Motoring Illinois' Route 66 – Part 17 of 20

[Tannerman]

As we left Williamsville and drove into Springfield, we found Bill Shea's Historic 66 Museum, which actually was featured on Wild Chicago's Illinois Road Trip earlier in the year.

Bill Shea's Historic 66 Museum
(Springfield, IL)

It's located on the edge of the city at the location of an old gas station. We found that it has migrated into a unique museum packed with gas station memorabilia. Or junk. Depends on your viewpoint.

Rewind: The Texaco station in Dwight, IL
(Empty white sign holder)


Texaco sign at Bill Shea's
(It would fit perfectly in Dwight!)

Do you remember when we talked about an old Texaco gas station back in Dwight? The one with a big white sign out front with a hole in it? Well, at Bill Shea's, he has an example of exactly what should be in that whole on the sign.

Pretty much a lot of gas station junk

We didn't get a chance to meet Bill Shea or tour his museum, however. It was... say it with me now... closed. But we did get to view quite a bit of it through the gate surrounding the property. There's a lot of signage and stuff there, mostly. I guess that's a unique niche to have on Route 66 these days... for people who like oil and stuff. Oddly, out back, there was a ton of pickup truck caps. Given this place, maybe it wasn't that odd.

Anyone need to cover their pickup truck bed?

We drove into the downtown area of Springfield. The most memorable time I had here was back in 1984, the first year my family owned our pop-up camper. We took a trip downstate and did some Lincoln stuff before progressing onward to Missouri, including St. Louis and the Ozarks.

Amy shows her love for DCFS

Amy had never been to Springfield. That was one of the prime reasons for this trip... to not only travel Route 66, but also explore some of the cool stuff that could be found in our state capital. So we stopped off at a tourist destination not visited by most... the headquarters for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, affectionately known to most as DCFS. This is the building housing the bureaucratic folks that Amy has had to deal with for many, many years working in social work. You could also more accurately call it the "Insane Asylum for Loser Employees That Can't Be Fired", I guess.

Cozy Dog Drive In
(Springfield, IL)

We were getting a little hungry for some dinner, so we continued our "No Chain Rule" and stopped by the Cozy Dog Drive In, famous for inventing the corn dog on a stick.

This is not the original building

This fast food item was introduced by Ed Waldmire at the 1946 Illinois State Fair, prompting him to later open the restaurant in 1950. However, they sort of look at you funny if you call it a "corn dog" while there. It must be referred to as a "Cozy Dog" or else! The original building was torn down in 1996, with a new building constructed right next to that location.

European camera crew at the Cozy Dog

Route 66 has a huge international appeal. Perhaps it's the cross-country element that covers distances wider than most European countries. Maybe it's the historical lore. I'm not quite sure. But you'll often find folks from oversees exploring the Mother Road.

The host really liked to smoke

Case in point... while we were eating at the Cozy Dog, there was a film crew there from... somewhere. From their accents, I wanted to think they were Italian or perhaps from some Slavic nation. One of them appeared to be some sort of host, as the other 2 were behind the camera. The host sat in the booth behind us, smoking, and carried on a conversation with the camera for quite some time.

Steve promotes corn dogs and Route Beer 66

Amy and I ordered a bunch of Cozy Dogs, along with some bottles of Route Beer 66 (get it?). Frankly, we weren't all the impressed with the food. I mean, c'mon, it's still a corn dog. But it was a fun experience anyway!

Let's check into the HoJo!

Finally, our day capped off by heading to our hotel, which Amy had secured ahead of time via Priceline.com. The result put us at a Howard Johnson near Lincoln's tomb.

Creepy front of hotel... no windows... or cars?

When we pulled up to this hotel, we were quite suspicious. There were no cars in the parking lot. The place looked closed and abandoned. Frankly, it was creepy. We parked and went inside. Sure enough, it was open and we checked in. It turns out there were a ton of rooms and parking behind the main building.

Old school motel rooms out back

The room was nothing to write home about. It had the classic motel feel with each room possessing an external outside door. You could tell this place was old and rather unmaintained.

We ended up talking with the manager on duty later in the evening as we sat in the lobby, the only place with free WiFi available. He explained that when the property was first constructed 20+ years ago, it was intended to be a luxurious resort. However, after construction began, the developers ran into a problem.

It turns out that there was an ordinance requiring that all hotels facing a cemetery could not have windows on that side of the building. Since this hotel was right next to the cemetery that held Lincoln's tomb, quick modifications had to take place with the design to meet these standards. The developers bailed on the project and sold off the property. Someone else came in and tried to modify the existing structure to be a normal hotel. Hence why the front of the hotel facing the road is nothing more than a wall of brick with no windows... and why everything is tucked out back. It's a very, very weird layout.

