workshop called ACE signs where we met Dennis, who has now retired leaving the fourth generation of the Bringuet family to run the show. He gave us a tour of their factory and I was mesmerised by and probably developed some respect for what I had previously perceived as kitschy neon signs.

Their staff room had a nice bar table with a resin top that had enclosed coins.

Outside on the veranda there was a bit of Mother Nature sadness, with some tiny bird chooks dead and eggs smashed after their nest structure gave way.

On the way to accommodation we stopped at Cozy Dog diner, the place where Bob Waldmire’s dad, Ed Waldmire, invented the deep fried hot dog in cornmeal batter. It was an interesting place, with lots of pro-gun signs and other interesting messages. As we left there was a news crew outside as apparently one of the TV stations is doing some show about the revival of Route 66.

Our accommodation for the night was Route 66 Hotel where we also had a bit of dog-therapy at reception.

We went to Motorheads diner for tucker and had the nice surprise of a local car club gathering displaying a wide range of restored and custom (or in the process of being customised) cars. There was live music on (with some quite old members of the audience moving to the tunes) and they even advertised opportunities to hunt crocodiles in Kakadu!

After sunset we drove to the Illinois State Fair Ground to see the neon display for the upcoming Springfield’s Route 66 100 year celebrations planned for 2026 (Legends Neon Park) – it was definitely worth the drive as the neons were quite a show and the fireflies seemed quite happy to see us too.

A short clip with some sights is available here.