Route 66–Joliet to Pontiac

   South of Joliet, when the road opens up to farmland and small town America, we came to the first section of Route 66 that hasn’t been widened and improved. It’s so narrow that the white lines are painted partly on the dirt.

  One new and one old photo stop – a replica of the Bluesmobile from The Blues Brothers movie is stuck on a pole at the Food N Fuel. The Gemini Giant outside The Launching Pad Restaurant, which opened in 1960, has always held a rocket (unlike most others who held mufflers). The restaurant is closed but you can still pull into the lot and get a picture.  Room for RVs to stop at both.

           

  Down the road the town of Braidwood has the Polka-A-Dot Drive-In, a 1956 era diner, and the Braidwood Zoo within walking distance of each other. RVs will fit in the Polk-A-Dot lot. The zoo lot has a narrow entrance road but RVs will fit in the grocery store lot across the street.

      

  Gardner’s little city park has a two cell jail built in 1906, a memorial to a local minister and a restored 1932 diner that originally was a horse drawn streetcar.  Room for RVs along the street.

  Ambler's Texaco was a gas station from 1933 until 1999 then an auto repair shop until 2002. It's now a visitor center.  Room for RVs in the lot.

This place is just down the road from Ambler’s but I couldn’t find any information about it.

        

  This Standard Oil Gas Station has been completely restored to the way it looked in the 1930s. It’s now a visitor center with plenty of room to park RVs.

  Look for the pull off to stop and view the Meramec Caverns advertisement sign on the barn. The rest of the farm looks deserted but someone is keeping the sign painted.

 Map