It was time to call it a day. We started the day out in Pontiac with downpours of rain... eventually we outran the storms and it cleared up quite a bit. We were thankful that the rain went away, as we still got to see much on Day 2 of this adventure.

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[LoreW29]

Thank you for sharing this really neat road trip! I've been following the posts closely and noting the structures that have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places. I took the course that teaches students how to list a structure. Great fun! I will staying tuned in for more posts.

[ARedigerK]

So I'm here looking for Kelli's email address and find you're talking smack about my town! Most people eventually drag their kids here to see the Lincoln stuff so I thought I'd just make a comment about the horseshoes because it's possible to get a really good one.

Finding the 'best' or 'your favorite' horseshoe around here is a pasttime. My understanding is that the first horseshoes were served at a old-timey hotel downtown and that they consisted of texas toast, hamsteak, french fries, and Welsh Rarebit sauce. The sauce is some mixture of milk, egg, seasoning like soy or worcester or brown mustard - and some cheese. Now you can get them with different meats on them and most places offer a choice between a white cheese sauce and a yellow cheese sauce. It is widely accepted that the best horseshoes in Springfield are at D'Arcy's Pint and the 2 hour table wait makes me think it's probably true. You can get them pretty much everywhere, though. Even the mexican restaurants around here offer a horseshoe with taco meat or spicy chicken meat. Whether or not it's good depends on whether they are having a good sauce night or an off sauce night. If the kitchen is having a good night whoever orders the horseshoe will remark that it is good and the other diners at the table will feel free to eat fries off of his or her plate. I have seen customers send a horseshoe back with specific criticisms of the sauce on a particular night and order something else off the menu instead. It is not uncommon to see multiple tables in a restaurant where every single person is eating a horseshoe.

Most people actually order a ponyshoe. A ponyshoe should be one piece of bread and one piece of meat covered with fries. A horseshoe should be 2 pieces of bread, 2 pieces of meat, and a disgusting volume of fries. People get upset when their 'horseshoe' is actually a ponyshoe with extra fries. I think that the fries start to get gross by the end of the meal so I can't imagine taking leftovers home for lunch the next day but usually it's only a dollar more to get twice as much food so whatever. I have eaten an entire ponyshoe in one sitting and definitely regretted it. I used to make fun of this whole phenomenon but if you get a good one on a good night it's absolutely worth the indigestion and atherosclerosis to follow.

The Cozy Dog is another phenomenon altogether. It's not enough food in my opinion. I had a cheeseburger and fries and diet coke and had to go back for more food (a grilled cheese sandwich which was really good). It was very, very smokey when I was there and someone was even smoking a cigar which was gross. The person you ran into was probably trying to get in a few more smokes before the smoking ban went into effect. As of Sept 17 there is no smoking in Springfield bars and restaurants. The Cozy Dog might be exempt because they may be in Southern View rather than Springfield but I doubt it. Most people remark that eating out is so much more pleasant since the ban went into effect but I also notice that we haven't actually gone out since then as a group and wonder if it isn't partly because of the ban.

All this Route 66/Lincoln/Horseshoe hysteria is really hokey and unnerving when you first get here. But then you kind of get used to it and don't notice how pervasive it really is. For example, until now it had never occurred to me that these are the actual directions to my house: Head south out of Springfield on historic route 66. Take the first right after Ponyshoe Rd. It's the ___th house on the ___. If you reach the giant statue of Lincoln sitting in the covered wagon you've gone too far.

Kelli - email me - I have news.

Andrea

[Wally]

A good horseshoe sounds like quite a find. It alone may be worth a trip to central IL.

[sassyck]

Horseshoes are pretty good. When I lived in Macomb they were pretty standard bar fare.

[Teacher Tim]

Still reading...I've really enjoyed the tour of Rt.66. I may just have to plan a future vacation out there!

My only trip to Illinois was for a wedding in Pekin, with my wife and her family. Afterwards, we diverted to visit Lincoln's neighborhood and Lincoln's tomb. The only thing that sticks in my mind about the historically preserved street where Abe lived and worked is the barricade at the end of the block that separates the "old" area from the regular, improved area. When and why did the city planners decide that the houses along one city block would never be torn down, renovated, or improved because a famous President lived there? (of course, I don't know at what point an old piece of furniture "becomes" an antique either).

[Kel]

rediger~

so good to know you are hunting for me. i was thinking about you not long ago. email me directly at [e-mail removed by editor for privacy reasons]

thanks~